Of course, this is still a rollicking adventure tale and no adventure is complete without a love story. And, yes, these books have one — the longest, most tortured one in Marvel history, in fact. We’re talking about Steve and Bucky, without smirking or innuendo or raised eyebrows. Platonic though the relationship may be, from the meet cute to the tragic separation, their bond has all the elements of a classic romance. These two men love each other — as any pair of friends who faced exclusion, combat, inhumanity, and death would. Their bond stretches across half of the twentieth century. The loss of it gnaws at Steve throughout modern day, and it slices his heart in half when the Winter Soldier rears his tormented, homicidal head. Just as Jeph and Tim’’s earlier Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, and Hulk: Gray all dealt with the major love interests in, the heroes’ lives, so too does Captain America: White. Steve and Bucky are each other’s soulmate, if you will, because no one on Earth understands what either of them has been through as well as the other does. These books deal deftly with the strengths and weaknesses that relationship engenders. As the Red Skull himself says to Bucky, “The Captain has a…‘soft spot’ for you. A spot I intend to put a bullet into this very evening.” Soldiers fight for their country. They fight for themselves. They fight for each other. And sometimes they die for these things, too. The ones who don’t, carry the memory of the ones who did for the rest of their days. Steve Rogers is no different.