Brubaker passes on the shield
Eight years, it's been eight years since Ed Brubaker came aboard Captain America and blew our socks off with "Winter Soldier" (a character who's gone and to star in is own book and who is set to feature in Cap's next big movie) and now the time has come for him to leave and he invites fellow writer Cullen Bunn to help see him off in this last arc.
Despite being a fan of Brubaker (and a huge fan of Captain America) his latest volume of Cap has failed to capture the flair that made his run so special, I can see he's been trying to write the stories as homages to the different decades of cap stories (the first arc being a kirby-esque 60s romp to the second having a 70s touch and so on) but it just hasn't felt like that unique style Brubaker has, he has even come forward saying he's out of tales and that's why he feels the need to leave. This latest arc feels a bit stronger than previous issues though.
Cap teams up the the Falcon in order to take on a new supervillian crime group called the Discordians, despite doing some damage Cap is able to dispatch of them quite easily. Upon turning his attention to the public he finds them all fixated to a broadcast by Reed Braxton who believes Caps best days are behind him, this causes Steve to consider his role as Captain America and wonder if he's truly effective, though more is going on than Cap may realise...
The idea of poor public reaction to super-heroes is one that Bendis adopted in his "Hammer Wars" story arc over in Avengers, though he failed to truly develop the idea and they whole concept felt forced. The plot line fares a little better within the pages of Captain America. Though I may not be an American citizen I do hear reports from news shows saying variations on how America has "lost its way" so the media turning on the man who is the very personification of America makes a little bit more sense, however it still appears to come out of nowhere. Even though we learn Reed Braxton's verbal attacks are really being orchestrated by Hydra it still seems odd that the public would turn on Cap so quickly, especially after all he's done for the Country. The overall tone of the book however does seem more like Brubaker's style, and while I may be a little lukewarm on the whole "public against their heroes" plot this new arc does hold promise and it does feel like it's building towards an ending for the run.
The art by Scot Eaten is actually a highlight of the book, his action scenes look very dynamic and each character looked unique. During the dialogue scenes he also managed to well express the characters emotions and keep me interested. My only complaint would be the new villains, the Discordians, looked very generic, though they were pretty forgettable to begin with so otherwise the art looks great.
Overall, while Ed Brubaker's Cap run may not be ending as strong as it started it's still worth reading, especially if you've been with it from the beginning. The new arc still holds promise to end a run that will go down as probably the best run of the character, so give this one a read.