History
Early Life[]
Born on March 10th, 1917,[8] James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was the eldest of four siblings.[2] In September of 1930, Barnes noticed a skimpy, weak kid getting beaten up by some bigger bullies in an alley in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. Inspired by the kid's misplaced bravery, he stepped in and saved the kid, who introduced himself as Steve Rogers, a local orphan, and the pair became good friends immediately after. Prior to 1942, Barnes became a three-time YMCA Welterweight boxing champion.
When the United States entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Steve convinced Bucky to enlist as well as to train him in order to pass the physical and medical exams. After training for a few weeks, Rogers was denied enlistment on Christmas Eve 1941. Meanwhile, Bucky passed his physical and the two parted ways.[9]
Into The War[]
Eighteen months later, Rogers was still continuously deemed physically unfit to enlist in the U.S. Army. At one point, Steve was beaten up once again by a man heckling the soldiers in a movie theater, and was once again rescued by Bucky. Bucky, now a Sergeant in the Army, told Steve that he'd been assigned to the 107th Infantry, the same unit that Steve's father had fought in during the first World War.
Bucky proposed going on a double date later that evening, before he was shipped off the next day. For the date, the couples visited the Stark Expo hosted by the company's CEO Howard Stark. When Rogers attempted to enlist again, Bucky tried once again to convince his best friend to stop, only to fail. Instead, the two exchanged a brotherly hug and words of encouragement before Bucky departed.
Unbeknownst to Bucky, Steve was drafted into the SSR for a top secret military program just mere hours later. Over the next five months, while Steve underwent the training and procedures that turned him into the "super soldier" Captain America, Bucky was on the front lines in Italy, eventually getting cut off from his infantry, who were all taken prisoner by Hydra.[10]
Kept secluded from the other prisoners by the Hydra scientists, he became the subject of various experiments aimed at enhancing soldiers.[2] When Steve discovered that there were no plans to rescue the prisoners, he joined Peggy Carter and Howard Stark on an undercover mission into Hydra territory, which resulted in Bucky's and the entire infantry's rescue. During the fight, Steve and Bucky met Hydra leaders Red Skull and Dr. Arnim Zola, who also escaped amidst the chaos.[10]
Howling Commando[]
When Steve had to choose a team to wipe Hydra off the map, Bucky was Steve's first choice, as well as the others in his infantry. Together, they became the Howling Commandos. For the remainder of the war, the Howling Commandos easily took down the Hydra personnel and bases, with Bucky's sniping skills providing valuable long-range support.
In 1945, it was discovered that Arnim Zola was on a vulnerable train, so Bucky and Captain America launched a mission hoping to capture him. Instead, the pair found well-equipped Hydra troops. While Cap defeated the one in his car fairly easily, Bucky was less fortunate, as he was momentarily distracted and blasted with a Tesseract-enhanced weapon by the seemingly downed soldier. Bucky clung to the side of the extremely fast train, but as Steve attempted to rescue him, he lost his grip and fell to his apparent death.[10]
Winter Soldier[]
However, Bucky had survived the fall thanks to Zola's experiments, but his left arm had been heavily damaged. Hydra operatives restored what they could of his body, then under the "Winter Soldier" program, he was brainwashed and given a cybernetic left arm. Over the next 70 years, he was used by Hydra to assassinate numerous political leaders and other various people Hydra deemed threats, while being kept in cryogenic suspension between missions. His elusive nature made him a myth and mere "ghost story" among spies, assassins, and contract killers.[2]
One of Hydra's earlier deployments of the Winter Soldier was in 1951, during the Korean War. He killed a number of American soldiers on the Korean peninsula, before the United States Military sent Isaiah Bradley, a successful Super Soldier test subject, to deal with him. The Winter Soldier ended up losing the fight in Goyang, with half his cybernetic arm being ripped off by Bradley.[11]
In December of 1991, the Winter Soldier orchestrated the car accident that incapacitated Howard Stark and his wife Maria in order to retrieve Stark's new attempt at a super soldier serum. The Winter Soldier killed Howard and Maria, who were both only injured by the crash, with Howard even recognizing him as "Sgt. Barnes" before he was killed. The Winter Soldier arranged the scene to look like an accident, then retrieved the bags of serum.
