Thoughts on the Winter Soldier

(Warning for massive incoherency and jumbled thoughts ahead.)

In my post about JMS and post-CW Tony Stark, I kind of sideswiped in an idea about Steve ultimately having to save Tony from Bucky, representing the idea of Tony achieving redemption for his sins of the past.

I decided to go a bit more into that because I really do think that Bucky Barnes has had a really interesting symbolic role since his resurrection as the Winter Soldier.

It essentially came to me when I was jokingly describing the character to a friend who didn't read comics regularly. "Basically," I said, "He's an ex-dead, ex-sidekick, ex-brainwashed, ex-Soviet ex-Assassin."

You know, I thought to myself, that's an awful lot of exes.

Then I started to consider the Winter Soldier's role in Brubaker's Captain America. In his first appearance, before we ever know anything about him, we find out he works for Alexander Lukin. Oh yeah, and he kills the Red Skull.

That's pretty coincidental, but then it's worth examining the Winter Soldier's kills during the time of his brainwashing. And really, most of the Winter Soldier's actions take on an interesting sort of symbolism.

He kills Jack Monroe. Jack had tried to make a new heroic life for himself as Nomad, but he could never escape his past as the wrong Bucky. He was dying anyway, before the Winter Soldier actually killed him, but it's particularly notable that of all people, he's killed by Bucky.

Even actions like blowing up the building or kidnapping Sharon Carter were all about Lukin (or the Skull) getting revenge on Steve.

As Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier ends up embodying even more elements of "sins of the past". The idea of Barnes as the teenaged sidekick of Captain America in order to do a lot of things (usually involving killing people in quick and surprising ways) that Steve, a national symbol, couldn't afford to, becomes particularly interesting in this light. Particularly regarding Bucky's death. When you send young people off to war, to fight, kill and die, there is always the chance that they will not come home again, or that they'll come home changed.

Bucky's time as the Winter Soldier came about because of Karpov's ambitions as well as a percieved retaliation for the destruction of Kronas. While under the employ of Lukin, in post-Communist Russia, he remained a symbol of the terror and implacability of the old regime.

Most importantly however, is the role he played for Captain America. Dead, he was a symbol of failure. The one time he couldn't save his partner. He was also a symbol of the general alienation and loss Steve felt in modern society. During the same events that cost him his partner, Steve also lost everything else he'd ever known, waking up in a completely different America. When he lost Bucky, he had lost his friend and brother. During the same events, he lost his cause and his war. He was left floundering and alone.

Bucky's return represents an even darker failure. Bucky was alive after all. And for all those years was undergoing a fate worse than death. And Steve had never known, the most he could do was damage control afterward: giving his memory back with the cosmic cube. Everything else was irreversable.

After his resurrection, Bucky's spent most of his time working for Nick Fury or hunting down Lukin. It must be noticed that the primary characters that Bucky interacts with with any sort of frequency are Nick Fury and Wolverine. Both of whom are more than familiar with the whole "past misdeeds slapping you in the face" element long before Bucky came back. The revelation of his relationship with Natasha also may represent her ties to her past, which can never be completely severed.

His interactions with Kate and Eli of the Young Avengers in Winter Kills takes on a whole new meaning too. He's the past, they're the future. The fact that their most significant conversation occurs in a graveyard is so apropos it approaches cliche.

Now he seeks vengeance on Tony, whose misdeeds have certainly warranted it. I personally believe it won't really end until Captain America himself emerges to end it.

The Winter Soldier is a particularly evocative name, symbolically. Winter is the season when all but the heartiest plants die, when the animals fly away or hibernate. It's a time of hunger, danger and death.

Death was the Soldier's stock in trade and Bucky certainly doesn't shy away from lethal fighting now. And of course, there's the obvious connection: his resurrection occuring in the same run as Captain America's death.

Of course, if Bucky represents sins of the past, death and winter. Then Steve Rogers, of course, is spring. Rebirth, obviously. He tends to do that. Redemption is shakier, but he did give Jack the Nomad identity. He restored Bucky with the Cosmic Cube. He tends to be quick to understand and forgive, even if it seems like he lets the other person off way too easy sometimes.

If, as I argued before, Steve's death represents the one failure/sin/mistake that Tony Stark can't write off or rationalize away, then of course he's going to end up the key to Tony's redeeming himself.

Unfortunately, this does not make me terribly optimistic about Bucky's own fate. While I think there's a lot that he could do in the modern Marvel universe, I'm not sure he can escape his own baggage and symbolism. Spring's return means the end of Winter. Redemption puts rest to past sins. Yadda and et cetera.

I'm somewhat worried that Bucky will either die in the process of facilitating Steve's return (maybe saving him from the Red Skull, or however they work his resurrection) or sometime not long after. It just...makes narrative sense. As much as I do love him. Also, it'd give Steve the chance to grieve all over again. Angsty bastard.

Well, if they DO kill Bucky, they better at least let them have a damn hug or something first. If any two characters were more in need of a goddamn hug, I can't think of 'em. They deserve that much over the last forty some odd years, yeesh. :-)