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This piece originally ran in May of 2016 whenCaptain America: Civil Warhit theaters.
We are republishing it on the occasion ofThe Falcon and the Winter Soldiers premiere on Disney+.
Superheroes are generally a static bunch.
Superman may have died in 1992, but he soared up from the grave within a few months.
But one character, by his very existence, reveals the folly of that mind-set.
First, he was killed off in 1964 and actuallystayeddead for four decades, at least.
Ironically, Buckys creation three-quarters of a century ago was all about orthodoxy.
But triumph in war was one thing; triumph in the marketplace was another.
To make it big, Cap would need something that was all the rage: a kid sidekick.
Such characters were a useful invention for an array of reasons.
So the idea was,Lets give the kids someone to identify with.
The first hit sidekick was Robin, the young ward of Batman, who leapt into action in 1940.
The boy wonder sparked an immediate craze.
And you have a story rig that means you dont need captions to explain what the hero is doing.
He can explain it all to his sidekick.
And so, whenCaptain America ComicsNo.
Above him, handwritten text read, Also CAPTAIN AMERICAS YOUNG ALLY, BUCKY!
I came down to wha wh why youreCaptain America!
I ought to tan your hide!
Cap says in response.
With bizarre abruptness, Steve opts for comradeship over corporal punishment.
From now on we must both share this secret together … that means youre mypartner, Bucky!
Bucky was relentlessly optimistic, only pushing back against his older-brother figure when he felt condescended to.
Think you could handle a mans job … Bucky, mlad?
Steve asks in one story.
Sure I can what do you think I am ababy?
is the kids reply.
The comics were runaway hits for their publisher, Timely.
But the first superhero bubble popped after the end of the war.
Other genres usurped it: crime fiction, Westerns, and horror.
Sales of Captain Americas series declined.
Even she couldnt get the job done.Captain America Comicsceased publication in 1949.
Bucky and his beloved mentor were unceremoniously tossed on the trash heap of pulp history.
Once again, if yours truly were a superhero theres no way Id pal around with some freckle-faced teenager.
At the very least, people would start to talk.
When it came to Bucky, that philosophy had major consequences.
Issue four featured a startling cover image: Captain America leaping into battle alongside the previously introduced Avengers.
The first page read, BRINGING YOU THE GREAT SUPER HERO WHICH YOUR WONDERFUL AVALANCHE OF FAN MAIL DEMANDED.
But theres no Bucky to be found.
Cap screams as Thor and Iron Man give a shot to comfort him.
And nothing on Earth can change that!
Throughout the ensuing decades there were still stories starring Bucky, but they were strictly World War II flashbacks.
Occasionally, young characters would take a stab at become new Buckies, to no lasting avail.
Steve yells, forcefully grabbing him.
You cantwearit!No onemust ever wear it!
In other words, though Bucky was gone, his memory lingered.
But any attempt to revive him in the present day was an axiomatic no-no.
But superhero comics is an industry that thrives on big, weird ideas.
I was a Navy brat, and he was an Army brat, he says of Bucky.
Then he learned the death was tossed off in a single page ofThe AvengersNo.
I was a 9-year-old kid, he recalls, and I was horrified.
A creative child, Brubaker wasnt one to take this crime lying down.
Mix him up in some Cold War intrigue.
Even as a kid I had a good sense of dramatic structure, apparently.
Flash forward to the early 2000s.
Marvel Comics was in a chaotic renaissance.
New writing talent with limited superhero experience was being brought in all the time.
Brubaker had to pass the gauntlet of Brevoorts skepticism.
How did he survive that explosion on the little plane, Brevoort asked?
Why cant he remember what happened to him?
Brevoort recalls asking 14 queries in total, forcing Brubaker to tighten up his approach.
In 1776, Thomas Paine published thefirst installmentin a series of pamphlets calledThe American Crisis.
The country doesnt know it yet, but it has created a monster, he said.
This sentiment would lie at the core of what Brubaker was going to venture to talk about with Bucky.
The resulting story, launched on November 17, 2004, was a cracking espionage yarn.
He was a weapon as much as he was a mascot.
I wanted to take World War II seriously, he says.
Then came May 25, 2005, the day when issue No.
6 would reveal the Winter Soldiers identity.
I was terrified that that was going to be the end of my career, Brubaker recalls.
My fear was that people would think wed jumped the shark or something.
It wasnt an unreasonable fear.
A reinvented icon had arrived.
That latter scene is agonizing for Cap.
Cap says during a battle.
The Winter Soldier gazes directly at him and asks, Who the hell isBucky?
An explosion hits, and the brainwashed man is gone.
Cap grits his teeth and, in a debriefing, smashes a computer screen in anguish.
Bucky goes on the run, tormented by whats in his head.
Like being a passenger in your own body.
You struggle to break loose.
Over and over again … you lose.
And it makes whatever youre forced to do that much worse.
In other words, Buckys story was one about violence, following orders, and PTSD.
It was him who saw lives end at his own hand.
How could he ever get over that mental damage?
The character an emotionally vulnerable bundle of grief, anger, and deadly efficiency was here to stay.
But Bucky never went back.
On top of that, the nature of the Captain America archetype has changed.
One era stood out among all of the others.
Brubakers was maybe the finest run, says McFeely.
The movie was a success, and Marvel Studios immediately set in motion plans for a sequel.
Markus and McFeely had their chance.
We knew we wanted to do some version of Winter Soldier, Markus says.
In the spring of 2014,Captain America: The Winter Soldierhit screens.
It was a smash.
The fandom will find a lot to enjoy inCivil War.
Stan gives a performance that is by turns lethal and heartbreakingly tender.
I cant trust my own mind, he says at one point with a sad half-smile.
This Bucky, however, is wildly different from the one who leapt beside him all those decades ago.
That dynamic was baked into this new Bucky way back in 2004.
Brubaker doesnt work for Marvel anymore, opting instead to do acclaimed independent comics likeThe Fade OutandVelvet.
I wanted it to feel more tragic than it being that they were two trains racing at each other.
It wasnt a revenge story.
It was a redemption story.
And it remains a story unlike any other that comics have told.
