Captain America #34 Review

CAPTAIN AMERICA #34
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Steve Epting

This issue read ridiculously fast. Thankfully, that's the only complaint I have for it.

If you haven't figured out by the cover, the multiple posts on various comic sites and internet chatter, this issue features the debut of the new Captain America, aka Bucky aka Winter Soldier aka "I got blowed up by Nazi's" Lad. If you've been following the series, you know Bucky is a certified badass now and Cap requested he take over when he died.

Not wanting to take the shirt of Cap's proverbial back, Bucky and Tony designed the newer, shinier and uglier costume depicted on the cover. It was actually Alex Ross' fault, but I digress.

Before the new Cap can make his debut though, we need to get a sit-rep on what the Skull's been up to since last issue. He's used Lukin's corporation to drive oil prices through the roof, collapse the US housing market with mass forclosures and generally cause mass rioting and chaos across the country. In an attempt to further this, he tries to steal gold deposits during the rioting with some RAID goons.

Queue Captain America, who goes into action for the first time. The suit looks much better drawn by Epting, but doesn't look great. The red gloves have got to go. Blue would look better I think or just basic black. Fashion aside, Bucky does a solid job on his first outing and ends it by making use of his sidearm in a nice kneecapping / shield toss combo.

That's it for the action this issue. They spent a lot of time on TV reports and showing off the new Cap design before ending it with Iron Man trying to convince the higher ups that the Red Skull is behind all their current problems. The exchange ends with Faustus activating the missing SHIELD agents he had under control. They just happen to be at the protest outside the White House dressed in their SHIELD outfits with automatic weapons. As you can probably guess, they open fire on the crowd, killing dozens on national television as the issue ends. For some reason, I don't think that's going to lessen the civil unrest, rioting or protests.

Verdict - Must Read. Short, but oh, so sweet. If you aren't reading Captain America, I recommend picking up back issues starting around the time he died. While it all relates to earlier issues, they aren't pivotal to understanding what's going on. It's a crying shame if you're skipping this book because you don't want to jump in and not understand what's going on.

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