Written by: Ales Kot
Art by: Marco Rudy
Publisher: Marvel
Whenever I read a comic book, I find myself finishing it in about 10 minutes, but that has not been the case with “Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier”. Kot writes this book so that everything seems vague making you wonder if our two Bucky’s and Daisy Johnson are dreaming, on a mind-bending drug trip or actually out on a space adventure. It doesn’t help that Rudy’s beautiful art provides an immense psychedelic feel to the book. But if there’s something I’ve realized, is that I’ve enjoyed it all. It isn’t revolutionary, but it is different. The past seven issues caused me to read them more carefully, which exposed me to a intricate plot that isn’t as complicated as I thought it was.
After reading this issue, I couldn’t help but admire the irony behind it. Last time we saw our two Bucky’s (present Bucky and future Bucky, whom we shall call Old Man Bucky, from a different multiverse), one was healing from Crossbone’s attack and Old Man Bucky was telling his backstory. This issue we find the Bucky’s talking, when out of nowhere they decide to do drugs. What follows is a beautiful work of art by Rudy, with Kot deliberately staying out of the way with his script. What makes this issue ironic is how straight-forward the drug trip is and what’s going on with the characters, as opposed to the previous issues where the characters are sober, yet you’d think otherwise. Oh and Daisy plays with a dinosaur.
This is an issue that needs to be seen. Every time Marco Rudy draws a comic book page I wait in awe. He never disappoints, but this is some of his best work since issue two of this series. The only problem with this issue is how little it pushes the story forward. There’s no Crossbones (which I can understand since the last issue was all about him) and not much happens to anyone. There’s a revelation on the final page, but that’s it.
If I could rate an issue of a comic book based on its art only, this would be a perfect ten. Overall though, this is a mildly satisfying issue. Not enough can be said of Rudy and his art and it was great of Kot to let Rudy own an issue, but the story went almost nowhere. On the plus side, an issue based on a hallucinogenic drug trip could have been overdone with needless complexity and pointless metaphors, but Kot kept it from being too much.
