The deal of the day over at Things From Another World today is the Captain America: Man With No Face trade paperback for only $5.99 (that’s 63% off the list price of $15.99).

Note – This deal is valid only for today, Sunday, February 26, 2012, til 11:59PM PST while supplies last (and they will sell out, so hurry!). Visit the TFAW’s Deal of the Day page to view the hours left in the sale as well as quantities left on the item.

If the deal, which is on the “nick and dent” version (meaning used) of Captain America: Man With No Face, does sell out before the end of the day, there’s a new version for on sale at Amazon for 27% off for $11.67.

Winter Soldier #1
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Butch Guice
Color Artist: Bettie Breitweiser
Letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover by Lee Bermejo
Marvel Comics
Release Date: February 1, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

For decades, we all thought that Bucky Barnes was one of the two characters in the Marvel Universe who WAS dead and would actually STAY dead. After reading Winter Soldier #1, I’m sure glad that surviving death is a regular occurrence in the Marvel U.

Here’s where Ed Brubaker‘s years of writing Bucky and Captain America pays off. Yes, it’s paid off for several years now, but this is different. If it was anyone else but Brubaker writing this series, it might not go over so well. But, Brubaker knows this character like the back of his hand and it shows. It almost feels like you’re reading an issue of Captain America where Bucky takes over as the central character.

Captain America #600
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Butch Guice and others
Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
Released date: June 15, 2009

The big news in the comics world was Marvel’s announcement of the imminent return of the original Captain America, Steve Rogers. Now if you’ve been reading comics for any amount of time, you probably know that death is only a temporary issue for any of the major characters, and that eventually ALL dead characters will be coming back, so I wasn’t surprised to hear that Steve would be coming back.

I had hoped that Marvel Comics would leave him alone for a while, mostly because the current Captain America series following Steve’s old sidekick Bucky Barnes as Cap has been amazing. The twenty-five issues since Steve Rogers’ “death” have been easily the best book being produced today by anyone. The series has been consistently smart, action-packed, and straight-up entertaining, and it’s all due to the writing of Ed Brubaker, who managed to bring back Bucky and make it not only believable, but compelling. Now that we’ve seen the start of the return of Steve Rogers, it will be interesting to see if Brubaker can maintain the high level of quality that he has brought to this title.

Yeah, I’m a little behind again, but one small week and one big week combine together so nicely. Lots of good books over the last few weeks, including a return of a favorite series, and an interesting new series. Here we go…

PULL LIST 08-06 & 08-13-08 Criminal #4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #17 Final Crisis #3 Invincible Iron Man #4 Ultimate Origins #3 Secret Invasion #5 Secret Invasion: X-men #1 Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #2 Batman #679 Chuck #3 Zorro #6 Welcome to Hoxford #1 Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War #1

Criminal #4
Starting out this week, we get one of my favorite series, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip‘s Criminal. This issue starts a new arc, dealing with Jacob, who it turns out we met before in one of the previous stories. He’s the creator of a comic strip that has shown up in the book before, but he also has a past as a counterfeiter. His life kind of sucks; he has crippled legs, he suffers from insomnia, he’s very isolated, but all that changes when he’s pulled into a violent exchange. This is a set up issue for the rest of the arc, so there’s not a lot of action here, but Brubaker brings his usual skill to the story. It’s hard to talk about this series when everything is so consistently good. I would like to highlight the coloring by Val Staples in this issue. The use of color in this issue is very effective in showing the characters emotions, and I thought it was really well done. If you’ve been looking for a good time to check out this series, give this issue a shot. If you like good crime drama, this is the book for you. —5 out of 5