Advance Review: Captain America # 30

Reviews

Review

Captain America #30

Writer: Ed Brubaker

Artists: Steve Epting and Mike Perkins

Marvel Comics

Captain America is dead, killed by his brainwashed love, Sharon Carter. Now she, along with Falcon, are searching for Winter Soldier, the former Bucky, who wants to kill Iron Man for setting in motion the chain of events that lead to Cap’s death. This is all rather convoluted and not necessarily worth reading without the main character, but with Brubaker at the helm, odds are this will be very well paced and plotted and the characters will stick to their core voices. That sounds like a good read to me, so this, like most Brubaker books, is certainly worth reading.

There are several subplots tied up in everyone dealing with Captain America’s death. They all converge with the finding of Bucky, which does not occur this issue. Every character is touched upon, however, and given something interesting to do. Bucky is not left in the shadows, but battles with his mentor’s worst enemy. Tony Stark puts pieces of the puzzle together about Cap’s death and finding Winter Soldier, while Falcon and Black Widow are in the field and provide perspective. There is a major revelation about Sharon within, as well, that you won’t want to miss. All of it is amazingly well put together. Brubaker is most skilled at crime stories, and this becomes one with a lot of bells and whistles that don’t detract from the issue at all.

The art here does a very good job of ensuring that the silliness of spandex does not override the story and its sense of gravity. Winter Soldier is handled well particularly, looking youthful, but not young and still managing to seem dangerous without being unnecessarily gritty. Again, this could have, and likely should have devolved into impenetrable silliness by now, but its actually remained a very clear story despite all the trappings. As it turns out, I like Brubaker quite a bit more just for the skill that he’s shown in handling a tough situation, deprived of a lead character and given a convoluted “who-done-it” with trappings that do not fit that type of story, yet still managing to work everything into a great read.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.