676 issues of Captain America have been published by Marvel since 1968, and the number continues to tick up each month. I’ve now read a large enough of a percentage that I’m confident in the silent goal I’ve had for about two years: I’m going to read them all.

It’s only a completionist goal like that which motivates me to read very old collections like this - this one covers 1969-170.

Sometimes the quality of these stories reveals their target demographic of kids walking through grocery stores, not adult nerds: there are some minor characters who names magically change between issues (or within issues) and there are a couple plot lines that get re-used, just a few issues a part.

But it was cool to see a comic book wrestling with such topical social issues: there were two different (albeit almost indistinguishable) issues about student protests, and an issue that reckoned with apartment building fires in Harlem. And asides on the destructive forces of racism and ground/air/water pollution are peppered through the book. It’s extremely political in a way that I found attractive.

But was surprised me was how romantic it was… which is to say: very. Surprising in a good way- I love sappy love in action comics: each tends to enhance the other.

This was also the debut of Captain America on his motorcycle: not stuck in New York, but riding all around the country. This is another version of Cap I really like, and wish we saw more of. It’s cool to see him in this mode so early on.