I may have fallen into a stack of comic books the last couple of months and I’m only now resurfacing. I would apologize but Beth would just roll her eyes at me certain in her knowledge that in a few weeks I’ll become obsessed with something else and disappear down that rabbit hole.

Over Christmas, I read a number of Captain America titles and then decided to read some Winter Soldier titles as well. While I am a huge fan of Captain America everywhere (and a fan of Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan) I’m not really all that into the MCU’s Bucky Barnes. He just seems like a skirt-chasing dick who occasionally turns up and helps Steve Rogers end a fight. (Or, he starts the fight. Whatever, fights occur as a function of his existence.) So, I decided that I needed to give print Bucky a go and see if he and I clicked.

He and I click. (Well, I like him. He’s fictional and thus has no opinion on me.)

This Bucky spends a lot of time in space fighting aliens (and stealing baby aliens and then trying to hide the fact that he’s stolen a baby alien. “Pay no attention to the small creature I’m feeding under the table!”). This is a Bucky that turns up on a planet, gets caught by the planetary guards and when he is asked what he wants says, “A date?” (Based on his results I’d say this is a solid strategy.) This Bucky cracks me the fuck up. This Bucky I could have a cup of coffee with. (I don’t know why that’s important to me, but apparently it is.) Also, this Bucky wouldn’t talk to you before having said cup of coffee.  This is also important since I pretty much run on coffee and spite.

There’s mayhem in the multiverse, and aliens, and gun play and Tremors (who you might now know from watching Agents of Shield!). So, I’m pretty into this and have already started volume 2.