Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier

Captain America: Winter Soldier HC Vols. 1 & 2
Written by Ed Brubaker
Pencils by Steve Epting, Michael Lark and John Paul Leon
Inks by Epting, Lark, Tom Palmer and Mike Perkins
Published by Marvel Comics. $21.99 and $19.99 USD

As talented as I think Brubaker is, I wasn't that excited about the prospect of him writing Captain America. I like the character, but he just seemed to pure, too old-fashioned for Brubaker's style. To some extent, I was right, in that Brubaker writes Cap competently but without any real spark or surprise, but what he does really well is to turn this superhero book into more of a gritty espionage story, somehow still working in supervillains like The Red Skull and Crossbones and superheroes Iron Man and The Falcon, eventually. But it all starts with the first chapter, which contains a cliffhanger ending that in Brubaker's and Epting's hands is as tense, cool, and even shocking as almost any comic I've read, certainly any Captain America comic. The stuff prior is a lot of setup and exposition, as one might expect, but Epting draws the Red Skull so creepy and evil it almost doesn't matter what his scenes are about. And somehow, just the addition of some extra stitching on Cap's cowl and some belt pouches make him almost believable in a real world sense.

The story has quite a few twists, as it would have to to stretch over two volumes, involving a Russian bent on world conquest and revenge via the Cosmic Cube, and the mysterious assassin who bears an uncanny resemblance to Cap's dead WWII sidekick Bucky. There used to be phrase among comics fans when inquiring about a character who had perished--"Is s/he dead, or Bucky dead?", meaning that almost every character in Marvel comics was likely to come back from death through some convoluted explanation, but Bucky never did, because his death gave Captain America's character so much meaning and purpose. Well, let's just say that nothing is forever.

Epting has to rely on Mike Perkins' inks later on in the story, but his pencils are either tight enough or Perkins complimentary enough that the art doesn't suffer, and throughout there are some enjoyable flashbacks by artists arguably even better than Epting like Michael Lark and John Paul Leon. The visuals never let down, nor does Brubaker let down on the suspense, even when including Iron Man and Falcon, who are here as little more than celebrity cameos but don't adversely affect the espionage story for which they're not ideally suited. And there's a great twist ending that throws the entire beginning into a different perspective. Very entertaining story.