.jpg)
What’s
this – review déjà vu? Au contraire;
what we have here is the original Winter Soldier arc from the Captain America comics, in a series of
stories by Ed Brubaker. Even before I
saw (and loved) the film, I’d heard rumblings online about how great the comic
storyline was, and after I’d seen it, it was clear that this story couldn’t
remain unread.
Luckily,
I was able to track down a nice trade paperback of the collected comics with
only minimal scrounging, and I read all thirteen issues in one sitting. In other words: yeah, I’d say it’s worth a read. Don’t go into it expecting the movie, because
it’s not, but it’s a heck of a story. I
can’t quite picturing being a longtime Cap fan reading it as it was first unfolding.
Let’s
just get this out of the way first – the main story is completely different
from the movie. It’s super comic-book-y, with clones and
magic doomsday devices and phantom Nazis.
This was my first “regular” comic book experience, and I wasn’t quite
ready for how out there it is. I’m
mostly used to Doctor Who comics,
which basically tell the same stories the show would if it had the budget to
pull off the enormous scopes and incredible visuals. But Marvel is a different animal. The comics go into all sorts of wild stuff
that the films wouldn’t touch, and it took a little getting used to, but I definitely
enjoyed it. However, I’ll cop to chuckling
when a character would offer a big info-dump about back when So-and-So returned
from the dead or lost their mind or inexplicably turned evil. What a long, immensely complicated history
they have.
So, we’ll
stick with the basics. At this point in
the comics, as in the films, Cap is in the 21st century. He’s working uneasily alongside his ex Sharon
Carter, trying to thwart a deviously tangled evil plan from a menacing
baddie. On the way, he’s disturbed by
ghosts of his past, and he can’t figure out if they’re dreams, lies, memories. A more tangible threat comes in the form of
the Winter Soldier, a legendary assassin who seems to anticipate his every
move. With his incredible skills,
ruthless efficiency, and brute force, the Soldier is a foe to be reckoned with.
If you’ve
seen the movie, then you know who the Winter Soldier is and realize the
violence, cabals, and cosmic cubes are just window dressing for the much more
personal story between these two. This
is where the plot shifts from an inventive page-turner to a riveting gut-punch,
where I can see why fans went into a frenzy of anticipation when Marvel first announced
the title of the new movie. Cap’s
discovery of the Winter Soldier’s identity, and the comic’s slow exploration of
the Soldier’s past, is simply stunning. An
entire issue is spent revealing this history through heartbreaking flashbacks
framed by a dispassionate confidential report, and Cap is carried to the end of
the story on a sea of conflicting emotions that threatens to rule his mind.
Reading
the story, I realized that, as much as I loved the movie, it really just
touches on the richness of this plot. In
the film, Cap’s reaction to the Winter Soldier and their subsequent interactions
are spot-on, but the background of the Soldier himself is only given in glimpses. I hope that future Captain America movies
delve deeper into the revelations of this amazing arc.
Warnings
Tons of comic book
violence, including a little gore, and some pretty heavy subject matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment