2. Ed Brubaker And Steve Epting On 'Captain America' (2005 - 2010)
It's that man Ed Brubaker again, appearing for the third time on the list. What can we say, the man is a great writer and always does high quality comics, and his era defining run on Captain America just might be his crowning achievement of the 2000's. If you are anything like us, you sat in a cinema earlier this year and were blown away by Marvel's latest blockbuster, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It was a superb film and we would argue it is actually Marvel's best film yet. Some of the quality of the films script can be put down to the strength of the character and backstory of the titular Winter Soldier, who was introduced by Brubaker at the start of his run on the comic in 2005. Brubaker even has a cameo appearance in the film as a scientist, which should give some idea as to his importance to the production. With his creation of the Winter Soldier, Brubaker did something that very few writers have ever been able to do in comics: resurrect a beloved character, that fans always believed should remain dead forever, and do it in such a way that it was universally embraced. Bringing Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers' best friend who seemingly lost his life during the war, back as a cybernetically enhanced, mind-wiped Soviet assassin was a stroke of genius. The manner in which Brubaker weaved his story in with real world history, and the amazing design of the costume from artist Steve Epting, combined to make the Winter Soldier too cool to dislike. The character has since went on to have his own series and is now an integral part of the Marvel Universe. Of course, we'd be doing Brubaker and Epting a disservice if all we talked about was the Winter Soldier. They also handled the small matter of the death and return of Captain America during their run, a story that was so big it made waves in the mainstream news media. Ultimately, we feel that the best aspect the creators brought to the title was in how they repositioned Captain America stories as exciting spy adventures, making excellent use of S.H.I.E.L.D., modern technology, and classic villains such as The Red Skull, Crossbones and Arnim Zola.
