Winter Soldier #1

Winter Soldier, or Bucky Barnes to you and me, is a character who has gone through more changes in the past few years than any other character in comics. He was found to be not dead since WWII, he was brainwashed into working for the Soviets, he broke free from his captors, became the new Captain America when Steve Rogers died, and then "died" again during Fear Itself. But he didn't really die. Not everyone in the Marvel Universe knows that fact though. And that brings us to the point of this new series.
Bucky is now hitting the underground, trying to right the wrongs he did as a puppet of the Russians. Along to help him is his current gal pal, the Black Widow. The book is full of the espionage and intrigue you'd expect from the best James Bond movie. Ed Brubaker has taken a character he did not create, and turned him into one that should not be written by anyone else. Bru has such a take on Bucky that fits more perfectly than any writer with any character today. Bru's backed on art by one of his best partners-in-crime, Butch Guice. Butch always fired on all cylinders when he drew Captain America, and he hasn't slowed down one bit here. In fact, he might have even stepped up his game. The book has that atmospheric feel that makes you believe this spy tale could actually happen in our world, even with all the fanastical aspects of the book (you'll see what I mean when you get to the last page). A lot of that atmosphere is in part due to colorist Bettie Breitweiser's amazing talents. Colorists, much like inkers, don't get enough credit when it comes to how well a book looks. The color palette Bettie uses matches Guices moody pencils in a perfect manner. The color plays an important role in this book because you can't have spies believably sneaking around in the light, but you can't also make the pages so dark that the reader can't tell what's happening. There's a perfect blend here.
Winter Soldier is a return to form for Brubaker to me. His current Captain America series has just not clicked with me since the relaunch. This book on the other hand, is exactly what I think of when I think of Bru. To me, Bru + Bucky = brillance.