By Rebecca Gault — Two men serve as the focal point for this week’s Devil’s Reign - Winter Soldier #1. You would be forgiven for thinking, on words alone, that Fisk narrates the opening pages. He meditates on how he cannot sleep, on how he cannot move on from his mission. It’s a conceit that is a familiar beat for Fisk in Devil’s Reign. He is a haunted man who cannot free himself from the terrible knowledge that someone has been in his head. Sound familiar? It certainly should. 

Of course, it is Bucky Barnes who narrates here.

This issue offers a meandering plot that does not necessarily move much forward in the way of the overarching Devil’s Reign story. Instead, it shows a much more considered engagement with Bucky as a protagonist, delving into what the consequences of this event are for his own personal journey.  

Writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly offer a considered down beat in the overall event here. There are very few panels with dialogue. Instead, Lanzing and Kelly eschew quips and conversation in favor of Bucky’s own internal monologue. Bucky is searching for the file Fisk holds on him and, in the process, searching for a sense of what he calls truth. It feels like self-flagellation but this is not a beat that feels out of character for Bucky.

Fisk looms here, larger than life, serving as a mindless threat for a lot of the issue. He is the figure in the dark, the one holding all the puppet strings just out of view, and it offers him a sinister mystique that is reduced when he is present and conversational in other issues. He is plagued by the knowledge that something he once possessed is now a mental blank spot. It’s a compelling obsession, one that is understandable for most people and therefore humanizing, even as the audience watches him spin out into even more heinous villainy. 

It’s an ominous feeling that is only enhanced by Nico Leon’s art and Felipe Sobreiro’s coloring. The entire issue is muted in its palette aside from the crimson splashed over every page. It is blood-soaked and horrific — a perfect marriage of Fisk’s actions rippling out to affect everyone in the event as well as of Bucky’s own murderous past. 

There is a moment here with Bucky alone in an alleyway, about to reckon with the truth of his past when he notes that the file that he has taken is not that of the Winter Soldier. It’s that of James Buchanan Barnes. Two separate entities in his mind. There is no closure to be found here, nothing but a trail of people he murdered — both as the Winter Soldier and as James Buchanan Barnes. 

Fisk loses intel here ultimately, but perhaps it is Bucky who suffers the greatest loss of all; the loss of his ability to reconcile his past. Instead, this is left as a plot thread — one to be picked up in the newest Captain America run. It’s a grim mirroring of these two figures but, in one of the more introspective issues of this event, it is one that offers an insightful clarity for both characters.

Overall: Less plot driven than the rest of the Devil’s Reign event, Devil’s Reign: Winter Soldier #1 offers an introspective, character focused beat that will compel fans of both Fisk and Bucky. 9.0/10

REVIEW: Devil’s Reign: Winter Soldier #1

Devil’s Reign: Winter Soldier #1 
Writer: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly 
Artist: Nico Leon 
Colorist: Felipe Sobreiro 
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
A power-mad Mayor Fisk has been gathering information on superheroes. How far will Bucky Barnes go to steal the file on his own shadowy, half-remembered past as the Winter Soldier? And what horrible revelation awaits him if he can get past the Kingpin?
Some secrets are meant to stay buried. And some doors are meant to stay closed.
Price: $4.99

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Rebecca is a literature student by day, a freelance writer by night, and a comics fan always. She is a big fan of everything superheroic and horrific. Right now, she can be found on Twitter at @phoenixfcrce.