Alpine in Captain America Finale #1

Lol I can't believe that this comic ended with Steve, Bucky, and Sharon happily going on a run together after all the bullshit with Ian. Ah, comics. Never change.

(Actually, please do. I really can't handle all the poor writing.)

Captain America Finale (2023) #1

best girl alpine in Captain America & the Winter Soldier Special (2022)

You never fight alone

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #4

Is Bucky a villain in the comics now? It looks like he’s fighting with Steve and Sam.

So there are two parallel Cap runs, Sentinel of Liberty and Symbol of Truth, where both Steve and Sam are Cap at the same time. (You absolutely need to read the two Winter Soldier specials to understand Sentinel of Liberty.)

Bucky is pretending to be a super villain in order to end an evil global conspiracy that’s been controlling world events since the 1920s. They also killed his parents in order to force him into the military as a child and have been using him his entire life to kill people, both before, during, and after he was The Winter Soldier. So he’s like real mad. And he hasn’t slept in weeks so he’s extra unhinged.

The conspiracy, The Outer Circle, was created by a group of people who treat manipulating the world as a game. One player, the Revolution, was intended to stop the game, trying to foil the other players. If one of the players is killed, the killer becomes the new player. The Revolution orchestrated things so that Bucky would kill him and become the New Revolution, hopefully to end the game once and for all.

Steve didn’t want anyone to die and Bucky absolutely wants to kill them all. He shot through Steve to kill the Revolution, which is hilarious because every time Steve is like “Bucky shot me :(“ everyone responds by telling him “well good news is that he didn’t want you dead or you’d be dead so you’re obviously still friends.” And Bucky’s first act as a super villain was literally to get Steve laid by Sharon Carter, like mea culpa bro. Bucky is keeping Steve at arm’s length but is spying on Steve via Peggy Carter. They both had big tears about their fight - they’re like on the outs but not really on the outs.

We don’t know how Sam plays into this yet, but Sam is miffed at Bucky for not telling him Nomad was alive. We don’t know why tho. It’s unclear how Sam gets involved just yet but it’s likely because the White Wolf’s plot will intersect with the Outer Circle.

Essentially, T’Challa’s evil adopted brother, White Wolf, has been trying to ruin Sam’s life for reasons unknown. He’s gotten Sam into several international incidents because Sam infiltrated other nations to stop White Wolf’s terror plots, sometimes with severe consequences. Shuri was so incensed that Sam crossed into Wakanda against her instructions that the council revoked the visas of an entire wave of American immigrants. Meanwhile, White Wolf assassinated a world leader Sam couldn’t save and has injected Joaquín with something that’s making him attack Sam. Like he has a lot of his own problems at the moment and 99 of them are White Wolf, so not sure how it leads to fighting with Bucky yet. Sam’s currently trying to stop White Wolf’s dictatorship of Wakanda’s neighbor, Mohannda.

TL;DR: Bucky’s pretending to be a super villain so he can kill the real super villains, which Steve is upset about because killing is bad. Sam is going toe to toe with White Wolf atm so it’s unclear how he gets involved with Steve and Bucky’s drama.

some thoughts on this cap run since it's coming to an end now ( finally ).

there are just so many things about sentinel of liberty & cold war that were terrible. the amount of wasted time ( ten issues and majority of them are just filler bs that doesn't do any good ), killing roger, the lack of actual development - steve has friends now out of nowhere ; bucky is...well everything was wrong with bucky ; the overcomplicated, under explained outer circle lore - the lies the writers tweeted to hype up the run only for the majority of it to never happen, killing roger, everything to do with sharon, the lack of accountability being held against bucky and peggy, ian being brought back with no explanation and then...not wanting to see his family after years?? for some reason?? KILLING ROGER.

murdering roger so callously has to take the cake as the worst part. then to have his funeral be as disrespectful as it was? ( really? all you could have namor muster up was that " he was gorgeous "? one of his oldest friends, and that's ALL he'd have to say? ) and the poem steve says is fine, or at least would be if we'd seen him grieving at all this entire time since roger's death. but he hasn't been. ( the only person we even saw openly react to roger's death was sharon and we'll get into how stupid that is later ).

then there's the little shit :

the fact that they mentioned shipping steve and bucky, even though comic steve and bucky are a father and son duo

them having peggy basically call natasha a slut and get away with it

the weird " did steve or did steve not cheat on sharon with emma " jokes when he didn't

peggy actively pointing a GUN at emma and preparing to fire and then being told by everyone that that's okay & not being questioned for why she'd be so adversive to get out of literal mind control

bucky shooting steve and then dropping him off a building and having the nerve to ask why he's upset with him

need i go on with those?

now back to roger because again, everything that had to do with him in this story was...ugh. it's bad enough to take a character out of comic limbo just to kill him, even worse when he's one of marvel's many underappreciated and underused gay characters. but how do you make it even more disrespectful, i wonder? oh, i know, having your lead female character say, in her eulogy about him, that he was " a damn mess " when she admits to only knowing him for a week, and then that looking at him was " like looking in a mirror ", and comparing his experiences as a gay man in the 40s, to hers as a woman in the 60s ( is it still 60s? idk, i think so. points still stands ) and then having her confidently steal the spotlight from him at his funeral to show off that she's taking on his mantle. what were they even thinking? not only is it blatantly ooc, but it's just plain gross and cruel. it shows that they never cared about roger, or steve, or sharon, or anyone in that book, like they claimed to.

there are ultimately no words for how much i hate this run at this point, and i am confident in believing that finale #1 will only make it worse.

Feeling super normal about Bucky Barnes and his emotional support cat.

SHARON CARTER in CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINTEL OF LIBERTY #11, by Lanzing & Kelly, Carnero, and Woodard.

captain america sentinel of liberty spoiler 👇🏻

i could die for them (especially for her)

On this day (May 17) in Sharon Carter history, Sharon appeared in:

New Mangaverse #5 (2006)

Invincible Iron Man V4 #7 (2017)

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty V2 #13 (2023)

Marvel Heroes Flip Magazine #12 (Reprint Captain America V5 #13) (2006)

Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol. 2 HC (Reprint Captain America V5 #8-#9, #12-#14) (2006)

HE LOOKS SO SOFT OH MY GOD please James

Captain America Sentinel of Liberty #9

I bring you sexy man-bun Bucky Barnes.

(you can thank me later)

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #2

I’m sorry for the tagging @burninblood !!! But I keep seeing panels and I’m anxious about this next issues 😭

Also this was under it

You never fight alone.

Captain America : Sentinel of Liberty #4 

Bucky and Alpine, partners in missions

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #4

from Carmen Carnero's Instagram