First, what stands out in this final issue of the arc is the gratifying characterization of Baron Zemo.  While Zemo is ostensibly the villain, not one iota of the depth of Zemo's character development over the past decade is sacrificed.  To the contrary, Zemo's line at the end gives a laser-like focus to what kind of Captain America Bucky will become: "Because you don't get to erase your past.  You're going to have to earn everything from now on." And no one in the Marvel Universe is more qualified to say it.  Zemo may very well be the hero of this issue. 

But rest assured, the book is still about Bucky, and his journey to becoming a hero. The issue ends with Bucky having an unusually dramatic moment of Zemo-induced self-reflection on the back of a rocket, where he begins to realize that he has not faced his Winter Soldier demons.  To be a symbolic hero, he must.  This could very well herald Bucky's growth from "BuckyCap" to "Captain America."  Bucky can reflect a different side of America.  Not a "new, modern" America, but rather, a different understanding of the iconic American hero, one that has ugly sins and scars, but still reforms, struggles and grows into something greater.  An America that goes from a history of slavery to having an African American President.  Steve could not symbolize this aspect of America with the same force that Bucky can.

Thus I am anxious to see next arc, where Bucky is forced to own his past as the Winter Soldier.  Brubaker is giving us a Captain America that is not a man who always did it right and did it best, but is instead a man who has a past and faces up to that past, without glossing it over.  A Captain America we all look up to, with the same awe, but for very different reasons.