I still can’t believe Ed Brubaker is leaving this title in two months. When this series first came into print eleven months ago I couldn’t believe how fun it was. Despite my stubborness on all things Avenger’s, Brubaker really brought the best out of this book month after month. I guess I should stop thinking of the past since in the present we still have a bit more Brubaker on this book. His final arc gives us a look into John Steele’s past and maybe get more insight into the Shadow Council. Sounds interesting!

While this was a solid issue all around, it wasn’t what I was expecting. We get a bit of an insight into Steele’s past but to be honest it’s stuff we mostly knew already from previous issues. I think Steele as a character has good potential to be a counterpart to Rogers; but Brubaker again hasn’t given much to work with this issue. It does give us a good flashback into a World War II mission and if you know anything about Brubaker you know it’s going to be action packed. The other stuff in the present with Beast and the other scientists does seem a bit like fodder and Brubaker introduces a Wayne Knight-lite person in the mix. But other then that it’s nothing really special.

We don’t have Mike Deodato for art in this issue but we do have his long, lost cousin: Will Conrad! I couldn’t believe just how close Conrad’s style is to Deodato. Props on Marvel, or whoever’s decision, to get an artist to keep the aesthetics of the book be consistant. It definitely looks like Conrad is a digital artist like Deodato but it looks so much better to be honest. Nothing looks too stiff and the character’s faces actually emote once in a while. Although I do notice the disturbing trend of digital artists giving us creepy smiles and big teeth. I’d love to see that fixed.

A solid issue all around as usual for this series. Brubaker is giving us a good, but extremely slow paced, look into John Steele’s origin and a fun WWII flashback. The art by Will Conrad keeps the aesthetics of past issues consistant and it is actually better then Deodato’s art. I’m still upset we’re going to see the end of Brubaker soon on this title. But I guess I’ll enjoy as much as I can until his final issue comes around next month.