Who is Bucky Barnes?

2007-06-11T22:54:00.002-07:00

Following his debut, Bucky Barnes appeared alongside Captain America in virtually every story in Captain America Comics and other Timely Comics series. In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Bucky appeared alongside team-leader Captain America in the two published adventures of Timely/Marvel's first superhero group, the All-Winners Squad, in the unhyphenated All Winners Comics #19 & 21 (Fall-Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). After Bucky was shot and killed in a 1948 Captain America story, he was succeeded by Captain America's girlfriend Betsy Ross, who became the super heroine Golden Girl. Captain America Comics ended with #75 (Feb. 1950), by which time the series had been titled Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.

Captain America and Bucky were both briefly revived, along with fellow Timely stars the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in the omnibus Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953), published by Marvel's 1950s iteration Atlas Comics. Bucky appeared alongside "Captain America, Commie Smasher!", as the hero was cover-billed, in stories published during the next year in Young Men and Men's Adventures, as well as in three issues of Captain America that continued the old numbering. Sales were poor, however, and the series was discontinued with Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954).

Retroactive continuity, beginning with The Avengers vol. 1, #4 (March 1964) established that the original Captain America and Bucky went missing near the end of WWII and were secretly replaced by then U.S. President Harry S Truman by successor heroes using those identities.

Bucky appeared in very occasional flashbacks from the 1960s on, and co-starred with Captain America in flashback WWII adventures in Tales of Suspense #63-71 (March-Nov. 1965).

Fictional character biography

Origin and World War II

Bucky in World War II
Art by Eric Wight.

Barnes (named after James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, and the only president to be an acrobat, hence the homage)^{[citation needed]} was born in Shelbyville, Indiana. He is an orphan, the son of a soldier killed in training at Camp Lehigh just before the United States' entry into World War II. As a result, he is unofficially adopted by the camp as a mascot. Nicknamed "Bucky," he takes to wearing a uniform and becoming savvy with the ins and outs of military life, even though he is a teenager. It was at Lehigh that he meets and befriends Private Steven Rogers, who by all appearances is the clumsiest soldier in the camp. This was at the same time that reports of the then-mysterious Captain America begin to appear in news magazines, and Barnes eagerly devours the accounts of this new hero.

One night, however, while peeping on Rogers changing in his tent, he sees that his friend was changing into the uniform of Captain America. Barnes makes a deal to keep the secret of Rogers' dual identity if he can become his sidekick. Rogers agrees and trains Barnes appropriately. Together, Captain America and Bucky fight Nazis both at home and abroad, as a duo and as part of the superhero team known as the Invaders. Barnes also teams up with the sidekicks of other heroes in a group called the Young Allies. Additionally, Bucky was retconned in 1976 as the organizer of the flashback World War II superteam the Liberty Legion, set between the formations of the Invaders and the post-war All-Winners Squad.

In the closing days of World War II in 1945, Captain America and Bucky try to stop the villainous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental drone plane. Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive device on it, with Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. They reach the plane just before it takes off. Bucky unsuccessfully tries to defuse the bomb, and it explodes in mid-air. Bucky is killed, and Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Rogers' body, preserved in suspended animation in a block of ice, is only found decades later by The Avengers (The Avengers #4, March 1964).

Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier in the cover to Captain America (vol. 5) #11 .
Art by Steve Epting.

In 2005 issues of Captain America, series writer Ed Brubaker returned Bucky from his seeming death near the end of World War II. He additionally revealed that Barnes' official status as Captain America's sidekick was a cover-up. According to this plot revelation, Barnes began as a 16-year-old operative trained to do things regular soldiers and the 20- to 21-year-old Captain America normally would not do, such as conduct covert assassinations. The night before the infamous incident with Zemo, the villain and his troops tortured Barnes while Captain America was forced to watch. During the drone-plane explosion that had apparently killed Barnes, the young man's arm was pinned to the plane — at odds with Captain America's memory of Bucky choosing to stay with the drone and attempt to defuse it. This is presented as a rationale for the Winter Soldier's biomechanical arm.

According to the file on the Winter Soldier, after the plane exploded, a cold-preserved body (minus an arm) was found by General Vasily Karpov and the crew of a Russian patrol sub. The recovered young man was revived in Moscow, though as a result of the explosion, he suffered brain damage and amnesia.

Programmed to be a Soviet assassin, he was given the code name the Winter Soldier and sent on covert missions through the years, becoming increasingly ruthless and efficient as he killed in the name of the state. The Winter Soldier's only sign of reluctance was in America in the 1970s; after killing his target, he suffered a breakdown and went missing for days.

The Winter Soldier was kept in stasis when not on missions, and as a result has aged only a few years since the closing days of World War II.

