3. The Winter Soldier (Captain America vol. 5 #1-14)
If youve already seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier and youre looking to compare how it stacks up against the original source material, then look no further than these 14 wonderful issues created by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. In this story, Brubaker and Epting break one of the Cardinal sins of the comic book universe when they resurrect Caps World War II partner Bucky Barnes as a brainwashed KGB operative. From a broad, historic perspective The Winter Soldier provides a ton of interesting tidbits about Captain Americas time alongside Bucky as a member of the WWII-era superteam, the Invaders. From a characterization perspective, Cap had never been portrayed quite as emotionally tormented as he is in this story. Most of the tension is built through the phenomenal pacing of Brubakers script, which slowly reveals information about the mysterious Winter Soldier, bit by bit, with Captain America being the last to realize that his enemy is actually his former best friend. The actual battle between Cap and Bucky is a great Silver Age callback to prior stories that focused on Captain Americas optimism and never-say-die spirit. Rather than attempt to beat him down, Cap (with help from the Cosmic Cube), appeals to Buckys humanity, and brings him back to the side of good. The storyline marks arguably Captain Americas greatest victory in the history of comics.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
