After sorting through over 50 years of comic books, repressed memory flashbacks, and recently
declassified KGB documents, we've managed to condense down the story of Marvel's Bucky
Barnes into just the highlights.
Here's everything you need to know about Bucky.
In Bucky's first appearance in the golden age of comics, he was sporting a red and blue
superhero costume as Captain America's kid sidekick, complete with a period-appropriate
"golly gee" demeanor.
The two sometimes fought Nazis as a duo, and sometimes did so alongside the original Human
Torch, his sidekick Toro, and Namor the Sub-Mariner as a group called The Invaders.
Unlike in the MCU, where Bucky and Steve grew up together, comics Bucky and Steve didn't
know each other before they joined the military.
Captain America's identity was a secret, and the reason he decided to take Bucky on as
a sidekick was because Bucky accidentally stumbled into Rogers' tent one night and discovered
the truth.
Later comics retconned this origin story of Cap and Bucky's partnership, instead asserting
that this quaint "meet cute" was actually a piece of American propaganda.
In truth, the U.S. Military arranged their partnership for two reasons: to create a symbolic
enemy of the Hitler Youth, and to have a morally flexible field agent at Captain America's
side, someone willing to do the darker things that Rogers wouldn't.
Bucky's time in World War II ended at the same moment that Captain America's did.
The two heroes needed to disable a Nazi drone plane that was full of explosives, and so
both Rogers and Barnes jumped on board, holding onto the outside of the plane with their bare
hands.
Cap slipped off the wing, and told Bucky to do the same.
Unfortunately, Bucky's arm was caught.
The plane exploded, and Bucky was seemingly killed, while Captain America fell into the
icy waters below, where he remained frozen for decades.
Even though the Avengers would thaw Captain America out in 1964, Bucky didn't appear again
in comics alongside him.
Up until the early 2000's, Bucky was seemingly dead for real.
Decades of comics saw superheroes from the A-list to the Z-list die and get resurrected
while Bucky stayed off the page.
By 2005, however, Bucky would return to Marvel comics as the Winter Soldier.
Once Bucky's death had been retconned away in 2005, we started learning more about what
he had been up to for the past half-century.
Turns out his body had been recovered by the Russians shortly after it fell into the ocean.
They had been searching for the body of Captain America, but were willing to settle for Bucky,
as he was also a highly skilled soldier who, once revived, could become a powerful tool
for their own ends.
In 1954, Bucky was brought back from the dead and given a cybernetic arm to replace the
one he lost in the plane crash.
Another thing that Bucky lost in the crash was his memory, which was replaced with Soviet
indoctrination.
Bucky was trained in the Red Room Academy as part of the Wolf Spider program, the male
equivalent of the Black Widow program.
It was there that he met Natasha Romanoff, and the two have had an on-again off-again
romance for decades ever since.
One of the most horrible missions that Bucky was forced to complete as the Winter Soldier
was assigned to him by Romulus, one of Wolverine's many nemeses.
At the time, Logan was living in Japan, married to a woman named Itsu, and expecting a child.
Romulus sends Bucky to kill Itsu as a way of drawing Wolverine out in the open.
Sadly, Bucky succeeds in this mission.
Although Wolverine assumes his unborn child has died as well during this attack, the baby
actually survived, having inherited his father's healing ability.
This child is then kidnapped and raised by Romulus, eventually growing up to become yet
another one of Wolverine's nemeses, the supervillain Daken.
In a strange twist, Bucky may have also been responsible for saving Wolverine's life.
In one issue of Wolverine, it's implied that Bucky was present when Wolverine escaped from
the Weapon X facility, and had a hand in helping him escape, although the full story of exactly
what Bucky did and why has never been fully explained.
Perhaps this act was a rare moment when he was able to fight against his brainwashing
and do a bit of good to help a man whose life he had previously destroyed, but this element
of Bucky's past is still largely shrouded in mystery.
Bucky officially came back to life in 2005, in the pages of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's
run on Captain America.
In the story, Steve Rogers has been investigating Aleksander Lukin, a former KGB general who
sent a mysterious assassin to kill the Red Skull and steal a powerful item from him known
as a Cosmic Cube.
Unlike the MCU's version which is actually an Infinity Stone, the comic's version of
Cosmic Cubes are concentrated chunks of cosmic energy that can basically grant whatever wishes
their wielders desire.
After Captain America crosses paths with Lukin's mysterious operative, the Winter Soldier,
Nick Fury discovers a KGB dossier which reveals his true identity as Cap's sidekick, Bucky
Barnes.
This revelation, understandably, rocks Cap to his core.
Cap then discovers that Lukin is hiding his stolen Cosmic Cube in a secret military facility.
Thinking that Bucky might be stationed there, Cap goes in to confront him.
Cap decides to appeal to Bucky using the time-honored power of friendship, dropping to his knees
and asking his old friend to shoot him if he doesn't remember their friendship.
And then Bucky shoots him.
Fortunately, Cap dodges the shot and throws his shield at Bucky, causing him to drop the
Cosmic Cube.
