Captain America #613

Review: We begin here with Black Widow and Falcon investigating Sin's escape from the insane asylum. After checking out the security footage, they discover that the wannabe Nazi Master Man had facilitated her escape, and that she had taken all of her files with her. Falcon and Widow report back to Steve Rogers, who figures that Sin had escaped to cause trouble at Bucky's upcoming treason trail. However, Cap's confidant/girlfriend isn't sure about that, since that would take planning, and Sin is way more likely to do something more impulsive. In other words, Steve has NO clue as to what Sin was up to. Later on, Steve heads to a meeting between Bucky's lawyer Bernie Rosenthal and Dr. Faustus, who Steve wanted to testify for Bucky. Faustus is an expert on mind control, but is also a notorious criminal, and as such, demands to be pardoned if he testifies on Bucky's behalf. Steve scoffs at that, but does offer to provide some old SHIELD information where Faustus betrayed the Red Skull to Faustus's lawyers that could help him get a lesser sentence. Since that information would only give Faustus a lesser sentence and not a get out of jail free card, he doesn't want to take the offer, so Steve informs him that if he doesn't help, he'll personally destroy the SHIELD information, which would lead to Faustus being tried for trying to assassinate the president, which could ultimately lead to a sedition conviction and subsequent execution. Upon hearing that, Faustus decides to assist Steve in Bucky's defense... HA! That's awesome... That night, Sin wakes up after a nightmare about her father, and meets with Master Man, who tells her that all of her plans were coming together nicely... The following day Bucky's trial begins, and it's a bench trial, meaning no jury. The judge also refuses to let cameras into his courtroom, making sure the trail doesn't become any bigger of a media circus. After the opening statements are made, the prosecutor reveals that he had just received some new information pertaining to the trial, so he and Bernie approach the bench so the judge can see if the information was permissible. It seems that Sin had released her own private psychological interviews to the media, in which she claims that Bucky wasn't a mindless slave to the Soviets, but instead was turned by the Soviets and then was willingly working for the Red Skull himself(!!). With this new information, the judge halts the day's proceedings and Bernie returns to meet with Steve at her office. They discuss Sin's tapes, which are REALLY problematic since they were recorded BEFORE Bucky's past as the Winter Soldier had been publicly revealed, meaning Sin saying these things makes it seem truthful. Poor Bucky is sent back to solitary and sassed by the guards, who now think he was working for a crazed Nazi, while Falcon does what he can to try to try to pin down Sin's location. This issue ends with Sin, Master Man and their goons killing a bunch of guards and bringing heavy explosives onto Liberty Island, with her eyes set on the Statue of Liberty itself.

Thoughts: Ah... So THAT'S why Baron Zemo visited Sin in her cell all those issues back! To tell her Bucky was Captain America and to lie in her psych tapes that she had always known that Bucky was a sleeper agent of the Red Skull's... Ed Brubaker, you are a GENIUS! This comic was absolutely perfect. Literally perfect. I can't think of a single thing that seemed wrong, or that I didn't like(and believe me, I tried!). Bucky's parts were small, but powerful, Steve trying to do everything in his power to help Bucky out was great, I STILL love seeing Bernie again, and Sin's parts in this were perfect. Her dream was especially wonderful, as in two pages, Brubaker basically laid out every stitch of motivation Sin has ever had in her life; to prove to her father that she was better than any son the Red Skull could have had. Having just given out a perfect score earlier this week, I really didn't want to give out another one, but if this isn't a perfect comic, I don't know what is!

Score: 10 out of 10.Red Skull's "No son of mine will be born a girl!" line is one of my favorite comic book lines EVER!