Captain America & Bucky #620

With the brand spankin' new Captain America flick in theaters this past weekend, it's actually rather refreshing for his comic book counter-part to take a little look back. In Captain America and Bucky part 1 of 5: Masks, the iconic second fiddle gets his own one-shot back story revisit. The book follows the life of a young James Barnes junior, whom his friends call Bucky, as he struggles to cope with the loss of both of his parents and the relocation of his younger sister. There is a lot of reference to the idea of wearing the "mask" of a brave face, which explains the moniker of the arc. The art of Chris Samnee, and the coloring done by Bettie Breitweiser, help to give this issue the feel of a flashback without giving it the feel of a history lesson. The tones hearken back to the talkies and newsreels of the era when everything seemed just a little less colorful, when the world was a little closer to black and white.

Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko delve into a very familiar background in order to show the reader just exactly where it is that Bucky comes from. While this single issue can hardly do justice to the complexity of his past, it does what it is meant to do, which is to lay a foundation for the rest of the five part series. By establishing Bucky as the subject of the book, they can employ an interesting perspective on the Cap himself. By being able to see him the way his faithful sidekick sees him, the readers will be able to acquire a better overall understanding of not only Steve Rogers, but of James Barnes as well.

There are a number of ways this series can go from such a solid beginning. It is difficult to classify this as a groundbreaking issue, but there is something to be said about the beauty of understatement. Showing Bucky as a brash, angry youth could have spun in the wrong direction, getting more of a Batman feel than Captain America, but somehow it manages to stay true to the man in red, white, and blue. It humanizes him in a way that is difficult to ignore, but more than that, it humanizes Captain America. With Brubaker's Captain America and Bucky, I enthusiastically recommend seeing the big screen version of the story, if only to enhance the contrast between the two. Bucky is a character whose story needs a hefty bit of overhaul given the history of Marvel, and this arc is exactly what the Captain ordered.

Review By: Trevor Janis