Well, here we are. Captain America is officially back. And yes, it’s not Steve Rogers, but his former child protege, Cold War brainwashing victim and the most unlikely badass in Comics, James “Bucky” Barnes, aka, the Winter Soldier. As if you hadn’t heard that by now.

I have to say, I find Brubaker a bit hit and miss. I enjoy his X-Men no more or less than most writers. His Daredevil teeters on the brink of losing me for good. His Captain America? Utter genius. From start to finish. This might seem like a big event to some, but to others it’s merely another chapter in one of the most sprawling, ambitious arcs ever to be done with - or more recently, without - Captain America.

After all, there’s a lot going on in this issue that doesn’t involve Cap. Much of it comes from the Red Skull and his alliance of Nazi hold-outs who have been plotting and planning insidiously, engineering the collapse of the economy and infiltrating SHIELD, brainwashing its agents and causing them to murder civilian protesters at the climax of the issue.

But, let’s be realistic. Most people are going to be picking this one up for one reason only. The new Captain America is out of the bag. He’s got a gun, a shiny (literally shiny) new costume, and he’s, er, accidentally wearing the Puerto Rican flag, apparently. How embarrassing. After agreeing, last issue, to take on the identity, we find Bucky heading out on a mission with the Black Widow, donning the costume and giving us all what we wanted to see - Captain America, back in action. He admits he’s not as strong as Cap, and he can only use the shield because of his robotic arm, and perhaps most controversially, he makes definite use of the pistol he’ll be carrying. It’s Captain America, alright, but not the one we’re used to.

Which is great, really. I found myself genuinely excited to see someone back in the costume and kicking ass, even if it’s not Steve Rogers. Sure, he’ll be back eventually (I’m going to call it now: Cosmic Cube) but today, Bucky is Captain America, and it feels right. Tony Stark even gets some measure of redemption out of this development when he allows Bucky to take the costume, keep the shield and act independently as an unregistered hero. If there aren’t any double-crosses snuck into that deal, well, he’s almost making up for spending the last year as Tony Stark, the Insufferable Iron Dick. Another top-notch issue of Captain America, and up until a few months ago, I never would have expected to ever be saying that.

Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue at random, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

The Genis-vell incarnation of Captain Marvel had been hanging on the edge of cancellation for so long that when it finally came, it’s easy to see how prepared writer Peter “PAD” David was for it. The series was the perfect replacement for PAD’s run on Hulk, with its action-comedy tone and a partially transplanted supporting cast, and PAD’s run, which started with Volume 3, finally encompassed 60 complete issues and an Issue #0 short. With Issue 25 of Volume 4, it all came to an end.

And just while I’m talking about numbering, I feel obliged to point out - when Captain Marvel was released, Marvel were dual-numbering their books. Quesada, when he became EiC, felt that all the relaunch stunts over the last few years had interrupted the titles’ runs, so he put them back on track with dual-numbering on the covers. Thus, even a relatively recent relaunch like Captain Marvel had two issue numbers - #25, and #60. Some series, like Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, did switch back. Other series, like Captain America and Iron Man, have been relaunched from new #1 issues AGAIN - but these days there’s only one number to keep track of in all cases.

Anyway, back to the issue. Pencils come from Keith Giffen, and I have to say, they look pretty rushed. Giffen’s art is fairly polymorphic at the best of times but this is some pretty ugly stuff. It could be the inks, admittedly, but either way, someone wasn’t taking much care in the art department. Luckily the book’s plot makes up for it all.

This is one hell of a final issue - not so much turning out the light as he leaves, as torching the building. When a book is cancelled, the writer must finish their plots and put the characters back in a neutral condition. PAD takes a hilariously metafictional slant on this by having a couple of cosmic characters turn up named Eulogy and Expediency (two of the “Seven Friendless”) to rapidly advance events to their conclusion and then literally dismantle the story, retrieving the “sets” and “costumes” and congratulating Genis on a longer run than expected. It’s all done with a healthy dose of PAD’s trademark humour - Rick Jones, having appeared in many series before, is the only one who realises what’s going on because of his “Comics Awareness.”

PAD’s frustration seems to drip off the page - frustration with the audience, with the industry, with Quesada, and with himself. Captain Marvel #25 might well be utterly incomprehensible to anyone unaware of the behind-the-scenes drama that was going on, with PAD and Quesada publicly arguing over the title’s status and future, but to those that stuck with the title through it all, it’s a fitting, it quirky ending. And it’s not all doom and gloom, because much of what PAD did on the title was remembered - Phyla-vell, Genis’ sister created in these pages, appears in the recent Annihilation events as the new Quasar, with Moondragon as her girlfriend (a plot development that occurs in this very issue). Genis himself was later killed off in New Thunderbolts after being unsuccessfully added to the cast, but there’s always a chance he’ll return. Just not a massive one.

