[REVIEW] BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #1

BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #1
MARVEL COMICS

WRITER: ALES KOT
ART: MARCO RUDY

The secondary purpose of the big comic events seems to be to generate some new series, and to shake up the status quo of existing series. Original Sin has yielded a new position in the Marvel U for Bucky Barnes as the "man on the wall", a position recently vacated by Nick Fury. Barnes will serve as a first line of proactive defense against the enemies of the Earth.

Barnes, ably assisted by Daisy Johnson, is essentially an intergalactic assassin, out to identify anyone or anything cogitating on doing some ill to Earth and using their one-of-a-kind super sniper rifle to give that thought the chunky salsa effect.

Pretty dark territory but Kot gives the proceedings a light comedic touch through the banter of the characters, that includes an appearance by "Imperious Sex" himself, Namor. Like most first issues there is a lot of set up. That set up is pretty vague so far but we can assume things are being set in motion that will require Barnes to line up some alien heads in his crosshairs.

This brings us to the art of the new Winter Soldier. Marco Rudy seems intent on giving every page, every splash, it's own unique design inspired by the milieu or the action in that part of the story. This is effective and beautiful in some cases, and distracting to the point of confusion in others. The underwater sequences with Namor later in the issue are particularly odd. It's doubtful that during these sequences we would be able to discern where the characters are and who they are without the accompanying captions and dialogue. This may be a bit of overreaching by the artist. As the series progresses the story and art may syncopate into something truly remarkable.

Whatever the next few issues hold for the Winter Soldier, it will certainly be an interesting departure for the character and much like the Thai-Skrull food truck fusion the characters enjoy in the story, it may surprise you by how well hard-core black ops espionage and cosmic space opera mix.