Read All the Comics!: Captain America vol 5, Winter Soldier: Winter Kills, Fallen Son

Okay, I just saw the trailer for Red Sparrow. How is this not Black Widow??? Did they take a proposed script, swap Scarlett out for Jennifer Lawrence, and change the color and creature? I hope that this movie is awesome, makes shameful amounts of moneys, and embarrasses Marvel/Disney.

(After a quick Wikipedia: This movie’s based on a book by Jason Matthews, written in 2013. I’m adding it to my list of things to read.)

Captain America 22-24

The Civil War crossover issues.

This all reads a lot like the Stern Avengers, for both writing and art. It’s fine, but not memorable. Sharon Carter’s struggle to balance her allegiance to SHIELD and her love for Steve is well done.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills

It’s neat to see Bucky catching up everything that he’s missed, reconnecting with past friends. (Namor, in this case.) It’s also an insightful character point that Namor holds a lot more respect for his Invader teammates than anyone from the present day, something that comes up again in a few issues.

But seriously, there’s no way Hawkeye wears this outfit when it’s literally freezing outside.

It's just impractical.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

Captain America 25-30

The assassination of Captain America. Decently done, the event itself plays out with the proper chaos and confusion. Sharon’s horror when she discovers that she was hypnotized into killing Steve is chillingly portrayed, and her slow breakdown as she fails to cope with this information is wrenching.

Notes about the story:

There’s no way they would have paraded Captain America out there in his costume. He would have been in prisoner orange.
Watching Tony Stark barely stay ahead of crisis after crisis is kind of gratifying. Civil War-era Iron Man is a schmuck, and watching him founder doesn’t feel bad. (Ignoring the fact that IRL, I’d probably be on his side of the issue. But that’s a much longer discussion for some other time.)
Bucky helped to train Natasha when she was in the Red Room and he was a Soviet operative. Cool little retcon.

Some observations I have about this title to date.

This comic is really more about Sharon Carter than Captain America.
The brief moments of happiness that she gets with Steve only make the bad things that keep happening in her life worse.
This makes for a real downer of a comic, which is the opposite of what one would expect from a Captain America comic.
While not poorly done, this kind of story (female spy who get an inordinate amount of crap dumped on her as she struggles to keep her head above it) is much better executed in Greg Rucka’s Queen and Country. I don’t compare this to Black Widow, as there’s an element of realism and grit here that the Widow comics don’t have.
That said, her story is the most compelling part of this title. Like most of the original Star Trek episodes, I think Brubaker’s run would have been much better if it was edited to be half as long. It would have benefited from a tighter plot.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Fine

Fallen Son 1-5

While I was reading those death of Captain America issues, I kept wishing that Brubaker would have spent more time dealing with the world’s reaction to the event. Where was the grief, the funeral?

Turns out it was all in the Fallen Son miniseries, written by Jeph Loeb. I’d say it was a miss on three fifths of the arc, but the other two are spot on:

Hawkeye is back from the dead (Scarlet Witch shenanigans during House of M), and Iron Man recruits him to take up the mantle of Captain America. Before Clint calls bullshit on Tony, there are a few wonderful scenes where he takes the shield out for a spin and learns about the legacy he left behind when he died.

Over in the Captain America series, everyone kept telling Sam Wilson how much they loved the speech he gave at the funeral. Here in the last issue, the readers get to read it in its entirety. And it is pretty good. Inspirational and all that. Props to Loeb. Also, the issue gives John Cassaday a chance to draw a ton of sweet splash pages.