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Bucky is a fictional superhero comic book character owned by Marvel Comics. He was created during the 1940s as a teen sidekick to Captain America, the patriotic superhero character who burst on the scene published by Timely Comics at the outset of America's involvement in World War II.
His full name was James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. He was a war orphan adopted as a kind of company mascot by the U.S. Army Camp Lehigh in Virginia. Bucky received the shock of his life when he walked into Private Steve Roger's tent and found him changing into Captain America, the masked hero of the Second World War. In a morally questionable move, Bucky tells Steve he would only keep his secret if he mad him a junior partner and let him in on the action. They fashioned a costume for him, and Steve trained him in fighting techniques, team work, and strategy. While Bucky did not benefit from the super soldier serum as Steve Rogers had, he became an able partner and good friend of Captain America for the remainder of the war, working with Cap and the superhero team The Invaders (Marvel Comics) as well a the Young Allies.
Towards the end of the war, Captain America and Bucky try to stop a drone plane aimed at London by the dreaded Baron Zemo, one of their arch enemies. Just as the plane is about to explode, Cap lets go and plunges into the cold sea. Bucky, however, can't free his hand from the mechanism in time, and seems to explode along with the plane.
With Captain America and Bucky supposedly gone forever, others take up the identities, including Jack Monroe who became the Bucky of the 1950s. Eventually, Jack becomes the character known as Nomad.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Cap back into the modern Marvel universe, but intentionally left Bucky behind. According to Lee in Avengers # 4 (1964), Cap has been frozen in an iceburg for decades in suspended animation, until uncovered byThe Avengers (Marvel Comics) (Marvel Comics' superhero team) to appear as young as ever in the modern world.
Bucky's deceased status continued thoroughout the Silver Age of Comics and the Bronze Age of Comics as well. During this time, writer Stan Lee, founder of Marvel Comics, continued to use Cap in the modern Marvel universe as a member of The Avengers (Marvel Comics) and in his own comic. Stan, who did not really believe in kid sidekicks, continued to ignore Bucky. For a time, he replaced him with the Rick Jones character, but was, for the most part, content to have the original remain part of history, a sad memory for the ageless patriotic superhero.
It was writer Ed Brubaker who finally brought Bucky back. According to him, Bucky lost his arm and his memory in the explosion, but somehow survived. He was rescued by a Russian Submarine, and, with a bionic arm, was programmed to be a Russian assassin, code-named Winter Soldier. Placed in stasis when not in use, Bucky only aged a few years over the decades, until Cap finally finds him and uses the Cosmic Cube, (an incredible artifact that turns thought into reality) to restore Bucky's memory at last.
After Rogers is apparently killed at the end of the Civil War (Marvel Comics) storyline, Bucky is eventually recruited to be the new Captain America. With a very different psychological scars than the original, Bucky now takes on the big role in the Captain America comic book.
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