The serum was later used to make more soldiers like Barnes. While they met the physical criteria, the subjects became too uncontrollable for Hydra, so they were kept under cryogenic suspension in Siberia until they could be controlled. However, the subjects and the Siberian facility were soon abandoned by Hydra.[3]
Nearly two decades later, in 2009, the Winter Soldier eliminated a nuclear scientist being escorted by the Black Widow by firing a sniper round through the Black Widow's body, which was being used as a human shield. Having incapacitated the Black Widow and eliminated the target, the Winter Soldier disappeared once more.
Five years later, after S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised, Hydra leader and high-ranking World Security Council member Alexander Pierce deployed the Winter Soldier to assassinate Fury. His first attempt failed when Fury used S.H.I.E.L.D. technology to evade him, but his second attempt was more successful despite him being chased off by Steve Rogers, who had also survived to the 21st century after being frozen in the Arctic Circle for 70 years and was now an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D..
The Winter Soldier was soon dispatched to Washington D.C. to hunt down Rogers and the Black Widow, who were now fugitives and actively pursuing a goal to stop Hydra. He intercepted them in the company of Sam Wilson as they were transporting Jasper Sitwell in a car on a mission of their own. He assassinated Sitwell by throwing him out of the car and into the path of an oncoming truck. A protracted battle broke out with the Winter Soldier initially fighting Romanoff, and then Rogers, with other Hydra agents providing additional support. Eventually Rogers gained an opportunity to knock Barnes's mask clear, which left him shocked at the sight of his old friend. Barnes himself paused at this reaction, albeit only momentarily before drawing a gun. Sam Wilson spoiled his aim by kicking him to the ground, and then with more Hydra agents arriving, he took advantage of the chaos to flee the scene unnoticed.
Recovering Memories[]
Winter Soldier wearing a mask and Cap's Shield
Once Barnes escaped the chaos in Washington, D.C., he regrouped with his Hydra leaders at the Ideal Federal Savings bank. As the doctors repaired his arm, Barnes began to recover pieces of his memories of the past, such as his fall from the train of Zola and Zola's later experiments on him to create a prosthetic arm. These memories made him angry, to the point that he punched the doctor that was repairing his arm.
When he became somewhat stable, Alexander Pierce, Brock Rumlow, and a few Hydra agents arrived at the bank. Pierce then interrogated Barnes about the result of his mission, but Barnes refused to speak. Pierce then hit him in the face, asking again to tell him the result of his mission. Barnes told him that he recognized Rogers. Pierce told him that he remembered him because he had met him several days ago in his assignment to eliminate Nick Fury, but Barnes insisted that he knew Rogers. Pierce decided to redo the operation that brainwashes him, in order to force his cooperation on Hydra.[2]
Hydra Uprising[]
When Project Insight, Hydra's plan to use S.H.I.E.L.D.'s highly-armed Helicarriers to massacre any possible threat to their new world order, was about to be launched, Captain America and his allies arrived to the Triskelion in order to stop Hydra, and the Winter Soldier was deployed once more to stop them. After two of the three Helicarriers were reprogrammed, Bucky moved to stop Captain America and Sam Wilson, now the Falcon, at the third. Bucky managed to damage Falcon's wings and ground him. He then turned to Steve, as Steve tried to make him remember his past. Steve refused to fight Bucky and even moved to save him when the Helicarriers started shooting one another.
