James Buchanan Barnes (Earth-981)

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

-- Nick Fury

Early Life

Barnes was orphaned at an early age and lived in the orphanage ever since his parents died. Once he noticed a weak, skinny kid getting beaten up by bigger bullies. He stepped in and saved the kid, who introduced himself as Steve Rogers and the pair became good friends.

Into World War II

In World War II (1942), while Bucky was in the Army, Rogers was repetitively denied as physically unfit for the U.S. army and to fight the Nazi's. Later when Steve first became Captain America, Steve chose a team to wipe Hydra off the map for good. Bucky was Rogers' first choice, as well as the others in his company, and together they became the The Howling Commandos. But when the Howling Commandos was captured, Steve and Bucky went to save them becoming war heroes. Bucky joined the Commandos and was lead by Steve AKA Captain America. Then one day, Half of the Howling commandos was captured (again) in Von Strucker's castle, but this time they were being experimented on and Bucky became Armin Zola's favorite subject. They were luckily saved by Captain America, Namor, Miss America, Human Torch and The Whizzer. With new team members Captain America made a new group called "The Invaders."

They encountered well-equipped Hydra Troops and a Massive mechanical suit called The Iron Cross. Bucky was less fortunate, eventually needing the help of Cap's shield before he could defeat the Iron Cross. As both Bucky and Cap escaped the exploding castle, a huge chunk of debris landed on Bucky and he became trapped under it. Cap tried to pull him out, but he forced Cap to leave him behind stating "The world's gonna need Captain America more then they need Bucky". Cap escapes the castle with his allies while Bucky seemingly died in the explosion.

The birth of the Winter Soldier

Bucky had barely survived the explosion, but his left arm was badly broken from the debris that landed on him. He was salvaged by Soviet Union's Aleksander Lukin & Russian General Shatalov who sought to give Mother Russia her own super soldier. He was taken to Belarus where Shatalov experimented on his body, using technology they had gleamed from an alien artifact they discovered in Russia, grafted a cybernetic arm to his body, the alien technology therein bonding to his nervous system, granting him superhuman abilities akin to Captain America's.

Amnesiac from his last mission and the grafting procedure brainwashed him into a perfectly compliant Soviet saboteur, and having perfected cryogenic technology long before the Western world would, kept him frozen in stasis, thawing him out only when the needs were greatest and most extreme. From that point on, Bucky now known as The Winter Soldier acted as a ghost like figure that would act out the Soviets' will in the form of assassinations and political killings and then disappear just as fast. Decade after decade, reports of the Winter Soldier being involved in yet another suspicious death. Many Western men of power just as much assumed the Winter Soldier to be a myth--no possible way they were all perpetuated by a single person, and the Soviets vehemently denied his existence. Barnes also worked alongside the Black Widow during the cold war. However, when the iron curtain fell and members of the just as fabled Red Room program defected to the US, including S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own Black Widow, they confirmed that the Winter Soldier was all too real. With the end of the Cold War so too did the whispers of the Winter Soldier end as he was he was kept in cryogenic suspension until he could be found.

Red Winter

A decade later in the modern era, Baron Von Strucker and the reformed Hyrda located a secret base of high-tech Soviet weaponry somewhere in Russia, which was where they also recovered the Winter Soldier in frozen stasis. Winter Soldier is then reactivated to assassinate his former partner and friend Captain America who had also survived to the twenty-first century after being frozen for seventy years, Sharon Carter who had been keeping tabs on Hydra and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury.

His first attempt was successful as the Winter Soldier shot Sharon Carter through the shoulder at Steve Rogers's apartment; seemingly killed. The Winter Soldier then made his escape, but Rogers gave chase and attempted to subdue Barnes by throwing his shield at him. However, Barnes stopped running and simply caught the shield with his bionic arm, throwing it back with incredible force and engaged Rogers in hand-to-hand combat while on top of a moving subway train in Brooklyn. Bucky then escaped in a drone, and caused an explosion in the train tracks to slow Rogers down.

Eventually, he was able to capture Nick Fury and bring him to one of HYRDA's secret bases of operations to draw Captain America out to kill him. Nick was rescued by Captain America however and learned the identity of the Winter Soldier was. Steve was shocked at the sight of his old friend while Barnes himself paused at this reaction, albeit only momentarily before drawing a gun. Sam Wilson spoiled his aim by kicking him to the ground, giving time for Cap and Fury to escape. Later back at HQ, while the doctors repairing his arm, Barnes began to recover pieces of his memories of the past, such as his death, and the experimentation of Aleksander Lukin to create a prosthetic arm, and brainwashing him to became a assassin for the Soviet Union. These memories made him angry, to the point where he chokes out the doctor that is repairing his arm. Bucky threw him away and breaks free. He tries to escape but Bucky was unfortunately apprehended by the Red Skull himself. Red Skull then decided to redo the operation, brainwashing him, to force his cooperation on Hydra.

