Kevin Feige has stated the obvious. A Captain America movie does not need to star Steve Rogers. This seems exceptionally obvious to me as a man who realizes that Bucky is the Best Captain America Ever.

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Rogers dropping that shield in Captain America: Civl War was more than symbolic, I guess. He was also dropping the mantle. For now, I suppose. I mean. Right? If dude ain’t slinging shield by the end of Avengers 4, let alone Infinity War, I will be shocked.

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Interested in knowing who is siding up with Captain America, and who is siding up with Iron Man in Civil War? Then hit the jump!

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Oh my god. I didn’t expect the trailer to be this fucking good. All sorts of interweaving of ponderous moments regarding duty, and just explicitly fucking awesome action sequences. My balls are ready.

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I was a huge fan of Captain Shield Guy, ranking it just behind the original Iron Lad as my favorite Marvel flick. Okay, outside of the Holy Grail Avengers Time. So I’m sweating the sequel, and I’ll gobble up every morsel of news regarding it without shame. Fucking slop on my face, me begging for more. Yes, yes. Give me, give me, give me a teaser poster!

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Feels weird to call something a dude in the military is running around in a “costume.” Yet, that’s what we are up to right here. There is a good chance that Captain America’s costume-outfit-garb from Cap 2: Bro I Love You, Bucky has leaked. If the image in question is true then the outfit bares a resemblance to the outfit Rogers wore a couple of years ago as he was slinging missions in Top Secret Avengers Team 27.

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I got a bit of the onion-eye at the end of Captain America. Captain America all like “nothing is more important to me than country! yeehaw!” as he plunged into the depths leaving behind his pretty albeit underdeveloped love interest. Wheddon penned a reunion between the two, but unfortunately that shit got the axe.

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Marvel has a Captain America movie coming out this summer. However, Steve Rogers the Captain America hasn’t been holding down the role in the Marvel funny book for the past couple of years. No sir. That honor would go to Rogers’ friend with whom he shares obvious latent homosexual love for, Bucky.  However wouldn’t you know that come July, the storylines will see Steve Rogers once again becoming Captain America.

The ‘storylines.’

Not anything like ‘marketing synergy’ and ‘editorial mandates.’

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[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

Spoilers Ahead. Forreal.

Holy shit. I really am a goddamn fanboy.

This is the realization I came to when doing the prep-work for this week’s Images & Words (see: reading comic books). While I believe in the power of comics as a medium first and foremost, I can’t help but willingly belly-flop into some of its pitfalls. Dudes with capes battling nefarious evil-doers. Womenfolk with impossible boobs and butts. Over-the-top splash pages. It’s all so damn glorious.

And the reigning king, the master of the dominion that is Nerd Manor, is Mark Millar. And that’s why we’ve written about him once or twice at OL. The man knows how to take the time-tested characters and put just enough spin on them to make them interesting again while retaining those properties we fell in love with in the first place. In short, Millar rules.

So I really shouldn’t feel bad about awarding yet another Millar book a spot on Images & Words. I shouldn’t. Seriously. But when I concluded that the pick of the week would be Ultimate Avengers 2 #1 I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just given a Mark Millar comic the weekly feature…oh wait a second…I did…just last week.

Fuck it, this is my post and I make the damn rules. I am the arbiter of the OMEGA-COMIX-ZONE! I rule with a turkey drumstick in one hand and a paneled page in the other! Fear my lack of hygiene! Admire my useless knowledge! Now, step off my Nikes, you’re going to smudge them you prick!

*Ahem* Sorry. It’s been a long day.

Anyways, this introductory issue of Ultimate Avengers 2 shakes the narrative ropes like the Ultimate Warrior. The first caption reads “The Punisher gets busy” and is followed by eight pages wholly dedicated to various murders committed by Frank Castle. While most Marvel readers know that the Punisher’s methods often border on pure sadistic savagery, this first third of the comic takes the uninitiated and throws them into the deep-end without any floaties. “Swim kid, swim for your life!”

Millar’s Punisher is a man whose heart has truly been blackened and swept away by the wind. Without remorse, he guns down not only the targeted criminals but also anyone unfortunate enough to be (even loosely) affiliated with them. It’s unadulterated brutality.

In one instance we see Castle shoot a potentially innocent man. Hoping to be spared, the man pleads, “…I have two young sons. I do not even know these people. I am just their driver, man.” In another scene, the Punisher is reminded that one of his most recent targets, though a criminal, was still only in high school. For all intents and purposes, this is an exaggerated, hyperbolic version of the character. Which is interesting, because his status as a hero (or, I suppose, anti-hero) has to be called into question.

Of course, there’s a sting operation and right when Frank Castle thinks he’s going to nab some Russian mobster, Captain America pops out and fucks his shit up. Ah, good `ole Stevie Rogers, always willing to arrest people convicted of murdering “over two hundred people.” Once in custody, Castle is informed by Nick Fury and Black Widow that the only way he can stay off of Death Row is to lead a black ops team tasked with doing the dirty work that Captain America and his buddies aren’t willing to deal with.

Right now, I’m not 100% sure how I feel about this whole bad boy working for the good guys plot. If it turns into nothing more than Frank Castle and Steve Rogers punching each other out in the name of conflicting ideologies, I fear I’ll be a bit disappointed. But if we get to see these two heroes look past their differences for the sake of beating villainous ass, well then I’m all in. Either way, the first issue of Ultimate Avengers 2 instills enough faith to remain optimistic and so I plan on doing so. Remaining. Optimistic, that is.

Thus far, the true beauty of Ultimate Avengers 2 is found in its art. Leinil Francis Yu rocks a pencil with a precision and detail that would make surgeons weep. When Frank Castle brains someone, blood is expelled not in a single horror-movie stream, but with miniscule droplets and tiny rivulets streaming all about. When a body is flung into a car window, it really seems as though millions of shards of glass are going to fly off of the page. Hell, he even makes a black eye fold over with multiple creases the way they actually do.

Another thing I love about Yu’s pencils (and an open source of debate between Caffeine Powered and me) is that not all of the lines are cleaned up or erased. In fact, a lot of them remain and are inked right over. I love this shit. I think it hits the reader’s subconscious, reminding him that what is being experienced is a fucking comic book. Not a photograph. But a comic book, a series of real drawings that were crafted by an artist.

Again, I’m not sure where Ultimate Avengers 2 is going. It has the potential to be campier and more ridiculous than its predecessor, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But so far, the big violent roller-coaster of a sequel has come out of the gate and ascended the first peak. Arms up, motherfuckers.