Bucky became trapped under debris caused by the barrage, yet Steve still took the risk to rescue him. As soon as he was free however, he started to attack Steve again. Steve dropped his gear and announced that he wouldn't fight. Neither the unmasking nor Steve's reminders served to break through the brainwashing, however, and Bucky continued to attack. Instead of fighting back, Steve allowed himself be brutally beaten, but reminded Bucky that he was his friend "until the end of the line", which was a statement that Bucky had made to Steve decades before, after the death of Steve's mother. The quote combined with the familiar sight of Steve's battered face broke through the conditioning and confused Bucky enough that he halted his attack. However, the vessel broke apart and Steve fell from the deck into the Potomac River. Bucky leapt in after Steve, rescued him, but left him by the side of the river, as he walked away.[2]
Escape from Hydra[]
Bucky immediately returned to the Ideal Federal Savings Bank, where he nearly assaulted the Hydra scientists but he restrained himself due to not wanting more bloodshed.[12] Barnes then went to the Smithsonian Institution gallery of Captain America, where he found a memorial of himself, which he used to learn more about his past.[2]
After visiting the Smithsonian Institution, he covertly traveled to Romania where he set up a safe house.[12]
Fugitive[]
Two years after Hydra's collapse, Barnes was believed to be the perpetrator of a bombing in Vienna that killed several people, including Wakanda's King T'Chaka. Captain America tracked him to his hideout in Bucharest and attempted to reason with him. However, despite recognizing his friend, Barnes fled when the building was breached by the German Special Forces but was immediately attacked by the Black Panther, King T'Chaka's son T'Challa. After a short struggle, Bucky escaped and fled through the streets of Bucharest, with Rogers and the Black Panther hot on his heels. Eventually they caught up with him but were immediately surrounded by German Special Forces, backed up by the sudden arrival of the superhero War Machine. Barnes, Rogers, T'Challa, and Wilson (who had been backing up Rogers) surrendered.
Bucky was detained for psychiatric evaluation and extradition. His evaluation was interrupted by a sudden and complete loss of power to the building. The psychiatrist used key phrases to reactivate the Winter Soldier's Hydra programming, which put him into a violent state. He broke out of the cell and attacked Rogers and Wilson upon their arrival. He knocked Wilson out and threw Steve down an elevator shaft. Moving through the facility, Bucky had to fight his way through the Black Widow, Prince T'Challa, Sharon Carter, and Howard Stark's son Tony (now operating as the superhero Iron Man) in order to escape. Reaching the helipad, Bucky boarded a helicopter, but before he could take off, Steve grabbed onto it and prevented him from taking off. Bucky crashed the chopper instead into the water below and was knocked unconscious when his head hit the windshield.
Bucky later came to in a garage, where his metal arm was locked in a vice. When Steve confronted him, Barnes revealed that he remembered him and the events that had just transpired: the psychiatrist had reactivated his programming in order to uncover the location of the five other Winter Soldiers. Barnes then joined forces with Rogers and Wilson to track down the mysterious psychiatrist. Captain America also requested aid from members of the Avengers: Hawkeye, Wanda Maximoff, and Ant-Man.
Civil War[]
Arriving at the airport in Leipzig, Captain America and his allies were confronted by Iron Man and his allies, including War Machine, Black Panther, Black Widow, Vision, and Spider-Man. Stark tried to reason with Rogers, but a fight quickly broke out between the two teams. After a while, it became clear that Rogers' allies were losing. When Lang grew in size to create a distraction, Barnes and Rogers broke away from the fight to flee to a quinjet and escaped, although the rest of the group was not so lucky.
Steve and Bucky flew to Siberia to confront the psychiatrist. They were surprised by Stark's sudden arrival. Stark revealed the psychiatrist was a man named Helmut Zemo, who wanted to destroy the Avengers because he blamed the Avengers for the death of his family in the Sokovia incident the previous year. Stark called a truce with Rogers in order to better find and capture him.
The trio then proceed to the chamber where the Winter Soldiers are held in cryogenic stasis. Zemo gained their attention via the intercom, revealing that it was all a ruse; the Winter Soldiers were dead, each with a gunshot wound to the head. Zemo then played video footage of the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark, revealing that it was the Winter Soldier who was responsible. When Steve revealed that he had known this all along, a distraught and enraged Stark turned on them both, resulting in a brutal, protracted brawl between them. Stark blasted Barnes' metal arm off, knocking him down due to the trauma. While Iron Man subsequently overpowered Rogers in combat, Bucky managed to knock him off balance while on the floor, giving Rogers the opportunity to turn the tide of the fight and destroy the power source of Stark's armor. Rogers wrenched his shield free from Stark's chest plate and helped Barnes to his feet, discarding the shield to concede Stark's accusation that he didn't deserve it.
