Oooh oooh oooh pleeeeeeease talk about Ed Brubakers cap run
I know we’re not “supposed” to care about plot holes. The great internet film critic/youtube person circle got together and decided that Serious People™ don’t talk about plot holes, and actually, they rewrote the definition so that nothing is a plot hole anymore. Some people take it too far and don’t pay attention and then complain about things that were explained, and I get the frustration. But everyone cares when important things are confusing or don’t work the way they should or don’t get explained. We all do, and saying, “I am superior because I only care about theeeeeeemes” is a crock of bull.
So, I have some questions, such as: Why were Fury and Sharon trying to free Steve when he turned himself in? How did no one in that huge crowd notice that Sharon shot Steve? How did the coroner not notice that Steve was also shot up close from straight on? Do coroners in the Marvel Universe not know how angles work? Or the difference between different bullet wounds? I guess you could say that the coroner was a plant by Red Skull, but Tony also examined the body. Does Tony not know how angles work?
That’s just a few of the questions I had from one story arc. I could keep going. It’s not about the specific things that don’t work. It’s about how lazy everything feels. It’s about how there is a technological fix-it to every plot problem that arises. Gadgets appear out of nowhere to solve problems, and then are never mentioned again. I can understand cutting corners if you’re writing a miniseries or a book that could be cancelled at any point, but this book went on forever. It had way too many filler issues and unnecessary World War II flashbacks, and that time could have been spent making the plot more natural or, idk, exploring Bucky’s mental state,* beyond “man is sad because he did a bad thing.”
Or exploring Steve’s mental state, for that matter. Brubaker wrote that book during Civil War, and instead of trying to explore Steve’s motivations and feelings, he had one dialogue exchange between Steve and Sharon about the SHRA and then the rest of the tie-ins were about random shit and other characters.
There are character and story consequences to all of this corner cutting. If magic technology can get you out of any scrape, it gives you less opportunities to show the characters being creative and resourceful, to put them in tight spots and actually force them (and you) to think of a way out of it. It’s not just about “realism.” It chips away at the suspense. That’s why I’m always harping on how Wanda’s powers should be based around quick thinking and inventiveness, not untouchable godhood.
And okay, I’m gonna be honest and admit that I don’t understand the Winter Soldier as a character (specifically the assassin years, not Bucky in general). I found the canon too vague and seemingly self-contradictory, and then the fandom made me more confused because people talk about him in ways that I don’t… think are supported by the canon. The movies made everything worse because he’s handled very differently there, but people talk about it like it’s the same thing.
The movies do a better job of making it cohesive, but it still doesn’t work 100% there. I feel guilty saying this because he’s my favorite character in the MCU,** but if I think about the details for too long, my head starts to hurt. Even putting aside the baffling specifics, I get the feeling Bucky would be better off being written by women. Not that I could test this idea since the stories that deal with the Winter Soldier stuff are written by men. I guess there’s fanfiction, but I don’t read fanfiction, so…
ANYWAY, last thing: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that all that stuff Brubaker did to Sharon Carter was bad and made me uncomfortable. Lots of people have talked about that, and I don’t have anything to add. It’s just… man, that was really gross.
*Do you ever think about the fact that there was a whole issue about Sin’s deprogramming, but Bucky was fixed with a Cosmic Cube? That was weird.
**I say this, yet I’m fascinated by the intense fanboy hatred towards MCU Bucky. I mean that in a neutral, unironic way. I think it’s interesting. I even agree with Film Crit Hulk’s criticism of the way he’s written, though I’d say there’s more to the negative reaction than writing flaws. There is something about this version of this character (as opposed to the 616 version) that a lot of people (it’s more often men, but other people feel the same way) really don’t respond to. Which is made more fascinating by how strong the opposite reaction is in others.
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