There have been five runs of Marvel Comics-based novels. The first was two novels published by Bantam in the late 1960s, both featuring Cap: The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker by Otto Binder (1967) and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal by Ted White (1968). These two are out of print, though might still be available in used bookstores and through internet dealers.
The second wave were published by Pocket Books in 1978 and 1979. Three of them featured Cap, all published in 1979: Captain America: Holocaust for Hire by Joseph Silva, The Avengers: The Man Who Stole Tomorrow by David Michelinie, and the Avengers short story "This Evil Undying" by Jim Shooter in the anthology The Marvel Superheroes.
The third ran from 1994-2000 and were published by Berkley Boulevard Books (in conjunction with Byron Preiss Multimedia Company). The program put out 52 titles -- 45 novels and seven anthologies. Among those 45 novels were one Cap novel, and four Avengers novels and one Iron Man novel that all featured Cap.
The Cap novel came in November 1998. Called Liberty's Torch, the book is written by Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll and also features the Falcon. Sporting chapter illustrations by longtime Cap artist Mike Zeck and a vivid cover by legendary comics artist Steranko, Liberty's Torch sees Cap and Falc investigating the death of an old friend of Cap's -- which leads them to a militia group called Liberty's Torch, who see America as having grown soft and corrupt thanks to outside influences. Over the course of the novel, Cap is kidnapped by the Torch and put on trial in a kangaroo court. Cap must defend his ideals in the most hostile court imaginable, while the Falcon tries to rescue his oldest friend.
One month after that was The Avengers & The Thunderbolts by Pierce Askegren, which tied in to the Avengers/T-Bolts meeting in Avengers Vol. 3 #12. The Barons Zemo and Strucker (along with Techno and the hordes of Hydra) team up in an uneasy alliance to revive an old project of Zemo's father, leading the Avengers and T-Bolts to form an equally uneasy alliance to try and stop them. It includes one segment where the two teams in essence switch leaders, so Cap gets to lead the 'Bolts into battle. The novel has illustrations by Thunderbolts cocreator/artist Mark Bagley, with Jeff Albrecht, and a cover by Duane O. Myers.
Finally, there was a team-up trilogy, X-Men & the Avengers: Gamma Quest by Greg Cox, which had Earth's Mightiest Heroes (including Cap) and the children of the atom joining forces (along with the Hulk) against the Leader and another, mysterious foe. The first two books, Lost and Found and Search and Rescue were released in June 1999, with the third book, Friend or Foe released in June 2000.
Cap also guest starred in Iron Man: Operation A.I.M., also by Greg Cox, in which he aided Iron Man and the Black Panther against MODOK.
From 1996-1997, Pocket Books (also in conjunction with BPMC) published the fourth novel program, which comprised eight young adult novels, one of which guest starred Cap: Spider-Man Super Thriller: Global War by Martin Delrio, released in December 1996. Cap helped Spider-Man stop Dr. Octopus from launching World War III.
Currently, BP Books (part of ibooks inc.) is publishing the fifth series of Marvel novels, distributed by Simon & Schuster. Thus far, their plans are almost exclusively X-Men novels (no doubt to tie into the movie), although the X-Men: Chaos Engine trilogy will include the Red Skull, but they do have the rights to Cap, and we may see more Captain America in prose in 2001.
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