T'Challa had remained hidden throughout the confrontation, and had apprehended Zemo as the battle inside the Siberia installation wound down.[3] He apologized to Bucky when they crossed paths outside the facility, and offered his assistance in undoing Hydra's mental programming. Bucky was put into cryogenic stasis at his own request while T'Challa's sister Shuri worked on a cure.[13] After some testing by the Dora Milaje to ensure that he wouldn't attack anyone, Bucky eventually found himself cured of his brainwashing, and finally free to live again.[14] After this, he continued working and resting in Wakanda.[1]
White Wolf[]
Now known to the people of Wakanda as the 'White Wolf', Bucky was reunited with Steve and the other Avengers when they came to Wakanda two years later to have the Mind Stone removed from the Vision in preparation for the oncoming attack of the mad Titan Thanos, who sought to assemble the six Infinity Stones and destroy half the universe. Despite the best efforts of the Avengers, the united Wakandan tribes, and the extra-terrestrial heroes known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos was able to take the Mind Stone and complete the Infinity Gauntlet, which killed half the living population of the universe with a snap of his fingers, with Bucky being one of the casualties.[6]
Five years after, Hulk snapped his fingers to bring all the victims of the Blip back to life. He was teleported from Wakanda to the place where the New Avengers Facility was destroyed and helped the Avengers in the final battle against Thanos. He and Sam were present when Hulk sent Captain America back to the past to return the Infinity Stones and the Mjolnir to their proper places and times using the quantum portal machine, but didn't return within the five seconds programmed. Bucky noticed an old man in the distance, whom he recognized to be Steve Rogers. He encouraged Sam to greet him and he watched as Steve handed him the shield and mantle of "Captain America."[7]
A Second Chance[]
After Steve's bequeathing of the shield to Sam, Bucky, Steve, and Sam parted ways. Though he was pardoned by the United States Government for his actions as the Winter Soldier due to his heroism alongside the Avengers, he continued to see a court-mandated therapist for his post-traumatic stress disorder which caused him to have vivid nightmares of his time as the brainwashed assassin. As part of his therapy, he tracked down good people who he had wronged or bad people he had helped and made amends by apologizing to them and telling them that he was reformed, though he often did this with great reluctance. During this time, he befriended Yori Nakajima, an elderly man who he related to, being 106 years old himself. Although, unbeknownst to Nakajima, Bucky did this partly to make amends for killing his son as the Winter Soldier decades earlier.
Three months after the battle with Thanos and Steve's retirement, Bucky witnessed the debut of a new Captain America on his TV and realized that Sam had relinquished Steve's shield.[15]
Bucky tracked Sam down at a Air Force base and confronted him for surrendering the shield to the government, only for them to give it to a new Captain America. He reminded Sam that Steve had intended for Sam to take over that title. Sam refused to discuss the matter with him, so Bucky joined him on his mission to intervene in a stolen medical supplies shipment orchestrated by the Flag Smashers, a terrorist group that emerged after half the world's population was restored. The duo stepped in when it appeared as though they had a hostage on board, however it turned out to be their leader, a young girl named Karli Morgenthau. The duo fought the Flag Smashers aboard the moving vehicles and discovered that they were Super Soldiers due to their enhanced strength. The duo were nearly defeated, but the new Captain America, who introduced himself as Captain John Walker, and his partner Battlestar came to their aid, much to the heroes' chagrin.
After they were all swiftly defeated by the Flag Smashers, the four soldiers shared a heated ride back to base together. Walker wanted Sam and Bucky at his side to help his image as the new Captain America, which Captain America's former allies did not take lightly. The duo ditched Walker and Bucky took Sam to see the last person he had known to have received the super soldier serum, Isaiah Bradley.
