5 Codenames That Changed Bucky Barnes and Transformed the Marvel Universe

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Bucky Barnes has a nearly century-long history in Marvel Comics, and part of his long journey to becoming a stand-out superhero in his own right has involved several codename changes over the years. Beginning as Captain America’s Robin-esque kid counterpart in the 1940s, each new iteration of the charatcer has added a remarkable and sometimes surprising new chapter to his legacy.

These days, Bucky Barnes is most widely recognized as the Winter Soldier. The MCU’s iteration of the character practically sealed it as Bucky’s long-term fate, and his assassin days continue to color everything about his life.

Yet, as important as the Winter Soldier is in Bucky’s story, it doesn’t encompass everything he is: simply ‘Bucky’ at first, Barnes has at times taken up the shield as Captain America in the years since, performed extraordinary services to the world as the Man on the Wall, and, most recently, started to rewrite his future with the Revolution codename.

Bucky Barnes’ Name Changes Tell the Story Of His Life

From Sidekick, To Unwilling Assassin, And Beyond

When it comes to heroes and villains, a name is never just a name. Names represent who a character, whether it is a literal announcement of their powers or more indicative of what they stand for, like Captain America’s patriotic handle. Because they hold such significance, changes in codenames often mark some moment of great upheaval in the story. That’s certainly the case for Bucky Barnes. Though his earliest years with Steve Rogers were spent just using his own name without disguise, every change that has occurred since then marks a major turning point in his life.

For Bucky, the five codenames he’s taken over the years are a biography of their own. He’s spent a great deal of time living as the Winter Soldier, a name and purpose that were both forced upon him against his will, and the years that followed attempting to find a purpose outside it and define himself on his own terms. From his “Bucky” days to the Revolution era, the names he wears show who he is, and each one comes with a particular cost. The five stages below aren’t just words, they’re evidence of the long and complicated life he’s lived.

As Bucky Barnes, The Character Was One Of Marvel’s Earliest Sidekicks

The Original Bucky Era, And His Death

Bucky’s time in the Marvel Universe started all the way back in Jack Kirby’s Captain America #1in 1941. Back then, he was designed as Marvel’s equivalent of Batman’s Robin sidekick, though Robin and Bucky’s daily lives differed considerably. Rather than join his mentor in fighting street crime and protecting a city, Bucky’s life was defined by war. Specifically, the two engaged in various battles throughout World War II, with Bucky acting as Captain America’s right-hand and, occasionally, a leader on his own. The two sometimes worked alongside Namor and the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, as the Invaders team.

Later retcons complicated this era of Bucky’s life a bit, including the reveal that not everything that originally appeared to be “Bucky” was actually Bucky Barnes, thanks to a strange period where both Captain America and his young friend were roles played by stand-ins. Nevertheless, this period put him on the metaphorical map and encompassed a significant portion of his young life; it’s also the one role that he’s well and truly left behind, as current-day Bucky Barnes is no one’s sidekick. Once he and Captain America were presumed dead by the end of the war, nothing was the same again.

Becoming the Winter Soldier Changed Bucky, And Marvel History, Forever

First Appearance: Captain America #6; Written By Ed Brubaker; Art By Steve Epting

The Winter Soldier is undoubtedly Bucky’s biggest claim to fame. After years of being presumed dead, even being widely accepted as a character who would never return to life, Bucky Barnes made a shocking return as the Winter Soldier in Captain America #6, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. Introduced first as a mysterious assassin, memory restoration later revealed that the Soviets’ secret weapon was Captain America’s long-lost sidekick. A combination of brainwashing, intense training, and cryogenic freezes took Bucky Barnes from a teenage soldier to one of the world’s most feared assassins, and it cost him quite literally everything.

The Winter Soldier isn’t just something that defines Bucky Barnes’ life, it’s the sun around which everything else has been forced to orbit. As the Soviets’ pawn, he assassinated political figures, went after major heroes, and lost decades acting as a harbringer of death and grief each time he was taken out of the box. Though the Winter Soldier stole pieces of time for himself, sometimes with Black Widow, he was, by and large, nothing but a tool. After finally being freed from control, Bucky has been on a years-long quest to find himself and overcome his guilt and confusion.

Bucky’s True Hero Era Started With Protecting The World As Captain America And The Watcher On The Wall

Bucky’s Early Attempts To Escape His Winter Soldier Identity

Despite his valiant efforts, leaving the Winter Soldier behind has proven nearly impossible for Bucky. It always creeps back into his life, even after he departed so sharply from his life as an assassin that he took up the shield and became Captain America following Steve Rogers’ death. Unlike his MCU counterpart, Rogers did not survive the aftermath of the Civil War event in the comics. Bucky took up the shield in his stead and, despite doubting whether he was worthy of the title, did a commendable job as Captain America until relinquishing the moniker to current Captain America, Sam Wilson.

Captain America was not Barnes’ only shot at being a hero, though, or the only time he stepped into someone else’s shoes to do so. At his core, Bucky is a protector. Following Nick Fury’s death and the surprising reveal that he had essentially been protecting the entire world from external threats, Bucky took up Fury’s former post as the Watcher on the Wall, placing himself between the planet and any who might seek to harm it. It was a bizarre period, complete with alien lovers and a team-up with SHIELD’s Daisy Johnson, but it offered further proof of Bucky’s continuing journey.

Bucky Barnes Is Now “Revolution,” As The Character Fully Embraces His Own Path

First Appearance: Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #5; Written By Collin Kelly And Jackson Lanzing; Art By Kev Walker.

Bucky’s latest name change has, unfortunately, been his least recognized, even though it may be his most important one yet. Unlike the Winter Soldier, Captain America, and the Watcher on the Wall, becoming the Revolution is something Bucky is doing entirely for himself. After infiltrating the Outer Circle, a shadow organization that turned out to be responsible for pulling the strings behind essentially his entire life, Bucky killed the first Revolution and took up the moniker for himself. It might have started with bloodshed (an all too common occurrence for him), but the codename change has a deeper meaning.

If the Winter Soldier is the past he struggles to escape, the Revolution is the future he strives to create. Along with his early days as Bucky the sidekick, Captain America, and the Watcher on the Wall, each name marks a chapter in the life of a complicated, tormented character who strives to be something greater than the sum of his parts. Each name is only a piece of who he is, but none can exist without the other. Bucky Barnes has cycled through five codenames in his long tenure with Marvel, and every of them played a role in shaping him.

“}]] Bucky Barnes’ name changes all have their own stories.  Read More