Before I review the movie for my Road to Captain America: Brave New World, I thought it'd be a great idea to review the comic. And if you're wondering why I'm not including this in the Road to like I included a comic review for the Road to Superman (2025), it's simply because this comic arc had no influence on Brave New World's story. But enough of this, onto the review.
The Winter Soldier was a 2005 to 2006 storyline that was published in the 2005 volume of Captain America in issues #1-9 and 11-14. The story arc was written by Ed Brubaker (one of my faves) and primarily drawn by Steve Epting, with Michael Lark helping out with issues #2-5, 9, and 12 and John Paul Leon filling in for issue #7.
The story is, Captain America is being attacked by an assassin known as The Winter Soldier. First he sees him as just another enemy ,but after being briefed by Nick Fury he learns that he's someone from his World War II days. Now with this shocking revelation, Cap wonders if he'll be able to take him down.
- Negatives
I don't have a single negative thing to say.
- Mix
Got nothing here either.
- Positives
First off, let me start off with Steve Epting and Michael Lark's art. It's astounding. Many Christmases ago, when my uncle bought me the first volume of this series, I couldn't look away from what Epting and Lark drew, I was awestruck. I thought it looked like a movie but in a comic format. Which funny enough seven years later, it came true.
My next praise is how this was the relaunch that Captain America needed. A couple of years before this volume, back in 2002 to be more precise, Marvel did relaunch Cap for their Marvel Knights imprint. For anybody that doesn't know, that imprint was for more mature stories but not fully adult like their MAX imprint. Basically the story was John Ney Rieber (the writer) had Steve Rogers go fight the war on terror directly in the aftermath of 9/11. Now I can't comment on the quality of those stories, because I haven't read them. But what I do know is they did slowly move away from that and went back to Cap fighting supervillains. So luckily for Marvel and us fans, Ed Brubaker gave us that post-9/11 espionage. And that was a really great time to do it because during the mid-2000s that's where a lot of entertainment was. There was realism, but still bits of entertainment to be had. In other words, while it had political themes, it wasn't political. Something a lot of current year comic "pros" can't seem to get a grasp on.
The last praise I'll give is the story. Now I never read any of Ed Brubaker's previous works, but after reading this I just had to read what else this guy wrote and what he's writing both during and after Captain America. One praise is how he did a great reveal for Winter Soldier. Earlier issues of this storyline had brief teases. We actually don't get a full reveal until the end of issue six, and his full origin unit issue eleven. So unless you already seen the movie, you have this anticipation and you're guessing who could it be? There's also some great retcons. Once again, for anybody who doesn't know, a retcon is basically a story device that offers new information from a previously established part of a story, mostly for dramatic purposes. Or to try to make sense of an inconsistency. But we got the more dramatic one, which is great. Especially since Brubaker made Marvel's World War II much like ours. Yes we had some truly brave men fighting, but there was a lot of complexities that happened during that time. My last praise for the story is how Captain America is really put through the ringer in this. He is being messed with both psychologically and emotionally. He's more than likely has some form of PTSD and just to add even more weight on his shoulders, he has to confront his guilt. Because of these hurdles, you feel bad for Captain America, you're hoping he gets redemption and hopefully in typical superhero fashion save the day. These aspects are what made this story one of my favorites.
The Winter Soldier is the story arc that changed Captain America for the better, and no matter how many times I've read it it still thrills me.
My final rating is, A MUST READ!
That's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Nov 7th, for part two of the Road to Captain America: Brave New World, with my review of the movie version of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
