Book Review: The Art of Captain America: The First Avenger

This is a delightful book for Captain America and art book lovers.

The hardcover book comes with a slipcase of Captain America's iconic shield. It's a simple and striking design. On the back is the Hydra logo. When you pull out the book, you see a beautiful wall illustration with Captain America in World War II costume. Nice.

The 240 pages are packed with concept art on characters, environment, weapons and war machines. There are minimal film stills, a couple of old Captain America comic panels for the history, storyboards and the movie posters.

The character designs are wonderful. There's Captain America in various combat uniforms, with variations of leather jackets, straps and belts, helmets, new or war torn. And then there's the actual redesigned Captain America costumes, again in many variations. All look terrific.

The other characters included are Red Skull (Johann Schmidt), Howard Stark (Tony Starks dad), Peggy Carter (love interest), Howling Commandos (Captain America's field team) and a couple of other miscellaneous characters. Of particular mention would be the Hydra troopers. There are enough designs to make it look like a military fashion show.

The environment designs are a mixture of digital paintings and composites. Some are blown up slightly too big and look a bit blurry. Overall, they still look nice. Most of the set designs are quite dark in mood.

There's a huge section on weaponry. The various prototypes shields made by Howard Stark are interesting - one has a machine gun built in! Hydra weaponry is a huge part of this section. There are designs for huge tanks, mini tanks, Schmidt's Coupe, bombers, motorcycles, trains and submarines. The designs look sophisticated and classic at the same time. The Coupe's 3D model is very beautiful.

There are also accompanying artist commentary that explain the background.

This book is really packed. A highly recommended companion for the movie.

Captain America: The Art of Captain America - The First Avenger is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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