10 Best Ed Brubaker Comics Fans Must Read

Bucky Barnes was Captain America’s trusty sidekick throughout the character’s early publication history. Published by Timely Comics and then Atlas (both precursors to Marvel), Captain America was rarely seen without his best pal Bucky.

Early Marvel comics featured Bucky occasionally, mostly in flashbacks, up to 1968 when, via flashback, we saw Bucky die in Avengers #56.

And he stayed dead - until Ed Brubaker took the reins of Captain America in 2005. He did that rare thing of giving us a new comic character (or rather a new twist on an old character) that fans loved. The Winter Soldier was a hit and went on to become a major part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Brubaker retconned Bucky’s death to reveal that he was found, almost dead and missing an arm, by Russian operatives. The Russians fitted Bucky with a bionic arm, and programmed him to be a ruthless assassin codenamed The Winter Soldier.

With The Winter Soldier, Ed Brubaker gave us a brand new superhero/villain, revived a much loved character from the past, and made it all slot nicely into the Marvel Universe. He’s a super solider shrouded in shades of grey as opposed to the straight up red, white and blue of Captain America.