It’s time for another Theme Week. This
time, in honor of the 4th of July, I thought it would be a good idea
to focus on patriotic superheroes. The Heroes I’ll be mentioning this week are
former soldiers and/or have a patriotic style of costume. Again, no repeats, or
you’d probably be seeing John Stewart on here. For the first hero of this week,
I thought I go with one that has had a rather…bumpy career. I’m talking, of
course, about James Buchanan Barnes, aka Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier. Let’s
get to it.
 |
| His costume got a pretty serious upgrade. |
Bucky discovering Captain America’s
true identity motivated him to undergo extensive training in the hope of
becoming Cap’s sidekick. For some reason, the US Government agreed to this.
Why? Two reasons, 1. To show young people that they are “involved” in the war
effort, and 2. To do the jobs that Captain America couldn’t be seen doing. Like
killing dangerous Nazi prisoners. Assigning a fifteen year old orphan to serve
in the US Army, and work as a covert assassin. What could possibly go wrong?
Actually, not that much. To begin with at least. He help Captain America on a
number of missions, against foes like the Red Skull, Baron’s Zemo and Strucker,
and various Nazi super soldiers/weapons. In the final days of the War, Cap and
Bucky were tasked with stopping Baron Zemo once again. This time the masked
Nazi scientist planned to destroy an experimental drone. His plan? Hit it with
his own experimental explosive drone. For a genius, Zemo is surprisingly simple
minded… Whatever. So Cap and Bucky arrive just before the launch. Bucky tries
to defuse the bomb, but it is a very complex explosive. Zemo launches the
plane, with Cap and Bucky still on it. They didn’t defuse the bomb, but set it
off before it reached its target. The heroic duo were pitched into the Atlantic
Ocean. Both are presumed dead, until Captain America was rediscovered by the
Avengers a few decades later. The Super Soldier Serum in Captain America kept
him alive in a state of suspended animation, but Bucky is still presumed dead.
It’s interesting to note, that it’s the death of Bucky that lead to sidekicks
more or less not being a thing in the Marvel Universe. The heroes that followed
didn’t want to put young men and women in dangerous like that. Seeing a teenager
dying horribly does seem to make the most reckless hero cautious.
 |
| Yeah, this costume was silly. See previous posts on my thoughts about stealth guys wearing bright colors. |
Bucky holds the record for longest
time dead in comics. He was dead for about forty years. Heck, it became a
saying that “the only characters that stay dead are Bucky, Uncle Ben and Jason
Todd.” This changed in 2005, when we learned that Bucky was only dead for a
little while. It’s revealed in the Winter
Soldier story arc that Bucky survived the explosion. His body was
discovered by an experimental Russian sub under the command of General Vasily
Karpov. The Russians pulled the body from the water and discovered that it was
amazingly well preserved. You know, except for the fact that Bucky had lost his
left arm in the explosion. They ship the body to Moscow, where a surprisingly
crazy Russian doctor proposes they try to revive the body. Even more shocking,
it works. They also discover that being dead in the water for so long lead to
some pretty severe brain damage, in the form of near total amnesia. No idea who
he is, where he’s from, but he still possessed all the old muscle memory of a
trained soldier. He could also speak several languages, the most important of
which being his accent free English. Russian scientist surgically attach a
bionic arm, and begin turning Bucky into the ultimate assassin. He’s given the
code name Winter Soldier.
The Winter Soldier became one of
the Soviets most dangerous and effective weapon. In order to keep him “fresh,”
Winter Soldier was cryogenically frozen between missions. As a result, Bucky
has aged maybe ten years in the forty years since his “death.” There was just
one major problem, the longer he was active, the more…erratic his behavior became.
He’d start to ask questions, disobey orders, and even put a fellow operative in
intensive care. Which, you know, detracts from ones effectiveness as a
superweapon. It got to the point that the docs in charge recommended that he
undergo reprogramming every time he was pulled out of his freezer tube. In the
70s, he killed a man in the US and then, just…disappeared. His Soviet handlers
went nuts as they frantically searched for their spy. They found him in New
York, sleeping in a homeless shelter. They nabbed him, and decided that they
probably shouldn’t send him on Missions in the US again. In the intervening years
he spent time serving as Karpov’s bodyguard, until Karpov’s death. Karpov had
been humiliated by Captain America in WWII, so he took a perverse pleasure in
using Cap’s old sidekick as his attack dog. He’s put in cold storage after
that, before being revived by Karpov’s protégé, Aleksander Lukin years later.
