Book Review by: Sharon Powers.Tuesday, March 11, 2014, I received my hardcover book, Captain America: Winter Soldier that I had previously preordered from Amazon.com. Thankfully, I was able to get the book on the day of its release--I eagerly devoured its long-awaited pages.Movie Premise: According to Hit Fix, the premise of the movie, loosely, is one in which Captain America is trying to adjust to modern life after the Avengers did battle in New York, against the forces of evil. Now, Steve Rogers struggles to make sense of his life in a modern world. Steve is soon entangled in an intrigue after a fellow member of S.H.I.E.L.D. is attacked; this intrigue is one in which Steve finds himself exposed to professional assassins, and one in which even the world is at risk. Eventually Captain America and The Black Widow enlist the aid of a new (to the big screen) superhero, The Falcon. Just as suddenly, a new super enemy appears: The Winter Soldier.[1]Well, now that we know the premise of the upcoming movie, let's take a look at the book, itself, in order to see how the book was adapted to the big screen. We will come back to talking about the movie, a little more, below. First, let's take a look at the physical book and what's in it and then we'll take a general look at the basic plot of the book.THE BOOK:First, I'm not quite sure how to categorize this "book." When the stories originally came out, they came out as individual comic books published on the typical pulp paper for which "comics" are known. They have also been published in a "collection" entitled Captain America: Winter Soldier: Ultimate Collection. This collection is 304 glossy pages, has a card stock cover and includes the comic book issues, "Out of Time" (issues 1-8); "The Lonesome Death of Jack Monroe;" and "Winter Soldier" (issues 8-9 and 11-14). I purchased, read, and examined this book in its entirety.I already did a review of the Captain America: Winter Soldier (ISBN: 978-0-7851-8794-3, a hardback book), as a book that relates directly to the upcoming movie, Winter Soldier.[11] The book is a hardback edition containing "Out of Time" (issues 1-8); "The Lonesome Death of Jack Monroe (issue #7);" and "Winter Soldier" (issues 8-9 and 11-14) [Note: I have also seen it described as Captain America 1-9 and 11-14; it's the same thing.]. So, this new Marvel book, appears to have exactly the same (story-wise) content as the Ultimate Collection, the book I review, today, with a few exceptions. The most notable differences in the content appears to be that the hardcover edition includes an "Afterword" and some additional pages of promotional art. Additionally, the hardcover edition is larger (it is really beautiful)--it measures 11.1 x 7.4 x 0.8" while the card stock edition, Ultimate Collection, is 10.2 x 6.5 x 0.3" in size.So, here's my dilemma. Originally, the stories were published episodically as "comics" on cheap pulp paper and included advertising--easy definition, here, these were "comics." Now, however, the same content is published as a collected, bound volume on expensive, glossy paper with card stock and hard covers, and it does not contain any advertising. It is not advertised as a graphic novel, although it has a story arc (expressed in pictures with dialog) having a beginning, middle, and an end. All this having been said, I still don't know how to categorize it--I guess I'll just refer to it as a "book" for convenience sake. So, that decided, I guess we can get on with the book review.The Prologue: The Red Skull carries on a negotiation with General Lukin in the USSR. General Lukin has "inherited" a stash of artifacts from his predecessor, General Karpov. The Skull greedily eyes the body in a dusty stasis chamber, and just as greedily, General Lukin wants the Skull to provide him with the "Cosmic Cube." Lukin will not trade the body in the dusty stasis chamber to the Skull. The man in the stasis chamber was, apparently, a "very useful...Cold War...secret weapon against the US" (Afterward). Likewise, the Skull (although he has yet to acquire the Cube) refuses to trade away his imminent acquisition of the Cube. The Skull postulates that with the Cube, both Captain America and the world will fall to him. The two men then form a short and uneasy alliance.The Main Story: At this point, the narrator of the story is the Skull. It is five years later, and Lukin and the Skull have had a falling out. The Skull has the Cube and seeks to power up the nearly drained artifact. The Skull displays his intense hatred of Cap and all that Cap stands for. The Skull openly mocks Cap, ridiculing him for revealing his identity and making it easy for him to follow and learn all about Cap and his life. We see, for example, the nostalgic Cap, alter ego, Steve Rogers, listening to old music--a man "out of time." We also get the back story, here, what happened to Bucky (of course, slightly different than the movie version), Cap's losses and tragedies, and then Cap frozen with the world moving on, leaving him behind.The