Winter Soldier

• Title: Winter Soldier #6
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Ed Brubaker
• Artist: Butch Guice

The Winter Soldier‘s investigation into the missing third Soviet sleeper agent leads the the discovery that Leo Novokov was awoken 12 years prior during an earthquake and has been loose in America ever since.

Intercut with S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s investigation we get flashbacks into Leo’s time spent on the streets, attempting to make sense of a world that doesn’t fit his shattered memories – until he learns of the Winter Soldier and is contacted by an ex-KGB agent Boris Kolchek and starts to put the pieces together.

With the Soviet Union gone, and unwilling to work for a bitter remnant of the Cold War such as Kolchek, Novokov begins making his own plans which include drawing the Winter Soldier out of hiding after his apparent “death.” In order to do so he’ll destroy someone from Bucky’s past.

Although this storyline doesn’t appear to have Doombots or gorillas with machine guns, it’s setting up to be very much an old fashioned spy thriller. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

• Title: Winter Soldier #5
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Ed Brubaker
• Artist: Butch Guice

“The Longest Winter” concludes at the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow are able to stop Lucia von Bardas‘ plans to launch missiles from Doctor Doom‘s secret nuclear silos using the codes the Latverian monarch programmed into his Doombots.

With their tenuous alliance with Doctor Doom, Bucky and the Black Widow are able to take down Bardas and the second Soviet sleeper agent trained by the Winter Soldier, Dimitri. However, the Red Ghost alludes capture, and the fate of the third sleeper agent is unknown.

A good conclusion of the arc that still leaves a couple of threads let unanswered. It also marks the returns of the Red Ghost’s army of gorillas with machine guns (c’mon, who doesn’t love that?). There’s plenty of action and even an ending that gives Bucky some of his beloved solitary brooding time (along with a quick assassination at the end). No, he’s certainly not Captain America anymore. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

• Title: Winter Soldier #4
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Ed Brubaker
• Artist: Butch Guice

After convincing Victor von Doom that he’s not there to assassinate the Latverian dictator, Bucky and Doom set off the the United Nations where Lucia Von Bardas has unleashed her Doombot and one of the Soviet Super-Soldiers for part one of her nefarious plan.

Although the unlikely pair of Doctor Doom and the Winter Soldier are able to control the situation and the amount of damage the Doombot and Arkady are able to do at the UN, neither are happy to learn from the dying Soviet that this is only step one of Von Bardas’ revenge.

As Bucky and Doom shoot up the UN the Black Widow works to track down the Red Ghost’s and his machine gun totting, jetpack wearing, gorilla soldiers who (given the cover of next month’s cover) we should be seeing more of very soon. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

• Title: Winter Soldier #3
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Ed Brubaker
• Artist: Butch Guice

The latest issue of Winter Soldier might not feature a machine gun totting gorilla with a jetpack, but after spending the first two issues with a lot of set-up we’re finally starting to get to the good stuff.

The pacing of this issue is much better as Bucky and the Black Widow try to hunt down the Soviet soldiers he helped train during his brainwashed dash as the Winter Soldier. They also have to try and and convince a super-villain that he’s about to be framed and he needs their help. That’s not the easiest thing to do when his name is Victor von Doom.

There’s quite a bit of humor here to go along with the action including Lucia Von Bardas playing with her Doombot and Bucky learning that breaking into the Latverian embassy might not have been the best way to convince Doctor Doom that he’s there to help.

It looks like three issues in things are finally starting to pick up. Let’s hope it continues. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $2.99]