Yep, with his run on Captain America, Ed Brubaker pretty much wrote the book on that one. He actually managed to kill Steve Rogers and replace him with Bucky, his former sidekick thought dead for more than 40 years. And he did it well. People bought it. Sure, there’s still a few people who think that, any day now, Steve will come back to retake his mantle. Let them think that. Bucky as Captain America is really interesting. At least, as long as Brubaker writes it. Plus, the return of Bucky is one of the biggest retcons ever. And Brubaker pulled that off with style. The only person more capable than Brubaker with retcons is Geoff Johns, who is basically the god of comic book writing.
So, in Time’s Arrow, the first post-Death of Captain America arc, Bucky faces off against Batroc the Leaper, who is for once portrayed as something other than the butt of a joke, and a mysterious Chinese scientist named Zhang Chin (or possibly Chin Zhang, since the comic says both), with whom he has a history from his days as the Winter Soldier. There’s some charming dialogue with Black Widow, who is replacing Sharon Carter as the book’s resident love interest. It’s a nice change, since Black Widow just does not get the face time she deserves. Plus, at the beginning of the arc, there’s some nice framing of Bucky’s new role as Cap and a bit of a nod to the post-Secret Invasion Marvel Universe. Plus, Luke Ross proves that he is in the same mold of artist as Steve Epting, Mike Perkins, and Butch Guice, making poor quality of art virtually nonexistent in this title. All in all, this is one of the top books Marvel currently publishes, if not THE top book. And it managed to make the news. Imagine that. Comic books making news.
Plot: 9.4 Art: 9.4 Dialogue: 9.4 Overall: 9.4
