Captain America (vol. 4) #26
The Bucky Issue
Now
Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, has been asked to meet with Senator Lester Pauly, who is running as a third party candidate in the upcoming Presidential Election. As the plane is about to land in Washington, there is an explosion in the cockpit and the plane starts spinning out of control. Steve races in and discovers that both pilots are out of commission and grabs the controls. As he tries to right the plane his mind flashes back…
1944[1]
Captain America and Bucky were part of a military unit that was about to be air dropped somewhere over Europe when their plane came under fire. With the mission scrubbed, Steve tells Bucky to keep his head down while he finds enough parachutes to staunch the wounds of the injured soldiers. Rather than doing as ordered, Bucky aided the soldiers instead.[2]
Later
After surviving the plane crash, Steve met with Lester Pauly at his campaign office. There he is introduced to Harry Camus, Lester’s campaign manager. He has been called in because, despite the fact that Steve declined an offer to be Lester’s running mate, he is still being associated with the party.[3] This is because the two of them recently appeared together in a child welfare public service announcement. As such, Camus has asked Steve to come in to help answer some public relations issues. For example, Camus just got off the phone with a right-right muckraker who was about to report Steve’s plane crash as a joyriding stunt gone wrong. Luckily, news came out that it was actually an attack on Captain America and the grifter wisely backs off his attempted to spin the story.
Now
As Captain America struggles to get the plane back under control, the Air Force send up fighter jets to intercept the aircraft. Steve manages to avoid crashing into them, and narrowly avoids smacking into the Washington Monument, the very structure the fighter planes were trying to protect.
Later
Sitting in a meeting room, Steve learns that the purpose of this meeting is to learn about the plane crash incident so they can answer any questions that might be posed to them on the campaign trail. He gives Steve an example, and cites voting statistics among specific voting groups. He is concerned about certain demographics voting against them given Captain America’s recent involvement in the Fernand Hedayat case.[3] He wants to make sure that the attack on him today wasn’t associated with that event, and is relieved to learn that it wasn’t. This gets Steve thinking of the past again….
1944[4]
Somewhere in Europe, there was a lull in the battle, allowing Captain America and Bucky to spend some time meeting some children who have been seeking refuge at a local church. With the sound of gunfire and explosions off in the distance, Cap watches as Bucky tells the children to be brave and that they’ll make it through this war together.
Now
Incidentally, another reason why Camus asked to speak with Captain America is regarding another sticky issue that has come up: allegations that Steve endangered a child by having Bucky Barnes as his sidekick during the war. Steve relates to them what happened….
1941[1]
Bucky had just uncovered the truth that Steve Rogers was secretly Captain America. Brought in to speak with Colonel Walker Price. The young man explains that he was able to make this deduction because he could see through Steve’s bumbling private act so he decided to follow him around base to figure out why he was acting like such a foul up. Walker considers the situation as Steve’s true identity was to be kept top secret. Finding that Bucky was in good health and needing something to combat the Hitler Youth in Germany, Walker decided to appoint the young man as Captain America’s new partner.
After they leave the briefing, Cap has to remind Bucky that from now on, not to refer to him by his real name when he is costume. He tells the young man that once he is suited up he will carry the same burden Steve does. He asks Buck if he’ll be ready to cover the back of every soldier and resistance fighter as well as protect the innocent caught in the middle of the war. Bucky salutes and promises that he won’t let Cap down.
Later
Steve tells them that, at first, he protested Bucky being his partner because it put him in constant danger. However, to the military brass, it didn’t matter as te country was a war and in their view everyone was in danger anyway. If anything, Steve believes that Bucky made good his fighting chance.
1945[6]
Captain America and Bucky were doing the mundane task of keeping inventory when suddenly they heard gunfire coming from outside. Going to investigate they discover the theft of a drone plane. Racing after it on motorcycle, the pair jumped onto the plane only to discover that it is autonomous and has been rigged to explode. Steve then tried to convince Bucky to bail out, but the young man was confident that he could disarm the explosives. Unfortunately, he couldn’t and the plane soon exploded. Steve Rogers was knocked clear and fell into the freezing waters below where he went into suspended animation for decades.[7]
Now
With the plane about to hit the ground, Steve fights the controls to keep her steady and directs the plane to splash down on the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool. This causes the plane to skip across the water like a stone slowing it down enough to minimize the crash. Pulling the pilots out of the plane, Steve tells everyone to keep back at the plane might explode.
