What Happened To Everyone Who Became Captain America?

Bucky Barnes is the best, and he's largely the best because of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's seminal Captain America run from 2005 onwards.

Brubaker and Epting created the Winter Soldier story-arc together and laid the groundwork for what was essentially the emotional core and tone of the MCU Captain America films. Despite this, Brubaker and Epting continue to be treated like complete and total ass by Marvel, with the former having recently revealed on the Fatman Beyond podcast with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin that he makes more from SAG residuals for his cameo in The Winter Soldier than for, you know, actually creating the character that others have made millions from.

So yeah, before getting into the how and why of Bucky Barnes becoming Captain America, this is essentially me saying, "go support these guys!", which you can do by buying Velvet, a creator owned espionage thriller the two co-authored in 2014. It's great, you'll love it if you love their Cap books, and they'll appreciate the love.

In regards to their run on Cap specifically though, Bucky Barnes was right at the centre. Brubaker and Epting resurrected the character as the Winter Soldier and plotted an epic and emotional redemption arc for him throughout their run, culminating in the "death" of Steve Rogers after Civil War (he was actually blasted back through time, okay), and Bucky honouring the legacy of his oldest friend by becoming the new Captain America.

Bucky more than proved himself as Captain America, but it was never going to be a permanent arrangement. Steve eventually returned, Bucky almost died during the events of Fear Itself, and then once again took on the identity of Winter Soldier.