Captain America: Forever Allies #3

As Bucky draws closer to finally making Lady Lotus finally answer to justice, he recalls lessons he learned from his last encounter with the villainess... way back in World War II.
 

The Good

Stern crafts a great villain with Lady Lotus. She isn't the sexy succubus stock character, but a vile controller whose arrogance just reeks off every one of her offensive, though sleekly-worded, monologues. I really enjoyed the sense of hyper-reality he infused the Young Allies' adventures with. These kid commandos are still ludicrous, but you buy them working in this mileau.  The portion where Wash breaks free of Lotus' mind-control was a stand-out. Its understatement made it that much more powerful.

The Bad

You know, I'd really have to reach to find something to criticize here. Yes, this is sort-of a "miscellaneous" story designed to fill in some gaps in continuity. It isn't going to blow your mind or make you re-evaluate the way you look at superheroes. It's just a good old fashioned adventure story by talents whose skills are well-oiled and finely tuned.

The Verdict - 4/5

As I've said before, I was really against the resurrection of Bucky when the Winter Soldier storyline first rolled out, but his return's proven to open a real wealth of interesting stories. As somebody who's read up on all those original comics, it was a lot of fun to see those pulpy yarns reconciled with the harder-edge espionage stories of today.