Rating: ***

With the release of Captain America: Reborn the main ongoing storyline of the death, and now rebirth of Cap will be told there.  With issue #601 of the regular monthly title we get a stand alone story by Cap writer Ed Brubaker and veteran comic artist Gene Colan.  I’m going to put my neck out and say I didn’t like Mr. Colan’s artwork here.  I did a Google search and was checking out some of his previous work on Daredevil, Howard the Duck and Tomb of Dracula and thought his work then was very good, but I just wasn’t digging his work here.  The cover of this issue is a good example of what I didn’t like.  Cap almost doesn’t seem to have a neck in this illustration and the wings on his mask protrude out too much for my taste. 

As for the story, Brubaker tells a nice little stand alone story about Cap and Bucky fighting vampires during World War II.  The story is presented as a flashback where we see Bucky as the Winter Soldier talking to Nick Fury relating a story about soldiers turning on their own.  The story takes place in Bastogne, Belgium in February of 1945.  Bucky and Cap find an American soldier dying in an old house.  The soldier tells Cap how much he admires him as Cap tries to comfort him as he dies.  But the soldier is not truly dead, he was bitten by a vampire and the “dead” body is resurrected into a vampire.  Cap and Bucky battle the vampire soldier and end up killing him.

Cap and Bucky begin their investigation as to the origin of the vampire problem.  At first they suspect it to be Baron Blood, Cap’s old adversary, but his skeleton is still in his tomb.  More soldiers are being transformed and a panic begins in the ranks of the US soldiers as one soldier accidentally kills one of his own thinking he’s a vampire.

The USO is in the area and Cap hopes that a show will ease some of the tension, but Cap realizes that things are getting too dangerous and the show should be canceled in order to protect the talent associated with the show.  As Cap and Buck enter the dressing room of the main female talent, they realize that she too is a vampire and she’s been turning the soldiers into vampires.  She’s soon defeated, but Cap suspects that there may be more to the story.  They soon discover that there is still one more vampire out there - a young girl.  Cap and Bucky find her and kill her.  Which leaves an awful mental scar on Bucky as he’s the one who pulls the trigger on the poor vampire girl.

This was a very good story, but I was really disappointed by Gene’s artwork.  If you want to see some really good classic artwork by Mr. Colan I would checkout his website www.genecolan.com.  His old work is fantastic.  I would pick this issue up if you’re a Cap fan or if you’re into vampires.  See ya!