Download Captain Marvel v4 #25 in .cbr format here for a limited time, and there’s always more Captain Marvel (v1) available to view online at Marvel Digital Comics.

While Messiah Complex blows the X-Men line wide open, it’s easy to forget Astonishing X-Men - a kind of living fossil, now in the 4th year of its 2-year storyline. Where the delays are coming from, it’s not clear. Whedon says he’s turned in all his scripts. Cassaday was recently able to take time out to draw an issue of Fallen Son. Whatever the reason, the rest of the line eventually got tired of waiting and moved on without them, and the title now stands as a reminder of a different time, awaiting the big finish in Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 that’ll at least help the nerdish among us slot it into continuity.

While it might seem a bit unnecessary to spend a paragraph criticising a book’s inexplicable delays, it has, at this point, reached the stage where I forget the plot between issues. That’s what’s known, in the business of comics reading as a Problem. I know that Whedon can write, and I certainly know that Cassaday can draw, so on that level it’s a good comic, but when the big twist in the issue relies on a character I don’t remember being introduced, and the X-Men’s mechanic for defeating them relies on a plot point I don’t remember being revealed, you have to wonder if something hasn’t gone a bit wrong somewhere.

Still, it’s not all doom - Whedon’s plot mechanics and dialogue are still some of the best in the business. The idea that the “missile” the X-Men were trying to stop isn’t a missile at all, but a giant, planet-destroying bulletis an idea that comes straight out of classic science-fiction, befitting the setting of this arc, and it’s an altogether unusual fake-out that had me guessing right up until the last page, like all the best revelations should. I couldn’t be more excited about the big finale coming in Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men, which promises to include all the major Marvel Universe players, as written by Whedon, so delays aside I can imagine that being fantastic. 

With one more issue to go, it sort of occurred to me that I should’ve done what I did with Ultimates and waited for the hardcover. This whole story will read many times better without massive between-issue delays, and the larger, glossier pages will do Cassaday’s art maximum justice. It’s too late for me, and I suspect that if you haven’t started reading it’s going to be pointless me giving that advice now, but perhaps we can all learn something that’ll come in useful when Ellis and Bianchi launch Astonishing X-Men: Second Stage later this year…

Despite my inherent anger at the prospect of replacing Ted Kord with some random new kid (knowing for the first time just how Hal Jordan fans felt in the mid-nineties, even though being a Jordan “fan” remains a bizarre concept), I gave the new Blue Beetle series a shot when it first launched. I’m glad I did, as it immediately established itself as one of the best pure superhero yarns DC has put out in years – smart, funny, character-driven and with neat technological tricks. It’s very much reminiscent of Spider-Man at its best, as a wisecracking teenaged hero struggles to get to grips with powers he never asked for, but feels a strong inherent sense to do right with. Sadly, an incident involving a bag and a bottle of water meant that I managed to wreck the complete run of the first thirteen or so issues that I had – and after that, I found it difficult to bring myself to keep buying it month on month, particularly as the storyline it was in the middle of at the time – involving Jack Kirby’s New Gods – was the least interesting so far.

I’ve been looking for a way to get back into it, however, and despite being in the middle of its first truly climactic story arc – Jaime Reyes having finally found out the secret behind the alien technology wielded to his spine, and the machinations of the race that created it – this issue provides an excellent jumping-on (or jumping-back-on) point. John Rogers, now in sole writing command after Keith Giffen departed in a manner akin to a parent steering their child’s bike along the first few yards then letting go, has kept the story building up to what looks set to be a storming conclusion, and has maintained the sharp character comedy, the zinging dialogue between Jaime and his friends Paco and Brenda still one of the book’s main selling points. The affectionate nods to the Kord era remain, as well – with two excellent gags, one involving Booster Gold, and the other on a first page which also provides superbly concise exposition for the new or returning reader. There are other neat touches, such as the Scarab finally speaking Jaime’s language for the first time, a moment which demonstrates its shift in allegiance from its masters to its host – continuing its progression towards being a “character” in its own right.

I’m struggling to remember a “main universe” title from either of the big two that’s been as entertaining as this in recent years. There’s a zesty energy to it that bounces off the page – and that goes for the art, too, even though Rafael Albuquerque doesn’t quite match the sharp quality of original artist Cully Hamner – and despite being full of potentially baffling garble about the alien antagonists and their technology, it never feels overwhelming. It’s deeply impressive how such a well-defined support cast has been established in such a short time, as well. And I’ll persist in my opinion that Beetle’s costume is the coolest in comics at the moment. Really, if you’re a superhero fan – and particularly a Marvel fan, as it’s the most Marvelish book they’ve never published – you’ve got no excuse not to be picking this up.

