After bringing to a close the Red Skull’s rather confused plan to seize control of the US, both Captain America and his book are in a slightly reflective mood. With an eighteen-month origin story behind him, it might be expected that Bucky would be energetically throwing himself into his new role. However, Ed Brubaker shows a keen understanding of the character he has rebuilt, treading a fine line. While never allowing the tone to slip into self-hating angst, he continually reminds the reader of the new Cap’s darker origins.

Picking up over a month after the Skull’s downfall, the story immediately makes clear that Barnes hasn’t had trouble occupying himself. After his actions have been so painstakingly documented over the previous year, it’s undeniably odd to see him running free in fleetingly referred-to adventures. The issue has a surprisingly consistant tone of calm anticipation, particularly when its fractured content is considered. The writer cuts seamlessly between a World War II flashback, the new Cap’s home life and the sort of old school super-villainary that is becoming increasingly rare in the Marvel universe. Luke Ross deserves much credit for his sharply defined work here, doing a superlative job of binding these elements together. Although benefiting from Frank D’Armata’s colouring to aid the book’s consistant identity, his art is vastly supiror to any of the title’s fill-in pencillers, standing on an equal footing with the departing Steve Epting’s work. By the end of the issue, however, it becomes obvious that the flashbacks to occupied China are directly relevant to the main plot. It’s curious to see the book’s normal juggling of elements being applied to a single story strand, and adds to the suspicion that this story will be a fleeting holiday from the ongoing epic which has constituted Brubaker’s run on the book to date.

Aside from leaving Bucky with the Black Widow to talk to, Brubaker strips away the book’s previous regular cast, leaving an apparently simplistic solo format at the start of this three part arc. While this may stem from a desire to minimise the Secret Invasion spoilers implicit in the book’s setting, the writer is more than happy to play up to the expectations of this cliché, with Cap’s musings and personal life interrupted by an enormously enjoyable one-off appearance from Batroc. This extended cameo is a perfect metaphor for the book’s direction- still packing a significant punch, but now with a touch of light-hearted panache.

Time and time again, I’ve said that what I’d really like to see someone do is create a Green Lantern Corps series that takes the “cop show in space” concept and runs with it properly - setting up a bunch of lead characters that don’t always necessarily interact with one-another, and hopping between various storylines: some big, some small; some involving external investigations, others internal intrigue.

So with that in mind, I don’t know why I haven’t been paying closer attention to this book - because a recent trawl through its back issues has revealed that, while far from perfect, it’s actually quite close to that exact specification - and it has Guy Gardner as pretty much its lead character, to boot. While it’s benefitted from having Dave Gibbons as its guiding light (having launched the series, he pops up now and again to write and/or pencil), writers Keith Champagne and now Peter J. Tomasi have stepped up to do a solid job in keeping up the momentum. It’s an entertaining series, with a good roster of characters (both old and new) that also refers neatly back to old GL mythology on occasion (even though Mogo has, by now, been badly overused).

Tomasi here wraps up a two-part murder mystery/investigation storyline, as the recent brutal killings of families of Corps members are solved. A Lantern named Saarek becomes integral to the investigation, and it’s hard not to see his unique abilities being made use of in the future (indeed, the tease of the closing pages suggests exactly that). In and of himself he’s not a hugely interesting character so far, and I’ve often wondered just how wise it is to introduce GLs with powers beyond those the ring provides - but it’s nevertheless an intriguing concept (and basically gives Tomasi an excuse to have come up with the imagery of hundreds of disembodied eyes floating in a tank).

Longer-standing threads are dealt with courtesy of a surprise appearance by Ice, with the relationship between her and Guy being - so far - a slow-burning development in the background of the series. There are a few of these running through the book - although only this one shows up in this issue - and they certainly make the book more rewarding for regular readers, though such an X-Men-ish approach does tend to make it a little more difficult for the newcomer. These scene does provide guest artist Luke Ross with one of his more misjudged moments, though, oversexifying Ice a tad (it is Ice, after all) - while elsewhere, although his work is solid, there’s just a little too much of a sheen to it (hardly Greg Land territory, but all just a bit too pretty and obvious), and the more idiosyncratic Patrick Gleason will surely be welcomed back next month.

While it enjoys much less of a high profile than Geoff Johns’ sister Green Lantern title, GL Corps manages to be one of the best pure sci-fi books DC has put out in a while - again, this must partly be down to the influence of Gibbons, but there’s something of a 2000AD vibe to a lot of it, as well as calling back the classic Tales of the Green Lantern Corps - and indeed, with the relocation of Guy and Kyle to Oa, shifting the focus away from Earth, you’d barely call it a superhero book at all were it not for the costumes. The GL property as a whole is suffering a bit from having a lot of mythos piled onto it (there’s barely been a chance to catch breath from The Sinestro Corps War before The Blackest Night kicks off early next year) - but while that sort of thing might be better-suited to Hal Jordan’s title, the Corps book has shown in its short life so far that it’s at its best when it’s being more NYPD Blue than Justice League.