I was never a Captain America fan growing up. I'm not sure why exactly, no specific reason I suppose, he just wasn't a mutant, not an X-Men, so I didn't particularly care. Probably the same reasons I never got into Daredevil, The Avengers, Hulk, or any of the numerous X-Gene devoid characters permeating the Marvel Universe. I did have one random issue of Cap though, something my Grandmother picked up at a garage sale probably. If I like one comic I must like them all being the mentality I suppose...
At least it had a mutant connection of some sorts with Magneto's involvement, too bad it turned out to be a robot (hope I didn't spoil that for anyone 20 years post) but at least it had some Ron Lim art (big fan of that when I was younger).
So suffice it to say when I wandered into my usual comic shop (Bagged & Boarded RIP) in late 2006/early 2007 the last thing I expected to buy was a Captain American trade. But on recommendation from a guy whose opinion I had come to trust despite him being born yesterday (thanks Kevin, you haven't steered me wrong yet), I picked up the first volume of Ed Brubaker's "Winter Soldier" arc.
Now between Brubaker's writing, and the pencils of Steve Epting, I figured I was in for at least a decent read with some great art. I knew Brubaker from "Batman" & "Gotham Central" with DC as well as "Uncanny X-Men" & "X-Men: Deadly Genesis" from Marvel, and had always liked his writing. As for Epting, well he had long been one of my favorite artists from his work on "X-Factor" and "The Avengers"...
So I entered into these uncharted waters with two trusted guides, and suffice it to say that I was blown away with in a matter of just a few pages. There's no build-up or origin gaga to tread thru to get to the meat of this story, oh no, Brubaker throws you into deep waters from page one with a Red Guardian eating a bullet in the first two pages, establishing The Red Skull & General Lukin as your central antagonists immediately, and giving the big mystery of "what's in the jar" within the first 5 as well. Brubaker does not mess around with this one!
And Epting's Red Skull...
...wow is the word that best sums it up.
As I've said, haven't read a lot of Cap comics, but I have seen many depictions over my years of reading comics, and more often than not, to me, The Red Skull looks like a mask rather than a face. There is not mistaking with Epting's art that The Red Skull is a skull. One panel of Skull drinking wine and it just pouring all over his lip less face is just...perfect.
The story jumps from the Skull plotting his destruction of NYC in order to fuel a Cosmic Cube over to Steve Rogers (Cap's civilian guise for those who don't know) working out with Sharon Carter (aka Agent 13) looking on. As a newbie to the Cap-Verse, I had no idea about the history between these two characters but it didn't matter. The most vital facts of their history ooze off the page with the dialogue Brubaker writes and the body language Epting draws. The sole action sequence of the first issue does an equally amazing job of conveying Cap's current state of mind via the art and with maybe 30 words of dialogue tops. He's becoming reckless, a bit self-destructive, and all due to the Red Skull being free. The allusion Steve makes to his dreams, the statement "I still dream about Bucky. Him and all the others I couldn't save." tells the reader a great deal about what to expect in the next few months, without the reader even knowing it in the moment...that's the beauty of reading things collected instead of month-to-month I suppose. But just as you think you know what's what....
Like I said, no messing around with this era of Captain America...Brubaker & Epting are going hardcore. So the 2nd part of the story drops you into another of Steve's dreams about Bucky, followed up by the revelation (or reminder depending on your knowledge of Cap history) that Red Skull's body was a clone of Steve Rogers. Now as someone with no awareness of this factoid, I was quite blown away, especially by Steve's very...stoic...reaction when Sharon admits she forgot, "Yeah...I hadn't."
Nick Fury makes his presence known, we get a flashback to the first time Rogers found out about the Skull, and a bit of a revelation as well that Cap feels he was essentially created because of the Skull. Now for anyone who doesn't know Fury, or his penchant for revealing the barest of minimum details about anything, Brubaker does a great job via the dialogue between Cap & Sharon to make the reader aware of his super-spy ways. Oh yeah, we also get to meet Crossbones for the first time in this new volume & find out that Skull had a Cosmic Cube in his possession.
Real quick-like for those who don't know... (from Marvel.com)
"Few items in the universe could ever compare to the sheer power of a Cosmic Cube. The power within the Cube allows whoever wields it to literally reshape reality around him. Virtually anything is possible, from the raising of mountains and commanding the power of the elements to opening dimensional portals and transforming your enemies."
Ish 3 begins to see these "memories" really have an effect on Steve as he doesn't seem to be with-it so to speak. A cameo from the British equivalent of Captain America, Union Jack, is a nice nod to the worldwide effect the symbol of Cap has had, and the action scenes depicted in ish 3 are another gorgeous one from Epting. But what is really touching, and really shows the strength of Brubaker as a writer is the quiet moment between Steve & Sharon in Paris.
