Captain America Vol. 5 # 39 - The Man Who Bought America: Part Three

I wasn't crazy about the art. I'm gonna come right out and say it. Torre may have been excelent on Iron Man: Director of SHIELD, but this is frankly a whole new game. Steve Epting style art is all that should be allowed to be put into this series. What I saw however was nothing of the sort.

But let's get out of this. So far, Brubaker's "Death of Captain America" arc has been astounding. I can be quoted on this. The Death of Captain America is the single greatest story arc I've ever read in comics. This is for several reasons.
1. Strong characterisation
2. Consistanly high quality
3. Excelent storytelling
4. Not too "old reader friendly"
5. Not too "new reader friendly"
6. Good art

Wait... what was #6? Oh yeah... good art. Well that was missing here. Oh well. Fortunatally, the rest of it all was here so that's good. Frankly, I've been caught being critical of him in the past (see some of my earlier reviews) but to be completely honest, Brubaker is the king. Whatever sillyness or bizzare treats that we may encounter gets completely justified in the end by being made super significant. Just use my previous reviews as an example. In one instance, I reviewed a classic WW2 story as being irrelevant. That of course proved to be completely false as it gave the origin story of Lukin.

The bottom line that I'm trying to get across here is that Brubaker knows what he's doing. And in this case, he surely has delivered a twist that I'm completely fond of.

Bringing 1950's Steve into the mix! Aha! This idea was wonderful if you ask me. Making the dynamic between the dead Steve/Bucky/50's Steve all "being" the true Captain America is a GREAT concept. Another thing that I like about this arc is just how phsycological Big Red's plans can be. He manages to completely cripple America, but not by sheer brute force. He gets the citizens to start riots and lead rebels! But those days are long gone because the rebellions have stopped by this point in the story. It was time for Big Red to move on with his next devious plot... the Third Wing! Ooh... scary!

What we have here is the Red Skull using his witts and his goons to GAIN AMERICA'S SUPPORT (hence: the man who bought America). It is truly a fascinating concept and Brubaker makes it even more interesting by making Steve Rogers (not the REAL one) back up this fake contendor. Ah! So evil is on top. What's even more amazing about this story is that you can tell this concept was thought up from the beggining. Bucky killing Jack in issue #7 finally came full circle last issue, managing to convince 50's cap that Bucky was the bad guy.

Planting seeds and planning out 39 issues in advance is amazing. I cannot believe how great of a storyteller Ed Brubaker is! With that said, I'm gonna take back everything bad I've ever said about him. If any of you guys have read some of my past Cap' reviews (the earlier ones, not the more recent ones) then discredit me for I was mistaken then. I have now seen the light and it is glorious.

Art - 6.5/10

Story - 8/10 (Twas a little slow this issue)