Captain America #131
Bucky Reborn!
Captain America has earned the ire of the Hood, a criminal who attempted to use the hero to further inflame student protests. When this failed, the Hood begins studying Captain America’s history to try and find the perfect way of getting revenge against the Avenger.[1] What gets the Hood’s attention, however, is a photo of Captain America and his wartime partner, Bucky. The Hood considers the possibility that Bucky may have actually survived the war just as Captain America had and decides to investigate the possibility.[2] The Hood then goes out and begins canvassing gyms to find someone that resembles the late Bucky Barnes.
Meanwhile, Captain America enjoys some downtime by racing around a beach before heading into San Francisco, the next stop on his tour of the country. At the same time, the Hood locates a young man who is the spitting image of Bucky Barnes. Incidentally, this young man also suffers from amnesia, leading the Hood to believe that this might be the genuine article.[3] The news that Bucky might still be alive hits the news and Steve Rogers hears about it from the radio as he is eating in a diner. Steve then races out of the diner to try and locate this young man and learn the truth.
Meanwhile, the Hood has been hypnotizing the young man he found in order to convince him that he is really Bucky Barnes. When Captain America arrives at the Hood’s mansion, the villain shuts off the lights, forcing the hero to wander around in the darkness. Removing his disguise, the Hood then attacks Captain America directly, revealing himself to be none other than the Nazi war criminal known as Baron Strucker.[4] During the battle, the young man Strucker has hypnotized keeps repeating that he is Bucky Barnes over and over again. When Cap races to his side, the youth comes to believe that he is actually the real Bucky, and not some brainwashed pawn. This distracts Captain America momentarily, allowing Baron Strucker to knock him out.
The Nazi then ties Cap to the hand of a massive analog clock. When the arm reaches 12 on the clock, it will complete a circuit that will fatally electrocute Captain America. Struggling to get free, Cap can’t free himself in time. Luckily, Bucky snaps out of Strucker’s control when seeing Captain America in danger. The youth then knocks out Strucker and frees Captain America in the nick of time. When the young man insists that he is the real Bucky Barnes, Captain America considers the idea that he might be telling the truth.
Recurring Characters
Captain America
Continuity Notes
Among the photos the Hood goes over here are pictures of Captain America’s battles against the Trapster and the Exiles. Cap clashed with the Exiles in Captain America #102-104, and 115-118. The Trapster fought Cap in Captain America #108.
At the time of this story, everyone believed Bucky died during World War II at the same time Captain America was put in a state of suspended animation, per Avengers #4. Little does the Hood — or anyone know — is that his suspicion was actually proven correct. Bucky survived and was transformed into an assassin called the Winter Soldier by the Russians. Cap will not learn about this until Captain America (vol. 5) #14.
It’s not, this is actually an android built by Doctor Doom for AIM, as revealed next issue.
This is not the real Baron Strucker mind you, as the real deal was killed by the Death Spore Virus in Strange Tales #158. This Strucker is later revealed to be a robot created by the Machinesmith in Captain America #247. The real Strucker does get resurrected, but not until Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (vol. 3) #21.
Topical References
This story presents the idea that Bucky could have survived the war and would only by slightly older, having lived a relatively normal life and be able to return to his role as Captain America’s sidekick. This, due to the Sliding Timescale, would be an impossibility as it pushes the Modern Age forward in time thus making the time between the end of World War II and the start of the Modern Age to grow larger with the passage of time. See below for more detail….
Steve leaves a $10 bill to pay for his food at the diner and this is presented as a massive overpayment. $10 in 1970 would be equivalent to $68 in 2021 money. The dollar value here should be considered a topical reference.
The Issue with Bucky…
As I’ve stated above, this story presents the idea that Bucky could have survived World War II and lived with amnesia for the years between the War and the start of the Modern Age (which, per the Sliding Timecale would be in it’s 3rd year) yet still be of an appropriate age to continue his crime fighting career as Captain America’s sidekick. This is something everyone accepts as fact when this fake Bucky surfaces. Taking this story from the perspective of this writing (June 2021), World War II would have ended 65 years prior to this story. The gulf of time between this story and the end of World War II would continue to expand as well.
So how do you reconcile this? Well, since the Baron Strucker in this story was a robot, one could assume its logic was flawed, but that doesn’t explain how members of the press, the public, and Captain America himself would readily accept a still-in-his-prime Bucky at face value. Marvel has never really address this issue and I highly doubt they would go back and explain such and so I think this is a good spot for one of my patented speculative presumptions. Readers could assume that the people in this story assumed that Bucky ended up in some kind of suspended animation, just like Captain America. This is not that outlandish an idea since that’s exactly how the real Bucky (as the Winter Soldier) would maintain his youth and vitality while working as an assassin for Russia.