Brubaker takes a simple flashback scene to the first memory Rogers has of being in France and turns it into a deep look into the type of man Steve Rogers is & really demonstrates why he was the perfect choice to be Cap. Steve's compassion for his fellow man, his humbleness at his accomplishments, his recognition that he isn't alone in seeing death, that Sharon too has experienced the horrors of war...it all adds up to a unique man, uniquely suited for this task. But the moment can't last as we get another meeting with another part of Cap's supporting cast, the former Bucky & Nomad Jack Munroe. Long story short, he was a Bucky once, then he was Nomad, then he was Scourge, and then someone put a bullet in him as he drowned his sorrows in a bar in PA. Just like Sharon said in Paris, "It's just the beginning isn't it?"
Part 4 and General Lukin reenters the picture on the cusp of taking over energy conglomerate Roxxon. Cap gets a phone call from Fury sending him one way while Sharon gets pulled another way, intentionally keeping them apart. Sharon gets informed that the gun that killed Red Skull has been conveniently found with Jack Munroe's fingerprints all over it. In the meantime, Cap is in Arlington Cemetery to find that the graves of two former Captain America surrogates have been desecrated. Both men served as Cap during Steve Roger's "death" and this is most definitely a personal shot at Rogers. A series of memory assaults leave Cap victim for a beat down from Crossbones while Sharon Carter ends up on the receiving end of her own beating from a metal fist that has made a cameo in every issue thus far.
Ish 5 sees the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place for Rogers, and the reader, as we discover just how General Lukin is tied into Cap's history. A town decimated by the Red Skull in 1942 turned out to be the home of Lukin and, as its apparent sole survivor, Lukin was taken under the wing of a Russian General by the name of Vassily Karpov. Karpov & Rogers worked together...more or less...on the mission that resulted in the destruction of Lukin's home. See it all makes sense doesn't it? But that's not the only thing from Cap's past that's coming back to haunt him. Nick Fury has a secret file with the label "Classified: Winter Soldier" emblazoned on the cover and closes out the issue by telling his assistant that he didn't show Steve the file because... "I want to be one hundred percent sure about this before I destroy his (Steve's) world...", damn that Fury and his cryptic nature!
Ish 6 brings the first chapter of this saga to a head as Sharon is kidnapped and an oblivious Cap travels to the site of his & Bucky's death, suffers another attack from the Cube when he battles Nazi soldiers & Baron Zemo that aren't really there, and we get Cap almost reconciling different takes on his origins by wondering if anything he remembers is wholly accurate, or if he's just filling in the blanks based on the various reports. It's an interesting way to make sense of any differences that may exist in Cap & Bucky's origin stories over the years. As a newbie to Cap, I don't know what varying origins there may be, I just know the bare bones "a rocket blew up killing Bucky & knocking Cap into frozen waters" story.
Anyway, Cap departs the island only to be hit with another blast from the Cube as he's taunted with a vision of Sharon held hostage. Cap arrives on scene, and we finally get our first look at the man with the metal hand...
One thing that picture is missing from the upper right corner though, is Sharon's statement..."I think, I think it's Bucky!"
The next panel is a look at a shocked Cap as seen thru the scope on Winter Soldier's gun, an awesome shot if you ask me...which you did since you're reading this. Solider blows up a part of Philly, killing one of Sharon's ex-boyfriend's in the process, and as the story closes we get to see that General Lukin has the Cosmic Cube in his possession.
That bring the first phase of "Winter Soldier" to its close but one issue remains in this trade, and in that 7th issue we finally get to see just what brought Jack Munroe to the bar where his life ended. It's a sad tale of a hero breaking down mentally & physically, and in a sad, twisted way it is almost a mercy killing when Munroe is murdered. His mind is gone, his body is failing him, he is assaulting innocent people, and has no intention of seeking help...or rather he has absolutely no idea he is in need of help. It's a tragic ending to a character that, while I'm not particularly familiar with him, is very well defined in a short time by Brubaker.
So with "Captain America: Winter Soldier" Vol. 1 coming to a close we have Winter Soldier in place, the question of his identity on the table, Lukin in control of a Cosmic Cube, and Steve Rogers perhaps on the verge of a breakdown of his own. Red Skull is dead, Jack Munroe is dead, Philly has been blown up, and Nick Fury knows a lot more than he is letting on (typical ground for Fury).
Where do we go in Vol. 2? Well that's to explore in my next blog where I will look at the remainder of the Winter Soldier arc and how it set the stage for everything that has come since, including the groundwork for Marvel's current mega-arc "Fear Itself".
Or if you're impatient, you can go out and buy these trades. Hell I'd go buy them no matter what!
Oh yeah, and you can hit up my eBay auctions! They aren't up yet, no camera on hand to take the picture, but I will be putting up the issues of Ed Brubaker's run from #25-619 (the numbers reverted at #600) as well as the mini's of "Captain America: Rebirth" & "Fallen Son". I only have the trades myself for ishs #1-24 so they will not be included in the auction. That auction is NOW available here: Captain America Auction
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