Time for a weird review. I really enjoyed Ed Brubaker’s Winter Soldier, but I don’t think I’m going to get #2 next month. I’ll still read it, but I feel like these espionage-style stories tend to work out better in trade than in floppy. Brubaker clearly has a lot of affection for his two leads (Bucky and Black Widow). And who doesn’t like the sleeper super-villain angle? There is a lot of action, but the pacing of the main story is pretty slow. I think I’d prefer to get this whole arc and read it at once.
The villains actually stand out nicely. R.A.I.D shows up, as does Red Ghost and his Super Apes. There’s a good surprise villain at the close, and I like that this character would be using old Cold War technology for her villainous goals. Jasper Sitwell is another nice Marvel U mainstay to clearly root this in the Marvel U.
There is a lot of exposition packed into these pages, but Brubaker wisely leaves a lot of room for Butch Guice to show off some cinematic action sequences. This comic looks like it is ready to be filmed for an HBO-style show tomorrow.
Butch Guice’s artwork is beautiful, it looks oddly painted in some panels, but that just adds to the 60’s spy-feel of the book. Guice has always been good, but some of these pages are unbelievable. The Minnesota-sequence, with the rain-soaked spider-web that shows up just before Black Widow, that’s some great storytelling. And the “Death to America” page? Man, I want that on my wall.
Good
2 comments:
Kid Gladiator and his bodyguard (Warbird) are part of the Jean Grey Institute for Higher Learning, and also appear in Wolverine and the X-Men. And, yes, he is Gladiator's kid.
What a weird review.
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