Winter Soldier: The Longest Winter (#1-5)

Writers: Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice

Cover artist: Lee Bermejo and Gabriele Del'otto (#1), Lee Bermejo (#2-5)

Variant covers by Gabriele Dell'Otto, Joe Kubert (#1)
 and John Tyler (#4), an Avengers Art Appreciation variant.

2nd printing variants to #1-3

Collected in:

• Winter Soldier: The Longest Winter (Marvel Comics,  Oct 3rd 2012), with Fear Itself #7.1.
• Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker: The Complete Collection (Marvel Comics, Sep 23rd 2014)
• The entire series is available on Marvel Unlimited and Comixology.

-        This story picks up from where The Life Story of Bucky Barnes left off, where we saw James

and Natasha visiting Bucky's elderly sister Becca, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. At its conclusion, Bucky sets off on the road with Natasha.  

This is the Winter Soldier's second solo outing; the first, the one-shot Winter Kills, was a Civil War tie-in. Naturally, this means a new logo. Compared to the red star design on Winter Kills, here the Russian-style block typeface is complemented by a hammer and sickle. #1-2 use a gold logo; #3-15 use a silver logo; #16-19 use a white logo.

-        Brubaker, Guice and Lark worked as the creative team on #1-14, but by #14 Brubaker's emerging prospects in film and TV meant he had to leave Marvel in order to work on those projects. For #15-19, Jason Latour and Nic Klein took over, only for the series to be shamefully cancelled shortly after the first issue.

-        The art on the recap page for #1 and #6 (drawn by Steve Epting), a montage of Bucky's life through a young visit to Camp Lehigh to the Cold War, is taken from Captain America (vol. 5) #14, the point where the Cosmic Cube revives his memories.

-        Butch Guice, the artist for all issues in Brubaker's run except for Broken Arrow, collaborated with Brubaker before back in 2009/2010 for the Captain America stories Reborn, Two Americas and No Escape.

#1

Continuity Notes

-        Fred Davis, the Bucky of the late 1940s, speaks on television in defence of James. He was last seen in Old Wounds; this scene would be revisited in #6, also the issue of his death. The newsreader says that "it's been months" since Bucky's "tragic death."

-        Bucky recalls moments from his past: Russian training and indoctrination, and being frozen into a stasis tube as a sleeper agent, "ready to be shipped to America." Per the Winter Soldier arc, this last scene would have been in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Bucky says that there were "three enhanced agents of mass destruction." One of these, Leo Novokov, would be seen in the second arc.

-        James and Natasha align themselves with Jasper Sitwell, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent first seen in Strange Tales #144. More recently, he has appeared in Secret Warriors and Matt Fraction's run on Punisher: War Journal.

-        Ex-Soviet the Red Ghost, Professor Ivan Kragoff, reappears in this story, along with his army of Super-Apes. He was seen dying in Amazing Spider-Man #676, essentially a 'Villain's Month' type story before DC had the idea, but would be resurrected by MODOK in Deadpool #55. Likely, it takes place before the Amazing Spider-Man issue. He is joined by Lucia Von Bardas, the cyborg ex-Prime Minister of Latveria from Secret War.

-        Perhaps appropriately, the artwork depicts Bucky and Widow fighting in the snow. Winter Soldier, indeed. Brubaker also used the snow motif in The Trial of Captain America, which saw Bucky tried for his war crimes. It being the 'longest winter' is perhaps even more accurate. #6 will confirm a December setting for this first set of issues.

#2

Continuity Notes

-        Sitwell shows James and Natasha the video footage of the attempted assassination of Doom from last issue. It occurred early that morning, at "just after 0800 hours."

-        Bucky recalls "empty places in my mind start filling it": the three other men involved in the Zephyr Procedure - Arkady, Leo and Dmitri. He says that he "never trusted" Leo, but admired Dmitri's nationalism.

-        Natasha notes it is ex-H.A.M.M.E.R. tech being auctioned off. Similar auctions on run-offs from Osborn's corrupt version of S.H.I.E.L.D. are glimpsed in the penultimate arc to Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man run.

