Marvel Age #57
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Age #57 sits at the editorial heart of one of the most provocative Captain America story arcs of the Copper Age: Mark Gruenwald's 'Captain America No More!' run. Published the same month that Captain America #337 hit stands and introduced Steve Rogers' new identity as 'The Captain,' this promotional issue gave readers a direct conversation with Gruenwald about the creative thinking behind stripping Rogers of his name, his shield, and his government sanction — context that narrative comics rarely provided. As part of Marvel's official promotional magazine, it functioned as a living companion piece to a storyline whose themes of government overreach, personal ethics, and patriotic identity resonated well beyond the Copper Age. The Hembeck strip and the Kyle Baker 'It's Genetic' feature also make it a small showcase of the era's emerging cartooning talent.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Marvel Age launched in April 1983 as Marvel's answer to its own earlier fan publication FOOM — a comic-sized promotional magazine positioned explicitly as an 'official direct line to the fans,' running previews, creator interviews, and behind-the-scenes features at a cover price well below standard comics. By issue #57, the series had become the primary venue through which Marvel's editorial voice — including Gruenwald, who became Marvel's executive editor on September 1, 1987, right as this issue released — spoke publicly about ongoing storylines. The cover was produced by Tom Morgan and Joe Sinnott, the same penciler-inker team working on Captain America at the time, giving the issue an unusually tight creative connection to the arc it previewed.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published with a cover date of December 1987; released to newsstands on September 8, 1987, by Marvel Comics.
- Cover by Tom Morgan (pencils) and Joe Sinnott (inks), the art team then active on Captain America.
- Features a discussion by writer-editor Mark Gruenwald previewing the 'Captain America No More!' storyline, in which Steve Rogers relinquishes the Captain America identity and operates as 'The Captain' in a new black costume.
- Collector listings identify this issue as an early printed preview of Steve Rogers in the black 'Captain'/'U.S. Agent' costume, appearing around the same time as Captain America #337 (January 1988 cover date, also released September 8, 1987), which contains the costume's first full in-story appearance.
- Includes 'It's Genetic,' a comic strip by Kyle Baker — an early professional credit for the future Eisner Award-winning cartoonist.
- Features a two-page Fred Hembeck humor strip, part of the regular Hembeck feature that ran throughout the Marvel Age series.
- Also contains an interview with J.M. DeMatteis about his project 'Blood' and an article on 'Captain Justice.'
- Marvel Age ran for 140 issues (1983–1994) and also featured early work by writers such as Peter David and Kurt Busiek; issue #57 falls squarely in its Copper Age promotional prime.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Decades: Marvel in the '80s - Awesome Evolutions #[nn] (2019), Captain America Epic Collection #14 (2021)
Key issues in Marvel Age
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