8. That He Recruited Other Buckys
Marvel ComicsFor the longest time there was a truism in superhero comics that, even when every other character could die and be resurrected even within the turn of a page, there were two who would forever remain six feet under: Uncle Ben (Spider-Man's father figure, not the rice guy) and Bucky. It was the death of his sidekick that gave Captain America dimension to his character, raising him up from pure propaganda puppet to a conflicted human being who felt a strange sort of survivor's guilt for leaving his friend back in the war, whilst he was busy being frozen in a block of ice and surviving until the swinging sixties. James Barnes wasn't the only plucky so-and-so to act as Cap's second in command, though. For a time Fred Davis, a former bat boy for the New York Yankees, was drafted in by President Truman himself to play the part of Bucky following the original's "death", knowing that admitting the young hero's loss would be a huge blow to morale. When he retired, an orphan named Jack Monroe took up the mantle along with his Cap-obsessed teacher, who had plastic surgery to look more like Steve Rogers. Yeah, that was pretty weird. There was also Lemar Hoskins, who took the name until he realised it was a little demeaning, but our favourite replacement Bucky was Rick Jones. Essentially the Forrest Gump of the Marvel Universe, Rick has played a part in every major hero's career; in Cap's case, he was briefly trained up as a sidekick, before he put on Bucky's uniform and upset Steve enough for him to be dismissed. It's hilarious and sad. Seriously, it reads like a widower getting angry at his new girlfriend for dressing up in his dead wife's lingerie or something. None of these Buckies have lasted, or even been referenced much in the intervening years, which leaves The Winter Solider as the once and future true Bucky.