Broken Frontier

Cap fights alongside his former partner Bucky in a bid to bring down one of the Red Skull’s most diabolical creations.

Well, another bombastic story arc comes to a close as a thrilling confrontation is played out in London. It surely seemed like old times as a trio of former Invaders all banded together to help subdue a resurrected weapon from World War II. I for one truly enjoyed this issue for a number of reasons and I firmly believe Brubaker and crew have told a story that’s one for the ages.

It starts out with Cap and Bucky joining together for the first time in nearly six decades to battle a gigantic robot that was once employed by the Red Skull during World War II. At this point the good Captain still isn’t certain that the Skull is behind the resurrection of this powerful weapon, but he doesn’t have time to process the situation fully. Instead he lets his instincts for combat take over and with Bucky’s aid both heroes flawlessly execute an old Invaders maneuver to bring down the massive construct. It certainly does seem like old times for the pair, but Bucky does a disappearing act once the task is finished leaving Cap to further ponder the mystery surrounding his old partner.

Again, the mystery is proliferated throughout the issue and brought to a pleasing conclusion for my tastes. Brubaker is the type of writer who truly understands the beats and instinctively speaking he knows how to raise the bar every time out. This entire arc was structured soundly and it certainly typifies the kind of Captain America adventure we have come to know the character by and Ed should get full marks for doing so. I was also pleased with the way Ed was able to bring all the characters involved in this arc into play at the most crucial of moments, and it definitely sets up an intriguing premise for the next several stories.

Hopefully artist Steve Epting will be along for the ride for those issues, since I have really grown accustomed to his illustrative style on this series. This issue in particular was one of the best I have seen Steve illustrate since the start of the book, and I must say that several pages really caught my eye. Again it’s all about pacing here and Steve understands the essence of quality storytelling and he made it count the most when it was needed. Of course, the best sequence was executed flawlessly as Cap and Bucky join forces to combat the Skull’s gigantic robot, and Steve was right on the mark with this one. His work is a real treat from month to month and I can see why Marvel chose him to be a part of the young guns initiative a few years ago.

It’s so hard to find any faults here with this series and I can’t remember a time when I enjoyed reading a Marvel series this much. Brubaker and Epting make the perfect team and they have given Captain America a reason to be hip again among readers. I also think that bringing Bucky back from the dead was a risky move that seems to be paying off big time now (especially in this arc) and it should help fuel the fire for subsequent arcs to follow.