#3

Continuity Notes

-        Fury explains the history of Lucia von Bardas from Secret War to Bucky and Natasha:

 "When Doom got deposed a while ago... We fixed it so she was made prime minister of Latveria. But Lucia wasn't the puppet our people wanted... She was secretly supplyin' Doom's buncha U.S. super villains, instead... Tryin' to cause us enough trouble we wouldn't notice she was just as bad as the jackhole she replaced. Politics bein' what they are, I defied orders an' put together a secret strike team to take her out. Cap an' Widow were part of it... We brought the whole damn castle down on Lucia... But she wasn't so easy to kill. Next time we saw her, she was part cyborg... ...an' all that hidden craziness wasn't hidin' anymore. We managed to take her down again, after she nearly killed Luke Cage... But when S.H.I.E.L.D. was bein' dismantled by Norman Osborn... ...she fell through the cracks. Disappeared from custody. And dropped completely off the radar. Our people couldn't find any sign of her."

#4

Continuity Notes

-        The Red Ghost has been using the ex-Simian Research Facility as a storage place for the past few weeks, a facility that has been "abandoned since the '80s."

#5

Continuity Notes

-        Doom gives us a humorous jab at the amount S.H.I.E.L.D.'s directive and Fury's position has shifted over the past few years: "Colonel Fury... or is it ex-colonel now? Von Doom stopped trying to keep track of all your promotions and demotions long ago."

-        Andre Rostov, the Red Barbarian, is assassinated. He was last seen as a warden in the Siberian gulag Bucky was sent to in the Prisoner of War arc in Captain America, but now he resides in the Bahamas "after all his decades of service," paid for by the Zephyr sleeper codes. Rostov was first seen as a villain in Tales of Suspense #42, working with soviet The Actor against Iron Man.

Winter Soldier #1-19

This week (month), we're going back a few years again: to Winter Soldier.

      I've heard fans say that Brubaker's second run on Captain America (volume 6) isn't as good as his first. It's true. It had some promising elements, but ultimately it didn't carry itself as well as the adventures of Bucky Barnes (or, indeed, the adventures of Captain America and Union Jack.)

      Winter Soldier is that book.

 As the cover to #1 proudly proclaims, Bucky Barnes is stepping over "FROM THE PAGES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA!" But really, in a way, he is bringing 'Captain America' right over with him. The series acts as a sequel to Brubaker's first volume of that book, where Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, is eventually built up to take over the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rogers. (Brubaker's second run on Captain America, published concurrently, makes little reference to the Winter Soldier and is really its own thing.) Bucky has one of the best resurrections, really (following what had already been a pretty good resurrection for the character in the first place.) By The Trial of Captain America, though, the press caught onto information on Bucky's background and it became necessary to remove him from that position. In Fear Itself, Bucky is supposedly killed during the attack on Washington DC - but as #7.1 reveals to us (and to Steve), this is a ruse in order to remove Bucky from the public eye. To the reader, it's a retcon (admittedly, only a couple of months after the original events) - but to the writer, it was always the authorial intent, and completely fits with everything we've seen built up before with the Winter Soldier. He is at his very essence a spy and a fighter - naturally, he will go underground. Indeed, the end of #7 saw a certain teaser poster in it, alluding to the character of Novokov, who will become a major player in this series:

      Here, we see the Winter Soldier, Black Widow and Jasper Sitwell brought together within the most secret levels of S.H.I.E.L.D. But it's not a S.H.I.E.L.D. book, despite the odd Helicarrier here and there. It's espionage, sure, but a deeper level of espionage with a man who only five people know exist: a faceless (masked) man, unknown to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the world's greatest superheroes. Over the course of the series, things will change. Dramatically.

      Brubaker, Guice and Lark (veteran crew from his work on Captain America and Daredevil) worked as the creative team on #1-14, but by #14 Brubaker's emerging prospects in film and TV meant he had to leave Marvel in order to work on those projects. For #15-19, Jason Latour and Nic Klein took over, only for the series to be shamefully cancelled shortly after the first issue. It's a shame, really. Some fans found it do be mediocre - some saw it as Dead On Arrival - but Latour and Klein deserved their chance. Well, they had it. The Winter Soldier working on the retired Nick Fury's orders and finding a remnant from his Winter Soldier past: a young girl, Tarasova, who has grown up into the Electric Ghost. We leave it open-ended from there, right into the All-New Invaders and his introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bucky has had an interesting ride, but perhaps we should look to see what his future should hold. (Or perhaps we should read over our Omnibi of Brubaker's Captain America, and wonder over its brilliance.)

