What would you have done with Bucky?

[Frontier]

Steve being sad about Bucky being dead was mined for everything it was worth, which was not much. Nothing was lost when that stopped.

Also Deathlok is hideous, unpopular, and there are like 5 of them.

And Steve can still griever over Bucky, it's just regarding what happened to them and the time they lost rather than because he thought Bucky died on the mission. It's not like things were still sunshine and rainbows for Bucky after the rocket.

[DrNewGod]

First things first - Bring Brubaker back.

Think taking over Original Nick Fury's role would be a good way to go. The SHIELD/ Espionage angle NOT that "man on the wall" bs.

Maybe even leading the Secret Warriors/ working with (other) Caterpillars.

It's actually quite annoying cos he is a favourite of mine and just seems to never catch a break.

That said I did like Tales of Suspense and the current one with Falcon. The "buddy-cop" routine is actually quite enjoyable.

Oh... also cut his hair and go back to using the flesh covered arm when out of costume.

Kinda love this.

[Chris0013]

If there was still a Secret Avengers title....

[Photon Torme]

I would have left Bucky Dead.

[Ascended]

I figure there's a few ways to go.

Set Buck up as Cap's partner in Captain America. Not a starring role for Bucky, but it's a stable home where he fits in and it seems like the most basic, de facto position for him to be in where he's unlikely to be thrown into status quo chaos or limbo for extended periods of time.

War Avengers. Okay, for all the crap about War of the Realms and the questionable quality, the idea of an Avengers squad built for legit wars instead of big splashy super fights has a lot of appeal to me. War comics used to be a big thing, but nobody has titles like Sgt. Rock or Howling Commandos on the shelf anymore so this could be something fairly unique.

You could do Secret Warriors or Secret Avengers or any other kind of black ops super spy book as well....but it's not exactly a unique status that'll provide a reading experience other books don't. If Marvel was gonna go in this direction I'd want to see Bucky holding some kind of high level rank in SHIELD. Director would be good, but I kinda feel like everyone who takes that job is only holding it for Fury while he's busy. Still, Bucky as SHIELD Director would be pretty cool.

You could also do a "global corporation" Heroes for Hire thing, where Bucky works for and/or owns a mercenary company that goes into hot spots around the world.

[scribbleMind]

War Avengers. Okay, for all the crap about War of the Realms and the questionable quality, the idea of an Avengers squad built for legit wars instead of big splashy super fights has a lot of appeal to me. War comics used to be a big thing, but nobody has titles like Sgt. Rock or Howling Commandos on the shelf anymore so this could be something fairly unique.

What I like about this specific idea is that even if the book doesn't last, there would always be an excuse for the team to get back together because the Marvel universe is always at war. Be it Wakanda, Latveria, Atlantis, Attilan, supernatural realms/dimensions, or other planets there is always a war brewing which would be an excuse for a de facto War Avengers appearance or mini. I'm thinking like the way DC's Multiversity heroes still show up during Multiversal threats long after Multiversity was completed.

You could also do a "global corporation" Heroes for Hire thing, where Bucky works for and/or owns a mercenary company that goes into hot spots around the world.

I genuinely thought this was going to happen when Bobbi, Daisy, and Bucky walked off together in Secret Avengers.

[Flash Gordon]

"The Winter Soldier" is such a great title. To hell with trying to make him Captain America, let him be the Winter Soldier. A man trying to atone for acts that he committed and trying to live up to the legacy of his pal Steve. Global espionage adventures, weird Kirby style romps, clandestine superheroics.

Have him drop the mercenary thing and try to be more of a force for good.

I mean in the flicks, he was set up to become a solid mixture of Captain America and Wolverine- especially when they couldn't use Wolverine. It was all there and the momentum was great, till they forgot about him in favor of Purple CGI Man and his magic gems.

[JudicatorPrime]

However, aside from TWS being a really good story arc, Marvel had pretty well mined Cap's grief over Bucky flat.

I'm not actually calling for any further stories involving Steve's grief over Bucky's death. I was happy with where Steve was once he'd made his peace with it. For my money, they wouldn't have to mention Bucky ever again.

