Captain America 40

Creative Team
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Steve Epting
Colorist: Fank D'Armata

Issue Rating
Story: 9/10
Art: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

Issue Developments
This issue is basically two big fight scenes: 1) Captain America (Bucky) vs Captain America (The Grand Director) and 2) Sharon Carter vs Sin.

In the Cap vs Cap fight we see that while Bucky is able to hold his own against The Gand Director Cap (TGDC) he is no match for the strength TGDC has. Also it does not help Bucky that TGDC has the same voice and apperance that Steve Rogers has. The fight between the Caps are being viwed by The Red Skull, Armin Zola, and Faustus. As the fight between the Caps continue Bucky decides to take off his mask revealing his identity to TGDC. This makes TGDC start to go insane since his Bucky Barnes is dead. The Red Skull tells Faustus to call their Cap to return to their base. Just as Bucky is about to reason with TGDC he is sucker punch of the building they were fighting on top of. As Bucky plumiting to his death The Falcon catches him and tells him that not to worry about the fake Cap escaping since he has one of his birds chacing after him.

In the other fight of the issue Sharon is holding Sin hostage as a way to escape from captivity. But just as they reach the exit Sin headbuts Sharon and a big fight between the two of them breaks out. Slowly Sin gets the advantage because Sharon is still felling the effects of the drugs The Red Skull put in her system. As they both fight to reach a knife on the floor to stab the other Sin reaches it first and stabs Sharon in the gut. The Red Skull is alerted of this fight and goes to the scene and belittles Sin for being a fool. The issue ends with Sharon being taken to the sick bay by some of the Red Skulls medical staff.

Review
Again Brubaker presents the reader with another excellent issue of Captain America. And for anyone that hasn't like slow burn approach to Cap and wanting to see some action than this is for sure to satisfy those craving action taste. Me personally I have not minded the slow burn approach Brubaker has taken with this title since "The Death of Captain America" story arc has been so well crafted.

What is so great about this title is how well Brubaker has made me like Bucky as Captain America and not feel like it was forced. Bucky being the new Captain America only feels natural role for him to take after Steve death. And I actually prefer Bucky being Cap than Steve as Cap. And this is nothing against Steve because he is still one of my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe but I feel like with Bucky their is much more potential stories to be told and character development to be had.

I like how Brubaker presented the fight between the two Captain America. What was great about this fight was Bucky's reluctance to fight The Grand Director Captain America because of his similarities to Steve. If this was any other enemy Bucky would have not questioned if he should use his gun to take down the enemy. But because this fake Cap looked and sounded so much like Steve it made Bucky play the role of being on the defensive instead of as attacker. This reluctance plays up the guilt that Bucky feels he dissappointed Steve for all his actions as The Winter Soldier and will never live up to what Steve use to be.

I also like the relationship that has been building between Bucky and The Falcon. While The Falcon might not have liked the decision of Bucky being the new Cap he knows that he cannot go against a decision made by Steve. For Bucky he sees The Falcon as one of the last connections to Steve he has and feels that he needs to prove himself to The Falcon.

It seems pretty obvious that the Red Skull, Zola, and Faustus are starting to get on each others nerves and that there constant argueing will lead to their downfall. But when have the three big egos like the Skull, Zola, and Faustus working together it will never end up well for the bad guys.

The fight between Sharon and Sin was a great parrallel to the fight between the two Caps, This is actually what made this issue so great was the seemless way we got both fights. I like that Brubaker showed that even though Sharon was still feeling the effects of some drugs she still had lots of fight in her. And the ending to fight was great because I really wonder were Brubaker is going to take this new development. Is Steve and Sharen unborn child okay? And how does this hurt the Red Skull's plans?

I was glad to see that Steve Epting returned with this issue. While the other fill in artist have been able to replicate Epting's style almost perfectly their work is still not the same as Epting.

Overall: This was yet again another great issue of Captain America and if you have yet to pick up this title do yourselves a favor and pick this title up when it comes out as a TPB.