Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection: The Burden of Dreams

In the wake of Steve Rogers’ tragic death, Bucky Barnes wields the shield and succeeds his fallen friend as Captain America!

Agent 13. Bucky Barnes. The Falcon. Black Widow. Iron Man. Steve Rogers was often the glue that bound these heroes together in a common cause. Now, still mourning his loss, they come together again in a desperate attempt to keep his dream alive. But the collapse of Steve’s dream was just the first step in the wicked machinations of the Red Skull, who is determined to see the death of America follow soon after the death of the Captain. As the Skull’s master plan kicks into motion and chaos begins to take hold of the United States, only one man stands in its way — but is he up to the task? In his first major trial as the new Captain America, he will be rocked by a villain from his past — both as Bucky in WWII and as the Winter Soldier during the Cold War — and he’ll have to face his history just as he’s finding his feet in the present. 

COLLECTING: Captain America (2004) 31-48, 34 Director’s Cut

Ed Brubaker is one of the most acclaimed writers in comics, a multiple Eisner Award winner. Following fan-favorite runs on Scene of the Crime, Sleeper, Catwoman and Gotham Central for DC, he moved to Marvel. His Captain America relaunch, in which he controversially revived Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, won over fans new and old, and his revisionist take on the history of Marvel’s mutants in X-Men: Deadly Genesis resulted in a regular gig on Uncanny X-Men, Marvel’s flagship X-title. He and longtime artistic collaborator Michael Lark took up the baton on Daredevil after Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s legendary run concluded, and Brubaker jump-started Immortal Iron Fist with co-writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja. Marvel’s Icon imprint published Brubaker’s creator-owned Criminal and Incognito, and he has gone on to further success at Image Comics with such titles as Fatale, Velvet and The Fade Out. Beyond comics, Brubaker has written for TV’s Westworld and co-created the crime drama Too Old to Die Young.

With a career stretching back to First Comics, Steve Epting made his name at Marvel with an eminent fifty-issue run on Avengers during the mid-’90s. He also contributed to Factor X, part of the "Age of Apocalypse" event. After working with writers Mark Waid and Chuck Dixon on various CrossGen titles, Epting returned to Marvel to embark on his first collaboration with writer Ed Brubaker on what turned out to be one of the all-time great Captain America runs. The pair also united for the Golden Age-era miniseries The Marvels Project. Epting’s work with writer Jonathan Hickman includes the much-publicized death of the Human Torch in an epic run of Fantastic Four.

Jackson “Butch” Guice began his Marvel career during the 1980s penciling Micronauts, New Mutants and X-Factor. He moved to DC for a fan-favorite run on Flash, subsequently illustrating nearly three years’ worth of Action Comics and participating in the “Death of Superman” event. He also co-created Resurrection Man and provided artwork for Birds of Prey. Back at Marvel, he penciled Captain America, Iron Man, Ultimate Origins and more. He has also worked on CrossGen’s Ruse, Dark Horse’s film tie-ins Terminator: Endgame and Aliens/Predator, First’s Badger and Nexus, and Valiant’s Eternal Warrior.

Brazilian illustrator Rafael De Latorre has enjoyed a lengthy collaboration with writer Marguerite Bennett on Animosity for Aftershock Comics. The artist is quickly gaining a following at Marvel with his contributions to Black Widow, Daredevil and New Mutants.