Lukin uses Winter Soldier to kill the Red Skull and steal the Cosmic Cube. He
also orchestrates a terrorist attack in Philadelphia, which kills hundreds and
helps charge the Cosmic Cube. He also murders Jack Monroe, a former soldier
that stood in for Bucky after he and Cap disappeared, and planted his body. Lukin
had hoped that this would be enough proof for SHIELD that a soldier with severe
PTSD was responsible for all the death. Unfortunately for Lukin, Captain Steven
Rogers isn’t easily tricked. After battling several AIM and former Russian
soldiers, Captain America learns from friend, and former girlfriend, SHIELD
Special Agent Sharon Carter that Winter Soldier looks like Bucky. Fury gives
Cap all the info on Winter Soldier that he has, but it’s not much. Thankfully,
the info plus his own intellect and resourcefulness helps Captain America
pieces together the story of Bucky’s life after death. Eventually, Cap tracks
down Winter Soldier and the two duke it out.
 |
| Yeah, cyborg arm is pretty cool. |
Captain America is able to
overpower Winter Soldier and gets his hands on the Cosmic Cube. Using the Cube’s
immense power, Cap restores Bucky’s memories. Which, I have to give the writers
props for not using the “I know you’re in there” cliché to get Winter Soldier to
stop fighting Cap. Bucky, overwhelmed by the guilt of his crimes as Winter
Soldier, grabs the Cube in his robo-hand and crushes it. He is teleported back
to Camp Lehigh, where he contemplates his life. He returns a short time later
and gets a job as a SHIELD Agent. Much like Black Widow, Bucky uses his
assassin skills and training to help protect and better the free world, and he
excels at it. After the events of the Superhero Civil War, Bucky works with
Nick Fury to try to break Captain America out of SHIELD custody. Before the
plan could be enacted, however, Captain America is murdered by Crossbones and a
brainwashed Sharon Carter. After that, Bucky takes the mantle of Captain
America. Almost literally. He steals the Shield from SHIELD to ensure Tony Stark
doesn’t pass it down to someone unworthy of the title. Tony eventually agrees
to allow Bucky to take up the mantle. Bucky works as a more… aggressive Captain
America for a few years. He finds ways to combine his more lethal tactics with
the somewhat stricter moral code that Captain America NEEDS to have. Bucky
eventually returns the Shield and title to Steven Rogers when he is revived. It’s
for the best, Winter Soldier is best left defending from the shadows. From
sidekick to assassin, soldier to Captain America and back again. Bucky’s had a
pretty roundabout life, hasn’t he?
Bucky doesn’t have superhuman
powers. But like Batman, he could have fooled me. He was trained in hand to
hand combat and martial arts. First military grade, and then received additional
training from Captain America and later, the Soviets. He was also given
extensive training with firearms and grenades, skills that, again, were further
honed by his Soviet handlers. He’s also a gifted linguist, he’s fluent in
English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian and Japanese. After being
resurrected and transformed into the Winter Soldier by the Soviet Union, he’s
given a cybernetic prosthetic to replace his left arm. The metal arm is
outfitted with electrical weapons. It has enhanced strength and reaction time.
It can also discharge a powerful EMP. It’s also equipped with a camouflage function
that makes it look like flesh and blood when Bucky is in civilian mode. During
his brief stint as Captain America, he uses Cap’s shield, and wares a costume that
is a blend of Kevlar and Nomex. He also uses a Colt 1911-A1 .45 pistol and
combat knife in conjunction with the shield.