Still, there's something to the person that we all become when someone close to us dies. We change in ways even as we are healing beyond it and moving forward in our lives. In a way, dead Bucky made both Steve and James relatable and organic. Live, retconned Bucky? Meh, not so much.

I get why people like The Winter Soldier. But personally I'll never be able to appreciate Bucky more than when he was Steve's sidekick, who gave his life helping his idol on behalf of his country. As legends go, it doesn't get any better than that.

[JudicatorPrime]

Curious. If the Winter Soldier was someone other than Bucky Barnes, would you still like him as much?

[Agent Z]

This. A super soldier with a bionic arm sounds like Deathlok. Or an obvious attempt to upstage Misty Knight.

Upstaging her would imply Marvel puts much focus on Misty in the first place.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Upstaging her would imply Marvel puts much focus on Misty in the first place.

Occasionally they do, she was in the spotlight with Netflix Luke Cage and Defenders.

[Agent Z]

Occasionally they do, she was in the spotlight with Netflix Luke Cage and Defenders.

Yeah but even that wasn't as much focus compared to the reach the Winter Soldier movie has. I'm not knocking Misty or the Luke Cage series but at the end of the day, there is a clear pecking order and Bucky by virtue of being a Captain America character is above Misty in Marvel's eyes.

Anyway, for the OP, I think leading the Thunderbolts seemed like an interesting idea. Having him and Natasha as a team worked too.

[pageturner]

Curious. If the Winter Soldier was someone other than Bucky Barnes, would you still like him as much?

Best guess is no since new characters seldom break out. It would come down to execution.

[Flash Gordon]

Curious. If the Winter Soldier was someone other than Bucky Barnes, would you still like him as much?

Good question. I love spy stuff, so an original character who was frozen in time and used as a weapon/forced to do immoral actions but now wants to break from all that and be a better man? I'd be into that. Especially if he was pushed and got a flick and all that jazz. Just a guy named Winter Soldier who is totally different? Nah.

Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe Winter Solider would have worked better without the connection to Captain America.

[Ascended]

What I like about this specific idea is that even if the book doesn't last, there would always be an excuse for the team to get back together because the Marvel universe is always at war. Be it Wakanda, Latveria, Atlantis, Attilan, supernatural realms/dimensions, or other planets there is always a war brewing which would be an excuse for a de facto War Avengers appearance or mini. I'm thinking like the way DC's Multiversity heroes still show up during Multiversal threats long after Multiversity was completed.

Exactly. It's a concept you can always bring back and spin into a different story, even if the book itself doesn't survive. And there's enough soldiers in Marvel that you can switch up the roster as much as you want and still have viable characters on the team.

I think the Thunderbolts is still a good place for Bucky too, even if the last attempt failed.

I genuinely thought this was going to happen when Bobbi, Daisy, and Bucky walked off together in Secret Avengers.

That could've been pretty nice, right? I've been hoping Marvel would find a permanent home for Daisy and Bobbi for a while now. Bucky at least gets to show up a lot with Cap, but Bobbi and Quake aren't so lucky.

I think the biggest problem with Bucky is that everything about him, there's a character at Marvel with a bigger name and longer publishing history who does the same thing. Bucky's a soldier....just like Cap. He's a spy/assassin....just like Nat. He's got a long history full of bad stuff and he's trying to do better....just like Logan. So if you want a Bucky book to do well and stand out, you gotta reach beyond the base character. That, or just accept that the book won't offer anything readers can't find with more well known heroes, which isn't a position you really want to be stuck in.

So maybe the solution here is to put Bucky in a situation he's not really thematically suited for. I know they did that already with the "watcher on the walls" or whatever, but that was a pretty depressing concept and mostly just took Bucky and what he's good at and rubbed some "cosmic" on him. Maybe the solution is to put him in a totally different subgenre; like when Arnold Swarzenager did comedies like Twins.

Maybe you make Bucky, I don't know, a teacher at SHIELD Academy, surrounded by freshmen recruits, and let the highjinks ensue?