So Captain America gives up his shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
But why didn't he give it to Bucky Barnes?
After all, The Winter Soldier is the perfect candidate for taking up the mantle of Captain
America.
There are plenty of reasons why Steve Rogers chose someone else instead.
Major spoilers ahead, so consider yourself warned!
At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Captain America returns the Infinity Stones to their timelines
to give himself the life he was denied when he sacrificed himself for the good of the
world in Captain America: The First Avenger.
He finds his way back to Peggy Carter and then the Hulk sends him back in time.Then
we see Steve Rogers as an older man with a wedding ring.
At his side is his iconic red-white-and-blue shield, which he passes on to his partner
Sam Wilson, who humbly accepts it.
Of course, this raises an important question: Why did Captain America pass the shield to
Sam Wilson and not Bucky?
Sure, Sam Wilson was Captain America for a time in the comic books, but not until years
after the resurrected Bucky had his own time with the shield.
When Bucky returns as a brainwashed killer in 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier,
we rarely hear the character speak.
But the recovering veteran had plenty to say two years later in Captain America: Civil
War.
"I can't trust my own mind."
If we can say nothing else definitive about Bucky, we know he's got no illusions about
who he is or what he's done.
If anything, he's harder on himself than his old friend is.
While he fights for his freedom against any and all challengers, he doesn't shy away from
his responsibilities, and he doesn't hide behind Hydra's brainwashing.
Considering all this, it feels highly unlikely that Bucky would accept the responsibility
of being Captain America or even take his old friend's shield.
As he and Cap flew off to Russia, he confided:
"I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."
Cap reminds Bucky that he wasn't in control when he committed his crimes, and Bucky responds:
"I know … but I did it."
Bucky wants a chance at redemption, but so far we haven't seen him forgive himself.
Bucky probably feels like wielding Captain America's shield would be a bit too much - even
with his turn to good
While we've seen Bucky a couple of times since Captain America: Civil War, we never learn
a lot of information about him.
In the Civil War mid-credits scene, he tells Steve he wants to be frozen until he can be
freed from Hydra's mental conditioning.
Otherwise, another ambitious criminal might transform him into an unstoppable assassin.
Bucky?"
"Who the hell is Bucky?"
In Black Panther's post-credits scene, we see him in Wakanda, unfrozen and being regarded
by a bunch of children, who call him the White Wolf.
And in Avengers: Infinity War, King T'Challa and Okoye present a new arm to the former
assassin.
We know he's no longer frozen and we know he has a new arm — but that's all we know.
We have no definitive word about whether or not anyone has succeeded in removing his Hydra
conditioning.
Unless it can be proven that Bucky's Hydra conditioning is gone, giving him Cap's shield
is a dangerous prospect.
Giving somebody the symbolic power of Captain America when that person could turn into a
murderer at any given moment?
Bad idea.
Besides his relationship with Steve Rogers, we haven't seen a lot of interaction between
Bucky and the other Avengers, but what we have seen hasn't been too promising.
We've seen him come to blows with Cap, Black Panther, Black Widow, and Falcon, to name
just a few!
The Avengers have since had the opportunity to fight beside him in both Infinity War and
Endgame, but not for any extensive period of time.
If there's still an Avengers team after Endgame, any team member already knows two disturbing
things about Bucky: One, he's beaten up a lot of their teammates and two, he brutally
murdered Iron Man's parents.
Knowing he was a victim of Hydra and that Steve Rogers vouches for him might win him
some trust with the team, especially since he fought on the right side in Infinity War
and Endgame.
But to be on the team as the next Captain America?
That doesn't seem like something The Avengers would be down with, does it?
If we assume that someone could still activate Bucky's Hydra conditioning, then just allowing
him his freedom is a big risk.
It's arguably a justifiable risk considering his actions since Winter Soldier, but it's
still a risk.
Without Captain America's shield, Bucky is a deadly opponent.
His left arm gives him super strength… and his new one is presumably made of vibranium.
And even without that strength, he's proven himself to be an expert hand-to-hand combatant.
He's a marksman.
He can operate any weapon you put in front of him.
He can fly just about anything.
And nine times out of ten, Brainwashed Bucky can lay low any Avenger standing in his way.
Add an aerodynamic shield made from the strongest metal on Earth, and Bucky is virtually unstoppable.
Trusting Bucky with his freedom is reasonable.
But trusting him with that much power so soon?
We think it's just too much to ask.
Don't agree?
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