sonotadream

Captain America and Bucky #620-624 (2011) - written by Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko, art by Chris Samnee

We go back to Captain America with this not-actually-a-miniseries (it retains the numbering from the ongoing Captain America series) retelling the origin of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes, written by the guy who brought us the Winter Soldier.

Issue #620 introduces us to James "Bucky" Barnes, troubled teen who becomes an orphan and is taken in by his dad's army buddies (his sisters gets shipped to boarding school…)

His natural talent at hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship get him the attention of the army higher ups and some special training in England,so he can become Captain America's partner. It makes an interesting change from the original comics, where he gets the job because he accidentally discovers Cap's secret identity. It's also different from the last Captain America origin story, but let's not worry about that.

Issue #621 follows Bucky and Steve on a mission as they infiltrate the circus in search of foreign saboteurs. They work well together and Steve”s good in the mentor role. Bucky is eager to join the war in Europe, while Steve tries to tell him to chill and that killing another soldier isn”t something he should look forward to live with.

In the end, Bucky prevents the bad guy from unleashing poison gas by killing him and now has to figure out if he can live with it.

In issue #622, Bucky has to prove he belongs with the Marvels that make the Invaders team. It”s the age old plot where first he makes a bad impression, but when the rest of the team is captured by Armin Zola (stealing their powers to create a Nazi super-soldier; it works temporarily) Bucky is the one who rescues them. Namor even gives him a half-baked compliment!

Issue #623 is not nearly as fun. Bucky and the Human Torch”s sidekick Toro are left unsupervised and decide to go liberate a captured american spy - well, Bucky decides and gets Toro to follow along. Unfortunately, the spy isn”t being held in a POW camp, but in a death camp. Bucky and Toro manage to rescue the spy, but can”t help the prisoners, except by killing a bunch a guards.

When Steve returns, he tells Bucky he did nothing wrong, for which he”s thankful.

Issue #624 it”s about Bucky”s time as the Winter Soldier and his relationship with the Black Widow. The Winter Soldier is a well respected Soviet asset, until his real personality starts to show trough the Winter Soldier programming, and that”s when they start to put him in ice. Bucky and Natasha have a fun, flirty relationship that I want to see more of.

Issue ends with Bucky meeting his sister again, for what seems the last time.

Overall, this was a fun series, with good insight into Bucky”s early years.He and Captain America make a good team. Pity it's going to be a while before we see them together again.