Quote Originally Posted by Mister Mets View Post
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12

Steve remembers a few adventures he had with Bucky, including how they met, how Bucky sacrificed himself to stop Baron Zemo and everything in between. Some of this material has been covered many times in the comics, but I don’t think it’s ever been better.
Bucky was a notoriously difficult character to get right. Stan Lee killed him off, and he’s been treated as a joke. Brubaker, Lark and Epting changed him a bit to turn him into the Winter Soldier, which obviously worked out but didn’t necessarily play fair with the original comics that were meant for an all-ages audience, so that soldiers would enjoy Captain America and kids would enjoy his sidekick. And this may be the best regular Bucky comic. It shows why he’s the most important person in Steve’s life.
The idea that he was the guy who could get access to all sorts of contraband is just a nice fit, and I like the development of his friendship with Steve, and how he’s simultaneously fun and tragic. This story has some laughs, decent action sequences and legitimate pathos. It earns the spot as Captain America’s defining tragedy.
A

I’m thinking a bit about why Marvel went with this series at all. I enjoyed most of it, but a Legends of the Dark Knight series with Captain America was never going to be an easy sell. The stories were accessible, so maybe part of it was easy entry points. But it didn’t really make sense given the comics market at the time. Ten years later, it would make sense as material for trades to coincide with the new movie, but best I can figure maybe this was just a comic book that other people at Marvel wanted to read.

This and Busiek’s Iron Man seem to be the most underrated Marvel comics of the Heroes Return era.

Thunderbolts #31-32

The Thunderbolts discover that young teammate Charcoal has been kidnapped by William Taurey, head of the Royalist Forces of America, former Captain America enemies who think the nation’s founding was a mistake. Taurey is trying to lead a new movement encouraging people to give up control to the elites. His forces include mutants and armored henchmen.

I think William Taurey is a great villain for this type of story. He’s got an interesting pedigree coming from one of the weirdest Jack Kirby Captain America stories, but one that’s mentioned often enough. And I like the idea of a villain with two sets of Henchmen- Brute Force and Shocktroopers. It’s a ridiculous plot, but if this happened in the real world, someone would be on Joe Rogan explaining that Taurey has a point. And it’s also a decent challenge for a super-team, and connects well to several ongoing stories, with links to US Agent as well as Baron Zemo.
B+
More importantly Songbird learned about the birds and the bees and this where we get sleeping around Moonstone! If she wasn't doing it already prior to this one. The artwork of this era was so yummy! Loved the artwork of these Thunderbolts!

Edit: Also look at how Songbird's glaring at Moonstone. I miss these two antagonistic bolt sisters.