In Baltimore, Bradley wanted little to do with the duo, however, feeling disgraced by the legacy of the serum because of the unjust tests the government had done on him after his service. He ordered them to leave his home and Sam angrily confronted Bucky on why nobody had known Bradley, a black super-soldier, existed. Bucky insisted that it was better that Steve didn't know because there was nothing he could do to make amends. As they were arguing, a pair of cops pulled up and attempted to arrest Sam since it appeared to them that he was becoming aggressive with Bucky, though they both repeatedly insisted nothing was wrong. The cops relaxed after realizing that Sam was the Falcon, which irritated both men. The cops then found that there was an arrest warrant out on Bucky for missing a court-mandated therapy session, however, and arrested him. He was later released into the custody of his therapist on Walker's orders, and the therapist conducted a final session with both Bucky and Sam to release him from the court mandate. In this session, Bucky confronted Sam on his giving up the shield once more, irritating Sam who asked him why it mattered so much. Bucky confessed to Sam that the shield being given to Sam meant that Steve had made a judgement about who Sam was, that he was worthy of the Captain America mantle, and that if he had been wrong in his judgement of Sam then he was wrong in his judgement of Bucky's worth, which scared him. The two came to an understanding and departed, meeting with Walker and Hoskins outside the prison. Walker suggested that they team up to track down the Flag Smashers and the source of their strength, which Bucky and Sam declined, pointing out that they were free agents unrestricted by government rules and intended to act like it. Walker acknowledged this but warned them to stay out of his way going forward. After this, Bucky, believing the source of the new super-soldier serum to be Hydra, like it had been for him, suggested to Sam that they go visit the one man who knew all of Hydra's secrets: Helmut Zemo. Sam reluctantly agreed, and the two set out for Germany.[11]
Upon reaching Germany, Bucky and Sam visited Zemo in prison, with Bucky speaking directly to him. Zemo attempted to use the old trigger words to revert Bucky to his Winter Soldier state, but this failed because of Bucky's Wakandan deprogramming. Zemo acknowledged that he knew it wouldn't have worked, otherwise Bucky wouldn't have risked getting so close, but that he wanted to see what effect the old words had on the new him. He also deduced that Bucky was desperate for leads if he was coming to Zemo, and told him that he could help. Bucky then orchestrated a complex prison break for Zemo without Sam's knowledge, and met up with Sam in an old manufacturing plant, where Zemo later rendezvoused with the pair. Sam, far from trusting Zemo, angrily reminded Bucky of the man's actions in Vienna and his framing of Bucky and his plot to break up the Avengers. Bucky agreed but told Sam it was their only shot, and forced Zemo to only do what they said, to which he agreed. Zemo took the pair to a garage where his wealthy family of barons and baronesses had stored cars, just one manifestation of their excessive wealth, and then took them on his private jet to the city of Madripoor, an old pirate sanctuary and now city of crime. Zemo disguised Sam as an infamous criminal known as "The Smiling Tiger" and Bucky as his old Winter Soldier identity. After starting a bar brawl to get the attention of the owner, they met with Selby, a top-tier criminal informant, to get information about the production of the new super-soldier serum. Their interaction was cut short when Sam received a call from his sister and was forced by Selby to answer it. Sam's sister accidentally revealed his name to the room, starting a shootout, but the trio was saved by an unseen sniper, who killed Selby and left Sam and Bucky to take out the rest of her bodyguards.
