Captain America & Bucky #622:
Summary: This issue kicks off by introducing us to the Invaders... You had Captain America, Namor, the Human Torch, Toro, and Bucky... And needless to say, in that company, Bucky felt pretty inadequate. From there we head to 1942 and see Bucky scouting out a burnt down Nazi hideout. While Bucky is reporting his findings back to Cap via a radio, Bucky hears a firefight and rushes back to the allied camp only to find devastation, Cap's shield and no Invaders. Bucky hops on a motorcycle and drives along, hoping to pick up some sort of trail as to what the Nazis did with his comrades. After some rough traveling in the snow, Bucky happens across a Nazi occupied castle and sneaks inside. Upon reaching the basement, Bucky spots Dr. Armin Zola(!!!), pre-transformation, draining the abilities from his Invaders teammates and feeding them into one of Zola's Nazi agents. Realizing that time was of the essence, Bucky leaps into action, taking out Zola's guards. Zola unstraps his agent, and tells him to kill Bucky, but warns the super-powered Nazi that the power transfer wasn't complete and that he had to dispatch of Bucky quickly. Hearing that, Bucky realizes that he had try to last long enough against the super-powered Nazi for his powers to drain before having a hope in beating him. Bucky manages to deflect the Nazi's fireballs with Cap's shield before throwing the shield at the tanks holding his fellow Invaders, freeing them and knocking Zola out with the shield as a bonus. Unfortunately, losing the shield meant having to battle against a Nazi with the combined strength of Captain America and Namor... Bucky taunts the Nazi and takes a few punches, with each subsequent blow becoming weaker as the Nazi's super-powers ebbed. Before the Nazi could finish Bucky off with a flaming punch, Cap races over and knocks the Nazi out with a thunderous right cross. With Zola's threat taken care of, Cap ties Zola and his goon up while the Torch and Toro burn down the laboratory. This issue ends with Namor giving Bucky a rare compliment(or at least as much as a compliment as Namor could muster), and Bucky finally feeling like he belonged on the team.
Thoughts: What can I say? This issue was perfect. Plain and simple. The story was great, the dialogue, especially Bucky's self-doubt, was fantastic, and the artwork fit perfectly with the time period being portrayed in this one. I'm wracking my brain trying to think of SOMETHING negative to say, but I'm coming up completely empty... I guess if there's a negative it's that Bucky is apparently dead in the present, which sucks because this issue would turn ANYBODY into a fan of Bucky. It was that good. If the rest of the comics I read this week are half as good as this issue, I'm in for a fantastic week!
Score: 10 out of 10.
HA! I love jackass Namor...
lol as if there was any other namor beyond JACK ASS NAMOR lol sounds like a villian from kickass
ReplyDeleteHA! True. There is only Jackass Namor.
ReplyDeleteI agree man, loved this issue! This series has been great. For anyone that read the original brubaker cap run this series is so perfect. It's literally nothing but bucky getting all sorts of character development tht foreshadows because you ALREADY know how awesome he is going to be. That and cap being courageous and always punching people! cap is the king of punching people!! Namor is always good, especially when he first meets a "surface dweller". Him shunning Bucky is classic namor and bucky doubting himself in a wolrd of superheroes is great. It really shows that sometimes the lesser hero's are the more courageous ones.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am dropping finch's TDK. After the promise of the first 2 issues of the first series, and dealing with all kinds of ridiculous delays; I really needed finch to come through with a VERY strong issue. And this read more like lame big budget movie, with the twist/story setup being something new to a certain character but absolutely not new in terms of "never been done before". Shame too. It was one of my favorite characters in the batman realm. You may disagree.. but regardless I will look forward to checking out your review.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this series has been a treat for fans of Bucky, and this issue in particular did a masterful job of giving insight on how Bucky viewed himself amongst such illustrious company. I've always loved reading about non-powered heroes(that's why Hawkeye is one of my favs in all of comics), and that's what made Bucky so great here. I'm still holding out some tiny bit of hope that Bucky will somehow return since he's narrating this series...
ReplyDeleteInteresting... I'm not sure where in my comic pile Dark Knight is, but it's probably coming up soon. WIth there being so many Bat-books, I'd be more than willing to drop a bad one to save some money!
I'd decided to only pick up one monthly Cap book (I adore Cap, but still, don't need 'em both), and your reviews of the two series have helped me pick! Bucky is possibly my #1 favorite comic character, so the choice should have been easy, but I feel kind of cheated that it's a WWII storyline. I want to read about Bucky and Cap in the present, with Bucky alive, obviously! Plus, Cap WWII stories have been feeling kind of stale for me lately. So thanks for your help, and I have a couple questions:
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit vague, but is Cap & Bucky sort of a new take (or at least a new feel) on the classic Cap war storyline, or is it very similar to what we've seen before, a la 65th Anniversary Special? (65th isn't bad, but it just didn't do much for me.)
Why is the other Cap book $3.99? Is it longer, or is this just price gouging?
Okay, first things first, that name? CrazyQuilt? Absolutely awesome! I actually did a post a while back where I reviewed three Crazy Quilt Batman comics just for the heck of it, so I have some affinity for that character.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with Bucky! If I were to list my favorite comic characters, Bucky'd definitely be in the top 5, hands down. I'd even list him above Steve, who I'm also a huge fan of! What happened to Bucky in Fear Itself was a massive kick to the gut for me. It still hurts me to think about it...
Anyway, I was a bit put off by the fact that the Bucky series was taking place in the past as well, but Bucky's past is actually a pretty fertile place for storylines... I mean most of Marvel's WWII tales focus on Cap(which is understandable) or Namor, but this series actually focuses on Bucky, with Bucky narrating it(which gives me a slim glimmer of hope that maybe he's still alive). This issue in particular had Bucky saving the rest of the Invaders. Not Cap, not Namor, not the Human Torch, but Bucky! Plus if they wanted they could focus on his Winter Soldier days with Black Widow. For me this series has a somewhat different feel from the other Cap WWII tales because it's about Bucky... It's hard to explain but Steve was this big, perfect super-soldier, whereas Bucky is just this kid. I think the narration from Bucky really helps give this series a different feel from the usual, “Cap and company go and beat up some Nazis” story. It's hard to explain actually... I've read a ton of WWII Cap stories, but the personal feel you get from Bucky kind of makes this series stand out to me a bit, if that makes any sense! :P As for the price, I'm not quite sure... I can't say that I've noticed the new Cap series being significantly longer than this series page wise. I mean maybe it is, but I tend to think that it's just a money grab by Marvel to go along with the popularity from the movie.
To be honest, as long as this series is ongoing, I have hope that Bucky will come back. I mean it already has his name on the cover! :D
Thanks a lot, I think I get what you mean about the story. I'll definitely add this to my pull list.
ReplyDelete(fingers crossed for Bucky's return in the near future!)
"(fingers crossed for Bucky's return in the near future!)" AGREED!!!
ReplyDelete