story then moves to the Skull's penthouse apartment where we find the Skull on the phone with Lukin rehashing the old argument about the Cube. The Skull indicates that he is putting his own plan into action at midnight and that he will take everything from Lukin. Suddenly, the Skull's eyes open shockingly, and as we look down, we see a huge hole in the Skull's torso--the Skull falls over dead and the Cube falls out of his hands. A shadowy figure reaches out and grabs the Cube and then picks up the Skull's phone. The shadowy figure says, "Mission accomplished, General. The Cube is now yours" (Afterward.).As the investigation into the Skull's death by S.H.I.E.L.D., in- cluding Cap, Nick Fury, and Sharon Carter (Agent 13) begins, satellite photos of a mysterious person leaving the area are examined. Distilling down the investigation, here, we eventually see Nick Fury informing Cap about the results of the photo investigation: Nick tells Cap he isn't going to like what he's found--Fury shows Cap the photos. Cap can't believe his eyes when he sees his good friend Bucky in them.Needless to say, further investigation is warranted by this discovery, first of all to determine if Bucky really is alive. Cap goes to the island where he and Bucky ended their careers together to investigate the crime scene. After all, this was where Bucky died stopping Baron Zemo from releasing atomic destruction on U.S. soil. Cap is confused in his memories and realizes that Bucky might actually still be alive.A short time later Cap finds himself facing off with Bucky attempting to kill him. Although Cap prevails, and survives the encounter, he feels tortured by what's happened to his friend. Obtaining the Cube, Cap is able to restore Bucky's memories, and along with Sharon Carter (Agent 13), help Bucky come to terms with what has happened to him. Bucky eventually begins working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and over time rekindles his lifelong friendship with Cap. Cap and Sharon also rekindle their one-time relationship.Bucky's Story: What drove Bucky to become the Winter Soldier? Let's take a look at what happened when he and Cap save the U.S. from nuclear annihilation--the day Cap was frozen and Bucky left to float and freeze on a block of drifting ice.The Soviets arrived and found Bucky floating and frozen on that block of ice. Karpov, Lukin's mentor, finds and retreives Bucky's body in hopes he is a super soldier like Cap. After years of testing and finding out Bucky is just an ordinary guy, Karpov, now a powerful KGB member, looks for a way to use Bucky against Cap and America.The KGB wake up Bucky, but Bucky has lost all of his memories. This made him pliable and the KGB began to mold him into a killing machine. He had lost his arm, so they gave him a new cybernetic arm and sent him out on mission after mission of assassination and terror. But each time Bucky went out, he started remembering little bits, little pieces, of his former life. After one mission, he went missing for days--the KGB reeled him in and put him back in hibernation until they wanted another assassination completed. Repeat. Refreeze.The Berlin Wall fell. Karpov died. Bucky was in hibernation in a secret underground facility--his chamber gathered dust...until the day Lukin and The Red Skull came to discuss business together.One More Plot Line: Knowing how Cap made appearances to sell Bonds for the U.S., one big oil corporation attempts to woo him to make similar appearances for them. Knowing Cap as we do, and given that he is in the middle of the investigation about Bucky, he, naturally, tells them, "I'm not a corporate shill." and "If it were up to me lobbying would be against the law" (Afterword). Needless to say, the corporation doesn't take kindly to his retort. One of the corporate men indicate that there was "...another one of these guys in a warehouse somewhere...."The corporation goes about purchasing the Captain America from the '50s (a Commie basher and McCarthyite) with the proviso they keep him out of the U.S. The old '50s Cap performs like the "trained monkey," he felt himself to be at that time. General Lukin sees footage of him giving a speech--he immediately recognizes him.This Cap eventually is able to get free of the medication they have him on and realize what decade he is awake in, now. Eventually, the '50s Cap clashes with our Cap (the man of the people, New Deal-er from the Depression) in a horrible, "hellish battle" on the streets of New York.The Juiciest Tidbits for Last: OK. Well if you've all seen the trailer for the new upcoming Winter Soldier movie you all know that Falcon (a superhero for our side) makes an appearance to help Cap. And while he doesn't have a huge role in the book, it is exciting to see the character make an appearance.And last, but not least...drumroll please ...The Red Skull is still alive inside of General Lukin's body. WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING? OMG! The Red Skull is still alive. I know, I know. But if you really