The three fled after this, knowing they would have a bounty placed on their heads, and ran into Sharon Carter, who had fled the United States after being labeled a traitor for retrieving Steve's shield and Sam's wing-pack for them during the Sokovia Accords debacle. She revealed that she was their sniper and that she knew where to find Dr. Wilfred Nagel, the man responsible for engineering the new super-soldier formula. In exchange for clearing her name in the US, she guided them to a shipping yard, where Zemo found Nagel's hidden lab. The three confronted Nagel while Carter kept watch and fended off several bounty hunters. Nagel revealed that he had created 20 vials of the new serum based on traces in Isaiah Bradley's blood, and that it was designed to grant the user all the same powers as the original, but without changing their visible physiology. However, he said, they had all been stolen by Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the Flag Smashers. Seeing no further use for the doctor, Zemo found a gun under a desk and shot him, much to the horror of Bucky and Sam. They fled the lab as it was blown up by an RPG launched by a bounty hunter and fought their way out of the shipping yard, fleeing to one of Zemo's houses in Latvia after promising to clear Carter's name. On their way to the safe house, Bucky clocked a Wakandan kimoyo bead and broke away from the group to find another one and then came face to face with Ayo of the Dora Milaje, who demanded they remand Zemo into her custody to pay for the murder of King T'Chaka.[16]
Bucky arranged a deal where they could keep Zemo for eight more hours in order to track down their next lead, with Ayo promising to return to collect Zemo. Bucky then went to the safe house and candidly informed Zemo and Sam that the Dora Milaje had come for Zemo and that they had a limited window of time to spare. The three moved to find their next lead immediately, encountering several kids who shared with Zemo the location of a funeral for one of Flag Smashers' figureheads in exchange for candy. They went to find the funeral spot but were confronted by Walker and Hoskins, who had tracked them to Latvia after realizing that they had broken Zemo out of prison. Sam and Bucky insisted on following the lead, and Walker and Hoskins tagged along as well. When they arrived at the funeral site, Sam went in alone to try and talk with Karli one-on-one, with Walker allotting him ten minutes to do so before they came in after him. Despite this promise, Walker became paranoid and attempted to intervene before the ten minutes was up, but Bucky blocked him. Bucky relented and let Walker pass, however, when Walker insisted that Sam could be in trouble, and that if he was, the blood would be on Bucky's hands. The group charged in, startling Karli and Sam, who were having a frank and pacifistic talk. Karli fled with Zemo in pursuit as Bucky, Sam, Walker, and Hoskins fought off Flag Smashers. Bucky later came across Walker and Zemo after the former had split off from the group, with Karli having escaped and the remaining vials of super-soldier serum having been smashed by Zemo, who was now unconscious at the hands of Walker.
The group retired to Zemo's safe house where Zemo recovered from a head injury induced by Walker's shield. Walker and Hoskins soon barged into the house, however, demanding they turn over Zemo, who should be in prison. Bucky and Sam refused to do this, stating that they had a preexisting deal with the Dora Milaje, who showed up as if on cue. Walker attempted to sweet-talk Ayo into turning Zemo over to him instead, which prompted a violent and humiliating fight between the Dora Milaje and Walker and Hoskins, who were quickly and badly beaten by the far better-trained Wakandan warriors. Sam and Bucky joined in with the fight as well after realizing that they still needed Zemo, but they, too, were quickly dispatched, with Ayo curtly and easily deactivating Bucky's arm, which used Wakandan technology. In the midst of the chaos, Zemo escaped into the sewers, leading the Dora Milaje to angrily leave to track him down. Sam received a call from his sister, who revealed that Karli threatened her and her children to get to Sam, who then arranged a meeting with her and brought Bucky, despite agreeing to meet alone. He didn't tell Walker about this, however, and in the midst of what was another pacifistic, if tense, discussion, Walker attacked the Flag Smasher stronghold, breaking Karli's trust once again. Bucky and Sam ran off to intervene in the fight, coming across a now serum-enhanced Walker who had secretly pocketed a vial of the serum that Zemo had missed. In the middle of the fight, Hoskins attempted to save Walker from an attack by Karli, who instead brutally punched Hoskins into a concrete pillar, killing him instantly. This gave the entire group pause, which the Flag Smashers used to get away from the heroes. Walker instead, however, angrily pursues an errant Flag Smasher by jumping out of window and crushing a car, then knocking the young man down and beating him relentlessly with the shield before decapitating him in the middle of a public square filled with horrified onlookers, including Bucky and Sam.[14]
When Walker fled the scene, Bucky pursued him with Sam in tow, and the two arrived to see him seemingly grieving Lemar before getting up and getting ready to continue on mission. He attempted to plan the group's next moves with the two Avengers, but Sam told him that he was going to have to hand over the shield. Walker, viewing these actions as hostile, went on the defensive and prepared to fight, but Sam tried to use his counseling skills to talk him down. In spite of this, Walker still seemed ready to try and fight or flee, so Bucky aggressively engaged him, partly to retrieve the shield and partly out of rage for Walker tarnishing his friend's legacy. During the fight, Bucky was incapacitated, but awoke again just in time to prevent Walker from killing Sam with the shield the same way he had killed the Flag Smasher. The two managed to pin Walker down and brace his arm against a metal column. When he continued to refuse to give up the shield, the two broke his arm and took it from him, leaving him behind, beaten.
