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Captain America #614: Review

Jan 2011

Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice

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Story Name:

The Trial of Captain America—Part 4

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #614 Review by Peter Silvestro (January 30, 2011)

Comments: Captain America does not appear on the cover of his own comic, a rare occurrence. Dr. Faustus seems to be drawn to resemble Gert Frobe, who played Goldfinger in the James Bond film of that name. Evidence of production troubles: six inkers and three colorists. Issue includes a six-page preview of Marvel’s “Point One” initiative.

Review: The final panel announces a conclusion no one is expecting. I hope so, since the story so far has followed the pattern of “The Trial of the Falcon” in CAPTAIN AMERICA (Vol. 1) #191: hero’s criminal past is exposed by villain, he stand trial, different villain crashes the trail, hero takes off to fight him… The next step is “exonerated in the eyes of the public.” This should not be that easy, since charges of treason and terrorism are much more serious than the unspecified gangland activities Snap (the Falcon) Wilson was accused of. But then they are promising that everything will change with the next issue. So maybe it will.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #614 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Black Widow and the Falcon trace the sinister Sin to a warehouse where they are ambushed and captured by Master Man and his henchmen. At Bucky’s trial, prosecutor Blake Tower brings on a series of witnesses to establish that the former Winter Soldier was a willing killer for the Soviets, including former KGB officials, Aleksander Lukin’s thugs and even Norman Osborn, who presents evidence of a SHIELD cover-up. Bucky’s attorney Bernie Rosenthal manages to discredit each of these witnesses as criminal and self-serving in their own right. Bernie calls as the first defense witness the sinister psychiatrist Dr. Faustus. Faustus testifies that as the Winter Soldier, Bucky was programmed to be a killer and was not responsible for his actions. Tower accuses Faustus of making a deal with Steve Rogers for his favorable testimony but the villain denies it. While testifying, Faustus subtly hypnotizes Tower into attacking the bailiff, as a demonstration of the ease of brainwashing. At this point a man rises from among the spectators and aims a gun at Blake Tower. Instinctively Bucky hurls Tower to the floor while Steve attacks and disarms the gunman. Taken into custody, the gunman reveals his true mission: to deliver a video from the new Red Skull. On the tape, Sin offers to exchange her prisoners, the Falcon and Black Widow, for Bucky. He is to show up at the Statue of Liberty at sunset or she will blow up the monument and the hostages with it. Suspecting an escape plot, the judge orders Bucky returned to prison. In the transport en route, Dr Faustus offers to help Bucky with his dilemma: the villain has already brought the two guards under his control and merely asks them to let Bucky go. As Sin broadcasts the show to the American public, Bucky—as Captain America—arrives, bringing the fight to her….

Story #2

Underneath the Skin—Conclusion

Writer: Sean McKeever. Penciler: Filipe Andrade. Inker: Filipe Andrade. Colorist: Chris Sotomayor.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

By Peter Silvestro

With Nomad having been injected with a formula that makes her into a living bomb, SHIELD Agent Erica Fowler rushes the young hero to a freezer. As Fowler lowers Nomad’s body temperature to counteract the poison, Black Widow beats the Second Shadow operative Hunt to learn the whereabouts of the other bioweapon samples. Hunt doesn’t know and is willing to die for the cause. Fowler sits with Nomad as she slowly sinks into a coma, with the Widow coming in to say something to her, and the girl hero wonders what will happen to her now….

Some time later she is back in school, with casts on her broken thumbs, pondering what to do about the Second Shadow which is still on the loose. She receives a midnight visit from Erica Fowler, who gives her a new, upgraded Nomad costume, with better nonlethal weaponry. Erica reveals to Rikki that Black Widow was behind her Nomad identity from the start. It was the Widow who sat in the freezer with Rikki to monitor her life signs. Rikki then recalls what Natasha said to her as she lost consciousness: "I was a dancer once too." And she finds her new world offering her hope.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

Preview Pages

Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Ed Brubaker

Butch Guice

Tom Palmer

Chris Sotomayor

Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Penciler)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Inker)
Marko Djurdjevic (Cover Colorist)

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Widow
(Natasha Romanoff)

Captain America
(James "Bucky" Barnes)

Captain America
(Steve Rogers)

Falcon
(Sam Wilson)

Plus: Aleksander Lukin, Bernie Rosenthal, Blake Tower, Master Man, Nomad (Rikki Barnes), Norman Osborn, Red Skull (Synthia Schmidt), Second Shadow, Sin (Synthia Schmidt).

> Captain America: Book info and issue index

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