Acquiring

Target 05 of 30 · Avengers

Winter Soldier

IdentityConfirmed

Real nameJames Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes

CodenameWinter Soldier

ContinentAvengers

In DoomsdaySebastian Stan (on Marvel's cast list; role not yet named)¹

First seenCaptain America Comics #1, March 1941²

Created byJoe Simon, Jack Kirby²

Threat to DoomRated by fans

?/ 4

No fan ratings yet.

Awaiting the fans

Doom: Rate this threat. Once three fans have, I will pass judgement.

How much of a threat is Winter Soldier to Doom?

Fan opinion · one rating a day

Marvel's power grid, comics¹⁰

Marvel's own ratings, 1 to 7 on six stats. They measure raw power, not telepathy, reality-warping or cunning, so they set no ranking here.

Your judgementFan opinion · this device

How shall Your Majesty regard Winter Soldier?

Level 1 // The briefDecrypted · 30 seconds

WhoCaptain America's wartime partner, presumed dead, who was secretly turned into a brainwashed Soviet assassin, the Winter Soldier, before his memories were restored.³

AbilitiesA bionic metal arm and the combat skills of a Soviet-trained assassin.³

In DoomsdayMarvel lists Sebastian Stan in the cast but has not named his role; his most recent released role was Bucky Barnes.¹

Last seenThunderbolts* (2025), as Bucky Barnes: Now a congressman, he rallies Valentina's cast-off agents and accepts being branded a New Avenger.⁹

Sources

Level 2 // Surveillance recordOn screen · 10 sightings, 10 in the MCU

Every live-action sighting of Winter Soldier, and everything Marvel has confirmed.

2011
Captain America: The First Avenger MCU
Sebastian Stan Steve Rogers's best friend from Brooklyn, now a sergeant, is captured with his unit at Azzano and freed by the newly made Captain America. He becomes Steve's sharpshooter in the Howling Commandos, then falls from a speeding train toward an icy river far below during the mission to capture Arnim Zola.¹²
2014
Captain America: The Winter Soldier MCU
Sebastian Stan Kept frozen and brainwashed by Hydra, Bucky returns as the Winter Soldier, ambushing Nick Fury and fighting Steve across Washington, D.C. During the battle on the helicarriers he starts to recognize his old friend. When Steve falls into the river, Bucky dives in and drags him to shore, then slips away.¹³
2015
Ant-Man MCUCameo
Sebastian Stan Shows up only in the post-credits scene. Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson have found him in Berlin, and since the Accords stop them calling on Tony Stark, Sam mentions he knows a guy who could help. Stan was uncredited for the appearance.¹⁴⁵
2016
Captain America: Civil War MCU
Sebastian Stan Helmut Zemo frames Bucky for the Vienna bombing that kills King T'Chaka, and Steve chooses to protect his friend rather than sign the Sokovia Accords. In Siberia, the truth that the Winter Soldier killed Howard and Maria Stark sets off a brutal fight with Iron Man that costs Bucky his metal arm.¹⁶
2018
Black Panther MCUCameo
Sebastian Stan In a post-credits scene, Bucky wakes in Wakanda, where Shuri is helping him recover and the locals have nicknamed him the White Wolf. Stan was uncredited.¹⁷⁸
2018
Avengers: Infinity War MCU
Sebastian Stan Free of his Hydra programming and fitted with a new vibranium arm, Bucky is called out of his quiet life in Wakanda to fight Thanos's forces in the Battle of Wakanda. He is among those who turn to dust when Thanos snaps his fingers.¹⁹
2019
Avengers: Endgame MCU
Sebastian Stan Restored after five years, Bucky joins the final battle against Thanos. Afterward he attends Tony Stark's funeral and says a quiet goodbye to Steve before Steve leaves to return the Infinity Stones.¹¹⁰
2021
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier MCU
Sebastian Stan A co-lead across all six episodes, Bucky works through court-ordered therapy and tries to make amends for the Winter Soldier's crimes. He teams up, uneasily, with Sam Wilson against the Flag Smashers and breaks Helmut Zemo out of prison to get answers. By the end he confesses to his friend Yori Nakajima that he was the one who killed Yori's son.¹¹¹
2025
Captain America: Brave New World MCUCameo
Sebastian Stan In a short, uncredited appearance, Bucky is running for Congress. He visits Sam Wilson in the hospital after Joaquín Torres is badly hurt and tells a doubting Sam that he is the right person to carry the shield.¹¹²¹³
2025
Thunderbolts* MCU
Sebastian Stan Now a first-term congressman from Brooklyn with no bills to his name, Bucky goes after Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. He ends up rallying her discarded operatives, Yelena Belova among them, to stop the Void from swallowing New York. When Valentina introduces the group to the press as the New Avengers, he goes along with it.¹¹⁴¹⁵

What Marvel confirmed

The film. Avengers: Doomsday opens 18 December 2026.¹⁶

Sources

Level 3 // Deep archiveThe comics · since March 1941

Origin, the comics by era, abilities and recorded feats.

