Admittedly, I wasn’t expecting much from “Captain America and Bucky” but writers Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko quickly proved me wrong. It’s been a beautifully crafted origin story of Bucky and his history with Captain America. Timewise, each issue has transitioned perfectly from one to the other and have focused on key events that helped shape the relationship between the two. It’s been such a pleasant surprise.

In this issue we get to see the Invaders and explore Bucky’s sense of inferiority to his super powered teammates. It’s yet another well written issue even though it kind of feels like one of those “Captain America: Theater of War” one-shots. We do get to dive a little more into Bucky’s character and we view everything from his perspective. He has some great dialogue particularly with Namor and his attempt to show the team his worth gives the story a real human element to it. That being said, this issue still felt like it was missing something. It didn’t quite resonate with me like the previous books. As I said, it felt more like a war story one-shot than an issue that builds upon others. But it’s still a solid book and another example of great storytelling.

Chris Samnee’s art style isn’t one I would normally like but it’s been perfectly fitting for this type of story. Mixed with Betty Breitweiser’s classic antique colors, the book has maintained a perfect period look. This issue has a lot of that but it’s not quite as captivating as the previous issues. Samnee captures just the right tone but with the story’s limited setting, he doesn’t get much of a chance to create those beautiful period environments. When limited to shots on snowy nights and in dark, dungeony laboratories, his work just doesn’t shine as bright as before.

This is still one solid issue and Brubaker clearly shows he has a vision for both Captain America books. The focus on Bucky has really given the character more weight and the writers have taken something that didn’t initially interest me and made something special. It may not be as strong as the previous issues but there’s still enough action and emotion to more than satisfy Cap and Bucky fans.