Customer Reviews

Captain America Vol. 5: Civil War

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story is OK but Cap himself is only in like 5 pages of the whole book. Don't get me wrong it's an alright story, but it doesn't have much to do w/ Cap or the Civil War for that matter.

The book was good, don't get me wrong. But it seemed to be alot about the people around Cap instead of Cap himself, with a few exceptions. IF you are collecting Civil War TPBs it's a must. I like the Winter Soldier One-shot. All in all, a good read.

For those who came in late, Bucky Barnes, Captain America's partner during World War 2, presumed dead in the explosion that put Cap in suspended animation until modern times, was actually rescued by a Russian submarine, and put into suspended animation. Brainwashed and brought out every now and then as an assassin - the Winter Soldier - he was finally able to escape their control.

This is a three-issue chapter in the Brubaker Captain America saga (#22-#25) "The Drums of War", plus the one-shot `Winter Soldier: Winter Kills'. The `Civil War' event is continuing in the background, but this story focuses on Sharon Carter, Nick Fury and Bucky Barnes, as the Red Skull's plot thickens, as he meets with Doctor Doom; and Dr. Faustus and Arnim Zola make their presences known. Cap does get to beat up a Hydra base, so he is not completely absent. The Winter Soldier issue has Bucky reminiscing about his wartime friend Toro (which as we now know, is another sub plot to be followed up much later - see The Torch mini-series) and having a team-up with some of the `junior' Avengers, the new Vision, Hawkeye and the Patriot, who also get to beat up a Hydra base together. Namor also gets a cameo.

The artwork in this volume is the usual high standard.

While most of the reviews here criticize the book for what it isn't, I really enjoyed it for what it is. Clearly as a Civil War tie-in, and Captain America is the star of Civil War (Marvel Comics), you won't find much of Cap in this series. But, if you're an avid Captain America reader: 1. you should already own Civil War, 2. Cap's supporting characters have as much to do with his story as he does. So this is more about Agent 13, Falcon, and the Winter Soldier, and as such, still makes a good read with lots of action. And no, the Death of Captain America isn't here or in Civil War, it's in the next book, The Death of Captain America, Vol. 1: The Death of the Dream. Finally, most reviewers are right: The Winter Soldier one-shot at the end is the best part, and I hope he gets his own series.

Really, Cap only appears in the first book in this volume, then it's about all these other characters, who, to be quite honest, I just don't care about. Still, to read the phenomenal Fallen Son, you have to go through this one first (and actually, quite a bit of the Civil War books).

Captain America has gone underground to lead the resistance against the Superhero Registration Act, an event which you'll find in another book, though. Therefore, this collection brings you tales featuring mostly the supporting cast established in previous volumes. I imagine it's a hard book to access with no prior knowledge, though a small recap at the beginning should bring you up to date a little. Plot and script are okay, but they mostly go through the motions and bring forward previous subplots. Namely: the return of Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, a killer for the Russians until Cap gave him his memories back. In this book he'll mostly run errand-boy for another character who's gone to ground: super spy Nick Fury, quite inexplicably being a boring straightforward good guy a opposed to his much more intriguing manipulative, soldierly self. Sharon Carter, aka Agent 13 of espionage agency SHIELD, grows a little out of her frankly "blonde" role, though she's of course being manipulated by enemies. Cap keeps inspiring people out of his well meaning stubbornness. All in all, it's the intricate plot that gets you going, everything else is done professionally, but with no heart, leaving no impact on the reader. That is, until the Winter Soldier special at the end. Here Bucky comes more into his own, and it's finally clear how good he really I'd and also why he still lets himself being, well, used somehow. A long as Cap stays basically a Winter Soldier book (and it should, since Cap's dying in the next book anyway...), this Brubaker run might still prove interesting, especially once they get rid of Epting and Perkins on art (Weeks/Gaudiano did a good job on Winter Soldier instead!).

For a graphic novel named after him, there's very little of Captain America to see in this set of comics from the Marvel Civil War. Despite that, one makes due with the great Winter Soldier one-shot. Altogether though, this graphic novel is not the best (nor the worst) of the Civil War comics.

Ehhh...

Good but not the best, like other reviewers pointed out Cap isn't in it as much as he should be though his surrouding characters do have interesting plots they are often disrupted by unfortunate "plot holes" which made the storylines hard to follow several times throughout the comic though the ending pages are very enjoyable to read.

If you have been following Cap, Shield, and Nick Fury extremely closely you will love the story... If not still facinating read

While the overall Civil War storyline that Marvel was running at the time is pretty deflating, this trade is able to entertain with some really good charcater moments with Sharon Carter, Nick Fury, and Bucky. The art is really good and the Winter Soldier tale is really good. I always enjoy Brubaker's WWII stories. What holds this trade back besides the Civil War stuff is the size and the fact that not muc happenes wxcept behind the scenes. Overall, just okay.

This is Ed Brubaker doing what he does best. Skull, Lukin, Dr. Faustus, Arnim Zola, Sam Wilson, Sharon Carter, Bucky Barnes... He is a master at fleshing out the supporting cast and making them just as important to the story as its lead. Now in retrospect, some people might have brought up, "Say, where's Cap?", but what Brubaker so brilliantly did was set the stage for these supporting players while Cap duked it out with Iron Man during the Civil War so that they would be able to carry a title after Steve Rogers' horrifying assassination. It's great great stuff under the watchful eye of a master graphic storyteller.