Captain America #18 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Brubaker continues to wrap up his time on "Captain America" with this issue, bringing to a close Cap's ongoing battle with Codename Brave and Queen Hydra.  The problem, however, is that it's hard not to feel like we've already read this issue a dozen times already.

Brubaker covers very little new ground in this concluding arc when it comes to Bravo and Hydra.  They yet again use madbombs and mind-control to induce fear in the population and Steve is yet again left questioning his beliefs as he confronts how easily Americans are pushed to mistrust and violence.  Rinse, repeat.  The only innovation in this arc has been the Discordians, but Brubaker has never really developed them as a concept, making them feel like afterthoughts.  I'm still not sure exactly what their deal is, other than the fact that they seem to die pretty quickly.  (In fact, on the cover, proving their irrelevance they're replaced by HYDRA agents.)  In the end, Cap's final battle with Bravo and Hydra seriously disappoints.  First, Hydra inexplicably goes insane when she realizes that the madbombs were disabled and randomly opens fire on Cap and Bravo, taking down Bravo in the process.  (So, Cap doesn't even get to take down Bravo himself.  Thrilling.)  Then, Cap disarms her with his shield and she appears to have some sort of violent spasm that causes her to fly across the room into the monitor screen, since she doesn't seem to be standing close enough to the screen to have been thrown into it the way that she's depicted as doing here.  Oddly, we learn in the epilogue that Bravo apparently shakes off getting shot repeatedly, but Hydra's tussle with the monitor has left her in a coma.

With Bravo, Hydra, and Zemo safely behind bars, Brubaker turns to the last remaining issue, the distance between Cap and Sharon.  Sharon has been worried about Steve throughout this arc and their relationship took a hit after Sharon shot D-Man.  But, Brubaker somewhat oddly just has Steve kiss Sharon and tell her that they're fine.  It almost feels like Brubaker just found himself without enough time to address their relationship and he didn't want to end his run with any ambiguity.  He normally doesn't avoid putting his characters in situations where they have to engage in actual conversation, so I'm disappointed that we don't get to see Sharon and Steve talk out their problems.  Instead, Brubaker just waves his magic wand here and we're all just supposed to feel warm and fuzzy.

Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled with this arc.  Given the recycled plots and the recent lack of any sort of emotional development, it's pretty clear that Brubaker is tired.  It's time for him to bring the same insight and energy to a character that he originally brought to this one.  Even with my disappointment over this series, I still trust him to give us a good show next issue.  Fingers crossed.