By Ed Brubaker (writer), Butch Guice & Stefano Gaudiano and Chris Samnee (art), Bettie Breitweiser (colors) VC’s Joe Caramagna (letters/production)
The Story: Bucky continues to fight for survival in he gulag while his friends try to figure out a way to help him escape without triggering an international incident. It also seems that Bucky’s return to Russia was far more planned out–and has far greater and more insidious implications–than anyone was led to believe.
What’s Good: As much as I’m looking forward to Steve Rogers’ inevitable return as Cap–and I’ve been looking forward to it since Bucky took over–this story arc has got me strongly in Bucky’s corner for the first time since he’s become the star of the book. Brubaker is obviously set on sending him out in style, and so far he’s doing a wonderful job. This is without question the best Bucky-Cap storyline to date, and it just keeps getting better.
Butch Guice and Stefano Gaudiano are an amazing team on artwork. Their detailed pencils, along with Bettie Breitweiser’s gritty and almost ghostly coloring, make the prison scenes hauntingly and (given the subject matter) rather disturbingly beautiful. Although I’m certainly familiar with Guice’s work and have admired it for some time, this particular team up with Gaudiano (who I’m afraid I don’t know nearly as well) is bringing out the best in both of them, and resulting in some absolutely spectacular and enjoyable art that is not only fantastic to look at, but perfectly matches the mood and tone of the story.
What’s Not So Good: While Brubaker’s ultra-strong voice is clear and consistent throughout the book, and while Guice and Gaudiano are producing some of the best Cap pages I’ve seen all year, I’m personally not at all a fan of the changing art styles within the book. While I understand the appeal of visually separating sections of a story using different artists and styles, I find it jarring and unappealing, especially when the looks contrast so drastically. While the other art is certainly not bad, it does not reach the (quite high) bar that the main part of the book sets. I find that having to reorient myself visually all the time is very distracting, and gets in the way of following and understanding the story.
Conclusion: While I have minor gripes with the (deliberate) inconsistency in the artwork, this is, overall, a great issue that illuminates Bucky’s character and establishes him as his own unique hero, quite apart from Steve Rogers or the Captain America persona. The story is gritty and compelling, and the art reaches heights that we haven’t seen in a Cap book for a long time. Very well done.
Grade: B+
-SoldierHawk
Grade
Conclusion