Captain America: Operation Rebirth

At a time in the mid-1990s when the Avengers franchise struggled for attention against the industry-defining X-Men and Image titles, Mark Waid and Ron Garney somehow pulled off one of the most celebrated Captain America runs of all time…until it was cut short to make way for Rob Liefeld’s “Heroes Reborn” revamp. We look at this creative team’s opening arc, “Operation Rebirth,” which used propulsive, slam-bang action plotting to try to maintain Cap’s relevance in the grim ‘n’ gritty ‘90s and reinvent a long-lost supporting character along the way. We’ll also touch on Waid’s broader superhero-writing career and why there’s more to his work than simple Silver Age nostalgia.