Thanks for the recommendations, you guys! Think I'm most interested in the Byrne run, the Steranko issues (love Steranko), and the Golden Age Kirby stories. I thumbed through the 'Madbomb' and 'The Swine' Kirby TPBs a couple years ago, and it was just too much of a shift in tone and general story elements coming after the Englehart run for me to fully appreciate it.

The issues in the 300s when they take away his uniform is when he starts calling himself 'The Captain'? I like stories where Cap finds himself at odds with the government/authorities, and I've read a number of Avengers and Iron Man issues that have him as 'the Captain', so I'll be looking for those issues as well.

Forgot to say I also read and enjoyed the early 2000s Christopher Priest series (which I think was a Max title and not really part of main continuity?)

So, Reagan turns into a sweaty snake and attacks the Captain by swinging the flag at him.  There would seem to be some subtext going on here that I'm not really sure how to process.  All that's missing is Nancy with a flute playing the part of the snake charmer.

Yeah, Kirby's last run has a different style of storytelling and the dialogue is "clunky" with lots of "random" quotation marks and bolded words for "no reason"

But it does deal with a lot of similar sociological themes to what Englehart was doing -  Both Kirby and Steve were trying to use comics as a symbolic mirror to society, so I don't consider 'em all that different.

And the Captain story-arc is great.  It's 19 issues of recycled Engelehart who was already recycling Steranko without the thematic subtext or the attention to continuity, but it is still great.  The characterization is really sharp and there's a fun road trip vibe to the whole proceedings, with the Falcon, Nomad (Englehart's Bucky) Cap and D-Man working as an informal, underground superhero team.   It's a 20 issue story that feels like it deserves 20 issues, and that never happens.  

I freakin' love the Falcon, but I could absolutely not get past the art in the Christopher Priest series.  Someday I'll get back to it.  

I'd definitely second the recommendation for Steranko's very short run and also suggest you check out the J. M. DeMatteis run from the early '80s. I've only read scattered issues from this particular run, but it seems very good -- quite gritty, very Bronze Age. It's definitely a run I'd like to explore more myself.

The J. M. DeMatteis run on Captain America is really good. It's pretty much the first time in the whole series - maybe ever - where Steve Rogers seems to have a life outside of Captain America. Some of this was set up by Stern in the preceding run, as he introduced a new cast of supporting characters for Steve's secret identity. But DeMatteis really runs with it, especially with Bernie Rosenthal and her relationship with Steve.

The end of his run is epic, but also a little weird. He has a giant Red Skull storyline that runs from around #290-300, with some really just fantastic issues; the origin of Red Skull in #298 really stands out. But at the last minute, his plans for #300 were completely scrapped by Jim Shooter, so he quit the book and Shooter rewrote the ending of #300; the book came out with the story credited to "Michael Ellis," as DeMatteis didn't want his name on the story.

His run is definitely worth tracking down, there are some great stories in it.

Not to steal from that inquiry ^ but I just popped on here and saw this thread and though perfect! I may have asked this before, but how is Kaluta/O'Neill's The Shadow? I am thinking of making the 12 issues a goal for this year. Very attainable I think, if its good readin!

The best part for me in those early issues is the return of Johnny Blaze as a main character in the series. If you're a fan of the original, it's pretty cool. I think he finally catches up to Danny around #13.

The down side is that, like most serialized comic stories, it kind of doesn't go anywhere. I kept reading up into the early 30's but the narrative just goes off track and doesn't deliver on the setup.