Captain America vol 5 1-7
Ed Brubaker’s extended run on Captain America starts here. And for a story that calls itself Winter Soldier, there’s precious little of him in these issues. Brubaker’s playing the long game here, letting the plot slowly unfold. Just how slowly? Let’s find out, because after a trade paperback’s worth of issues, I’m asking myself what I spent those last 45 minutes learning.
Issue 1: A flashback teases General Lukin’s possession of the Winter Soldier. Sharon worries that Steve is in a bad mental space and fighting angrier than he normally does. Red Skull monologues about how he’s going to make Captain America suffer with his newly constructed Cosmic Cube. Winter Soldier snipes the Skull dead and steals the Cube for Lukin.
Issue 2: Cap investigates the Skull’s death, refusing to believe that he’s dead. Cap flashes back to false memories. Cap and Sharon foil one of Skull’s schemes to blow up Manhattan.
Issue 3: Cap flashes back to more false memories. More Skull schemes are foiled. Jack Monroe, formerly Nomad, is murdered by Winter Soldier.
Issue 4: Sharon looks for Jack Monroe, whose prints are found on the rifle that killed Red Skull. She gets captured by Winter Soldier for her troubles. Cap flashes back to more false memories, get his distracted ass kicked by Crossbones.
Issue 5: Cap flashes back to General Karpov, Lukin’s mentor.
Issue 6: Cap returns to the castle where Bucky died. Flashes back to that day. Remembers a few more details. Rescues Sharon. Is in Winter Soldier’s crosshairs, but doesn’t get the green light from Lukin. An explosion charges up the Cosmic Cube.
Issue 7: We learn that Nomad was dying from the flawed super soldier serum in his blood and was losing his mind when he was killed.
A ton of flashbacks, and what have we got? Lukin killed Skull for the Cosmic Cube and is charging it up. He’s got the Winter Soldier working for him. He’s probably messing w/ Cap’s memories with the Cube. Doesn’t feel like we needed seven issues to tell that story. I’m all for deconstruction when the details are interesting, but a lot of this reads like plain filler material. Like those episodes of Dragonball Z where they spend an entire half hour charging up their chi.
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| 30 minutes of this. I'm not kidding. |
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? No
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Fine
Versus 3-6
I got the trade of Avengers vs X-Men Versus, since the first two were so fun. The last four didn’t disappoint either, with a bunch of standout moments:
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| Sweet Brandon Peterson art… |
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| ...He’s come a long way from his early X-Men days |
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| The rare Arthur Adams interior art. Does it count if it’s only one page? |
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| Once again in this series, excellent use of captions. And perfect reaction shots in the final panel by Jim Cheung. |
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| It's funny because it's true. |
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| Bravo to all the writers for embracing the silly. |
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| And to those who embraced the epic. |
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? Yes
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Pretty good
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