After this, Barnes tracked down Zemo at the memorial monument for Sokovia where he was paying his respects to his family and fallen countrymen. Barnes held Zemo at gunpoint, whereupon Zemo expressed a willingness to die, his mission finally complete. Bucky pulled the trigger, but the gun failed to fire, to Zemo's surprise. Bucky dropped the bullets out of his hand to show Zemo he wasn't the killer he thought he was anymore, before revealing that he was stalling until the arrival of the Dora Milaje. Zemo was turned over to the Wakandan warriors, who informed Bucky that they would transport him to the Raft prison for safekeeping. Before departing, Ayo warned Bucky that the White Wolf shouldn't be seen in Wakanda until the situation with Zemo blew over, as his choice to facilitate Zemo's escape was seen as a betrayal since Zemo had killed King T'Chaka. Bucky asked for a final favor, obtaining a briefcase of Wakandan technology.
Bucky traveled to Louisiana where Sam was staying with his sister and nephews, delivering the briefcase to Sam and helping out a little with Sam's goal of restoring his family's boat. When Bucky expressed that he had nowhere to go, Sam offered for him to stay with him, which Bucky accepted. Over the next few days, he helped Sam restore the boat to almost full functionality using his knowledge of mechanics. All the while, he helped Sam train with the shield, while Sam helped him understand that in order to fully move on from his past as the Winter Soldier, he had to atone not just by confronting the bad people he had enabled as the Winter Soldier, but also by giving closure to the good people he had hurt. Bucky, understanding this, agreed to work with Sam as partners, wished him luck in his training, and left to make amends.[17]
Bucky later found out that the Flag Smashers intended to make their biggest demonstration yet in New York City, where Morgenthau intended to kidnap the representatives of the GRC and hold them hostage until they changed their minds about the repatriation vote. Bucky was joined by Sharon Carter, who had used a facial prosthesis to impersonate another person to get back into the country. Bucky was called by Morgenthau, who he attempted to talk down from this, reasoning that it wouldn't go the way she wanted it to and that there was a line she would never be able to come back from if she crossed it. Morgenthau was just distracting him, however, while she shuttled the GRC hostages out of the GRC HQ. Bucky chased them down with help from Sam, now having adopted the mantle of Captain America. Bucky confronted Morgenthau and the Flag Smashers when he caught up to the trucks they were using to get away with the GRC representatives and began trying to fight them off but Morgenthau orchestrated yet another distraction by lighting one of the trucks on fire to force Bucky to intervene there, allowing the Flag Smashers to get away with a. separate truck of hostages. Walker also joined the fight with a handmade shield, but was quickly overpowered. As the Flag Smashers became more desperate, one of them drove a truck over the side of a construction area, where it was caught on a steel girder structure but threatened to fall, where Bucky would struggle to stop it. Walker chose to help here instead of chasing down more Flag Smashers, preventing the truck's falling until Sam could show up and lift it back to safety.
Bucky then teamed up with Sam and Walker to chase down Morgenthau as she fled through a building, with Sam distracting him and Walker as he ran off to confront Morgenthau alone in an attempt to talk to her one more time, though this was thwarted when Morgenthau refused to listen and was eventually fatally shot by Carter, who had been shot by Morgenthau herself. Bucky was then present as Sam delivered a rousing speech to the GRC and several news outlets about the impact of their actions and insisted that if they didn't change their plans, there would be more people like Morgenthau to come. Bucky congratulated his friend as Captain America and later joined Sam and his family in Louisiana to celebrate Sam's taking up the mantle and a return to normalcy.[5]Attributes
Powers
Artificially Enhanced Physiology: The Winter Soldier program, to which Bucky Barnes was subjected, increased his abilities to levels enhanced beyond natural limitations and rival the physical abilities of Captain America.
