Winter Soldier #15

To contact us Click HERE
And it's my final review day before it's New Comic Day!  Two reviews on tap for tonight, the first being the now Brubaker-less Winter Soldier.  Jason Latour is taking over from the incomparable Ed Brubaker, and has impossibly large shoes to fill.  Here's hoping Latour can keep at least half the magic Brubaker brought to this series.

Winter Soldier #15

Summary: This issue gets started with Bucky wallowing in a bar in Croatia.  It seems he went there to confess some of his crimes to a man the Soviet's had him screw over several years ago.  That went poorly and left Bucky as the only conscious person in the bar...  At least until Nick Fury walks in.  That's Nick Fury Sr, fyi.  Fury wonders why Bucky was drawing attention to himself when he was supposed to be playing dead, and Bucky says something about needing to confront his past before he can face his future...  Okay...  Bucky then says he didn't want to lose himself in somebody else's missions anymore, which is why he broke from SHIELD.  So Fury naturally tells Bucky he had a mission for Bucky...  And Bucky accepts it!  Basically, a deep undercover SHIELD agent has been working with Hydra for the past 30 some-odd years.  Bucky(back in his brainwashed Soviet days) killed the guy's handler, so he'd been on his own since then.  Except now he's finally had enough and walked into a Hydra-run casino and gunned down several high-level Hydra operatives.  Bucky's job is to extract him.  Bucky gets to the old guy with little trouble, but quickly discovers that the faction of Hydra that was trying to kill the old guy dabbled in black magic and just wouldn't die.  It takes some teamwork from Bucky and the old guy, but eventually they defeat the undead Hydra menace.  The old guy tries to sucker punch Bucky(because he's drunk or angry or old or something), but Bucky counters and knocks the old guy out.  The old guy vomits and passes out, and this issue ends with Bucky helping him away.

Thoughts: Well, that sure wasn't what I was hoping for...  Unlike some fans, I went into this comic with the highest of hopes.  I mean, yes I'm a huge Brubaker mark and all, but I was more than willing to give Latour a shot.  And so far?  I'm feeling a lot less optimistic...  So Bucky wants to do his own thing after working with SHIELD for a while.  Understandable.  If that's the case, why does he immediately take on Nick Fury Sr's list o' tasks?!  Weird...  And the main mission in this issue, with the old guy?  It just didn't click for me.  Here's hoping Latour just needed to get a bad issue out of the way before bringing his A-game...

Score: 4 out of 10.

Damn did Fury look OLD in this issue!