THE STRANGE TALE OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 216 ....

The comic book pictured above, Captain America 216, 
is was not a new comic, even when it first came out. 
Oh, the cover was new, and very exciting and it sold the book to me, even though i soon discovered it was actually a reprint.  Marvel did this a lot in the 70's, whenever they did not meet the deadline for the regular book, they found a decent or obscure reprint to pop in there.

 The reprint in question is from a Silver Age Strange Tales starring The Human Torch. Since I had not read the original, I was not too disappointed with the reprinted story, even if the Captain America was not the real Cap. Turns out, it was the Torch's old nemesis, the Acrobat.

This appearance, or non-appearance of Cap pre-dates his return in the Avenger's fourth issue. Apparently Stan and Jack were selling people on the idea, before actually bringing the real one back. A pretty good idea, but somewhat confusing to people wanting to collect old Captain America books. Cap also showed up again, fighting Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, only this time it was not the Torch's whats his name nobody criminal. This time, it was The Chameleon, Spidey's old nemesis in the red, white, and blues.

All of this is good and well, as it helped reignite interest in Cap. Strangely enough, Captain America debuted in the very next issue of Tales of Suspense, and yes, its the real one, the one The Avengers fished out of the frozen waters of the north. If you are looking to buy Cap's first re-appearance start with Avengers 4. If you are looking for Cap's first new solo strip since the Golden Age, that starts in Tales of Suspense 59.

For those who read or collect comics from the Silver Age, you really won't be disappointed with Marvel's cliffhanger superhero serials Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, or Tale to Astonish.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Strange Tales:
Doctor Strange starts out in this book, ends up sharing space with the Torch for a while, until Nick Fury starts in issue 135. Torch had a good run, and his appearance in Strange Tales could be really called Fantastic Four 2.0, as the Sue, The Thing, and Reed are frequent guest-stars.

Tales of Suspense:
Iron Man started in this book, and gets some real company when Captain America shows up in issue 59. Now the book gets really cool, as Jack Kirby does most of the artwork on the Cap series, including several issues past the title's name change with issue 100.

Tales to Astonish:
The title says it all. Ant-man starts out in this book, ends up becoming Giant-Man, and is later joined in issue 60 by The Incredible Hulk and is replaced by the Sub-mariner in issue 70. This book runs up to issue 100, changing its name in the next issue to The Incredible Hulk in issue 101.

All of these books are highly entertaining and very collectible, both in the original form, and in bound volumes offered by Marvel in their Masterworks series.