Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty in the 1990s

At the tail end of the 1990s, the Avengers family of books were making a comeback. After slumping sales and the Heroes Reborn debacle, people were finally realizing how foundational they were to Marvel Comics. The books were put in the hands of top notch creative teams to help keep the sudden surge in interest going. Mark Waid was just such one of those creatives and he was tasked with writing Captain America. Waid’s work on Captain America was a hit and fans were absolutely eating it up. The franchise was getting popular enough that Marvel decide to do a spin-off series Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, which ran for 12 issues in 1998 and 1999.

Rather than be your ordinary spin-off title, Sentinel of Liberty instead decided to tell self-contained Captain America stories from various points in Captain America’s history. If there was an equivalent to Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Sentinel of Liberty was that book. However, rather than focusing just on Cap’s early days in the Marvel Age, Sentinel would touch on various points in his career.

However, the first issue started some place no reader would have expected: The future. Written by Mark Waid and featuring art by Ron Garney, the first issue takes place in the distant future of July 4th, 2001!! While this story might have seemed like it takes place in some future timeline to readers at the time, Waid was also writing the mainline Captain America book. As such, the events of the first issue of Sentinel of Liberty actually predicted what was going on in the main title. It is so very rare that you’ll see a writer being given an opportunity like this and that’s what makes the first issue of Sentinel kind of unique.

Waid and Garney would follow this up with a three part story titled Descent into Madness, which takes place during World War II and Cap’s early career. It sees Cap teaming up with the Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch to smash a Nazi alliance with Atlantis. The story presents a version of Steve Rogers early on in his career, a young man, who was much more cocky than he was skilled. It also explores the relationship between the Sub-Mariner and his mother Princess Fen, showing a rarely friction between the two. Up until this point, Fen was hardly developed beyond being the uterus that Namor slid out of and nothing more. This story makes her a force to be reckoned with and someone Namor respects and honors even if she’s doing something he is against like siding with Nazis. We also see that perhaps Fen wasn’t always happy with her son’s hybrid nature either. Fen — who is usually characterized as a loving mother if they bother to characterize her at all — is seen a stern and hardened woman. It’s very interesting look into the life of the Sub-Mariner and his bloodline that is often overlooked.

Issues #5-4, Waid and Garney pay homage to the Captain America revival of the 1960s. Back in those days, Cap was featured in the Avengers starting with issue #4. The character proved so popular that he was later given shared billing with Iron Man in Tales of Suspense one of Marvel’s old anthology books that were slowly being choked out by superheroes. To honor those days, both of these issues include two or more stories, the first being a two part tale involving Iron Man. Set in a period where Cap just got freed from suspended animation, it features Cap trying to come to terms with how much New York City has changed since he was gone. The story also focuses on Iron Man believing that Captain America won’t be able to handle the type of super-powered threats this world has to offer. This is on display when alien robots try invading the Earth and Iron Man tries to delegate Cap to rescuing bystanders. By the end of the story, Cap not only prove that he can handle himself, but that he is as much an asset to the Avengers as anyone with super-powers.

The second story in these two issues, written by Waid with art by Brain K. Vaughn (issue #5) and Dougie Braithwaite (issue #6) features Cap going up against the Chameleon in a story that would have also fit in well in the 1960s.

Issue #6 also features a third story which is told in two parts (continuing in issue #7) by Roger Stern and Ron Frenz. It tells the tale of the Steve Rogers of the 1700s, aka the Captain America of the Revolutionary War. This character was first touched upon during Jack Kirby’s run on Captain America in the 1970s. It was a minor appearance in a photo in Captain America #194 and a pin-up in 1976’s Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles special. Kirby was just spit-balling the idea of what a Revolutionary War era Captain America would have looked like. Stern and Frenz’s story would be the first time the concept was actually fleshed out. The character would go on to make some minor appearances here and there, notably in X-Men: Hellfire Club #2 and more recently in Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth #1.

Issue #7 also saw a 2nd story written by Brendan K. Vaughn with art by Steve Harris. It’s an introspective tale about how the words and leadership of Franklin Roosevelt shaped the life of Steve Rogers growing up and how strongly that President is connected to the creation of Captain America.