The Winter Soldier has appeared a
few times in Marvel’s TV and Movie series. Mostly in the last ten years, which
isn’t all that surprising since that’s about when he was revived.
 |
| Such a nice reunion. |
Avengers:
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes features Bucky’s complete story arc. He works with
Captain America in WWII but is presumably killed when the Red Skull’s escape
plane blows up. In the final minutes of the episode “Hail HYDRA” Captain
America grabs the Cosmic Cube half a second before Baron Strucker. We then see
a flashback of Bucky hitting the water after the plane blows, his eyes opening
in the water. Even though Cap and Strucker touched the Cube less than a second
apart, it’s kind of implied that Cap’s guilt over Bucky’s death was greater
than Strucker’s desire to rewrite history. There you go, love (platonic love, I’m
implying nothing) is stronger than hate. Captain America proved it. The Winter Soldier
appears in “Code Red” as a member of Code Red, a covert superhuman group that
works for Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk. He, the Falcon, Red Hulk, and Doc Samson, all
heroes that wear a lot of red, are used by Dell Rusk to attack the Avengers. It’s
revealed that Dell Rusk’s name is an alias, and an anagram. Can you guess for
who? Here’s a hint, capitalized right, its dell RuSk. Got it? It’s Red Skull,
if you didn’t. They strike the Avengers with a potent toxic gas that withers
the skin and muscles of the face to make it look like a red skull. While Winter
Soldier is Skull’s favored agent, he does betray Skull to help Captain America
save the day. He appears again in the following episode “Winter Soldier,” where
Cap and Fury try to figure out the mysteries of both Winter Soldier, and Skull’s
plans. We also learn that Winter Soldier is the reason that Fury lost his eye
in this Universe. A bomb went off in his face, nasty. They do learn that Winter
Soldier is Bucky, and that Red Skulls plans involve a Megazord. Seriously, he
has several giant robots that combine into an even more giant robot. Captain
America and Winter Soldier are captured, but they work together to take Skull
down. The episode ends with Bucky running off, but he and Cap part on good
terms. He is one of many background
heroes that aid the Avengers in the series finale “Avengers Assemble.” It’s
interesting to note that young Bucky is played by Scott Menville, a voice actor
most well-known for portraying Robin on Teen
Titians and the abysmal Teen Titians
Go! He’s replaced by Jon Curry as the adult Winter Soldier.
 |
| His Captain America costume is unusually shiny. |
He appears in Captain America: The First Avenger. He’s reimagined as Steven Rogers’s
longtime friend, and is portrayed by Sebastian Stan. He enlists in the Army while
Steven is recruited for the Super Soldier program. He and his unit, the 501st,
are captured by HYDRA shortly before Captain America arrives to entertain the
troops. Captain America infiltrates the HYDRA base and finds Bucky had been
tortured and possibly experimented upon. He joins Steve’s Howling Commandos and
helps beat back HYDRA. He and the Captain has some of the best banter in the
film, particularly when Bucky is reminding Cap was once the shrimp that he had
to look after. Bucky’s assumedly killed when the Commandos apprehend Arnim
Zola, HYDRA’s top scientist. He’s knocked out of a speeding train into a frozen
river, it was a pretty safe assumption that he died. His “death” greatly
depresses Cap.
Stan’s Bucky returns in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He’s
used as HYDRA’s superweapon, to assassinate Nick Fury and others to help HYDRA “push”
humanity to the point that they’d be willing to be subjugated by HYDRA. It’s a
stupid plan, but Winter Soldier is pretty badass, so I give it a pass. It’s
also a little…disheartening that they go with the old ‘I know you’re in there” cliché
during the films climax to explain why Bucky doesn’t kill Cap despite getting a
couple of chances. His costume is pretty amazing, too. We also learn that in
this universe, Bucky was there to support and look out for Cap back when his
mother died, hence why Steve was so fiercely loyal. He’s set to return next
year in Captain America: Civil War.
Bucky is an excellent character. I
think that his Winter Soldier story arc and later developments make him one of
the most memorable characters in comics. I consider him a patriotic superhero
despite the fact his Winter Soldier persona started off as an anti-American
weapon. Why? Because even while brainwashed he represents the best parts about
America. Even with all the drugs, and reprogramming they did to him, there ever
remained that small, unbreakable kernel of himself that remained. They had to
pretty much constantly “reprogram” him as his mind kept searching out the truth
of who he was. What’s more American than never completely giving in? Probably
his the loyalty, strength and courage that he displays when he’s back in
control of his body. He’s the dark soldier, a lethal guardian, the unconquerable
Winter Soldier.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140304173230/disney/images/8/81/Masked_Winter_Soldier.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucky
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/2/23/Winter_Soldier.png/revision/latest?cb=20140328150306
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/avengersearthsmightiestheroes/images/8/87/Winter_Soldier_%28episode%29.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20121003003602
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucky#/media/File:Cap_34.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment