I loved Brubaker's work and I'm not finding anything that I think has the same kind of weight in terms of characterization in the current 'world' on my own to this point. Can anyone suggest a series?

@errantknight: Brubaker's Captain America is one of my favorite modern Marvel runs. Have you checked out:

1. Secret Warriors - Jonathan Hickman - This is a story about Nick Fury and his protege, Daisy Johnson, as they deal with major issues behind the scenes.
2. Immortal Iron Fist - Brubaker and Matt Fraction - Great story about Daniel Rand with pretty cool art by David Aja.
3. Fantastic Four - Jonathan Hickman - Awesome modern run for the First Family with a huge, epic story that gives great moments for all members of the FF and Doom.

I haven't read any of those. Thanks for the suggestions. :) So that's where Daisy Johnson came from. I kind of wondered when I read the new Buchy Barnes: the winter soldier, but since that was the least of my problems with that series.... Lol.

The Secret Warriors started in Bendis' Avengers series as part of the Secret Warriors event so he created the character, but that was only for a couple issues. The Secret Warriors series is an awesome story with a bunch of twists and turns. It's up there among my favorite Marvel runs.

I know what you mean about the new Winter Soldier series. I am not enjoying it very much even though Bucky is my favorite character. I like Rudy's art, but despise the art of the second artist in the last issue. I also don't like Kot's dialogue as I don't think it fits either Buck or Daisy.

Yeah, he's my favorite character, too. So much story potential and it's being squandered. While Bucky is a natural for that particular job, it separates him from his past and the most interesting connections in his life entirely, which makes the fact that the writer forms the story almost completely in dialogue really unhelpful. Can't speak to Daisy, but Bucky seems wildly out of character. If you're going to radically change a character, you need to see how they got from A to B and they just handed us B.

Not loving the art in any of the issues. Form over function in layout really annoys me. There are pages when I can't tell who the heck is tallking.

Oh, and I agree about the second artist. That was horrendous.

It surprises me that they're treating a character who is so popular in the movies in such an inaccessible and arguable second rate way. They could have hooked in new readers in with something more...Bucky/Winter Soldier. This character could be anyone.