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Rating:  -
Ed Brubaker, Brian Michael Bendis, and Warren Ellis are making me fall in love with comics ALL over again. I had been a collector since the late seventies/early eighties (dropping in and out over time.) Ed Brubaker (who also did a GREAT run on Iron Fist) knows these characters. He brings me back to my youth while appealing to the adult in me. These aren't just guys in tights stories. He brings me back to characters I love and makes them seem real. Each issue ends at a high point and makes me read the next ... So far, they're making Captain America's death a worthy one. Hope it ends up as solid as it's start. Can't wait to read book 3.
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This book collects issues 31 to 36 of "Captain America volume 5", written by Ed Brubaker, with art by Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, and Butch Guice. These issues make up the story arc "The Burden of the Dream", the second act of a new epic storyline "The Death of Captain America" (the next act being "The Man Who Bought America"), an epic which opened with, obviously, the death of Captain America. Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier, sought to avenge his mentor's death by seeking out both the Red Skull, the villain who orchestrated his death, and Iron Man, Director of SHIELD, the hero Bucky blames for betraying Cap. Sharon Carter and the Falcon, Cap's two other allies (the former his girlfriend and unwilling executioner, thanks to Doctor Faustus, the Skull's brainwashing henchman), pursued Bucky in the hopes of dissuading him from going after Fury, while Bucky stole Cap's shield from SHIELD agent Black Widow (his former girlfriend back in the USSR), who then was assigned to track him down. The first volume ended with Bucky and Sharon in the clutches of the Red Skull.
In this volume, Brubaker, in the space of six issues, pays off a few running plot threads from the previous volume and initiates a major change in the series' status quo by introducing a replacement Captain America (it's Bucky, not that that would be a surprise to anyone reading the series, though Marvel initiated a feeble effort to drum up some suspense over who it was going to be). Sharon and the Falcon largely fade into the background in these six stories; the former struggles against her mental programming, largely unsuccessfully at first, while the reader waits for more information concerning her apparent pregancy with Cap's child, while Falcon, after a teamup with Black Widow to rescue Bucky from the Skull, also recedes temporarily into the background. The major characters are Bucky, the new Captain America, Black Widow, and Iron Man; in effect, with these three, Brubaker momentarily replicates the series dynamic from the initial Winter Soldier arc, with Bucky, Natasha, and Tony in lieu of Steve, Sharon, and Nick Fury. At the midway point, Bucky finally faces off with Iron Man, the hero he sees as the Judas to Steve's Jesus; the confrontation is handled in a way that is quite satisfactory, and respectful of both characters, not at all like J. Michael Strackzynski handled the meeting of Thor and Iron Man in his "Thor" series. Bucky taking up the mantle is also handled with remarkable subtlety, and just feels perfect; if only all legacy heroes could be handled in this manner. When the heroes are done fighting each other, the focus shifts to the Skull, whose master plan begins to really unspool in this volume, and it's a brilliantly realistic one that plays on contemporary economic and political insecurities in the United States (and there's a time machine involved somehow too). The volume ends on a major jolt that will have you ready to pick up the next one and see what Brubaker has in store (or, if the wait is too long, buy the monthly issues).
Brubaker's writing is expertly-paced, both in monthly serial and trade format, and demonstrates in-depth knowledge of all the characters; he's a master both at using a formula and doing it will (thus showing why it became a formula in the first place) and innovatively pioneering his own variations on how things usually go (watch what happens, for example, when Bucky tries to use the old EMP trick to disable Iron Man's powered armour). On art, Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, and Butch Guice all make contributions (in Perkins' case, this is apparently his last scheduled work on the series before leaving for other jobs, and he, fittingly, gets the last pages; I'll miss him, but Guice is a great replacement). The series has always benefited from seamless transitions between its major artists, and that continues to be the case here; the three are all brilliant at rendering fantastical objects like a flying aircraft carrier and making them seem as real and believable as an ordinary car; characters have rich, varied facial expressions, and realistic proportions and body types. And one cannot forget to mention colourist Frank D'Armata, whose wonderful work blends the different artists' work together even more expertly.
If you are looking for a great story, look no further than this book.