In the present day, the Winter Soldier catches the attention of Captain America when the Soldier seemingly kills the Red Skull and Jack Monroe (Nomad) under orders from former Soviet general Aleksander Lukin (Karpov's former protege). The Soldier's objectives are to retrieve the Cosmic Cube for Lukin and to play mind games with Captain America. He follows both orders, launching a terrorist attack on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The attack kills hundreds of people, charges the Cosmic Cube, and gives Captain America his first visual of the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier kidnaps Sharon Carter, and when Captain America rescues her, she tells him she caught a glimpse of the Soldier and that he looked like Bucky. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. confirm the Winter Soldier's existence, but could not ascertain his identity.

When Lukin grows paranoid over the power of the Cosmic Cube, the Winter Soldier is ordered to bury the Cube in an underground facility in West Virginia. With help from Iron Man and the Falcon, Captain America tracks down both the Soldier and the Cube and prepares for a confrontation.

Captain America with the Winter Soldier, after the latter has recovered his memories.

Upon making it to the facility, Captain America fights the Winter Soldier, but urgently tries to make him remember his past as Bucky. Eventually, Captain America is able to gain the Cosmic Cube and tells him, "Remember who you are". Regaining all his memories, the Soldier becomes overcome with guilt over his actions, takes back the Cosmic Cube, and teleports himself to his and Steve Rogers' old Army base, where he breaks down and cries.

After the concluding issue was released, Brubaker confirmed in an interview that he intended no loophole involving Captain America using the Cosmic Cube to restore the Winter Soldier's memories:

Newsarama: "But playing devil’s advocate — asking the Cosmic Cube to help you is very "monkey's paw" at best ... the Winter Soldier could have been, in reality, someone named Comrade Pitor Nikoli, created just to demoralize Cap, but with him wishing it to be so with the Cube, couldn't Cap just have willed the Winter Soldier to be Bucky, and so he was?"

Brubaker: "That wasn't how I looked at it. Look at what he said — "Remember who you are". He didn't say, "Become who I think you are". Or, "Be Bucky". It was very straightforward. Which is more the tragedy, since Bucky immediately has this immense guilt for everything he did as the Winter Soldier." [3]

In Wolverine #38 (March 2006), Silver Samurai revealed/suggested that he believed the Winter Soldier helped Wolverine escape from the Weapon X facility years before when Wolverine first had adamantium grafted to his skeleton. Later it was revealed that the Winter Soldier may have killed Wolverine's wife and unborn baby.

In Captain America #18, the Winter Soldier is seen in London, knocking out a mugger who stole a woman's purse and reading a newspaper that mentions the arrival of Lukin in one week. Captain America later says he's convinced The Winter Soldier is out to kill Lukin.

Giving his aid to Captain America to fend off a terrorist attack in London brought by the new Master Man and a Deathbot, the Winter Soldier badly damages his robotic appendage. Apparently retiring his vengeful intentions for a while, he asks Nick Fury for employment and new equipment. Winter Soldier infiltrates a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility and injects a nano-trojan into one of the Life Model Decoys of Fury, allowing him to observe what happens inside S.H.I.E.L.D. He then learns from one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computer that Lukin has visited the Latverian embassy, but is stopped from acting instantly by Nick Fury promising that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s satellites aren't the only ones watching Lukin.

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills, a Civil War tie-in, shows that Barnes has continued acting as an operative for Nick Fury after returning to the United States.

At the end of Civil War (In Captain America #25), Barnes has been planning with Nick Fury to stage Steve Rogers' escape on his way to the Federal Court. The plan is hampered by the appearance of Crossbones, who shoots Rogers in the shoulder from the distance with a sniper rifle. Barnes has no idea that his other confederate, Sharon Carter, has been given a hypnotic command by Dr. Faustus, and is therefore shocked when, during the panic caused by the sniper shot, she draws a pistol and shoots Rogers in the stomach.

Some days later, Barnes is watching Roger's funeral at a bar in Harlem when one of the other patrons insults Captain America's memory by saying that Arlington was a place for patriots and not traitors. Despite knowing that Rogers would attempt to rationally debate with the man regarding his actions during the events of Civil War, an enraged Barnes furiously attacks the man and the bar explodes into a riot that is only broken up by the arrival of the Falcon who convinces Barnes to calm down. Turning back to the television, Barnes sees Tony Stark speaking at Roger's funeral as he realizes there's no way he can be the same kind of hero that Rogers was and decides that the only action he can take is to kill Tony Stark whom he sees as responsible for both the Civil War and the death of his long time friend.

