By Ed Brubaker (writer), Butch Guice (pencils), Stefano Gaudiano w/ Mark Morales, Tom Palmer, Rick Magyar, Mike Perkins and Butch Guice (inks), Bettie Breitweiser w/ Chris Sotomayor, Humberto Ramos and Frank Martin (colors), VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters and production)
The Story: The trial of Bucky Barnes continues, with things going about as well as can be expected for the good guys under the circumstances. A new wrinkle is thrown in when Falcon and Black Widow are captured by Sin and Master Man, who threatens to blow them up (along with the entire Statue of Liberty) if Bucky does not surrender himself to them by sunset.
What’s Good: This storyline is still chugging along nicely between Brubaker’s writing and Guice’s pencils (and ungodly-sized army of inkers and colorists, but the book doesn’t seem much he worse for all the hands involved.) I especially enjoy the court scenes; they may not be action packed in the traditional sense, but it’s a lot of fun to watch the strategies and counter-strategies play out, especially since Bucky is technically guilty of all the crimes he’s being accused of.
Also: Dr. Faust is awesome.
What’s Not So Good: Although I like this arc, it’s beginning to suffer from a bit of schizophrenia. The juxtaposition of battle of the trial’s battle of wills and intellect, and the physical battle going on between Falcon/Window and Master Man, just isn’t handled very well. I would honestly have preferred they just finish out the trial, and focus on that; trying to do both in the same issue gave both story halves the shaft. I would have been more than happy with a couple issues just dealing with the trial and its fallout. And why does Sin suddenly want Bucky to turn himself in to HER, anyway? Wasn’t the whole plan to discredit him publicly? I know the trial was going decently well, but you’d think she would at least have waited for a verdict, after all the trouble she went through to put these pieces in play.
Also, the Statue of Liberty? Really? Just kidnapping two of his best friends wasn’t enough? I know super villains are into the whole grand, destructive gesture thing, but this still made me roll my eyes.
Conclusion: Not the strongest issue of Cap in this arc, and sadly threw things pretty off-track from where I would have liked to see them go. Still not a bad issue though, and Dr. Faust’s part in the proceedings upgrade the reading experience considerably.
Grade: C+
-SoldierHawk
Grade
Conclusion