Origin

Born in 1925, James Buchanan Barnes lost both parents as a boy. His mother died when he was small, and his father, a soldier, was killed in a parachute exercise at Camp Lehigh, Virginia. His younger sister Rebecca went off to boarding school, but Bucky talked the Army into letting him stay on base as a ward of the state. He grew up as the camp's mascot and its resident troublemaker, picking fights and running a tidy contraband business.

The wartime comics said Bucky walked in on Steve Rogers changing into costume and talked his way into becoming Captain America's teenage partner. Later stories recast that as a cover story fed to the public. In this version, a drunken brawl on his sixteenth birthday got him shipped to Britain for commando training. He came home as a covert operative, there to handle the dirty work a flag-draped symbol could not be seen doing. Whichever version you read, he fought beside Cap, and later the Invaders, through World War II.

Near the end of the war, Bucky leapt onto a drone plane rigged by Baron Zemo and was caught in the blast. For decades, readers and heroes alike took him for dead. Modern stories revealed that he survived the fall into icy water without his left arm and was recovered by a Soviet submarine. From there he was handed to Vasily Karpov's program, fitted with a bionic arm, scrubbed of his memories and kept frozen between jobs. The result was the Winter Soldier, a ghost assassin who worked for Moscow for half a century.¹²³⁴

The record, by era

1941
The Sentinel's Sidekick Golden Age
Bucky debuted in the same issue as Captain America himself: a masked teenager trading punches with Nazi saboteurs, phony fortune tellers and an impostor Red Skull. The early adventures were pure pulp, with Cap often arriving at the last second to pull his partner out of a death trap.²¹
Key issues: Captain America Comics #1 (1941)
1964
The Partner Who Never Came Home Silver Age
When Marvel thawed out Captain America in the pages of The Avengers, it gave him a wound to carry. His last memory of the war was Bucky clinging to Baron Zemo's sabotaged plane moments before it exploded. For about four decades that loss drove Cap's guilt, and Bucky became famous as one of the few comic book deaths that actually stuck.³¹
Key issues: Avengers #4 (1964)
2005-2006
The Winter Soldier Modern Age
Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting introduced a nameless Soviet-built assassin in the service of General Aleksander Lukin. He gunned down the Red Skull and set off a deadly firebomb in Philadelphia. The killer turned out to be Bucky, rebuilt with a cybernetic arm and kept in cold storage between missions since the 1950s. Steve used a Cosmic Cube to restore his friend's memories, and a shattered Bucky disappeared to hunt the men who had used him.⁵⁶⁷¹
Key issues: Captain America Vol. 5 #1 (2005) · Captain America Vol. 5 #8 (2005) · Captain America Vol. 5 #14 (2006)
2008
A New Man Behind the Shield Death of Captain America
After Steve Rogers was assassinated, Bucky set out to kill the men he blamed. He took Cap's shield from Black Widow and fought Tony Stark to a standstill. Stark then showed him Steve's final wishes: that someone save Bucky from himself, and that the shield go on. Bucky took the job on his own terms, in a Stark-built costume and with firearms alongside the shield, and slowly won over a public that had doubted him.⁸⁹¹
Key issues: Captain America Vol. 5 #33 (2008) · Captain America Vol. 5 #34 (2008)
2009-2010
Two Captain Americas Reborn
Steve turned out to have been lost in time rather than killed, and he returned while Bucky was a prisoner of Norman Osborn's forces. Bucky planned to hand the shield back, but after watching him in action Steve gave Bucky his blessing to keep it. Both men fought as Captain America during the Siege of Asgard, and Bucky then joined the reassembled Avengers.¹⁰¹¹¹²¹
Key issues: Captain America: Reborn #1 (2009) · Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? #1 (2010) · Avengers Vol. 4 #1 (2010)
2011-2012
Trial, Gulag and a Faked Funeral Trial and Fear Itself
Baron Zemo leaked Bucky's Winter Soldier past to the press, and the new Captain America was put on trial. The court found him guilty but ruled that his punishment had already been served. Russia then extradited him to a gulag over two killings from 1982, and he escaped with Black Widow's help. Months later, during Fear Itself, he was beaten nearly to death. Nick Fury saved him with the Infinity Formula, and the world was allowed to believe he had died. A decoy body was buried at Arlington.¹³¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶¹
Key issues: Captain America Vol. 5 #615 (2011) · Fear Itself #3 (2011) · Fear Itself #7.1 (2012)
2012-2014
Winter Soldier and the Man on the Wall Shadow Work
Officially dead, Bucky went back to the shadows with Black Widow to track down Soviet sleeper agents he had once trained. The mission cost him dearly: a rogue agent's scheme left Natasha with every memory except the ones of their romance. In Original Sin he was one of the heroes Nick Fury quietly drew together, and after Fury's apparent death Bucky took over Fury's secret post as the Man on the Wall, Earth's hidden first line of defense against threats from space.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹¹
Key issues: Winter Soldier #1 (2012) · Original Sin #8 (2014) · Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier #1 (2014)
2016-2017
Guardian of a Living Cosmic Cube Thunderbolts and Secret Empire
After the Pleasant Hill crisis, Bucky took in Kobik, a Cosmic Cube that had become a child, and formed a new Thunderbolts team to protect her. He learned too late that Kobik had secretly rewritten Steve Rogers into a Hydra loyalist. Zemo then strapped Bucky to a replica of the plane that had 'killed' him in 1945 and blew it up over the ocean. Namor pulled him out of the water, and in the final battle of Secret Empire Ant-Man shrank Bucky down into the rebuilt Cube so the real Steve could be restored.²⁰²¹²²¹
Key issues: Thunderbolts Vol. 4 #1 (2016) · Captain America: Steve Rogers #16 (2017) · Secret Empire #10 (2017)
2019
Second Chances for Sale The Fixer
In Kyle Higgins and Rod Reis's series, Bucky set himself up as a fixer, helping people get out of criminal lives the way he once had. He took a young Hydra-trained killer named RJ under his wing. The partnership collapsed when RJ discovered that Bucky had covered up his father's death.²³¹
Key issues: Winter Soldier Vol. 2 #1 (2019)
2023-2025
The New Revolution Revolution
Digging into the conspiracy that built the Winter Soldier, Bucky learned he had been one of five assassins controlled by a secret cabal called the Outer Circle. When the cabal's Revolution offered him a seat at the table, Bucky killed him and took his place, meaning to wreck the group from inside, and he broke with Steve to do it. As the New Revolution he went on to lead a black-ops Thunderbolts squad alongside Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and in 2025 he teamed up with Black Widow to run a volatile New Avengers line-up.²⁴²⁵²⁶¹
Key issues: Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty Vol. 2 #6 (2023) · Thunderbolts Vol. 6 #1 (2024) · New Avengers Vol. 5 #1 (2025)