      Per the Amazon listing, Marvel will be reprinting Brubaker's fourteen issues again later this year in a Complete Collection (perhaps unsurprisingly, given a certain Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Disney release.) It's a good run, and I recommend checking it out either in the 3 or 4 trade paperbacks (depending how complete you want to get) or the Complete Collection once it's released.

Primer: Where to find free comics? (UPDATED)

A selection of #1's are available on marvel.com, which currently features acclaimed limited series like 1602 and Marvels, cosmic stuff like Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova, mid-2000s series like She-Hulk, Runaways and Young Avengers, along with more recent stuff from 2012/2013 with Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, New Avengers, amongst others.

Comixology have a number of free issues, although most of these are Share Your Universe branded issues. As with Marvel Unlimited, it updates with a new set of free issues every Tuesday.

Comixology also has Marvel's first issue of G.I. Joe from the 1980s, republished by IDW.

Some mid-2000s Marvel issues are available here, although some links are broken.

The 2007 Spider-Man FCBD story Swing Shift, which established the Brand New Day status quo, is available on Marvel Wiki.

The FCBD issues of Infinity (2013), Rocket Raccoon and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) available on Comixology.

Movie Tie-Ins

• The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week #1
• Captain America: First Vengeance #1
• Share Your Universe: Captain America and Thor! #1

Infinite Comics

• Ultimate Spider-Man Infinite Comics #1

Fun for fans of the show. Otherwise? Nah.

• Ms. Marvel Infinite Comics #1

The Point One story of Ms. Marvel presented incomplete in a lackluster preview not built for Infinite Comics. Eh, the art's nice.

• Silver Surfer Infinite Comics #1

A very good short story by Dan Slott from the All-New Marvel NOW! Point One anthology which works really well in this format.

• Daredevil: Road Warrior #1

Free with the code DDROAD (expires 10/31/2015) - thanks to ewokpelts on Bleeding Cool for this one.

Motion Comics

Iron Man: Mark VII - An Avengers motion comic which acts as a prequel to the film, tying together threads from Iron Man 2 and brings forth Tony and Pepper's relationship.

The first issues of the Astonishing X-Men and Spider-Woman motion comics are available on Marvel's official YouTube channel.

Some PSA issues:
Teachers Count
The infamous Spider-Man/Power Pack PSA from 1984 where Peter reveals he was sexually abused by a friend...

Avengers: Heroes Welcome on Comixology and Marvel Unlimited, a surprisingly good vignette by Brian Michael Bendis focusing on Nova. Out of all the PSA stories, it feels the most true to character and least heavy handed.

The Harley Davidson series which should only be read for its ridiculousness; essentially it's the modern black leather version of Marvel's Team America (this was a thing.)

• Iron Man & Habit Heroes

Essentially what would happen if Tony Stark were not addicted to alcohol, but constantly worried over his 5 a day and at least six glasses of water.

• Iron Man: A Cold Run #1

Pepper Potts test drives an Audi and Iron Man fights Blizzard. It's kind of fun.

Marvel Unlimited

Some all ages content is available on the Marvel Kids website, but more is on the main site.

Mary Jane

Mary Jane #1-4
Mary Jane: Homecoming #1 (#2-4 appear to be broken)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #1

Franklin Richards

Franklin Richards: Happy Franksgiving! #1
Franklin Richards: Super Summer Spectacular #1

Marvel Adventures

Marvel Age Spider-Man #1-20
Marvel Age Spider-Man Team-Up #2
Marvel Adventures The Avengers #1-2, #4-15, 17-19 7
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #0-31
Marvel Adventures Hulk #1-16
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1-8
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #1-4
Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (2010) #1, #2

Power Pack

Power Pack (2005) #1-4
Avengers and Power Pack Assemble! #1-4
Hulk/Power Pack #1-4
Iron Man/Power Pack #1-4
Spider-Man/Power Pack #1-4


Interestingly, I've found that issues from the prior incarnation of Marvel Unlimited can be accessed by right clicking the 'read sample' icon on the book you want to view, with the outdated viewer intact and everything. What I've found out of is that some previous free comics are available in full:

