Captain America: Winter Soldier

I've just completed reading this Captain America story which ran from issue 1 to 14 of the recent series. It was written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Steve Epting. It was collected into 2 volumes which I obtained even before Cap's assassination in issue 25 mainly on the strength that it was written by Brubaker whose Daredevil stories I was very impressed with.

I was also aware that this story itself was very controversial with the return of Bucky as the Winter Soldier.

Bucky was Cap's partner from World War 2 who had died in action. Unlike most comic characters, Bucky had stayed dead and, in fact, most comic creators referred to characters who stayed dead as "Bucky dead" because it was accepted that he was, in fact, dead.

Not anymore, Brubaker has come up with a story that not only brings him back (doesn't bother me as I'm not a particular fan of Cap's WWII adventures) but does it in such a way so he gets away with it. There was no fan backlash and, in fact, fans loved it.

It is a great story with perhaps the biggest surprise for me was the death of the Red Skull at the end of issue 1. But he'll probably come back so don't shed any tears.

I enjoyed the pace of this story and, maybe, reading it in collected format helped towards this. The slow build-up to the inevitable confrontation was very well done. Recommended.