Rating: -
Ed Brubaker's critically acclaimed run on Captain America has seemingly been celebrated by everyone, except me. I hadn't been all that thrilled with Brubaker's run thus far, and while for me personally it hasn't been anything terrible in the least, bringing Bucky back from the dead and killing off Cap haven't exactly been anything special for me either. However, I am now a believer in the magic that Ed Brubaker has been casting, and this second collected volume of The Death of Captain America has really won me over. Let it be known that if you don't already know what happens here, that spoilers are ahead: the Red Skull's plan is coming to fruition, and he has Bucky captured. To add to the problem is Iron Man, Black Widow, and the Falcon trying to figure out the Red Skull's nefarious, and masterful, plot; as everyone's life hangs in the balance. However, what really works surprisingly well here, is Brubaker making Bucky the new Captain America. Featuring a new costume designed by the great Alex Ross, Bucky being Cap ends up being an idea that in a lesser writer's hands would have been a terribly conceived notion. But for some reason, it just works here. Steve Epting provides more good pencil work as well, and by the time this volume comes to an end, you'll be salivating for more. All in all, I'm officially a believer in Ed Brubaker and his run on Captain America, and I personally can't wait to see where things go from here.
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- Red Skull henchman: "Remember, the Red Skull rewards only those who--"
- BLAANG! (Cap's shield ricocheting off a henchman's dome)
- The new Cap: "Sorry... No evil Nazi rewards for you."
Having already set the stage by orchestrating the assassination of Captain America, the Red Skull and his associates continue to solidify their plan to bring about America's downfall, this time by targeting the nation's financial establishments. This, even as, in the wake of Steve Roger's passing, a new Captain America emerges. But this new incarnation is much darker and is prey to doubts. Because he isn't blessed with the super-soldier serum, he sports firearms to compensate. And, as he soon learns, the world isn't quite prepared to accept a substitute.
Brainwashing, double agents, gripping intrigue, bristling action, and several surprises. THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, Vol. 2: THE BURDEN OF DREAMS maintains and builds on the momentum brought about by the shocking event(s) in The Death of Captain America, Vol. 1: The Death of the Dream. Volume 2: THE BURDEN OF DREAMS collects issues #31-36 of the monthly series and continues to showcase one of the best, most compelling runs this title has ever had. Ed Brubaker's taut storytelling and the marvelously gritty, noirish artwork by Steve Epting, Mike Perkins and Butch Guice just keep on launching the reader into amped-up mode. And all this with the titular character not even in the picture.
Ed Brubaker instead makes very good use of Cap's supporting cast, particularly that tortured soul James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, formerly the Winter Soldier and, before that, Captain America's teen sidekick. But he's all grown up now, and the Winter Soldier, in case you're new to this scene, is one relentless and uber-formidable mothereffer. Tony Stark, Natasha (the Black Widow), and Sam Wilson (the Falcon) all play prominent roles, even as they're still coming to grips with Steve Rogers' death. Sharon Carter (Agent 13), in particular, is going thru her own hell, seeing as how she was responsible for *SPOILERS* and that she's recently found out that she's *SPOILERS* (if you've read Volume One of DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, then you already know). Not to mention, the mind manipulator Dr. Faustus is still playing mental silly buggers with her. One subplot I'm particularly sinking my teeth into is the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow's relationship, which dates all the way back to WWII. And I know that Iron Man is devastated by Cap's death, but I can't help but hate on the putz. I was hoping the Winter Soldier, who blames Stark for Cap's death and had intended to kill him, would put him thru the wringer. So, yes, by the way, one of the issues treats us to a slugfest between Iron Man and the Winter Soldier. And how does that brawl end? Well, with a letter...
Bonus stuff in this trade include Brubaker's script for issue #34, costume designs of the new Captain by Alex Ross and Steve Epting, and a three paged story of the new Captain being interviewed for Good Morning, America (written by Brubaker, illustrated by Mike Perkins).
I won't mention who steps into Cap's shoes, although it's really a no-brainer if you've been following this series. But I salivate at the possibilities which this new and very different Captain America brings up. To gauge by the protestors' derisive reaction to his efforts to calm them down, his tenure isn't off to a breezy start.
I will say, though, that I'm not too keen on the tweaked costume. But, then again, that being my only gripe, I'd say that this series really is living up to its reputation as one of the best comic books currently going around.
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