Captain America #14: I like the art. A lot.

Originally, I was going to post this week’s review on Marvel’s first “I (Heart) Marvel” issue, but I found that they didn’t have a picture of the cover on the Marvel website, which I always try to include with the review. So I gave up. That’s just a little behind-the-scenes info for you guys. Whatever.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #14

Okay, I’ve been reading a bunch of Brubaker’s work for a while, starting with I guess his second Sleeper run. I have to admit; he’s one of the better, if not the best, writers when it comes to a story filled with twists and turns (which is just how I like ’em).

That being said, his contributions to longstanding Marvel icons (and to a lesser extent, Wildstorm icons) have been insane, to the point of Slow-Down-You-Maniac. In less than two years, he’s killed off the Red Skull, killed off Banshee, killed off Nomad, killed/reorganized much of the Authority, and brought Bucky back from the grave. On top of that, in the next two-ish months, it looks like he’s going to kill off Foggy Nelson and bring back Thunderbird. Or something like that.

While most of these have seemed like needless shock-value ploys, it is his two Captain America related events, the death of the Red Skull and more specifically the return of Bucky, that in my opinion have been dealt with the most effectively. Interestingly, it’s naturally the one that would make people the most nervous. After all, isn’t DC doing the same thing with Jason Todd in the pages of Batman?

What makes this particular story so good is the way in which Brubaker reaches us on an emotional level. Sure, it would be one thing to have Captain America be all mopey and emo (I’m looking at you, Batman), but Brubaker uses many more subtle techniques, such as a conservative employment of flashbacks, in order to achieve the same emotional resonance. It doesn’t hurt that the art is so great to look at, neither.

The storyline has had a few, well I guess the word I’m looking for is missteps, in the past few issues, but they aren’t present in issue fourteen. One of my favourite parts is the use of same-time storytelling in the first two pages. I think that it was a fairly novel idea, and would like to see it used to a greater degree some time in the future. Only hopefully will be as great to look at.

This issue serves as the conclusion to the Winter Soldier arc. Naturally, not everything is wrapped up into one neat little package, though significant headway is made, and a victory is achieved on the hero’s side. Normally, I’d be quite nervous about the way in which this victory is achieved (the fix-it-all cosmic cube), though it’s clear that the cosmic cube can only do so much, and that there will in fact be repercussions. I’m willing to see it play out, if for no other reason than because I like looking at the art.

Oh, and the last page, while slightly see-coming-able (I didn’t, but someone in last month’s letters page did), is pretty neat, and without giving anything away, I must say looks great.

9 out of 10