What Happened To Everyone Who Became Captain America?

2. Bucky Barnes

Captain America Bucky Barnes
Marvel Comics / Steve Epting

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.

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.