Winter Soldier Review

Okay this article will contain massive spoilers concerning the following: the Fear Itself Marvel storyline, the Captain America Film, and just about last decade or so of Marvel continuity.  Just saying.  Now for those still here, as you know Bucky Barnes the sidekick of Captain America “died.”  Well, he didn’t and instead was brainwashed by the Soviets to become one of their top assassins.  Well he became good again, and briefly took over for Steve Rogers as Captain America.  Then he “died” again during Fear Itself.  Well once again, he didn’t die but was secretly revived by S.H.I.E.L.D to serve as a covert operative.  Well now he has his own series, Winter Soldier.  Here’s what I think of it.

Okay right off the bat I don’t like the artwork of the comic.  The artist is Butch Guice and so far, I do not like his style.  It seems like he was trying to make the comic look less like a comic book, and more realistic.  It looks more like a painting than anything.  That’s not to say I dislike realistic artwork or painted comics.  I love Alex Ross’s work for example.  But with Guice, I don’t know.  It just doesn’t look right.  The colors are too dark and make it hard to really tell what’s going on.  The color pallet seems restricted to black, white, gray, muted reds, and occasionally a dark green for when Dr. Doom shows up.  Bright colors are not the enemy Guice.  I try not to let artwork dissuade me from a comic, but this one really does.  I think Guice was trying to make it look like some noir spy thriller, but failed.

As for the story and writing it’s okay.  It’s nothing thrilling.  The problem I have with the story is the problem I have with a lot of comics, it is very continuity heavy.  Don’t think you can pick this up without knowing the last few years of comic storylines.  Other than that, the story’s alright.  Basically, Bucky is tying up some loose ends from his days as the Winter Soldier.  Assassins he trained are being used to create chaos.  This is where the comic shines in fleshing out some more of what Bucky did as the Winter Soldier and why he looks so young.  The spy part isn’t as thrilling as it would seem, with Bucky and Black Widow just basically showing up and shooting people.  It’s better than the artwork, but nothing special.

When this series started out I had high hopes for it. I was hoping for a good spy thriller with Bucky getting down and doing the wet work that Captain America can’t be seen doing.  Instead it’s mostly Bucky shooting at things and feeling bad for stuff that wasn’t his fault.  Overall this comic is mediocre.  It’s not horrifically bad, except for the artwork, but it’s not great either.  I wouldn’t recommend these comics unless you’re a diehard Bucky fan.  Hopefully the Captain America: Winter Soldier film is better.

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