Review: Winter Soldier #15
Posted By Josh Flynn on February 10, 2013
Winter Soldier #15 (Marvel)
A great comic creator reminds readers why a character is our hero. They also reinvent characters off the radar and make us care about them. Ed Brubaker did both of these things with his takes on Captain America and Bucky Barnes. The fact the second Captain America movie is culled from stories Brubaker was involved with is a testament to the impact he had on these characters’ legacies.
Writer Jason Latour and artist Nic Klein now face the difficult task of following in Brubaker’s footsteps on Winter Soldier. Brubaker gave the newcomers plenty to work with as he stepped out the door, ripping Barnes’ life to pieces. Latour has decided to send Barnes on a soul searching journey, a quest for absolution. He’s seeking the people he hurt as the brainwashed Soviet weapon known as the Winter Soldier.
This task isn’t going to go well, and Bucky finds this out early in the book. He’s in Croatia, looking to apologize for murdering a Colonel’s three brothers (along with approximately 50 other men) during a 1977 revolt against the Soviets. It turns out accepting apologies of this nature are harder than making them, and after some fisticuffs Barnes is left with only some alcohol to confess too.
Lucky for him Nick Fury shows up. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t like Barnes’ little crusade. He’s still supposed to be dead, and apologizing in person kind of hampers that ploy. But it also presents an advantage. Eighteen hours earlier, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, buried deep in Hydra, broke cover and shot three Hydra leaders. He’s holed up and surrounded by Hydra soldiers, and Fury wants Barnes to rescue him.
Oh, and it just happens that Barnes killed the agent’s handler/love interest back in his brainwashed Winter Soldier days.
Latour is in a difficult position. How do you take a formula that is a success and make it your own while still keeping the aspects fans love? Digging through the past might be one solution. We’ve had a lot of the Winter Soldier’s backstory fleshed out over the past eight years, but an intimate look at the people Barnes hurt as he tries to cope with his own pain and loss might be the right path to go. It sets Bucky Barnes on his own Latour-produced journey while still staying true to what Brubaker began. At the end of the quest, Barnes could come out as Latour’s character instead of the character Brubaker used to write.
But that is a long way off. The journey has just begun. The first chapter is neither mind-blowing nor a disaster. It’s a first chapter. A solid first chapter, but issue #16 may be more telling of how this new creative team will step up and handle their run on Winter Soldier. Latour captures the tone of an espionage book well, and Klein’s gritty artwork gives the book a 1970s feel, an appropriate mood that is carried over from former artist Butch Guice’s work. The Winter Solider is a character out of place in time and Klein reminds us of where the character comes from with every single line stroke.
It feels like there is a solid plan for the Winter Soldier, that the creators have thought over Bucky Barnes’ path with great care. It’s a good sign for a new creative team when the reader can sense the homework has been completed before the story begins. Hopefully readers will reward the work and stick with Barnes as Latour and Klein lead him on his journey.
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