Capabilities

Bionic arm

Strikes beyond human limits, maps his surroundings, fires electrical bolts and an EMP, and shrugs off knives and bullets.¹

Peak human conditioning

The Infinity Formula gives him peak strength, speed, agility and stamina, plus fast healing and no ageing.¹

Master martial artist

A formidable armed and unarmed fighter who has beaten Crossbones, Wolverine and Black Widow.¹

Master marksman

An expert sniper and knife thrower; as a teenager he was the best sniper in his division.¹

Shield fighting

As Captain America he throws the shield to hit several targets in one throw and make it ricochet back.¹

Spycraft and stealth

Skilled in espionage, stealth, demolitions and survival, and can move from place to place undetected.¹

Languages

Fluent in English, Russian, German, Japanese and Chinese, with some French.¹

Source of power

A cybernetic arm gives him superhuman strength, sensors, electric blasts, an EMP and resistance to blades and gunfire.¹²⁷

Nick Fury's perfected Infinity Formula saved his life and raised him to peak human condition, with faster healing and halted ageing.¹

Trained by wartime combat instructors and later by the Soviets as an assassin, giving him elite fighting, marksmanship and spycraft.¹

Recorded feats

comics Freed from his conditioning, he seized the reality-warping Cosmic Cube and shattered it with his bionic arm. Captain America Vol 5 #14 (April 2006)⁷¹
comics Ambushed the S.H.I.E.L.D. car moving Captain America's shield, beat Black Widow in a fight and escaped with the shield. Captain America Vol 5 #27 (August 2007)²⁸¹
comics Took up the role of Captain America, using his arm's sensors to throw the shield accurately and make it ricochet back. Captain America Vol 5 #34 (March 2008)⁹¹
screen Flipped Nick Fury's SUV with a disc grenade, then caught Captain America's thrown shield with his metal arm and hurled it back. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)²⁹³⁰
screen Overpowered Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Sharon Carter and Natasha Romanoff and withstood Iron Man gauntlet blasts while escaping the JCTC. Captain America: Civil War (2016)³¹³⁰
screen Alone on a motorcycle, he wrecked an O.X.E. convoy and flipped the limousine carrying the Thunderbolts with a disc grenade. Thunderbolts* (2025)³²³⁰

Notes from the archive

The codename Winter Soldier nods to Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet The American Crisis and its famous jab at the 'summer soldier and sunshine patriot'.¹
Bucky's death held for so long that fans built a rule around it: no one in comics stays dead except Bucky, Jason Todd and Uncle Ben. The first two have since come back.¹
Ed Brubaker, who co-created the Winter Soldier, appears in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as a Hydra doctor who helps repair Bucky's mechanical arm.³⁰
Sebastian Stan went uncredited for his post-credits appearances in Ant-Man and Black Panther.³⁰

Sources