The Amazing Spider-Man #534, #535, #536 and #537 (Civil War)
Annihilation #4, #5, #6
Captain America #22, #23, #24
Captain America Comics #3, #4 and #6
Civil War #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Deadpool (2008) #1
Origin #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6
X-Men #157, #158, #159, #160, #161, #162, #163, #164 and #165 (Day of the Atom by Chuck Austen; #165 is a Christmas issue written by Claremont)

This Week in Free Comics (22/04/14) - Amazing Spider-Man 2

It's pretty Amazing, right? There's no need to search through long boxes, conventions, back issue bins - if you want to just read an issue, all you need do is consult a Marvel Masterwork, an Omnibus or pocket book; the Comixology website, an online torrent (um), or your Marvel Unlimited subscription. It's as Amazing as a guy who crawls up walls and swings across the city (I apologise in full for the punnage.) If you've not heard, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was released internationally just a couple of days ago, and it comes to the States on May 2nd. It's a good film. Maybe it doesn't succeed as much as The Amazing Spider-Man (which still succeeded, in my opinion, a fair bit), but if you want your Spider-Man movie fix, you can't go wrong. Marc Webb proves he can knit established comic storylines of the 60s and 70s, multiple villains and the full emotion of Peter Parker as a character into a coherent narrative.

In anticipation (or, depending where you live, in post-film excitement), Marvel Unlimited have made free a number of 'milestone' events in the Wall-Crawler's career (a pretty sweet deal.) I've read most of these issues (in fact ASM is the Marvel series I've read the most issues from), but it's good to see Marvel Unlimited doing this each month.

Amazing Spider-Man 

#31 "If This Be My Destiny!" 

#41 "The Horns of the Rhino!"

#82 "And Then Came Electro!"

#90 "And Then Death Shall Come!"

#97 "In the Grip of the Goblin!"

#121 "The Night Gwen Stacy Died!"

#136 "The Green Goblin Lives Again!"

#581 Mind on Fire: Part One - The Trouble With Harry

#597 American Son: Part Three

#612 Power to the People: Part One

#617

#625 Endagered Species

The Spectacular Spider-Man #200
Spider-Man's Tangled Web #5
Spider-Man: Blue #1

Daredevil #2 "The Evil Menace of Electro!"

The Incredible Hulk #124 "The Rhino Says No!"
Marvels #4
Young Allies #2

Thunderbolts (2012) #17
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (2011) #28

This Week in Free Comics (15/04/14) - A Whole Bunch of Meh

(Note: Apologies for not updating recently, but I've been busy. I've worked on the notes for Winter Soldier today, so those will be up next week. As I'll be in Amsterdam for the next few days, I won't be able to post anymore; so I'm putting this up in advance just with stuff from Marvel Unlimited.)

• Indestructible Hulk Special #1

After All-New X-Men last week, we get the second part of The Arms of the Octopus. It's OK, but nothing special. The trade is available pretty cheaply anyway, bemusingly paired with the tritest $3.99 comic of last year: Wolverine: In the Flesh, something which I'm pretty sure would have been literally free a few years ago.

• Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. #1

It's a photocomic. And I thought that was the realm of Tokyopop. One would expect that taking stills from an animated show would be ideal in a, you know, stylised comic book. You can tell they're screengrabs.

Is anyone even watching this show anyway? I'm pretty sure Ultimate Spider-Man is miles ahead of this.

• Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man #19

Ah. Guess what.

Early in this series, Marvel were actually pretty cool. What we essentially got was an anthology of neat little vignettes, telling tales from Peter's/Spidey's life perhaps a little better than the TV series itself.

It's a photocomic.

We have DVR's, iTunes, iPads, DVDs, the marvel.com website, even... is there anyone who actually buys this stuff? To place TV on paper is simply archaic. The panel design is a lot more dynamic than with Agents of S.M.A.S.H., but if you've seen the episode, there's literally no need to read it. (I guess it's a viable alternative to watching the episode.)

This Week in Free Comics (08/04/14) - Captain America!

