Bucky's Busy Christmas
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scans_dailyFrom the Civil War one-shot, Winter Kills (10 pages of a 38 page book). I think this was posted on the old Scans Daily livejournal, but hasn't ever been put up here.
Bucky Barnes has things to do this Christmas... if only he could find the time for them.
So, Bucky has arranged with Nick Fury that Christmas Eve is a night off. But, Fury is Fury, and Bucky gets roped into checking up on the Young Avengers for him. They're planning to attack a Hydra base that Fury has been keeping an eye on. Things go predictably.
Bucky isn't really up to date with acceptable lingo, and Kate gets offended, on behalf of a couple of friends. Hey, give the guy a break, he's from the 1940s... as Vision has figured out.
Anyway, Bucky has places to be, and one of those is so he can apologise to Jack Monroe... for killing him.
Then he discovers that the Young Avengers decided to play detective and follow him, instead of going home like he told them. They've got something to say to him.
I like this. Probably the first time, post-Winter Soldier deprogramming, that Bucky has had anyone tell him they're proud to have fought alongside him. And he's clearly touched by that.
Kate practically swallows her foot when she points out how weird it is to visit a grave on Christmas Eve.
And, then she does it again. Not a good night for Kate Bishop, though I guess the shock of meeting a guy long thought dead is enough to throw any teen hero off their game.
But Bucky has some festive advice to pass on to them, and to Steve.
Bucky's not done with the graveside visiting just yet. And here's pretty much my favourite scene in the last decade or so of comic books. An old friend appears.
He's as cheerful and joyous of the season as you might expect, but to me, this is a Namor that we don't see very often. He's positively giddy with happiness at his old comrade turning up alive... relatively speaking, anyway.
And Bucky has finally run out of things he needs to do, and gets to the thing he wanted to do. To visit his friend's grave, and hear about what happened to him.
This story gets to me, every time I read it. It's got such a lovely sense of melancholy and bitter-sweetness, and highlights how isolated Bucky was at this time. No longer the Winter Soldier, but not yet in out of the cold. He's still catching up on all he's missed in the last seven decades... including the deaths of pretty much anybody he cared about.
And I think it's also Namor's finest outing in a long time. Too often, he's presented as arrogant, superior king of Atlantis, but I like seeing him be more humble and approachable. He does seem to be genuinely happy to see Bucky, but tries to cover it with his usual bluster.
And Lee Weeks' art is perfect for the whole thing. Moody and gritty. I actually didn't post any of the pages showing Bucky's memories of a wartime dance, where he watches Toro meet a pretty girl, but I really like the warmth he gives those panels, compared to the stark chill of the present day stuff.
Bucky Barnes has things to do this Christmas... if only he could find the time for them.
So, Bucky has arranged with Nick Fury that Christmas Eve is a night off. But, Fury is Fury, and Bucky gets roped into checking up on the Young Avengers for him. They're planning to attack a Hydra base that Fury has been keeping an eye on. Things go predictably.
Bucky isn't really up to date with acceptable lingo, and Kate gets offended, on behalf of a couple of friends. Hey, give the guy a break, he's from the 1940s... as Vision has figured out.
Anyway, Bucky has places to be, and one of those is so he can apologise to Jack Monroe... for killing him.
Then he discovers that the Young Avengers decided to play detective and follow him, instead of going home like he told them. They've got something to say to him.
I like this. Probably the first time, post-Winter Soldier deprogramming, that Bucky has had anyone tell him they're proud to have fought alongside him. And he's clearly touched by that.
Kate practically swallows her foot when she points out how weird it is to visit a grave on Christmas Eve.
And, then she does it again. Not a good night for Kate Bishop, though I guess the shock of meeting a guy long thought dead is enough to throw any teen hero off their game.
But Bucky has some festive advice to pass on to them, and to Steve.
Bucky's not done with the graveside visiting just yet. And here's pretty much my favourite scene in the last decade or so of comic books. An old friend appears.
He's as cheerful and joyous of the season as you might expect, but to me, this is a Namor that we don't see very often. He's positively giddy with happiness at his old comrade turning up alive... relatively speaking, anyway.
And Bucky has finally run out of things he needs to do, and gets to the thing he wanted to do. To visit his friend's grave, and hear about what happened to him.
This story gets to me, every time I read it. It's got such a lovely sense of melancholy and bitter-sweetness, and highlights how isolated Bucky was at this time. No longer the Winter Soldier, but not yet in out of the cold. He's still catching up on all he's missed in the last seven decades... including the deaths of pretty much anybody he cared about.
And I think it's also Namor's finest outing in a long time. Too often, he's presented as arrogant, superior king of Atlantis, but I like seeing him be more humble and approachable. He does seem to be genuinely happy to see Bucky, but tries to cover it with his usual bluster.
And Lee Weeks' art is perfect for the whole thing. Moody and gritty. I actually didn't post any of the pages showing Bucky's memories of a wartime dance, where he watches Toro meet a pretty girl, but I really like the warmth he gives those panels, compared to the stark chill of the present day stuff.
