Talk about digging in the crates. Ed Brubaker dug really deep to bring us this month's villain in the pages of Cap. Ever since the new Cap made his debut as the Winter Soldier the book has been building momentum and creating curiosity. With the Bucky retcon pretty much complete, now it seems like Brubaker is exploring the various possibilities that this change has garnered.

You should know by now (but its okay if you don’t) that Bucky has been the Winter Soldier since the end of WWII. That’s a lot of uncharted territory storywise, what kinds of adventures did he get in, and more importantly, how many enemies did he make? That last question may be soon addressed thanks to a special appearance from the one and only Batroc the Leaper.

It seems ol’ Batroc was on the way to a successful heist when Bucky (in his civvies) crashes the party. There is a cool fight scene but Batroc escapes. It was cool to see that Batroc is still around, and I like how Brubaker portrayed him as a character to be taken seriously. There is a second story going on in the background that deals with Bucky’s days as, well…Bucky. It’s very brief but the connection between the past and the present is clear.

As always the art for this issue is first rate stuff, especially the handling of the original Human Torch, it is a little weird that Bucky looks a bit older the normal in the flashback, but I guess it make more sense for Bucky to look less like a little kid and more like a guy in his early 20’s.

Aside from that the issue is pretty solid. Brubaker is making a strong case for his new Captain America with every issue. Even though I’m itching for the return of Steve Rogers (fingers crossed) I don’t mind the new Cap not one bit. Hopefully, the best is yet to come.

Crave Online Rating: 8 out of 10