Winter Soldier #5 (2012)

Winter Soldier  #5 (2012)
  Writer:  Ed Brubaker
  Pencils:  Butch Freakin Guice, Man!
  Colorist:  The Fetching Elizabeth Breitweiser!

The Longest Winter Part 5

When last we left the strange bedfellows of Doctor Doom, Bucky, and Black Widow, they were in the midst of trying to stop Lucia Von Bardas from her evil plan using sleeper Soviet agents trained by Bucky as well as gorillas trained by the Red Ghost.  She was going to blow the world to crap using Latverian nukes that she gained launch codes from a Doombot.  Doom, Natasha, and Bucky end up teleporting to the hidden lair of Bardas and an outstanding fight takes place, with dire results for Bardas and painful results for Bucky.

The Good:
The artwork is outstanding.  Guice and Breitweiser are a great team.  They should be doing the mainline Cap books.  the renderings of Black Widow, Doom, and Bucky are spot on.  The dialogue of Fury and Doom is outstanding, both funny and threatening.  Brubaker is on his game in this one.  Plotwise, I love seeing what happens to Lucia.  That useless, one trick pony character should have been sanctioned with extreme prejudice a long time ago.  Doom's lack of emotion in doing what he does is typical Doom.  The fight between Bucky and the last known (spoiler!) sleeper is both highly detailed and emotionally poignant.  A great bit of writing.  If only Bru could do this for Cap.....

The Bad: 
I hate the name of this frigging book!  Call Bucky Mr. America, or the Dark Defender, anything except Winter Soldier.  Also, I like when arcs end.  I don't like this, well, we are going to drag it out even more over five more issues!  While I like depth in a story, I also like a variety of stories.  But, the art in this one saves any regrets other than CALL IT SOMETHING OTHER THAN WINTER SOLDIER!!!!!!

The Bottom Line:
If you don't like Cap Lizards or Excessive rehash of past Cap stories, and you don't mind no Cap, then this is the Cap family book for you.  It is a nice spy thriller, almost a return to the days of Fury, Agent of SHIELD mixed with some Jason Bourne.  A very good read, JUST CHANGE THE DAMN NAME OF THE BOOK!

New Hope Patriot Missile Rating:

  3.5 out of 5 Shields