Illustrated throughout The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents specially curated comic
book anthologies of the origin stories seminal tales and characters of the Marvel Universe to
explore Marvel's transformative and timeless influence on an entire genre of fantasy. A Penguin
Classics Marvel Collection Edition It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without
Marvel Comics. For decades Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain
attention on multiple levels: as explorations of the relationship between power and
responsibility as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness as meditations on
the pain of adolescence and the fluid nature of identity as examinations of the meaning and
limits of patriotism as ironic juxtapositions of the cosmic and the quotidian as resources
for the understanding of political and social history and as high watermarks in the artistic
tradition of American cartooning. For the first time these classic stories of some of the most
iconic super heroes in the history of American comics are Penguin Classics. Debuting in
1941-almost a year before the events of Pearl Harbor- Captain America was initially conceived
by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as a pop culture argument for US intervention in the European war
against fascism. This collection includes his first appearances from 1941 alongside key
examples of his first solo stories of the 1960s in which the newly resurrected hero of World
War II struggles to find his place in an unfamiliar world. The transformation of this American
icon thus marks a parallel transformation in the nation itself. The introduction offers insight
into the social and political significance of Captain America as a character and a national
symbol while a critical apparatus and appendices shed further light on his creative
development.
