Bucky is Captain America in this story, which has him teaming up with Falcon to take down the far-right terrorist group called The Watchdogs.
The Watchdogs are now led by William “1950s Cap” Burnside, who plans to blow up the Hoover Dam to illustrate that America has drifted too far from its ideals.
It concludes with Bucky shooting Burnside, who seems to fall to his death but…No, he’s not dead.
This isn’t a bad Captain America adventure, but given the intricacy of Brubaker’s run up to now, it does feel a little light–even if it is still a great read.
Part of why it feels light is that each issue has a back-up feature–a four-part story about Becky “Nomad” Barnes. She teams up with Arana to foil a plot by the Secret Empire.
This means that each issue has a lead hero who is wearing the costume of a more famous version of the same hero (Cap and Nomad). Plus, both Bucky and Becky are at least the fourth or fifth versions of those same heroes. And both stories have these “legacy” versions teamed up with a lesser-known hero. In the case of Arana, she’s basically also the fourth version of Spider-Woman (who herself is a version of Spider-Man).
I don’t say any of that as criticism–it’s just interesting.