Slott’s first arc on the character comes to an end, and it’s almost hard to know what to say. It’s been good. Really good. Whether or not you liked One More Day, it’s very hard not to argue that these last three issues comprise a really classic Spider-Man story. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to call it “classical.” In just about every way possible, it’s sticking fairly close to the accepted Spider-Man formula. He’s down on his luck, having trouble with the Bugle, trouble with his web-shooters, trouble with the police and he’s wisecracking hard despite his responsibilities as Spider-Man getting in the way of his welfare once again. If anything, they’re almost trying too hard to cram it all in, and the final issue especially comes over a bit jumbled at the finish. 

It’s especially good to see Spidey tackling something street-level. Mr. Negative, a mobster with some vaguely-defined, apparently low-level powers, is exactly the sort of character that heroes like Spider-Man and Daredevil should be tackling - not vampires and mystics and, god help us, Mephisto. Sure, it makes a nice change on occasion, but it’s nice to see that for all the recent screwups, Marvel are finally proving that they know what makes a good Spider-Man story, and that’s a good Spider-Man villain.

Sure, some people are saying that the character’s been taken back to the 70s, but that’s an over-simplification. What they’ve done is taken the character back to formula, so to speak, and if that feels like the 70s - well, Slott, Wacker and the other members of the Braintrust could’ve done far worse than create work that’s accused of resembling one of the most iconic and creative periods in Spider-Man history.

Still, as good as these last few issues have been, it’ll be interesting to see how close they stick to the basics in future issue. 3 issues of web-shooter problems are entertaining, but how will we take it if we get 6, or 12, or 24? This story, quite rightly, goes back to the core of the character, but if that’s all the new Spider-Man’s ever going to do, well, it might start to wear. For now, there’s plenty in the works to bring people back. The much-hyped Jackpot has barely appeared so far, and the ongoing plot threads regarding the new supporting cast and the new villains are weaving nicely in and out of the story without feeling intrusive. I’m anxious to see how Guggenheim - the next writer in the rota, and one with a fairly inconsistent history - performs in his issues. If nothing else, this arc has convinced me that Slott’s issues are going to be worth it.

It’s all over! Best post-Morrison X-Men story ever! (and a lot better than most pre-Morrison X-Men stories too.)

It’s fair to say that a lot of recent Marvel crossovers have dropped the ball in the final act, whether we’re talking the dead-end plots of of House of M and The Other, the hastily rewritten garbage of One More Day, or the anticlimatic surrender that capped off Civil War.

Messiah Complex isn’t entirely immune from that, but it’s far more balanced. Rather than feeling like it exists solely to set up a bunch of new stories,  it manages to feel like it’s told a story in its own right - the story of what happened to the first new mutant since M-Day, and the power struggle surrounding her. What it doesn’t reveal is the child’s identity, which is an interesting gamble - at this point it does look like she’ll actually be a new character.

The issue is rife with the things that I love about the X-Men. There’s a nod to X-History as Cyclops’ memory of sending the baby Nathan to the future informs his decision to release the “messiah” baby to Cable, and there are plenty of new moments destined to become iconic in their own right - Cyclops sending the New X-Men against the Marauders, Wolverine destroying Predator-X from the inside out, Cable fading away as he escapes to the future with the child, and of course, Bishop killing the Professor. I always knew the old geezer was going to play a major role in this story, and it’s quite the fall from grace for Bishop himself.

It’s not totally perfect - if there’s any massive failure in the final issue, it’s that Bachalo’s storytelling is, as with much of his recent work, too obscure to handle all the action. There are some sequences where it’s not easy to see what’s going on. The focus on Rogue in the final two issues comes way out of left field for anyone who hasn’t been reading Carey’s X-Men run, and would’ve benefited from a bit more set up in earlier chapters of Messiah Complex. The Professor’s death is a little undermined by the knowledge that he’s clearly coming back, and soon, according to the solicits (speaking of which, I’m glad I called Bishop for the villain in Cable’s series. I knew I’d get something right if I guessed enough!)

All in all, it’s an incredibly solid, mutant-packed crossover the likes of which we haven’t seen for far too long, and ultimately it’s achieved its aim of making me damn interested in where the X-Franchise is going, when previously (X-Factor aside) it’d only made it only my pull list out of a sense of duty and tradition more than anything else. Now I can’t wait for more. Hell, I might actually buy a Cable book just to see where his plot’s going…