Captain America #42 Cover

Since issue #26 of Captain America, we have been deep within the epic Death of Captain America mega-arc. Covering three parts and 18 issues, Ed Brubaker has crafted one of the greatest comic book stories of the modern generation. This month, The Death of Captain America comes to a close and firmly plants Bucky as the new Captain America. You can think of this issue as finally closing the era of Steve Rogers, as sad as that may be.

Last month, you may remember, Captain America saved third-party candidate Gordon Wright from being assassinated by the Red Skull’s daughter, Sin. And of course, Sharon Carter is trying to escape from the Skull’s clutches. All the while, Falcon and Black Widow are coming to rescue Carter.

It is all very epic and I’ll review this final chapter in The Death of Captain America after the break.

I’ve said it so many times on this blog that I am being to sound redundant, but Ed Brubaker is a genius. I cannot express how much I love his writing. Again, we have great inner dialog and narration, as to be expected by Brubaker. But one of the best things about this issue is, despite the fact that the majority of the issue is action, the end of the issue is really where Brubaker shines and pulls at the heart strings. The 3 epilogues really bring this mega-arc to a close beautiful, as well as sets up lots of future plot lines for the series. I can tell that future arcs of Captain America are going to focus very heavily on Bucky struggling to live up to Steve, Sharon Carter trying to somehow forgive herself for killing Steve and I’m sure there will be lots of love affairs thrown into the mix as well. I, for one, cannot wait. Action is great and all, but these kinds of plots is where comics really show their merit. Here’s hoping that Brubaker stays on Captain America for a good, long time.

I’ve talked about Steve Epting’s pencils in previous reviews of Captain America and he is still as brilliant on this issue as he has been in the past. I don’t know what to say other than the art in this series is probably the most consistently amazing of any comic book out there (Daredevil comes in pretty close). So much detail it is sick. I can’t get over it. And colorist Frank D’Armata does something that I have not seen many other colorist do and actually adds a shine to Captain America’s uniform. For some reason, that makes the art even better than it already is. Very impressive stuff from this art team.

And overall, just a really amazing creative team. Everyone who works on this book deserves a huge nod and your hard earned money. Next month starts the all new adventures of Buckey as Captain America and if you aren’t reading yet, I highly suggest you jump on at this point. Despite the loss of Steve Rogers, it is a great time for Captain America.