This week, we get a bunch of issues exploring a few sources of inspiration for The Winter Soldier: Steve's first meeting with Sharon Carter (also the first appearance of Batroc the Leaper, #75); Falcon's first appearance (#110), but also several other monumental occassions in the Captain America canon: alternative versions of the role: the second Bucky (or, following retcons, the fourth), Rick Jones (#110, an issue beautifuly drawn by Jim Steranko); Nomad, Steve's brief identity during the Nixon era (as the issue opens, "Captain America lies behind him [Steve Rogers] in the rubble that is politics, 1974..., #180); John Walker, Super-Patriot/The Captain, who takes up the role after Steve refuses to serve as Captain America on an official capacity (#332); his death in the 1990s (#445); and also his more recent death and rebirth, with Bucky taking up the mantle: #25, #600 and Rebirth #1. 

We also see some origin tales: #255, a revision of events of 1940 from Stern/Byrne's infamous run; Captain America Comics #1, the hilariously 1940s version of events; Avengers #4, which brought Steve two decades forward in time into the modern era. I've been reading some early DC stuff recently on Comixology, namely the origins of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. The comics of that era were a special breed: pre-Comics Code violence, fonts used in dialogue which should adorn posters, not speech, and an art style which is strangely unrefined. Perhaps not to be read for more serious reading - but merely affectionately; a point of comparison to how books have changed from 60 page anthologies to modern epics by Brubaker and co.

Jack Kirby's lackluster 1975 return (#193); the recently resurrected limited series, Living Legend (originally supposed to be released in 2011 as Astonishing Captain America, with stunning art by Adi Granov); that time Cap ran for presidency (#250), which has become a recent sticking point in the Ultimate universe, and his first solo appearance in Tales of Suspense (the Iron Man story is also there), are included here as well as two OK relaunches: 1996's Heroes Reborn and Remender's Castaway in Dimension Z arc in the most recent volume.

• All-New X-Men Special #1 (The Arms of the Octopus Part One)
• The Avengers #4
• Captain America #100, #110, #117, #180, #193, #250, #255, #332, #350, #445, #600
• Captain America (1996) #1
• Captain America (2004) #25
• Captain America (2012) #1
• Captain America Comics #1
• Captain America: Living Legend #1
• Captain America: Reborn #1
• Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble #1
• Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1
• Tales of Suspense #59
• Tales of Suspense #75

This Week in Free Comics (01/04/14)

Perhaps Comixology are fooling us, because their offerings this week are light to say the least.

Silver Surfer Infinite Comics #1

This is such an improvement on last week. It's a great (full length) story from the Point One issue, reads kinetically in the Infinite Comics format (or, as Bleeding Cool call it, 'decampi',) and I am engaged with Allred's pop art aesthetic and Slott's narrative ideas beginning to form.

Sure, the Doctor Who parallels are obvious. A lonely figure who can transverse the stars using an abstract, everyday object, joined by a young female companion in her 20s. We join them in media res, just as we joined the Doctor and Susan in An Unearthly Child. (Most Doctor/companion teams, we are able to see the roots of their friendship. Here, we are introduced to Dawn Greenwood in the midst of their travels.) The Surfer, our main protagonist, makes a conscious choice to land on an alien planet; the 'bigger picture' of space seems replaced with fun adventures.

But as a device to entice new readers? It's such a great idea: give them something free which tells a full story, acting as a sample without losing money but probably getting more attention. (A $6 book, by the way, is far from a sample: it's an annual.)

Marvel Unlimited

Nova #8

Another Infinity tie-in.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3

Meh, the art's pretty.

The Trial of the Punisher #1 (of 2)

A limited series from 6 years ago finally reaching print. It's good, let me tell you that. Any modern Punisher fan, I direct you to this book. Guggenheim should keep writing comics; Francis Yu should definitely continue to draw them. It's a 23 page book (haven't heard that in a while) which takes longer to read than a 23 page book usually does. (This is a good thing.) I don't know if it will be collected in trade given the story length, but I recommend checking it out.

Thor: Road Force #1-2

A superhero team based on a motorcycle company How very exciting. Marvel Studios have been tied with Harley Davidson since The First Avenger, but the fact they are able to make six issues with The Avengers, Iron Man and Thor I really, really do not understand. It's dragging a promo comic into spin-off territory. Who even seriously reads these except for cheese factor? A comics fan can't expect the pinnacle of storytelling, and a Harley fan can't even expect pictures of sexy bikes.