Thank you Ed Brubaker.

Wow this book really hit home for me.  See tomorrow is my 25th birthday so it was neat to read about Bucky's birthdays.  Also I got the kick out of reading  a fictionalized version of the argument everyone I've met that hasn't red this book makes.

First let me say I oddly can relate to Bucky's birthdays.  While mine didn't involve Nazi's, beer at 16, or a dude dressed in an American flag, they did have their ups and downs.  In this issue Bucky celebrates some of his birthdays with a bang (literally) and others are not really celebrated at all.  Now I can relate in the fact that in the last 5 years this is about on par with my birthdays.  A lot of them nothing happened or were uneventful at best, such as Bucky's.  On the other hand a year ago I moved into a new house with some friends and we celebrated my B-day really for the first time in a while and it was awesome.  Which is really what happens to Bucky in this issue.  The difference is that all of his friends moved in with him.  They of course make sure he celebrates his birthday in style.  I will say my last birthday didn't have a bazillion candles on my cake like Bucky did in this issue, but I did have delicious Waffle Sandwiches.

The next thing I'd like to talk about in this issue is the other part of the story as Cap is being chased down by a bunch of super right wing crazy peoples.  One may ask why, such as Cap does himself in this book.  Well, it's because he's not the real Captain America, but a replacement.  These guys worshiped the ground that Steve Roger's feet walked on and they didn't want to see anyone else pick up the mantle.  I bring this up because just the other day I had an argument with a friend about how Bucky is Captain America and should be addressed as such.  He of course thought otherwise and felt they should just bring Steve back.  Of course my main question was, "Have you READ any of Captain America since he died?"

His response, "No I haven't."

"Go read it and then you can complain about Bucky being Captain America," I replied.  I also informed him (and many others) my New Year's Resolution, to stop calling him Bucky and to start calling him Captain America.  I know there are people who are out there that miss Steve, (I miss the hell out of him) but there are too many of them I have met that haven't even read ANY of Brubaker's run (see above conversation).  I feel they need to read this issue especially.  Bucky is not Steve Rogers, everyone knows that, he does for sure, but Bucky's doing his best and frankly he's doing a damn fine job of it.

As Conor once mentioned, wait it out comics always have different teams working on them and it'll come back to something you like.  Steve will be back, just don't deny yourself some awesome Captain America.