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A review by ari_odinson
Captain America: Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker
5.0
"Are you a classic Bucky fan or a Winter Soldier fan?"
Somebody asked me that question the other day before Marvel's new announcement. I told them, "Of course Winter Soldier." After expressing my excitement for the new installment of Captain America. I realized very few people understand my love for Captain America: Winter Soldier. Therefore, I decided to review this piece and find it in myself to define how incredible of a story Ed Brubaker created for Marvel fans.
A good comic writer is able to take something unbelievably ridiculous and then write the plot well. Ed Brubaker has a talent for that. Winter Soldier follows a mystery Steve Rogers starts to uncover. It flashes back and forth between the present and his days at war leading to the demise of James "Bucky" Buchanan Barnes.
Throughout Steve's life, he regrets the day Bucky died. He struggles to accept the fact that he lived while other good men lost their lives during the war. Then assassinations start to come up. The Red Skull is murdered and he learns of an old tale about the "Winter Soldier". As Steve digs more into the story, he realizes that the man they are after is Bucky Barnes. The Bucky Barnes.
Captain America slowly learns that he is quite in a predicament that involves old friends and the Cosmic Cube. Steve Rogers has always been the one hero able to make noble decisions and does his best to as good as he can be. But the fact Bucky now dangles in his line of fire, it helps build and develop him in a different fashion as he struggles to make the right decision.
Brubaker does an excellent job of expressing human emotion. "Human" may sometimes seem funny but there are moments where Steve Rogers seems to perfect. For me, I never liked Captain America until I picked up this comic. His values and morals made him to perfect. While he has to decide on how to treat Bucky truly makes him into an interesting, modern character compared to that of Captain America appearing in the 1940s and then later during the Silver Age.
Whenever Brubaker writes, he does a beautiful job of creating a 'noirish' under layer. Due to the mystery that wraps the story together along with other characters pulled into the mess, his style is perfect for the story. He is able to take a trite plot about Russians brainwashing somebody into an assassin and turn it into something new and surprising. The end left me silent and close to crying as it suddenly struck me the issues that both Steve and Bucky faced.
Bucky Barnes was never a fully fleshed out character in the classic comics. He struck me more as the embodiment of guilt. To Steve Rogers, he was what his nightmares were filled of. The young boy who helped him in war. A boy who grew up to become a soldier and is noted as a 'sidekick' grows up into a creation of his own.
Winter Soldier is only the beginning to Brubaker's work for Captain America. It only becomes greater and more interesting wise for when it comes to Bucky and other characters such as Falcon and Black Widow. But without a doubt, Winter Soldier remains as my favorite plot and possibly one of my favorite comic stories.
Somebody asked me that question the other day before Marvel's new announcement. I told them, "Of course Winter Soldier." After expressing my excitement for the new installment of Captain America. I realized very few people understand my love for Captain America: Winter Soldier. Therefore, I decided to review this piece and find it in myself to define how incredible of a story Ed Brubaker created for Marvel fans.
A good comic writer is able to take something unbelievably ridiculous and then write the plot well. Ed Brubaker has a talent for that. Winter Soldier follows a mystery Steve Rogers starts to uncover. It flashes back and forth between the present and his days at war leading to the demise of James "Bucky" Buchanan Barnes.
Throughout Steve's life, he regrets the day Bucky died. He struggles to accept the fact that he lived while other good men lost their lives during the war. Then assassinations start to come up. The Red Skull is murdered and he learns of an old tale about the "Winter Soldier". As Steve digs more into the story, he realizes that the man they are after is Bucky Barnes. The Bucky Barnes.
Captain America slowly learns that he is quite in a predicament that involves old friends and the Cosmic Cube. Steve Rogers has always been the one hero able to make noble decisions and does his best to as good as he can be. But the fact Bucky now dangles in his line of fire, it helps build and develop him in a different fashion as he struggles to make the right decision.
Brubaker does an excellent job of expressing human emotion. "Human" may sometimes seem funny but there are moments where Steve Rogers seems to perfect. For me, I never liked Captain America until I picked up this comic. His values and morals made him to perfect. While he has to decide on how to treat Bucky truly makes him into an interesting, modern character compared to that of Captain America appearing in the 1940s and then later during the Silver Age.
Whenever Brubaker writes, he does a beautiful job of creating a 'noirish' under layer. Due to the mystery that wraps the story together along with other characters pulled into the mess, his style is perfect for the story. He is able to take a trite plot about Russians brainwashing somebody into an assassin and turn it into something new and surprising. The end left me silent and close to crying as it suddenly struck me the issues that both Steve and Bucky faced.
Bucky Barnes was never a fully fleshed out character in the classic comics. He struck me more as the embodiment of guilt. To Steve Rogers, he was what his nightmares were filled of. The young boy who helped him in war. A boy who grew up to become a soldier and is noted as a 'sidekick' grows up into a creation of his own.
Winter Soldier is only the beginning to Brubaker's work for Captain America. It only becomes greater and more interesting wise for when it comes to Bucky and other characters such as Falcon and Black Widow. But without a doubt, Winter Soldier remains as my favorite plot and possibly one of my favorite comic stories.