Captain America #1
Panini France's Captain America #1 (2024) — subtitled Les valeurs ("The Values") — collects the opening arc of J. Michael Straczynski's return to Marvel after roughly sixteen years away from the publisher, a reunion that the French-language comics press greeted as one of the most anticipated Captain America launches since Ed Brubaker's celebrated run. The series broke new narrative ground by structuring the story across two parallel timelines: a contemporary thriller involving Steve Rogers trying to reclaim a civilian life while a supernaturally powered threat targets him, and an unprecedented deep dive into his orphaned pre-war adolescence — a period of the character's biography that had never been systematically explored in the comics before. By rooting those flashbacks in documented, politically charged American history — specifically the German American Bund movement of the late 1930s — Straczynski gave the title a deliberately contemporary resonance that reviewers across multiple outlets flagged as some of the most culturally pointed Captain America storytelling in years.
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The series was first revealed exclusively by io9/Gizmodo in June 2023, with Straczynski explaining that editor Alanna Smith had approached him after his short pieces for Marvel's anniversary anthology issues drew strong reader response. He had not written a solo Captain America book before, though his Civil War-era Amazing Spider-Man #537 had already given the character one of his most-quoted moments (the 'No, you move' speech). For artist Jesús Saiz, the assignment was a homecoming of a different kind: he had previously drawn Captain America: Steve Rogers alongside writer Nick Spencer (2016–17), and the JMS pairing specifically reunited the two creators who had collaborated on DC's Brave and the Bold years earlier. The Panini France edition appeared on May 15, 2024, in the publisher's standard 17×26 cm hardcover format under the 100% Marvel imprint, presenting issues #1–4 as their first French-language publication.
Trivia · 8 facts
- US Captain America (2023) #1 went on sale September 20, 2023, written by J. Michael Straczynski and drawn by Jesús Saiz, with colors by Matt Hollingsworth.
- The Panini France edition (Captain America T01 : Les valeurs) was released May 15, 2024, and collects US issues #1–4 — the first French-language publication of this material.
- The series marked Straczynski's first-ever solo ongoing run on Captain America and his return to Marvel as an ongoing writer after approximately sixteen years.
- The dual-timeline structure — present-day Steve Rogers vs. a villain of supernatural origin, intercut with flashbacks to pre-WWII teenage Steve — explored a stretch of the character's biography (the years between his parents' deaths and his enlistment) that no previous ongoing series had depicted in sustained narrative detail.
- The pre-war flashback sequences incorporate the historical German American Bund, placing a young, homeless Steve Rogers at one of the organization's pro-Nazi rallies — a deliberate and politically charged creative choice noted by multiple reviewers.
- In the contemporary storyline, Steve purchases and installs rent control in the Brooklyn apartment building where he grew up, giving the series an unusually grounded, socially conscious domestic thread alongside its superhero action.
- Jesús Saiz had a prior history with the character, having drawn Captain America: Steve Rogers (2016–17) with Nick Spencer, and he and Straczynski had previously collaborated on DC's The Brave and the Bold.
- The US run totaled 16 issues (2023–2024); the Panini France hardcover format (17×26 cm, 152 pages, cartonné) is the standard 100% Marvel collected-edition line used for modern ongoing series.
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