Just before HYDRA could complete their goal to bring world domination with Project Genesis, as they prepared to activate all of the Helicarriers each armed with Tungsten rods with a force equivalent to a nuclear bomb. their plans were then suddenly intercepted by Nick Fury and his allies. Meanwhile Captain America and Falcon were tasked to recover stolen high-tech stolen Soviet weapons from Von Strucker of HYDRA. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier was reactivated once again to protect Strucker and the weapons. Bucky and Cap engaged in combat until Rogers refused to fight his friend anymore, Rogers removed his mask and dropped his shield. The Winter Soldier listened as Captain America begged for Barnes to remember him, Steve Rogers reminded him of his name and past, noting that he had known him for his entire life, before he had been captured and turned into an assassin. Despite this however, Barnes still refused to listen to what he was saying, violently beating Rogers with his bionic arm. As the Winter Soldier ignored Captain America's words, he continued brutally beating Rogers into until Bucky suddenly stopped attacking Steve. Barnes is beginning to remember, he relented, unwilling to throw another punch. However before the Soldier could do anything more, Strucker sends out a missile at the base where they were all at and both Cap, Sharon Carter and Falcon barely survived from the missile explosion which destroyed the base, while Bucky on another hand, escaped and went underground to search for Lukin and the Red Skull.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Enhanced Strength: The experiments that was done to him provided Bucky greater strength than a regular human. He can kick a normal human meters away easily. His bionic arm also increases his strength, allowing him to easily to lift a normal human from the neck and fatally punch a human being meters away and break a solid wall with a single punch, as well as effortlessly murder dozens of men with a single blow.

Enhanced Durability: After experiments that was done to him, 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.

Enhanced Reflexes: Bucky's reaction time was increased enormously, rivaling those of Captain America or Spider-Man's. Allowing him to catch Captain America's Shield when it was being thrown at him from behind.

Enhanced Stamina: Barnes' musculature produces considerably less fatigue-toxins, allowing him to physically exert himself for several hours before showing any sign of fatigue or tiring. He can also hold his breath underwater for longer periods of time

Enhanced Speed: Barnes is capable of running and moving at speeds faster than the greatest sprint runner. He was able to move fast enough to exit a building as it was exploding.

Enhanced Agility: Winter Soldier's agility is superior to that of an ordinary human. He can do acrobatic flips to avoid gunfire.

Abilities

Multi-Languges: Bucky is capable of speaking languages other then English.

Master Combatant: As the Winter Soldier, Bucky can effectively match Captain America in hand-to-hand combat.

Expert Spy: He is an expert in the field of espionage thanks largely to World War II, he is also an expert at hand to hand combat. His luminaries are Rex Applegate and William E. Fairbairn, his former partner Steven Rogers, the United States military, and the British SAS Regiment. He is also skilled in Stealth missions and demolitions, and can deduce another person's way of thinking.

Expert Marksman: He is an extremely accurate Marksman, skilled at sharpshooting and knife throwing.

Skilled Acrobat: He is Olympic level athlete and acrobat of many difficult acrobat feats.

Peak Human Conditioning: He has shown Olympic to possible near peak Human strength, agility, endurance, dexterity, etc.

Master of Stealth: Barnes can appear from place to place without being detected.

Master Acrobat: Barnes performs very excellent acrobat that is superior to any trained finest athlete and is capable of accomplished many difficult acrobatic feats.

Weapons Proficiency: Barnes is proficient at wielding many weapons including pistols, rifles, knives, grenades, etc.

Selective Hearing: Bucky is able to disregard excessive auditory stimuli to focus on a single sound

Strength level

Olympic to peak of Human Strength.

Weaknesses

Electricity: High voltage electrical discharges can overload and disable Bucky's bionic arm. However, his arm is capable of emitting an EMP itself and thus must have some degree of shielding.

Paraphernalia

Equipment:

Mask and Body Armor: In addition to body armor, Barnes wears a domino mask technology that can detect hidden areas and locations.

Bionic Arm: Used by Soviet Union to replace Bucky's broken arm.

Transportation: Various Military Vehicles like Helicopters, Tanks, Airplanes, Boats, etc.
Weapons: During World War II, Bucky was supplied with various of firearms, including M1911 Handgun. In later years, as the Winter Soldier, he was equipped with a state-of-the-art arsenal, including various automatic weapons.

Notes

This version of the character is exclusive to the continuity of Marvel Ultiverse and is an adaptation of Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier. The original character was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Captain America comics #1.

Trivia

This version of the character is mostly based off his Earth-616 counterpart.

Discover and Discuss

Search News for: Winter Soldier · James Buchanan Barnes · James Buchanan Barnes (Earth-981)

Links and References

None.

FANDOM