Comic Book Review 24 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1

With Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier riding high, after two straight weekends at the top of the box office, this week, we’re going to take a look at the digital exclusive prequel comic to the blockbuster film. This issue is presented in the infinite format that features all double page spreads, wide screen comics, if you will. We get to be the eyes in the sky for Captain America, Black Widow, and Agent Rumlow on a top-secret mission to retrieve “The Zodiac”, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1 is a $2.99 digital exclusive comic published by Marvel Comics and originally released on January 28, 2014. The issue was written by Peter David, featuring storyboards by Daniel Govar and art by Rock-He Kim, with colors by Rain Beredo, and letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles.

The events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1 take place in Marvel’s cinematic universe between The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The story opens just before dawn, with a team of terrorists assaulting the Willis Tower in Chicago. The team is in possession of The Zodiac, a powerful and dangerous item they stole from S.H.I.E.L.D., with the intent and purpose to use it to kill everyone in the skyscraper.  They take out the guard in the lobby and head straight to the building’s skydeck to prepare to deploy The Zodiac. Captain America and Agent Rumlow enter the Willis Tower through the lobby and begin to make their way up to the top floor to engage the enemy and retrieve The Zodiac. Captain America tells Agent Rumlow, The Zodiac was stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. after they said they did not have it, and Cap is not pleased about being called in to clean up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mess.  Rumlow, on the other hand, is completely indifferent. The pair reach the top floor and immediately run into heavy resistance from the team if terrorists. Cap and Rumlow waste no time taking them down. The terrorists’ leader begins to question Cap, only to be interrupted by Black Widow crashing through a window and bringing the fight to him. He breaks free of Black Widow and jumps out of the window in an attempt to escape the heroes using his parachute, and Cap, hot on his tail, follows him out of the window with no hesitation… sans parachute. Cap manages to snatch the case from the terrorist leader in midair; Rumlow then catches Cap with a perfect shot with a grappling line. The story ends with Captain America and Black Widow hashing out what has just happened, and Cap is none too pleased about S.H.I.E.L.D. not being straight with him. Head on down to your local movie theater to see what happens next with the star spangled Avenger.

On to the art department! Rock-He Kim handles the art duties for Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1, as well as Steve Rogers himself. His art has a really cool sketchbook feel to it that is complimented by the colorist, Rain Beredo, using the pencils-to-colors method that skips the traditional inking step and applies the colors directly to the pencils. The fights and action are all well choreographed and portrayed, as well.

I enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1. The issue did well setting the table for Cap’s latest cinematic adventure and his growing apprehension about the way S.H.I.E.L.D. goes about protecting the world and its citizens. The story and writing was fairly straight forward, and the characters’ distinct voices were conveyed by the great Peter David in such a way that the dialogue all felt organic and real. As far as movie tie-in comics go, this one was definitely above average, and Marvel’s “infinite comics” format is a perfect fit for a movie tie-in comic. For more movie tie-in goodness, also look for Captain America: Homecoming #1, on sale now.

 I give Captain America: The Winter Soldier #1 2.5 Long-boxes out of 4.

 

All images are property of Marvel Entertainment.

STATUS (31 Posts)

James “STATUS” Eaddy is a freelance writer, who enjoys Readin', Writin', and Doin' Stuff! Along with Joe’l Williams, he is also the co-creator and writer of, the upcoming comic book property and characters, “The StreetKeepers”.