Cap then picks it up and uses its wish-granting power to restore Bucky's memories.
A bit less poetic than what happened in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
"Cause I'm with you till the end of the line."
After getting his memories restored, Bucky feels adrift and purposeless for a time.
Then the comic event, Civil War, occurs, in which Captain America and Iron Man get into
a very public feud.
At the end of this story, Steve Rogers is taken into police custody, and while he's
there, he's assassinated by agents of the Red Skull.
Captain America's assassination sets off Bucky, and he swears vengeance against Tony Stark
for his part in Steve's death.
Tony manages to talk Bucky down by revealing a letter from Steve Rogers that was set to
be delivered to Tony in the event of his untimely death.
This letter reveals Rogers' wishes that someone should succeed him as the next Captain America,
and Tony feels that Bucky is right for the job.
He tells Bucky that the real person he should be upset with is the Red Skull, offering him
the opportunity to set aside their differences and bring the Red Skull to justice together.
Bucky accepts his offer, and becomes the new Captain America.
Even after Steve Rogers comes back from the dead, he allows Bucky to continue wielding
the shield and holding the title of Captain America, believing that Bucky is doing the
Captain America name proud.
Bucky does his best to honor the legacy of Steve Rogers, but the American public is slow
to accept him.
However, when he stops Sin, the daughter of the Red Skull, from assassinating a presidential
candidate, Bucky finally starts to win the war for widespread public support.
However, even after this, Bucky's past continues to haunt him.
A golden age villain known as the Man With No Face suddenly resurfaces, apparently attempting
to create a deadly virus out of the remains of another one of Marvel's oldest characters,
the original Human Torch.
By teaming up with his former Invader pal Namor, Bucky manages to take the Man With
No Face down.
Another enemy from Bucky's past who returns at this time is Baron Zemo, who exposes Bucky's
past as the Winter Soldier to the public at large in an attempt to discredit him.
Bucky ends up having to go on trial for his past crimes, and even though he's eventually
let off the hook, having to endure that much public scrutiny makes Bucky realize that maybe
he isn't cut out to be Captain America after all.
Bucky's days as Captain America are numbered as soon as Sin manages to get her hands on
an Asgardian artifact known as the Hammer of Skadi.
With the power of this item, she leads an attack on Washington DC.
Bucky tries his best to oppose her, but she's too much for him.
She tears off his robotic arm and uses her hammer to beat him into unconsciousness.
With Bucky on the verge of death, Nick Fury takes dramatic action to save Bucky's life.
Long ago, Fury was injected with a substance known as "The Infinity Formula," which increased
his body's ability to heal and prevented him from aging.
Fury decides to give Bucky the last available dose of Infinity Formula which is able to
heal Bucky.
Since everyone now thinks he's dead — and given how difficult it had been for Bucky
to operate in the public eye as Captain America — Bucky decides to continue to let everyone
believe he died at Sin's hands.
He gives Steve Rogers back the mantle of Captain America, and decides to return to his former
identity as the Winter Soldier, returning to the place where he's truly most comfortable:
in the shadows, but now as a covert agent for good.
In an event known as Original Sin, Bucky is part of a team of heroes gathered by Nick
Fury in order to investigate the death of Uatu the Watcher.
By the end of this plot arc, however, Fury explains that he's had an additional reason
for giving the heroes this task: it was an audition.
In addition to being the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury reveals that he's been hiding another
secret identity for decades.
He's known as "The Man on the Wall," meaning that he's been in charge of protecting the
Earth from extraterrestrial threats.
This title had been passed down from one person to another multiple times in the past.
Fury needs to appoint a successor, suspecting that he's going to die soon.
He's recently started rapidly aging due to no longer having access to the Infinity Formula
that was used to save Bucky's life.
In addition to being the Winter Soldier, Bucky is also the Man on the Wall, working in the
shadows to protect the Earth from alien threats.
In one of their more morally questionable projects, S.H.I.E.L.D.
creates an all-powerful entity made of Cosmic Cube fragments in the form of a little girl
named Kobik.
Using her reality warping powers, S.H.I.E.L.D.
creates one of the most twisted prisons imaginable: an idyllic little town called Pleasant Hill,
in which all of the inhabitants are captured former supervillains who have their personalities
and memories altered by Kobik to make them kind and productive citizens.
In the Avengers: Standoff! comic event, some of the residents manage to regain their old
memories and lead a revolt to destroy Pleasant Hill.
In the chaos, Kobik escapes S.H.I.E.L.D.
custody and starts tagging along with Bucky, hoping to prove to him that she can be good.
Bucky agrees to give her a chance, but she reveals that she's also brought along some
of her friends from Pleasant Hill — supervillains who she believes could be redeemed, including
Atlas, Fixer, Mach-X, and Moonstone.
Perhaps because of his own dark past, Bucky decides to give them a chance as well, forming
a new incarnation of the superhero team known as the Thunderbolts.
Perhaps by learning to forgive these other former villains, Bucky may also finally learn
to forgive himself.
After all, hasn't the poor guy been through enough?
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