Quick Summary
Aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, Captain America and Nick Fury are discussing Alexander Lukin, his former mentor Vasily Karpov, and the Kronas Corporation, and trying to make sense out of their apparent involvement in the scheme of things.
Cap relates a story of the mission where he and the other Invaders were on the Russian Front in WW II, with a detachment of Russian soldiers led by Karpov. The Nazis had a death-ray weapon secreted in a fortified village named Kronas, guarded by Master Man, some Nazi soldiers, and the Red Skull. The Invaders located it, fought the Red Skull (et al), and the Red Skull escaped after setting the village on fire as a diversion. The self-destruct mechanism on the death ray kills the Russian soldiers who were trying to claim if for the Rodina while the Invaders fight the fires, which level the village. The Invaders fly off, while Karpov pulls a child from the wreckage - and taking young Alexander Lukin with him as his protege.
Cap finishes his story, and asks Fury for transport, so he can check on the veracity of some of his ghost memories. Fury sends him down the flight deck while arranging his ride. Fury's adminstrative assistant Teresa asks Fury if Fury had shown Captain America the file on his desk, entitled "Operation: Winter Soldier"; he had not - yet - to spare CA.
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Commentary
So many things in this issue are worthy of comment, I don't know where to begin. I guess I should start at the beginning - Brubaker is giving us a darker, less optimistic Captain America - and showing us that this isn't precisely new, that it has its roots in World War II. Those who to whom the Gruenwald CA was the definitive Captain America won't be happy about this interpretation - this is a Captain America who stands by while Russian soldiers torture a prisoner for information, a Captain America who throws a "potato masher" grenade into the cab of a tank to kill the crew. A Bucky who is lethally trained as a commando, who kills sentries, machine-guns guards, and in general doesn't bat an eye about the requisite killing during wartime.
- Once more Ed Brubaker gives us what the Marvel Knights Captain America series should have been - a real-world take on Captain America, using the strengths of a fifty-year-plus history as a basis to spin good, tense, drama-filled tales. He's telling excellent stories, whether or not that requires the use of terrorists, AIM scientists, World War II war criminals, etc - whatever the story requires, he uses it, but intelligently.
- No news on the Sharon Carter/Jack Monroe part of the plot, although it'll be interesting to see where this goes next issue.
- Operation: Winter Soldier is, quite obviously, the killer cyborg. There has been a lot of speculation that the mystery identity of the killer cyborg is Bucky - he survived the blast over the cold waters, was found by Russians, who put his commando/reconn training to good use as their cyborg killer. While I'm holding out hope that I'm wrong - Bucky, Captain Mar-Vell, and Uncle Ben are the only three people in the MU who haven't been brought back, one way or another - the re-characteriation of Bucky as the "dark side" of the Captain America propoganda legend, the one who does the dirty work while Cap keeps his image clean, seems to be leading this way.
- More than any other issue, this one deserves to have Writer's footnotes - Brubaker himself has said that after issue #6 hits the streets he's goig to avoid the online vocal fandom for awhile. Bendis has said that after CA #6 the fans won't think too badly of him for Avengers Dis-Assembled in comparison. The introduction of the hypocrasy involved in Captain America and Bucky's roles as put forth by Cap's memories alone is a major change in continuity - but an interesting one.
- I am one Captain America fan who won't stand in the line to castigate Brubaker this re-characterization; World War II (and for that matter, any war) was a dirty, mean business, and the lines were not as black and white as the history books claimed. Brubaker is giving us a Captain America who is showing us the terrible pragmatism of warfare.
- Bucky's new role, although it runs very much counter to the Roy Thomas Invaders series, feels right to me. Bucky is virtually an adult, no younger than the 16-year-olds who lied about their age to join the armed forces (in fact, in a FOOM interview, the Avengers' butler Edwin Jarvis confessed that he had lied about his age, went to Canada, and enlisted in the RAF - which was winked at by both the UK and the USA at the time), he is an enthusiastic volunteer and partner; it makes sense that if they didn't forbid it (and according to longstanding continuity, they not only didn't forbid it, they sanctioned it), the Allies would find a way to use it to the best of their ability. In many ways, Brubaker is being true to the updating of Bucky's role that Nicieza started and Waid continued - Captain America as the idealist, Bucky as the smooth operator, the expediter, the guy with the street smarts. Jack Kirby often showed Bucky using a Thompson .45, Roy Thomas had Captain America kill (although drew up short of showing it as blatently as Brubaker does in the flashback) during Wartime, and Brubaker finishes the job - Bucky is the advanced reconn guy who makes Cap's newsreel footage possible.
- By the same token, the change in Bucky's role can imply a change in Bucky's attitudes towards Captain America and the USA - perhaps the beginning of a budding resentment, virtually nascent, about being used in that fashion; doing the Dirty Work while Captain America keeps his gloves clean for the limelight. While he might have intellectually understood and accepted the necessity, it could be the spark that a Soviet brainwasher could perhaps exploit, and fan into full flame.
- On the other hand, if the Soviet Union had managed to turn Bucky into a cyborg assassin, you'd think they'd have used it during the Cold War for full propaganda value, showing the "defection" of a major wartime hero, and exposing the CA & Bucky disappearance cover-up for what it was.
- If the cyborg assassin is Bucky, that would explain why he went out of his way to kill Jack Monroe, one of the people who "replaced" Bucky. For all we know, the Soviets told Buckyborg that the Captain America who operated after the explosion was still Steve Rogers (the original, that is, not the guy who changed his name to Steve Rogers), and that he hadn't cared for Bucky at all - just replaced him as needed with others to take Bucky's place and identity. Bucky would come to hate his replacements, with the obvious results.
I am prepared for Brubaker to bring back Bucky as the cyborg assassin, although I'm hoping that there is another, less obvious, answer (although I fear not).
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