Luckily it doesn’t and soon police and emergency crews are on the scene. Tragically, the co-pilot died but his captain is still alive. One of the cops remarks how amazing Steve’s landing was and asks how he managed to minimize the crash like that. Thinking of his old partner, Steve says that he didn’t do anything, he just got lucky.[8]
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Lester Pauly, (flashback) Bucky, Walker Price
Continuity Notes
The story does not give the year that this scene is happening. However, per Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Captain America, this story is set sometime in 1944 between Cap and Bucky’s appearances in All-Winners Comics #5 and USA Comics #15.
This story presents Bucky as a teenager the entire war. This is not entirely true. Per Captain America (vol. 5) #12, 14, and 50, Bucky was 16 when he first became Cap’s side kick and turned 20 the month before he and Cap went MIA in 1945. While enlistment age was 18 during the war, recruiters often turned a blind eye to young teens who signed up, as was the case with Bucky. Those same stories explain the perception that Bucky was always seen as the “boy sidekick” of Captain America is that it was a propaganda tool to counter the Nazi youth and as a means of inspiring younger generations into enlisting when they got older. One can assume that Steve is recounting these events in such a manner since the truth was likely still classified at the time.
Steve was asked to be Lester Pauly’s running mate last issue. He politely turned it down as politics would take away his ability to help people as Captain America.
Again, the specific date is not given here. Per the Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Captain America this appearance takes place between flashback scene in Captain America: Reborn #1 and the events Captain America Comics #43. As such, this scene takes place in 1944 as well, but prior to the first flashback in this story.
This flashback happens between the events of Captain America Comics #1. Placing it as happening in early 1941 per character chronologies. The conversation had here contradicts the aforementioned stories from volume 5 of Captain America. In those stories, it is revealed that the military trained Bucky to be Captain America’s sidekick well before he and Steve Rogers first met. The version of events that depicted Bucky becoming his sidekick after accidentally discovering Steve’s identity are later said to have been part of a propaganda film made by the US military to sell Bucky as Cap’s sidekick. As such, per the Official Index chronology, this meeting with Colonel Price did actually happen either way. As such, one could assume that Steve is telling the cover story around this meeting as opposed to whatever was actually discussed.
Once again, the date is not given. However, the date that Cap and Bucky went MIA has been stated as happening in 1945 since the tale was first told in Avengers #4.
This of course, tells a version of events first seen in Avengers #4. However, this telling of events omits the involvement of Baron Zemo, or that Cap and Bucky were captured and put in military uniforms, or that they were tired to the drone plane. This incredibly truncated version of events was likely for narrative pacing. One could assume that Steve is relating these events to Paley and Camus, and that he is giving publicized version of events as the actual incident is likely classified.
Lastly, this story presents the drone plane indicent as though Bucky died in the explosion. This has always been believed to be the case since Avengers #4. However, Bucky actually survived and was transformed into the Russian assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Steve won’t learn the truth until Captain America (vol. 5) #14.
Topical References
This story is stated as taking place in May, 2004. This should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication.
When talking about negative publicity, Harry Camus mentions getting a phone call from Matt Drudge. Drudge is a political commentator and news editor whose focus is on political scandals. He is infamous for creating the right leaning Drudge Report website, a news aggregation website and one of the earliest examples of Internet rage farming. Guy is a big piece of shit in my opinion. That said, his reference here should be considered topical as he is a real world individual. Also, fuck that guy.
While talking about demographics and how they vote, Harry Camus’ concerns are very early-2000s. He cites the percentage of Muslim-Americans who voted Republican before and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. These facts and figures and references to 9/11 happening recently should all be considered topical as they reflect the politics when this story was first published. References to al-Queda potentially being involved should also be considered topical as this is a real world organization being referenced in the present tense.
Errors
Harry Camus states that Bucky’s real name is Michael Barnes. This is incorrect. His full name was revealed to be James Buchanan Barnes in Captain America #252. One could assume that Harry got his facts wrong and needs a better fact checker.
In the flashback where Bucky is assigned as Steve’s sidekick, Captain America’s depicted as already having his round shield and he is wearing his costume with the mask attached to the rest of his costume. However, Steve won’t have this look until Captain America Comics #2. This is an error on the part of the artist.