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Captain America #610
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Butch Guice
Cover: Marko Djurdjevic

“No Escape pt 5“: Before becoming the new Captain America, James “Bucky” Barnes was once the sidekick of the original Captain America, Steve Rogers. However, in between that time he was also the Russian assassin known as the Winter Soldier due to some intense brain washing. It’s this time in his life that Baron Zemo has exposed to the public along with the identity of the current Captain America. Zemo feels that he (Bucky) hasn’t earned the right to be seen as a hero after all of the murders he’s committed in secret. So for the past several issues he’s been playing mind games with James in an attempt to break him down and possibly to have him give up the role of Captain America altogether.

Brubaker brings this arc to a close and furthers the progression of Bucky’s role as the new Captain America with a solid and well written story. Now, Zemo has never been a villain that I’ve cared too much for, but I understand his place in the Captain America rogues gallery, and Brubaker has him play his role perfectly. Having this eventually be more of a test of wills and character made this one better than some elaborate plot to actually kill James. I know we’ve seen this kind of psychological attack before, but it’s situations like this that actually reveal the character of the hero, and Brubaker is on the right track with his interpretation of Cap. I do feel that it will have a bit more relevance as we get into the next story arc as the former assassin is put on trial for his past, which is what Zemo wanted in the end.

While reading Captain America #609 I had several problems with Guice’s artwork, and it was good to see that this issue was a step back in the right direction, at least for me. I can honestly say that the only page I didn’t too much care for was the first one. The entire page just looked rushed, especially the panel with the Black Widow who looked a bit masculine when compared to Sharon on the next page. Other than that the book looked very good, especially the sequence where an enraged James is about to end a defeated Zemo, and you kind of feel sorry for him as he looks pretty pathetic.

Brubaker lets us know that things aren’t over for James, and hopefully the next arc is just as strong if not stronger than this one. He is having James slowly step out of Steve’s shadow and come into his own role as Captain America more and more. James is not the “squeaky clean” guy like Steve is perceived to be, and he’s got blood on his hands from his days as an assassin. This is something I’m actually hoping that Brubaker goes into more detail about during the trial arc coming up.

Again I’d like to apologize to the one or two Nomad fans out there. I refuse to read that story, so to be fair I won’t be able to give you any info on how it was. However, it is a good time to be reading Captain America, and there’s no doubt about that!

‘Till next time!

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net