Post by Doctor Doom on Jun 21, 2007 13:33:18 GMT -5
Doom's Deconstruction: Previously in Captain America- Winter Soldier swore to kill Tony Stark, Sharon Carter was driven almost mad by guilt, the Red Skull hatched a scheme and the Falcon has been working with Nick Fury. Oh, and Captain America got shot- you might have missed that. This issue comes hot on the heels from the news that instead of a 9 part "The Death Of The Dream" covering the entirety of Brubaker's story, this story will be 6-part and focus more on Winter Solider than the rest, and is only part one of the grander ""Death of Captain America" story. That aside....
Tony Stark has a press conference at which he confirms that he has no intention of replacing Captain America, as he was the finest man Tony ever knew. In Washington, Winter Soldier watches on TV and heads for the permanent Cap exhibit at the National History Museum. After gaining access to the museum, he finds the Cap ward- tonnes of Cap goodies including old covers, masks, a costume etc. Soldier talks briefly to an old lady who was told her father was saved by Cap at Saipen- of course WS knows they were never AT Sapien but he doesn't crush her memories.
He looks at the costume and shield being exhibit and realises security is too light, so they can't be the real deal. He decides that this must mean Tony Stark will bring out a new Cap, so the real shield has to be recovered before that happens.
Meanwhile Agent 13 tries to kill herself, but she can't- Doctor Faustus is still in her mind and won't let her. She is slowly going mad, and then the Falcon sneaks in. She tells him as much of her despair as Faustus will allow and then he reminds her she does have friends- who would take a bullet for her- this just pisses her off more, considering the choice of words. He then tells her they have a job from Fury- Winter Soldier has gone rogue and is after the shield, and Fury thinks he wants to kill Tony Stark. Sharon gets in her combat gear and they head out.
Meanwhile at a SHIELD base, the Nick Fury LMD we've been seeing since Cap #22 has finally been discovered and taken out after Bucky tampered with it. Stark advises the SHIELD people that he's sending someone in to protect it as it's location is compromised. But the WS is looking on and reflects that the way Stark orders the shield to be moved is very professional- exactly the way he would have done it. BUt after the diversions he takes down the real transport- a flying car, and wonders who Tony would have trusted to take the shield alone.
The answer: The Black Widow. They talk briefly- turns out they hvae a history. Then they fight. As they brawl, we learn that they were forced to fight and Soldier trained her back in Soviet Russia but they made a deeper connection and were punished for it. Despite this, they fight on, and Bucky punches her out before taking the shield. From above, Falcon and Sharon arrive just a little too late and decide to try and pick up Soldier's trail.
Black Widow recovers at SHIELD and remembers her whole connection with Bucky- he escaped his captors briefly and they became lovers back in Russia. Tony talks to her as she remembers how WS was caught and brutally taken down. They both talk and realise Soldier was working alone, but Natasha reflects that they were both weapons who were used. In her past, she remembers finding Soldier, stunned, in cold storage. In the present, she then tells Stark what she has deduced- Winter Soldier is after HIM.
To Be Continued....
The View of Doom: What is there to say? After the rather unusual #25 which I cannot judge because of how non-normal it was and the exceptional Cap #26, Captain America has sunk back down to it's usual levels. It's lucky then that those levels are absolutely incredible and keep it the best book there is!
There's a big shift to Winter Soldier this issue which is consistent with the news that he's the big player this storyline. Cap's shield is a huge part of the mythos so it's great to see such emphasis on it- and of course, our... er... well, he's not exactly the protagonist, in many ways more the ANtagonist besides the Skull, but Bucky is still as kick-ass and anti-hero as ever. The stuff at the exhibit is great- I loved the little touch with the woman's father's memories. Brubaker continues to write a great Stark, sincere and sorrowful at Cap's death.
Of course we as readers know Tony has decided not to pick a new Cap after trying to briefly as a way of coping with his grief, but Bucky does not. It's funny how as a reader we simultaneously don't want him to kill Stark but want him to succeed in his mission to honour Cap's legacy.
One cannot help but feel for poor Sharon. She killed America's greatest hero, she killed her own lover and she can't tell anyone, she can't kill herself, she can do nothing. The Red Skull really is a monster- even if we don't see him this issue and he's only mentioned once, his shadow looms over this issue.. and in a way, it feels DANGEROUS not seeing him. At least in Cap 26 we knew what he was up to but here... Well I don't think anyone but JMS can make me feel this strongly for the protagonists and when they're in the dark about something and the reader is too, it's impossible NOT to empathize with them. And if they don't know something we do, we're almost begging them to find out!
Fights are not the highlights of Cap, but it's not because they're bad- far from it, they're better than many. It's because they're average-good while the rest of the book is GREAT at worst. He's no Mark Millar with fights, but Brubaker's okay. The Bucky/Natasha fight, like all of Brubaker's better fights, is interfused with captions. This, I think, is the secret that makes some fights in Cap better than others- we're kind of scanning over the fight but focusing on the dialogue in the captions. Often otherwise it feels like wasted pages. If there are no captions, the fights can almost seem poor. Now Bucky has the shield- poor, poor Tony...
The Bucky/Natasha retcons I'm not in a position to comment on as I don't know much about Black Widow. I will say that they seem to make sense and since both characters have similar pasts it definitely makes sense that they knew each other but more than that I can't say. The end of the issue isn't as good as last time as this time it's no surprise, but even so it's impressive how we care when a character is told information, even if it's stuff we the readers already knew!