Issues #8 and 9 went back to the single story per issue format. Mark Waid was back and with artists Cully Hamner and Dougie Braithwaite, told a story rooted in 70’s era of Captain America. Taking place during the period when Cap and the Falcon were partners it deals with racial tensions in the neighborhood of Harlem, which are exacerbated by the Sons of the Serpent racist group who have reinvented themselves as Sons of the Shield. This story would be the first (and definitely not the last) time we see Sam Wilson dressed as Captain America. Even if it was a one off story, it certainly didn’t generate the type of drama that today’s toxic fan circles create whenever a POC takes on the mantle of an established white superhero. It was a cool idea and we embraced it. My kingdom for the day where toxic fan boys are driven into the sea where they belong, but I digress.

Issue #10 is a weird one: Written by Jame Felder with art by Steve Mannion. It’s a story that is set in the 1960s and features Captain America trying to stop MODOK from accessing the Janus Chamber, a McGuffin hidden in a government base. It’s a very bizarre story which connects with President John F. Kennedy’s alleged martial improprieties and assassination, the Howling Commando’s Dino Minelli being a boozed up Vegas act with performance issues, and all sorts of other weird counter-culture beats. The story itself reads more like the type of thing that came out of the underground comix scene of the late 60s and early 70s with a hint of EC Comics added in for good measure. I don’t know why Bob Harras (then Marvel Editor-in-Chief) would have green lit this weird story but I am glad he did. While it’s not part of mainstream continuity it is an odd ball tale that is worth the read.

Mark Waid is back with issue #11 with art by Walter McDaniel and Anthony Williams. This story paying homage to Strange Tales #114. See, before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Captain America back in Avengers #4, they wanted to test the waters to see if readers would be interested in having the character come back. To this end, they did a story where the Human Torch fought a Captain America impostor. The original story is incredibly silly, but it was enough to get readers interested in having the real thing. This wacky encounter was seldom mentioned since that story was published in 1963. Sentinel of Liberty #11 has Captain America tagging along with the Human Torch to bust the Acrobat, the crook who posed as Cap all those years ago. Along the way, Johnny Storm explains the events of Strange Tales #114, warts and all with Captain America acting gob-smacked to hear some of the more outlandish parts of the story. It’s a delightfully fun story that pokes fun at how ridiculous some Silver Age stories were.

The final issue of the series (by Waid and Braithwaite) is a retelling of the “death” of Bucky. However, rather than a straight retelling of the tragic tale (originally told in Avengers #4), Waid uses the tragic events to reflect on the life and times of Bucky Barnes, his friendship with Steve Rogers, their careers as Captain America and Bucky. It presents Bucky as more than just the boy sidekick that he has always been presented as up to that point. He was a kid who had hopes, dreams, fears, and aspiration. Waid fleshed out the character in ways that had never been done before. Bucky became more than just his death. We got a more rounded character who had a past. We learn about his family. We learn about his dreams for the future. It presents the character in such a way that when the inevitable moment happens — Bucky getting blown up trying to disarm the drone plane — it hits a lot differently. Yeah, as readers, we know that Bucky’s “death” deeply impacted Captain America for years, but I’d argue that the readers never really felt the depth of that loss. Up until this story, Buck was nothing more than an expendable archetype at best. He was a trope. By giving Bucky a backstory (after 58 years!!!) he went from a one note cookie cutter in a domino mask into something greater.

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty was a short lived series, but it is a fun read. The concept of going back to past eras of Captain America lore would be done again over the years. For the most part it’s been going back to World War II, but there are some outliers. Spiritual sucessors would include Captain America: Theater of War, a series of one-shots by various creators in 2009, mostly focusing on wartime adventures of Cap. Mark Waid would also return to Captain America’s past in 2010’s Captain America: Man Out of Time with artist Jorge Molina. That series would focus on Captain America’s early adventures after being thawed out in the present day, done in a similar vein as Joe Casey’s Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series. Reframing old stories in a modern context and exploring them in deeper ways that wasn’t the norm when the original stories were first published.

The title has recently been in 2022 when Marvel decided to run two Captain America titles concurrently. As of this writing they are Captain America: Symbol of Truth which features Sam Wilson operating as Captain America while the 2nd volume of Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty follows the advnetures of Steve Rogers. How long this new series will run remains to be seen. My bet is that it’ll keep going until they hit another major legacy number milestone.