Winter Soldier 15, Red She-Hulk 62

Winter Soldier 15
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

I've hyped this book up a lot without actually hyping it up. I've talked about it a ton on this blog without, hopefully, saying positive or negative thoughts. One of the worst things to read in reviews is a review of something that hasn't even been released. You get it through user comments and reviews and stuff on Amazon and the like, where people will give a game a five star review and say "It looks awesome!" Guys, that's not a review. I do my pre-game picks of the week, but that's with the inherent disclaimer of "this book is what I'm most looking forward to, hopefully it's good."

Okay, so I'm pretty clearly stalling here until I have enough said that I don't have to talk about this comic. Don't read into that the wrong way. It wasn't a bad comic. It was a totally fine comic with an interesting premise and pretty clearly defined and intriguing new directions for Bucky to go. I think my hyping it, though, had made it so that this book was either going to be absolutely stunning or a complete flop. Instead, it landed where most comics do: certainly good with a lot of potential. I don't think it went too far in either direction but it set us up nicely.

This is my fault, beyond just hyping the book up. In my mind, Winter Soldier has been such an incredible book. It's been raised to elite-status, frankly, since before it started. I'm a sucker for the character, for the idea, for the noir style, and for Brubaker. Unless this book had beaten all odds and blown everything out of the water, I would see it as a downgrade. Frankly, I'm not sure it is. It's a change, most definitely. The thing I noticed most, honestly, was the lack of captions. Brubaker used captions all the time to convey Bucky's thoughts and, at least in this issue, Latour has Bucky say what he's thinking, either to no one or to Fury.

Okay, look, interruption real quick. I apologize in advance (and in last sentence) for comparing this so often to Brubaker's run, but it's going to happen. As I've said before, one of the more fascinating things to me about comics is the evolution of a character as seen through different writers. As Brubaker is really the only person who's written Winter Soldier, there are bound to be plenty of comparisons. LET'S GET BACK TO WHERE WE WERE THOUGH, OKAY?

At the end of the day, I like where Latour is going with this. He has some very clear ideas about Bucky's character and about the look of this book (it's neat to see someone with artistic talents taking over as a writer because you know that's what he'll be focused on). Some of the cool ideas that we've seen already include his take on Bucky and Black Widow's relationship (which was kind of established in Brubaker's stuff but more through the closed door of "we already have this relationship because of our past so we don't need to talk about it," whereas Latour had Bucky outright explain it) and his take on Bucky and Cap's relationship, on top of the new look into Bucky's past. It's bound to lead us to exciting places. If you're interested in jumping on to this book to learn more about Bucky, this issue is a brand new start. There isn't TOO much Winter Soldier history out there so it's not hard to catch up, but for a quick definition of him, this is a useful book.

Red She-Hulk 62
Parker (w) and Pagulayan and Alves (a) and Staples (c)

This was a good set-up issue. We already more or less know the story that's going on in Red She-Hulk involving a new sort of super serum the military is working on to create super powered soldiers. Though that never really works well, it seems to be on a path to working as Red She-Hulk has found a near-ancient SHIELD (or its predecessor) base and has subsequently found out that these tests will provide the military with super soldiers who will eventually crush civilians. It's a compelling story, even if this is just a recap sort of an issue, and it finds a Hulk opposing the army, as they are so wont to do.

What was more intriguing about this issue is the antagonist, General Fortean. We don't have a real sense what side of this he's on. Is he doing this knowing a possible outcome? Is he doing this because it's his job and it will certainly aid America if it works the way it should? Is he doing this for his soldiers? Is he doing this for power? Is he doing this because he hates Hulks? All valid questions and all questions that we'll keep having. He's not monologuing his evil villain speech and a lot of his requests, outside of the things Red She-Hulk knows, seem totally valid. He's trying to protect people. Even when, in this issue, he asks a visiting Captain America to reveal to him the identity of Red She-Hulk and the location of Machine Man, it could go either in the direction of "SO I MIGHT KILL THEM FOR INTERFERING!" or in the direction of "so I can make sure they don't attack my soldiers again and set back our progress!" Subtle differences, but pretty important ones.

It's another solid entry into this series and again I find myself recommending this book. The art is typically very good, the story is solid and the stakes are raised and, frankly, it's a little off the main radar. Yes the Avengers have shown up in recent issues to try to stop Red She-Hulk but they're still kind of on the perimeter. The end of the issue brings regular-type She-Hulk into the mix but even she's not a huge commodity right now in the Marvel Universe (aside from her new presence in the FF). As ex-cousins-in-law, who knows what their relationship will be? Interesting times abound, you guys. Interesting times indeed.