- Superhuman Strength: The Winter Soldier program provided Bucky greater strength than a regular human. He can launch a man several meters through the air with a single kick. His bionic arm also increases his strength, allowing him to easily break off the door of a car.[2]
- Superhuman Durability: Hydra experiments fortified his form to the extent that he survived a high fall in the Eastern Alps that would have been fatal to an ordinary man. After further enhancements he can routinely drop to the ground from several floors up, and his leg muscles will absorb the impact and allow him to break straight back into a run.[2]
- Superhuman Speed: Bucky can run a considerably faster pace than a man of his height and build.[2]. He can easily outrun vehicles and keep up with Captain America and Black Panther.[3]
- Superhuman Reflexes: Bucky's reaction time was increased enormously, allowing him to catch Captain America's Shield when it was being thrown at him from behind.[2]
- Enhanced Agility: Winter Soldier's agility is superior to that of an ordinary human. He can do acrobatic flips to avoid gunfire. [2]
- Enhanced Stamina: Winter Soldier's musculature produces far less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human.[3]
- Accelerated Healing: Upon the Winter Soldier receiving extensive injuries at the hands of Iron Man, a few days later in Wakanda, he didn't even have a scar left and was fully healed of his injuries. His enhanced healing may have helped him survive extended amounts of time in Cryostasis. Despite him having accelerated healing abilities, he cannot regrow his amputated arm.
Abilities
- Master Martial Artist: Winter Soldier is an extremely skilled and formidable martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant, excelling at improvisation and weapons handling. He can effectively match Captain America in hand-to-hand combat.[2]
- Selective Hearing: Bucky is able to disregard excessive auditory stimuli to focus on a single sound.[2]
- Expert Pilot: Bucky is an expert pilot. He can manage to fly a quinjet.[2]
- Military Training
Weaknesses
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
- SIG Sauer P220ST handgun
- Colt M4A1 Carbine (with underslung RM equipment)
- M203PI Grenade Launcher
- Gerber Mark II Knife
Transportation
Notes
- Sebastian Stan portrays Bucky Barnes in the films Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame; and in the Disney+ mini-series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Stan made uncredited cameos in the post-credit scenes of Ant-Man (which uses a scene from Captain America: Civil War) and Black Panther. Stan additionally lent his voice to the character for the video game Captain America: Super Soldier. Stan will reprise his role in the upcoming film Thunderbolts.[18]
- For details of the version of Bucky Barnes seen in the video game Captain America: Super Soldier' please see here: James Barnes (Earth-TRN999).
- Bucky counts the years he was Blipped when adding up his age, given that he was born in 1917 and that he states that his age is "106" years old in 2024.[15]
Trivia
See Also
- 30 appearance(s) of James Barnes (Earth-199999)
- 5 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of James Barnes (Earth-199999)
- 12 minor appearance(s) of James Barnes (Earth-199999)
- 7 mention(s) of James Barnes (Earth-199999)
- 81 image(s) of James Barnes (Earth-199999)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about James Barnes (Earth-199999)
- 3 victim(s) killed by James Barnes (Earth-199999)
Links and References
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Black Panther
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Captain America: Civil War
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Captain America: First Vengeance (Vol. 2) #4
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Falcon and The Winter Soldier S1E06
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Avengers: Infinity War
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Avengers: Endgame
- ↑ Bucky Wanted Explore Madripoor. Retrieved on 09 April 2021.
- ↑ Captain America: First Vengeance (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Captain America: The First Avenger
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Falcon and The Winter Soldier S1E02
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Marvel's Captain America: Civil War Prelude Infinite Comic #1
- ↑ Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War Prelude #1
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Falcon and The Winter Soldier S1E04
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 The Falcon and The Winter Soldier S1E01
- ↑ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier S1E03
- ↑ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier S1E05
- ↑ Marvel (September 10, 2022) D23 Expo 2022: Marvel Studios' 'Thunderbolts’ Casting Announced Marvel.com. Retrieved on September 10, 2022.
- ↑ Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E12
- ↑ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (24 March 2021) Our Pisces hero ♓︎ The first episode of Marvel Studios' The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is now streaming on @DisneyPlus. #FalconAndWinterSoldier Twitter. Retrieved on 09 April 2021.