Captain America #39 review

The Man Who Bought America part three

Here we finally get to see The Grand Director/50s Captain America in action. The issue starts with him looking over a campaign rally for Senator Wright expecting a group of Doctor Faustus' men to attack. Once they do, he leaps into action. We then cut to a sparring session between Bucky and The Falcon discussing their run in with Arnim Zola last issue when they get a call from the Black Widow to turn on the TV to see the Grand Captain beating ass and speaking on behalf of Senator Wright. We then see Sharon Carter strapped into a bed hopped up on drugs lamenting her situation while Sin, who's laying near her, continuously threatens her. After attending one of Senator Wright's campaign rallies, he sneaks into the Senator's hotel room to search for evidence to use against him and the Red Skull. Realizing too late that it's a trap, the Grand Captain sneaks up behind him putting his ass to the floor. This is intercut with Sharon Carter escaping from her bed, putting Sin's face through a wall and putting a knife to her throat.

That Brubaker is slumming it on The Uncanny X-Men is one thing, he continues to knock it out of the ballpark with this series.

The stuff with Senator Wright and his Third Wing Party is finally coming together dialogue wise. Seeing the character come out, his speeches were less then convincing, but in the two rallies we see in this issue Brubaker presents a much more charismatic character. The first scene is the Grand Captain watching over and just dicing up the bullshit in his mind. In the second one, Brubaker blends it with Bucky's narrative to show how the character works his audience. It really worked for me, I had no problem buying into it. Before, we had seen the Kronas Corporation do thing that no one business is capable of doing, which would make things a bit silly. Seeing Wright work his audiences using fear mongering really brought the political aspect of the story back down to earth.

And the Grand Captain, this guy is very interesting. He totally thinks he's Steve Rogers, but is so completely unlike him. He sees through Wright's BS, but is still willing to get behind him as the idea of a strongman is to his liking. I hope they don't get rid of this guy too soon.

I also like the continuing partnership between Bucky and Falcon. They're both capable fighters, but it's interesting to see Falcon constantly underestimate Bucky. I do hope that Brubaker has continuing plans to keep these two together as a team.

Actually, it's pretty indicative of how other characters treat Bucky. He's Captain America but no one else has really been sold on it. Clearly, no one was going to at first, hell as a reader I'm still used to thinking of Bucky as Cap, but I can't wait to see that story where Bucky seriously claims the mantle. It'll be sweet!

Steve Epting takes a break from art duties this month so the pencils are provided by Rob De La Torre. I thought he did a pretty good job. Not perfect, I think he needs a bit of work (Bucky's arm in one panel looks like Torre forgot it was supposed to be metal), but I liked that he kept the scenes and the action flowing smoothly which is most important to me. I hate art that makes the action feel clumsy and awkward. Torre does a really good job of instilling a sense of motion in everything so when Carter Puts Sin's face into the wall it looks like that shit hurt.

All told, I continue greatly looking forward to this series every month. It's one that I can't recommend enough.