Not as good as #26 but when it's this consistently high above, y'know, EVERYTHING, it doesn't need to be.
Doom Decrees That This Issue Shalt Be Given... Nine Gold Dooms Out Of Ten.
Tony Stark has a press conference at which he confirms that he has no intention of replacing Captain America, as he was the finest man Tony ever knew. In Washington, Winter Soldier watches on TV and heads for the permanent Cap exhibit at the National History Museum. After gaining access to the museum, he finds the Cap ward- tonnes of Cap goodies including old covers, masks, a costume etc. Soldier talks briefly to an old lady who was told her father was saved by Cap at Saipen- of course WS knows they were never AT Sapien but he doesn't crush her memories.
He looks at the costume and shield being exhibit and realises security is too light, so they can't be the real deal. He decides that this must mean Tony Stark will bring out a new Cap, so the real shield has to be recovered before that happens.
Meanwhile Agent 13 tries to kill herself, but she can't- Doctor Faustus is still in her mind and won't let her. She is slowly going mad, and then the Falcon sneaks in. She tells him as much of her despair as Faustus will allow and then he reminds her she does have friends- who would take a bullet for her- this just pisses her off more, considering the choice of words. He then tells her they have a job from Fury- Winter Soldier has gone rogue and is after the shield, and Fury thinks he wants to kill Tony Stark. Sharon gets in her combat gear and they head out.
Meanwhile at a SHIELD base, the Nick Fury LMD we've been seeing since Cap #22 has finally been discovered and taken out after Bucky tampered with it. Stark advises the SHIELD people that he's sending someone in to protect it as it's location is compromised. But the WS is looking on and reflects that the way Stark orders the shield to be moved is very professional- exactly the way he would have done it. BUt after the diversions he takes down the real transport- a flying car, and wonders who Tony would have trusted to take the shield alone.
The answer: The Black Widow. They talk briefly- turns out they hvae a history. Then they fight. As they brawl, we learn that they were forced to fight and Soldier trained her back in Soviet Russia but they made a deeper connection and were punished for it. Despite this, they fight on, and Bucky punches her out before taking the shield. From above, Falcon and Sharon arrive just a little too late and decide to try and pick up Soldier's trail.
Black Widow recovers at SHIELD and remembers her whole connection with Bucky- he escaped his captors briefly and they became lovers back in Russia. Tony talks to her as she remembers how WS was caught and brutally taken down. They both talk and realise Soldier was working alone, but Natasha reflects that they were both weapons who were used. In her past, she remembers finding Soldier, stunned, in cold storage. In the present, she then tells Stark what she has deduced- Winter Soldier is after HIM.
To Be Continued....
The View of Doom: What is there to say? After the rather unusual #25 which I cannot judge because of how non-normal it was and the exceptional Cap #26, Captain America has sunk back down to it's usual levels. It's lucky then that those levels are absolutely incredible and keep it the best book there is!
There's a big shift to Winter Soldier this issue which is consistent with the news that he's the big player this storyline. Cap's shield is a huge part of the mythos so it's great to see such emphasis on it- and of course, our... er... well, he's not exactly the protagonist, in many ways more the ANtagonist besides the Skull, but Bucky is still as kick-ass and anti-hero as ever. The stuff at the exhibit is great- I loved the little touch with the woman's father's memories. Brubaker continues to write a great Stark, sincere and sorrowful at Cap's death.
Of course we as readers know Tony has decided not to pick a new Cap after trying to briefly as a way of coping with his grief, but Bucky does not. It's funny how as a reader we simultaneously don't want him to kill Stark but want him to succeed in his mission to honour Cap's legacy.
One cannot help but feel for poor Sharon. She killed America's greatest hero, she killed her own lover and she can't tell anyone, she can't kill herself, she can do nothing. The Red Skull really is a monster- even if we don't see him this issue and he's only mentioned once, his shadow looms over this issue.. and in a way, it feels DANGEROUS not seeing him. At least in Cap 26 we knew what he was up to but here... Well I don't think anyone but JMS can make me feel this strongly for the protagonists and when they're in the dark about something and the reader is too, it's impossible NOT to empathize with them. And if they don't know something we do, we're almost begging them to find out!
Fights are not the highlights of Cap, but it's not because they're bad- far from it, they're better than many. It's because they're average-good while the rest of the book is GREAT at worst. He's no Mark Millar with fights, but Brubaker's okay. The Bucky/Natasha fight, like all of Brubaker's better fights, is interfused with captions. This, I think, is the secret that makes some fights in Cap better than others- we're kind of scanning over the fight but focusing on the dialogue in the captions. Often otherwise it feels like wasted pages. If there are no captions, the fights can almost seem poor. Now Bucky has the shield- poor, poor Tony...
The Bucky/Natasha retcons I'm not in a position to comment on as I don't know much about Black Widow. I will say that they seem to make sense and since both characters have similar pasts it definitely makes sense that they knew each other but more than that I can't say. The end of the issue isn't as good as last time as this time it's no surprise, but even so it's impressive how we care when a character is told information, even if it's stuff we the readers already knew!
Not as good as #26 but when it's this consistently high above, y'know, EVERYTHING, it doesn't need to be.
Doom Decrees That This Issue Shalt Be Given... Nine Gold Dooms Out Of Ten.
