Captain America: Winter Soldier

I've never been a huge Captain America fan but from time to time I would pick up the title to see what was going on.

The last time I ever really bought a solid run of the book was in the 90's when the government took the costume and shield away from Steve Rogers and gave it to another man. Steve simply became "The Captain" during that time and wore a black costume and had a black shield.

It wasn't until a little over ten years later that I decided to pick the book up again.

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting re-launched Captain America in 2004 and I picked it up for a solid six issues then dropped the title and sold the small run on ebay.

Now I wish I hadn't.

Since 2004 my tastes have changed in comics and I've started to get into Crime and Spy fiction more and more. Ed Brubaker, creator of Criminal from Marvel's Icon line of books, has become one of my favorite writers in recent years. The fact that he's the man that killed Captain America got me wanting to go back and read his run on the book.

With amazing art by Steve Epting, Brubaker has managed to weave a hell of an interesting espionage thriller in the pages of Captain America. In his first year alone, the Winter Soldier story arc, he manages to bring back the Cosmic Cube, kill the Red Skull, create a new villain with ties to Captain America's past, mess with Cap's mind, and bring back one of the characters comic fans thought was untouchable, Bucky Barnes, as a Russian assassin code-named the Winter Soldier. What impresses me just as much is that Brubaker does all this while playing ball with the rest of the Marvel Universe by taking part in Bendis' House of M story arc for an issue and later making sure Nick stays in hiding once Bendis put him there.

This is an arc I can't recommend enough if you like your superheroes mixed with a little bit of a thrill and continuity thrown in for good measure. You can get the collections just about anywhere but for those that want everything to date, Marvel is releasing an Omnibus edition later this year with Issues #1-25 plus the 65th anniversary issue and the Winter Soldier one shot. Retail is $75 but I'm sure several websites will have it at a discounted rate.

Till then...