think about it. How juicy is that? I mean, The Red Skull is a really great supervillain. I'm sure that Marvel really wouldn't want to lose a "peach" like The Red Skull permanently.Apparently, The Red Skull attempted to switch his psyche with Lukin's. The Tessaract only had enough power for one transfer, so, while the Red Skull's psyche was transferred into Lukin's body, Lukin's psyche was not transferred into The Red Skull's body.The result is that both psyches are now housed in Lukin's body. The last pages of the book show Lukin and The Red Skull having an inner conversation; the pane on the left contains one of the snippits of dialog.WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE BOOK:Anthony Mackie will star in the role of The Falcon. #Nerd Swag reports Mackie's look as the "Ultimate Falcon look, which is a morerealistic one and goes with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. squad." #Nerd Swag believes that Falcon's wings will be CGI. This concept art was done bey Stephen Savelli.Well, well, well...what do we have here? I have to say I was "Marvel-ously" surprised by this book (Sorry about the bad pun!). First, it is just flat out beautiful! Since it is a hardcover, it will last forever. The dustjacket is gorgeous and protects the beautiful hard cover, underneath.The pages are semi-glossy--far finer than any comic book and much better than even some graphic novels that I've seen. There are 312 pages, so it is a sizeable book. Unlike comic books, this book has no advertising, whatsoever (My kudos to the publishers, on this one!).The Afterward generously sums up the entire contents of the book and also includes a few pages of promotional art by Steve Epting, one of the Illustrators. I also loved the art work, the graphics being beautifully rendered--the flashbacks to the past are done in grayscale so it is easy to see when the time shifts take place.The color is flat-out gorgeous, which, by the way belies the rather somber-colored and serious-looking cover; which by the way, is the message movie producers want to convey--a serious movie, serious themes and plots and not some jokey, comic.In an interview for USA Today, Ed Brubaker told the interviewer, "I read the script and I was really blown away by it." He went on to say that "The tone of it and the Bucky stuff is so perfect and the way I'd want it to be, I was so thrilled to see that. But to me the biggest thing, too, is it's the first time Marvel has put out a movie where there's a specific book the title of the movie relates to." [11]My opinion is that I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Brubaker. Marvel did a GREAT job with this book. Even though Marvel fell on their faces when they tried to create a graphic novel for the hugely anticipated movie, Thor: The Dark World [Entitled: Thor: The Dark World Prelude (a graphic novel).]. They advertised that book as a graphic novel, but it failed miserably, in my estimation--I've already reviewed the book and will not do so, again, here, except to point you to my review, posted: October 29, 2013, by clicking this link. But here, in Captain America: Winter Soldier, Marvel has succeeded tremendously with this book! My kudos to all who worked on this fine book!MY RECOMMENDATIONS AND RATING:The movie MPAA rating is PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence throughout, and some profanity. Likewise, I would rate the book similarly: It has violence and some people died in the book (blood and gore, as well); profanity, some alcohol, drugs and smoking and some (as IMDb puts it,) "Frightening/Intense Scenes." However, for adult viewers who enjoy action/adventure/sci-fi books and movies, you will, undoubtedly enjoy this book and movie.It definitely earned a good book rating! I am very happy with this book. It has earned the given rating for all the above-listed (good) reasons. I award this book 4 stars. Thank you for joining me this week to look at this exciting new book in anticipation of its adaptation into an exciting film which will be released to theaters on April 4, 2014. I guess I always assumed I'd read this, since I know the whole plot, but apparently I never had. It's one of the most acclaimed modern superhero runs for good reason, especially since it so brazenly broke one of the few seemingly unbreakable rules in comics. I'm not a fan of the Cosmic Cube maguffin causing and / or solving all the problems, but this is a minor gripe in a story where everything else is rock solid. Steve Rogers has rarely felt so human and so vulnerable, his supporting cast is used extremely well and Winter Soldier is one of those rare recent creations that already feels like a cornerstone piece of the Marvel Universe.
Do You like book Captain America Winter Soldier (2004)?
Lots of twists and turns with mucho badness happening around Cap. I'm ready to start on Red Menace!
—smilyface8686
Really good *-* Can't wait for the movie... winter soldier ftw!
—mercydavid
Was expecting it to be a bit more Winter Soldier-y.
—esther
