Captain America Vol. 5 # 601 - Red, White and Blue-Blood

First off this issue has nothing to do with the current Captain America Rebirth storyline. This was a self contained one-shot based during Civil-War where Winter Soldier (Bucky) tells a story to Nick Fury about an adventure Cap and himself had during the World War II. This was originally meant to be released around that time as an annual or something but for whatever reason that didn’t happen. All I can say was thank God it’s finally seen the light of day because this was a fantastic little tale.

Bucky’s story is a small horror tale set nearing the end of WWII about a vampire killing and turning Caps soldiers into the undead. It’s a straight forward horror tale but its great to have a done in one Captain America story from Brubaker after the previous 51 issues have pretty much been one epic continuing story. I like the idea of good one shots sometimes, the way comics used to be written. A new villain and plot for each issue, similar to some of the Wolverine one-shots that have been released from Marvel over the past couple of years.

Gene Colan illustrated this issue, and he is apparently a legend in the comic artist field, which to be honest with you, went over my head. I’m too young to remember any of his previous work and went into this issue with a total open mind wanting to make my own opinion of his work and it really made an impact on me. It is really unique and unlike any styles around today and I loved it. Big props to colorist Dean White too. The first thing you notice about this book is the beautifully dark painted colors that really set the mood for this horror tale. Its worth noting that there is a black and white version also available to highlight Colans’s pencils but I could not imagine this story without the wonderful dark colors to give it that chill factor.

Not essential if your following Captain America Rebirth but as I said before a great one and done horror yarn displayed beautifully.