Legacy

Late-WWII and post-war Bucky

Fearing that the deaths of Captain America and Bucky, if revealed, would be a blow to morale, President Truman asked William Nasland, the hero known as the Spirit of '76 (a member of the Crusaders), to assume the identity of Captain America. Assisting him was Fred Davis, a former bat-boy for the New York Yankees, who had posed as Bucky in 1942. The new Captain America and Bucky finished the rest of the war and continued to fight crime with the All-Winners Squad. Nasland was killed in 1946 fighting the android Adam II, and Captain America's identity passed to Jeff Mace, the Patriot (What If #4, August 1977).

Davis assisted Mace until 1948, when he was shot and wounded, forcing him to retire and leaving him with a permanent limp. In 1951, Davis joined the V-Battalion, a secret organization that hunted war criminals, and eventually became one of its leaders on the Penance Council. He served the V-Battalion in both a leadership role in the Penance Council, and as an engineer. (Captain America Comics #66, 1948; Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1-#4, 2001).

1950s Bucky

In 1953, an orphan named Jack Monroe, who idolized Captain America and Bucky, discovered that his history teacher also had a similar passion, to the extent of undergoing plastic surgery to make him look like Steve Rogers and assuming his name as well. In addition, "Rogers" had discovered, in some old Nazi files stored in a warehouse in Germany, the lost formula for the Super-Soldier serum that had given Captain America his abilities. The two used the serum and began to fight Communists as Captain America and Bucky (Young Men #24, Dec. 1953).

Unfortunately, "Rogers" and Monroe were unaware of the stabilizing "Vita-Ray" process used on the original Captain America. As a result, despite their bodies being enhanced to peak human efficiency, they slowly grew paranoid and dangerously insane. By the middle of 1954 they were irrationally attacking anyone they perceived to be a Communist. In 1955 the Federal Bureau of Investigation managed to hunt them down and placed them in suspended animation. The 1950s Captain America and Bucky would be revived years later after the return of Steve Rogers, going on another rampage, and would be defeated by the man they had modeled themselves after (Captain America #153, September 1972).

Nomad

Main article: Nomad (comics)

Monroe was eventually cured of his insanity and took up the superhero identity of Nomad, an identity that Rogers himself had once taken in the 70s (when he discarded Cap's mantle as a consequence of the Marvel-version of the Watergate Scandal, engineered by the Secret Empire), even teaming up with the original Captain America on a number of occasions. At one point during his solo career, Monroe was injured severely enough to need to be placed in stasis once again. He was revived and brainwashed by Henry Peter Gyrich (who was in turn being manipulated by Baron Strucker). Monroe was then forced to become the new Scourge of the Underworld and sent to kill the reformed supervillain team known as the Thunderbolts. Monroe eventually broke free of the conditioning, helped the Thunderbolts to defeat Gyrich, and then disappeared (Thunderbolts #35-#50, 1999-2001). When last seen, Monroe had been shot by the Winter Soldier (James Buchannan Barnes, the original Bucky) and dumped in the trunk of a car (Captain America Vol. 5, #3, April 2005).

Rick Jones

For a brief time after Rogers awakened in the modern age, perennial Marvel sidekick Rick Jones also donned the Bucky costume in an attempt to make himself Captain America's partner. However, Rogers was still wracked with guilt over the original Bucky's death, and refused to make this a permanent arrangement although Jones was insistent that Rogers should finally put the tragedy behind him.

Others

When the role of Captain America was taken over by John Walker, he formed the Bold Urban Commandos (BUCkies) as a backup team. Walker's main partner was African-American Lemar Hoskins, who used the name "Bucky" until he realized the racist connotations of the alias when applied to him, and assumed the name "Battlestar". Other persons who have used the Bucky alias include an unnamed baby that Nomad looked after for a period {in which she was later adopted and was given the name Julia Winters^[2]} and Rikki Barnes, who was from the alternate Earth created by Franklin Richards in the wake of the Onslaught incident. Rikki Barnes is still a member of the Young Allies on Counter-Earth.

(Note: It is rumored that Bucky will take up the Captain America mantle until Captain America is brought back, or permanent. It is not confirmed, but most likely. Taken from Wizard Magazine, April Issue)

Powers and abilities

The original Bucky Barnes was trained by Captain America in hand-to-hand fighting techniques as well as being skilled in the use of military weapons such as firearms and grenades. He also used throwing knives on occasion and was a gifted advance scout.

As the Winter Soldier, Barnes has superhuman strength and reaction time in his cybernetic left arm. In issue #16, he used the arm to take down a spider machine that was terrorizing Pilsburg, Iowa.

Of the various Buckys, only Monroe and Hoskins had augmented strength and reflexes. Fred Davis, Rick Jones and Rikki Barnes were merely highly skilled in acrobatic fighting techniques. The baby Bucky obviously had no training.