If you've read my reviews of "Earth 2" and "Winter Soldier," you know that I love James Robinson and Bucky Barnes. The promise of combining the two of them in one series was almost too exciting to believe, but here we are. Was I disappointed? No. No, I was not.
Robinson gave an early positive sign when he made sure to mention Remender's Descendants arc from "Secret Avengers." Although the arc was uneven, it was still an amazing epic. Jim Hammond is left broken at the end of it, having saved humanity but cursing himself to exile, an lone android among humans. Robinson makes it clear that this loneliness drove him to the small town of Blaketon, where he seeks the solace necessary to sort out the events of that arc for himself. Of course, he's not exactly given that chance. It would be boring if he had been, wouldn't it?
The rest of the arc becomes actually feels a lot like "Earth 2," with Robinson taking familiar characters but putting them into new contexts. When I first saw Major Liberty with the Invaders, I immediately ran to Wikipedia to see if I had just forgotten about that character. The answer is that I did, but Robinson plays with that confusion, because the Invaders do as well, since the memory was hidden. I'm intrigued to see how the battle sequence shown here (where Liberty dies) somehow holds the key to the location of some device important to the Kree.
I'll admit that the Kree angle feels odd for the Invaders. But, Robinson sort of chides you for that feeling. After all, it wouldn't be the "All-New" Invaders if they were still fighting Nazis. Expanding into outer space is probably the right call. I'm certainly willing to give Robinson time to develop it and I'd be thrilled if we get something like the "Annihilation" event. Hopefully, if we continue the focus on the Kree, Robinson will be able to use the changed environment in much the same way that Remender used Dimension Z, removing the character from his usual setting to get to the core of who he is.
*** (three of five stars)
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