8 Captain America Questions That Always Confused You

5. Why Did Bucky And Falcon Stop Being Captain America?

Captain America Sam Wilson
Marvel Comics

Captain America is actually one of the Marvel universe's longest running legacy characters. Although he only gets that title via the assistance of some well placed retcons, Cap has actually maintained the most active legacy in recent years, with both Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson stepping in to fill his boots when Steve has otherwise been indisposed.

Steve Rogers' death in the aftermath of 2007's Civil War was a huge event, and it came during a seminal moment in the character's bibliography. Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting were charting an exciting course for the hero, one that resurrected Bucky Barnes as a Soviet-era assassin known as the Winter Soldier.

When Steve was gunned down on his way to court, there was only one person who was going to replace him - although Barnes himself was reluctant to wield the shield. Comics dictate a return to the status quo however, and it only took a couple of years until Rogers returned - but not as Captain America.

For a while, Bucky actually retained the Cap identity while Steve took on the new role of America's Top Cop. It was only when Barnes himself was then killed off that Steve again took on the role, and Bucky attempted to detoxify the Winter Soldier identity.

Falcon, on the other hand, became Captain America after Steve's super soldier serum wore off and aged him. For a while, Wilson was the only Cap, until Steve returned and there were two. Secret Empire then concluded with Steve shaking the fascist funk brought on by the cosmic cube, which led Wilson to relinquish the mantle back to his friend.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.