Letting go of the past
It was really hard for me to decide whether or not to pick Issues 33 and 34 of Captain America off the shelf. I picked them up. Put them back. Picked them up again and leafed through the pages. Put them back. I finally took the plunge to give the new Captain America a fair shot. This is a particularly big deal since he's my husband's all time favorite comic book character. He took Cap's death really hard and declared our home a MFZ (Marvel Free Zone).
Bearing in mind that I risked the backlash of my husband, I still felt somewhat obligated to see what Brubaker has been doing with the character since killing Steve Rogers like a bitch. I had been told that the title has never been better and had to see for myself.
Issue 33 is where the actual transition takes place. If you're reading this (Issue 34's review) then you already know what's going on and it isn't a spoiler. Bucky, Steve's former sidekick, agreed to take the job as the new Captain America as long as he doesn't work for Tony and isn't officially registered. This brings up a whole bunch of debates naturally since Tony agrees to these terms. If he's so willing to agree to Cap not being registered and his identity not being revealed to the public with Bucky behind the mask, then why was there a war with Steve Rogers? It's another Quesadaism that's part of the Marvelverse that fans just have to accept without question even if it doesn't make any sense.
One thing is for certain, since Bucky reappeared from the dead (maybe there's hope for Steve yet) as the Winter Soldier, he's been hotter than ever. He's supremely handsome, he kicks ass and he's gotten his American loyalty back (he was a Russian assassin for those that don't know).
Getting down to the nitty gritty, the story is exceptionally written. Brubaker has continued to irritate Steve Rogers fans not just because of the story line replacing Steve with Bucky but he's doing it well; some of us would be happy if Bru churned out crap that everyone universally hated but he's actually writing so well that it's annoying to those of us that want to hate him.
As for the new Cap design, well there's still a lot to complain about. Not only is the outfit horrifically ugly with super shiny red, white and blue over a black outfit, but there's this whole new gun & knife accessory kit. Bucky says on every other page that he's not Steve and never could dream of replacing him; he says he knows he's not as good and he says that he needs the gun and knife because he simply can't live up to Steve's talent with the shield. Ok, so he admits to why he needs it but it changes some of the very basic foundations of Captain America not just the man behind the mask. The Captain America most of us know wouldn't shoot thugs the way a mafia hitman would. Forcing Cap to behave this way reduces who he is. It knocks him down several levels in the eyes of the reader/fan. It makes Captain America different than an American icon and instead shows he's nothing more than a rogue hitman with a blank check from Tony Stark to do whatever he wants.
Giving Marvel your $3 only encourages them to continue on this path. Unfortunately, as I said, the story is still good and the artwork is consistently good. If you don't care about Cap's fashion statement and new gun-toting persona, then you might actually enjoy this book. For readers new to Cap, they won't have any nostalgia invested in the character anyway.
