Captain America Annual #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCaptain America Annual #3 holds a firm, specific place in Bronze Age Marvel history as the first Captain America annual to feature entirely original material — the two preceding annuals were reprint packages built from Tales of Suspense inventory. Arriving in the middle of Jack Kirby's celebrated return to the character he co-created, the issue showcases Kirby operating in a mode that deliberately recalled the pre-superhero Atlas/Marvel science-fiction anthology tradition, transplanting its pulpy alien-menace sensibility directly into a superhero annual format. The 35-page, self-contained story also demonstrates Kirby's unusual institutional autonomy during this period: he served simultaneously as writer, penciler, and credited editor, with Marv Wolfman in a consulting role, giving the issue a singular, unmediated authorial voice rare for Marvel at the time. Its gentle subversion of authority — Cap's full report of the alien encounter is quietly buried by a government security committee — anticipates the cynical-bureaucracy themes that would run through the character's stories for decades.
In "The Thing From the Black Hole Star!", Captain America faces a mysterious threat in the wilds of the jungle, where Eagle-Eye G.I. Joe spots an unseen Intruder with his sharp eyes. When Joe tries to intervene, he’s caught in a sudden bear hug—only to flip the Intruder off before the figure vanishes into the trees. With art by John Romita and inks by Mike Esposito, and a striking cover by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia, this 1976 annual delivers a tense, action-packed mystery that leaves the fate of the Intruder—and the true source of the danger—shrouded in shadow.
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Kirby returned to Marvel in January 1976 after roughly five years at DC, immediately taking over Captain America as writer, penciler, and editor beginning with issue #193, a run that would extend through issue #214 and encompass two annuals and the Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition. Annual #3 went on sale April 27, 1976, slotting between regular issues #200 and #201 of the main series, and was produced during a period of extraordinary creative output in which Kirby was simultaneously writing and drawing multiple Marvel titles. Frank Giacoia and John Verpoorten shared the inking duties on the 35-page story, with Janice Cohen on colors and Gaspar Saladino on letters — the same tight production team Kirby used across his regular Cap issues. The four-year gap between Annual #2 (1972) and Annual #3 coincides precisely with Kirby's DC tenure, and the return of the annual as an original-content format is a direct product of his homecoming.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Title of the lead story: 'The Thing From the Black Hole Star!' — a fully self-contained, 35-page original story with no backup strips or reprints.
- On-sale date: April 27, 1976 (Grand Comics Database); cover-dated 1976; published by Marvel Comics Group.
- Complete creative team: Jack Kirby (writer, penciler, credited editor); Frank Giacoia and John Verpoorten (inks); Janice Cohen (colors); Gaspar Saladino (letters); Marv Wolfman (consulting editor).
- This is the first Captain America annual to contain entirely original material — both Annual #1 (1971) and Annual #2 (1972) were reprint-only collections.
- First appearances in the Marvel Universe: the Epsiloni alien race, the Captive (a.k.a. Threkker), King Kirjak, Commander Troga, the Stalker, Combatron, and the Magnoids — every supporting character in the issue was created by Kirby and does not recur.
- Plot: Cap is summoned by a Midwestern farmer (Jim Hendricks) to help a seemingly innocent alien fugitive; the story pivots when the 'fugitive' is revealed to be a cosmos-scale energy parasite justly imprisoned for a million years, and the farmer is killed by the creature's life-draining ability.
- Kirby served as his own editor on the issue, an unusual arrangement formalized during his 1976–77 Marvel run, with Wolfman listed only as consulting editor.
- Collected in: Captain America and the Falcon: The Swine (Marvel, 2006), Captain America by Jack Kirby (Marvel, 2010), and Captain America Omnibus Vol. 4 (Marvel, 2023).
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Reprints
↩ Reprints [Marvel Hostess Ads] #9 (1976)
Reprinted in Comic Reader #129 (1976), Star Magazine #6 (1991), Captain America and the Falcon: The Swine #[nn] (2006), Captain America by Jack Kirby #[nn] (2010), Essential Captain America #5 (2010), Marvel Gold. Capitán América #6 (2017), Marvel Masterworks: Captain America #10 (2018), Captain America by Jack Kirby Omnibus #[nn] (2020), Captain America Omnibus #4 (2024), Captain America Epic Collection #7 (2025)
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