Ed Brubaker is one of my favorite writers working in comics today. He's one of the guys who seems, to me, to get what comics are all about, and what separates comics from all other types of media. His work on Fatale and Incognito is just incredible, and his run on Captain America, shortly coming to an end, has been epic in scope. He's left a lasting effect on the character; as much as one can leave on a corporately owned character, in any case.
Brubaker is soon leaving the ranks of Marvel to focus solely on his creator-owned work, and I'm sure he'll find great success there - more than he's already found, which is a considerable amount. He's a crime noir author of great skill and I will certainly follow his work wherever it leads.
I mention all of this because I don't want anyone to get the impression that I don't hold Brubaker's work in the highest of regards, because I do. In the last year or so, though, I've noticed a funny trend in his Captain America-themed comics that I thought I'd point out for no other reason than I had a stack of Cap comics with me today as well as a camera.
In short, Ed Brubaker writes the phrase "damn it!" in his Captain America books more than I've ever seen it used before.
In working my way through a stack of new comics, I sat down today with two issues of Captain America and three issues of Winter Soldier, both solid titles all around. I decided, since I had a decent number of issues at my immediate disposal, to count the number of times the phrase "damn it" was used, in all of its iterations (that is, "dammit" also counts). When I read the choice phrase, I took a picture, and here are the results.
If you read a book like Fatale, for instance, you'll find much harsher language, violence and other R-rated themes than you'd ever find in books like Brubaker's Cap-themed duo of publications. That makes sense, of course; it also makes sense that the language would be toned down a bit, and "damn" is just about as innocuous as you can get while still clinging to a bit of an edge. So I understand why it's being used so often - but it's still funny to see it pop up in every story, multiple times, sometimes in adjoining panels.
The most recent Captain America storyline is merely co-written by Brubaker; I'd venture a guess that he's simply plotting the issues before his departure (though it looks like he'll return to full scripting duties one last time before the book rolls over into a Marvel Now!-themed relaunch in just a few weeks). That being the case, I can't be sure if Brubaker or the co-writer of the storyline, Cullen Bunn, is responsible for the dialogue choice in the issues in question. But hey, it's in there, so why not take a picture?
Regardless of how good the new Captain America stories are once he moves on, I will surely miss Ed Brubaker's work on the book. All the best to him as he fully immerses himself in creator-owned comics, damn it!
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