James Barnes

"This isn't a back alley, Steve, it's war!"

- Bucky Barnes

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is the protégé and childhood friend of Captain America, and a member of an elite special unit of Allied soldiers formed in World War II known as the Howling Commandos. He was assumed dead after falling off of Zola's Train but somehow survived to return as The Winter Soldier.

Captain America: First Vengeance
James Buchanan Barnes was orphaned at an early age and was living in an orphanage ever since. During a regular day, he noticed a skimpy, weak kid getting beaten up by some bullies. He stepped in and saved the kid, who introduced himself as Steve Rogers. Years later, during an art class Bucky and Steve find out that America has joined the Second World War. Over the next two weeks he trains Steve at Goldie’s Boxing Gym. They visit US Recruiting and Induction Center in New York where Steve is classified as 4F and rejected from service. But Bucky was enlisted in the Army.

Captain America: The First Avenger
After meeting him in his childhood, Bucky became Rogers's best friend. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Bucky enlisted in the U.S. army and assumed the title of Sgt. Barnes.

The day before his shipment out to England, Bucky helped his friend Steve from being beat up by a bully by kicking him in the groin. Bucky and Steve then went to the Stark Expo on a double date. Steve was interested in enlisting for the sixth time. Despite Bucky's protests, Steve still went through with it but said goodbye to Bucky before doing so. Bucky and his unit, the 107th, then shiped to England the next day.

A year later, Bucky and his unit consisting of 200 men went up against a Nazi sup group named HYDRA lead by Johann Schmidt at the orders of the SSR but 150 of the men were either killed or captured while 50 barley escaped. Bucky and the Howling Commandos were among the captured. Bucky was taken to a prison where he was forced to work to design rockets called Valkyries, but it eventually became too much and he was taken to an isolation clinic for interrogation. But a few days later Steve (who had become Captain America) infiltrated the base, freed the prisoners and eventually Bucky too. During the escape Bucky and Steve encountered Schmidt and Zola but were able to escape them and the facility before it blew and walked all the way back to base, 30 miles out. Bucky, Captain America and Gabe Jones ziplined on to the top of a HYDRA train. Bucky takes Rogers's shield and blocks him while he is down, but clearly not having the upper body strength to hold on to it when getting hit it shoots him out the side of the train and Rogers is unable to save him, letting him fall into a icy river below.

The Avengers
In a deleted scene from the film, Bucky Barnes' file is among the ones studied by Steve Rogers. Oddly enough, he is reported as "Missing in Action", implying that S.H.I.E.L.D. thinks he may still be alive.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D personnel Skye and Grant Ward see Barnes' name on a wall in memorial of those who were killed in action. As Barnes was killed before the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D; it can be presumed he received posthumous honors.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, but the ones that do call him The Winter Soldier. He's a ghost, you'll never find him."

- Black Widow to Captain America

To be added

Character traits
Bucky Barnes is a loyal and brave man, a honest person and a good soldier. He firmly believes in the duty of protecting his Country, and is eager to test his own value. He's a very close friend of Steve Rogers, who he has always protected from bullies.

Barnes is a highly trained soldier, an expert fighter and a talented marksman. In battle, he uses canonical firearms.

Abilities
To be added

Friends and Allies

 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Best friend turned unwilling enemy.
 * Howling Commandos
 * Dum Dum Dugan
 * Gabriel "Gabe" Jones
 * Jim Morita
 * Jacques Dernier
 * Montgomery Falsworth
 * Strategic Scientific Reserve
 * Peggy Carter
 * Howard Stark
 * Chester Phillips

Enemies

 * Red Skull
 * Arnim Zola
 * Heinz Kruger

Appearances/Actors

 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (3 films)


 * Captain America: The First Avenger - Sebastian Stan
 * The Avengers (Photograph only) (Deleted scene)
 * Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Sebastian Stan
 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (1 TV series)


 * Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * "Seeds" (Mentioned only)
 * Marvel Cinematic Universe (1 comic)


 * Captain America: First Vengeance (First appearance)

Behind the scenes

 * Sebastian Stan was considered for the role of Captain America, but got the role of Bucky instead.
 * Bucky's uniform is based on his original and his codename The Winter Soilder.
 * About the role, Stan stated, "Steve Rogers and Bucky are both orphans and kind of like brothers. They kind of grow up together and look after each other. It's a very human, relatable thing.... I also wanted to look out for how their relationship changes once Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. There's always a competition and they're always one-upping each other. I paid attention to how Bucky is affected by Steve's change and suddenly Steve is this leader".
 * When Steve finds Bucky hooked up to machines in Arnim Zola's HYDRA Lab and Bucky is in a sort of trance. These experiments allowed him to survive his fall.
 * To prepare for the role of the Winter Solder, Sebastian Stan went through five months of physical training and historical research: "I dove into the whole Cold War history: I looked at the KGB. I looked at all kinds of spy movies, and all kinds of documentaries about that time, and what it was about. I grabbed anything from that time period and anything about brainwashing."

Trivia

 * In the comics, Bucky is younger than Steve Rogers. In the initial stories by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Bucky was a teenage mascot for Captain America's regiment. He was later adapted to having been older. In the Ultimate Universe, Bucky was a paratrooper/war photographer who was a childhood friend of Rogers, often having defended him from bullies. Fifty seven years after Rogers fell into the ocean and shortly after Rogers was revived, Bucky had become an aging, cancer-ridden veteran and he married Rogers' wartime girlfriend.
 * Bucky's codename is Winter Soldier, much like his older self in the comics.
 * In the comics, Bucky wears a mask, and his identity is a secret.
 * Bucky used Captain America's shield in Captain America: The First Avenger while on Zola's train. This is a reference to Bucky Barnes becoming the new Captain America in the comics when Rogers fell into the ocean.
 * In the comics, Bucky was a trainer and lover of Black Widow, and the two have rekindled their relationship and remained steady since Bucky's resurrection.
 * The Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) is able to match Captain America (Steve Rogers) move by move, even to the point of catching Rogers' shield. This foreshadows Barnes taking over as Captain America (which happened in the comics).
 * The Winter Soldier creator Ed Brubaker appears in a cameo as a scientist durning Bucky's tranformnation as Winter Solider.

Gallery

 * See: James Barnes/Gallery