Bucky Barnes Life Story

Origin and World War II

James Buchanan Barnes was born in in 1925. Barnes grew up as an . He was orphaned when his father was killed in training at U.S. Army Camp Lehigh in Virginia just before the United States' entry into . As a result, he is unofficially adopted by the camp as a mascot. Nicknamed "Bucky", he takes to wearing a uniform and becoming savvy with the ins and outs of military life, even though he is a teenager. It was at Lehigh that he meets and befriends Private Steven Rogers, who by all appearances is the clumsiest soldier in the camp. This was at the same time that reports of the then-mysterious begin to appear in news magazines, and Barnes eagerly devours the accounts of this new hero.

In 1940, Bucky accidentally walked in on Steve Rogers changing into his uniform, thus discovering his friend was Captain America and insisted that he join him. He underwent extensive training and was assigned to be Captain America's partner. The military justified putting a 15-year-old in harm's way by using him as a symbol to rally the youth of America (as revealed in vol. 5, #12, Dec 2005). They fight the together, and Captain America accepts Bucky as his partner. Together, Captain America and Bucky fight both at home and abroad, as a duo and as part of the superhero team known as the , fighting in their first mission. Barnes also teams up with the sidekicks of other heroes in a group called the . Additionally, Bucky was in 1976 as the organizer of the super-team the , set between the formations of the and the post-war . He was also briefly one of the Kid Commandos at this time. Bucky served as an advance scout for Captain America and the Invaders, often being assigned tasks that none of the heroes could be seen doing.

In the closing days of World War II in 1945, Captain America and Bucky tried to stop the villainous from destroying an experimental . Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive device on it, with Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. They reach the plane just before it takes off. Bucky unsuccessfully tries to defuse the bomb, and it explodes in mid-air before reaching its intended target. He will be believed to have been killed in action, as Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the . Rogers' body, preserved in in a block of ice, is found decades later by while searching the Arctic for the Sub-Mariner.

It was only in modern times that Captain America would learn that Bucky had a sister, Rebecca, whom he met at a veterans Christmas celebration. Bucky also had one notable post-mortem appearance when the challenged the West and East Coast for the destruction of the universe, apparently resurrecting for them to fight. Captain America battled Bucky, whom he defeated, and the apparitions disappeared.