The Winter Soldier: Part 4

New York City, Now

In New York City, work crews are out replacing the sign out from of the old Roxxon building after its recent merger with the Kronas Corporation. Up in the head office, Aleksander Lukin is informed by his assistant Leon that everyone is waiting for him in the meeting room. Seeing that Lukin is once more holding the Cosmic Cube, Leon pleads with him to get rid of the device as he has come to believe it is cursed. Lukin warns Leon that even though they are old friends, if he speaks that way to him again he will have him killed. Aleksander then enters the board room where the owners of a number of major American corporations have come to meet on a business proposition. Lukin shows them the Cosmic Cube and says he will sell the device to the highest bidder.

Meanwhile, Nick Fury and Sharon Carter have arrived at the apartment of Steve Rogers, aka Captain American. He shows them the file on the Winter Soldier that mysteriously appeared in his apartment. The dossier contains proof that the assassin known as Winter Soldier is actually Steve’s old wartime partner, Bucky.[1] Steve is certain that is was planted in his apartment using the Cosmic Cube. Fury offers to have SHIELD’s forensics team to determine its validity. Steve agrees to this because he can’t have that file out of his home any sooner. He doesn’t want to believe that the documents are true, but the evidence is very compelling. Sharon tries to cheer Steve up by telling him that if it’s all true, then the Winter soldier is no longer his friend Bucky. Steve disagrees, pointing out that there were records of him disobeying, and then the report about him going AWOL in America. Regardless of what the Russians did to him, Bucky is still somewhere inside the mind of the Winter Soldier and he’s trapped. No matter what, Steve needs to save his friend.

Camp Lehigh, August, 1941

Not long after becoming Captain America, Steve Rogers is brought to Camp Lehigh. There he is shown a young man named James Barnes. The young man is going through a combat training session and is holding his own against two grown men, one armed with a knife. General Chester Phillips explains that the boy has been trained by the same men who taught Steve how to fight and he also spent a month in England training with the newly formed SAS. Steve can’t believe that the military would pair him up with a 16 year old kid.

The General reminds Steve that Barnes isn’t the only underaged person enlisted. Besides, James is the most natural fighter they have ever experienced. He tells Steve that Bucky — as the boy likes to be called — was an army brat who was adopted by the camp after his father died a few years earlier.[2] Steve admits that he was on board with the idea of having a sidekick, but he isn’t so sure about someone this young. Phillips explains that a teenager fighting alongside Captain America will be an equally powerful symbol. It also creates a distraction so James can do dirtier business while nobody is looking, all the better. Steve decides that he’ll at least meet with the young man and see what he’s all about.

New York, Now

Later that evening, Steve changes into costume and heads up to the roof of his building. There he finds Sharon Carter waiting for him. She was hoping they could talk more about the possibility that Bucky is the Winter Soldier. Steve knows what she is going to say, that Bucky is nothing more than a programmed assassin and it will be ok if he has to be killed in order to be stopped. Sharon argues that all that’s left of Steve’s old friend is the part that knows how to kill, pointing to the fact that Winter Soldier has already killed the Red Skull, Jack Monroe, and her ex-boyfriend Neal Tapper.[3] Steve is aware of all that but insists that he is being manipulated by Aleksander Lukin. Sharon tries to get Steve to accept that Bucky Barnes is dead. Steve knows that, he was there when it happened, but it doesn’t change the fact that someone is using him and controlling him right now or the need to save him. When Sharon tries to get him to see the facts, he tells her he doesn’t know what to believe anymore and leaves. Sharon then reports back to Fury and report she wasn’t able to get through to him and to make the call, maybe he will have a better chance talking to Steve.

Meanwhile, the auction for the Cosmic Cube continues at Kronas headquarters as the gathered CEOs try to outbid each other. That’s when Philip Hockney, the owner of Chemaxone, questions the authenticity of the Cosmic Cube. When he demands a demonstration to prove that it is the real thing, Lukin decides to indulge him. Using the power of the Cosmic Cube, he makes merger contracts appear in front of each CEO. He then forces them all to sign up the deals forcing them to hand over ownership of their companies to Lukin himself. As it turns out, Aleksander Lukin had no interest in selling the Cosmic Cube at all, but to use it to force them into handing him even more corporate power than he had before. With the meeting over, Lukin tells one of his guards to make sure everyone gets home safe. As he heads back to the office with Leon in tow, Aleks suddenly becomes dizzy and falls to the ground. Blaming the Cube for what just happened, Leon tries to grab it when it falls to the ground. Furious that Leon would touch his treasured object, Lukin picks up his chair and beats Leon with it.

At that same time, Captain America runs across the rooftops of Manhattan trying to keep his anger at bay so he can think clearly. However, all he can think about is one particular day during the war…

Arnheim, The Netherlands, September 1944

Captain America and Bucky were assisting British troops push their way across a bridge. The Red Skull was reportedly operating on the other side and their mission was to apprehend the notorious Nazi. As they made their way across the bridge they paused as other Allied soldiers were heading their way from the other side. To their horror, the troops were strapped with explosives and compelled to detonate them once they had gotten close enough. Getting clear of the blast, Cap and Bucky went to see if anyone survived. Unfortunately, there was only the dead and the dying. Seeing how the Nazis cut up the soldier’s brains in order to make them mindless zombies disgusts Bucky.

Now

Steve is thinking about this moment as he comes across a man threatening a woman with a knife in an alleyway. Without even stopping, Steve tosses his shield, which knocks the crook out and bounces back into his hand flawlessly. Eventually, Steve then begins following a trail of birds that are leading him somewhere, as he recognizes what they are doing and who sent them. They take him to his old friend the Falcon who had come out looking for Steve figuring he’d need someone to talk to. Considering this for a moment, Steve realizes that’s exactly what he needs right now.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Sharon Carter), Falcon, Winter Soldier, Red Skull/Aleksander Lukin, (flashback) Captain America, Bucky, Red Skull, Chester Phillips

Continuity Notes

1. Since Avengers #4, it was long believed that Bucky died in the same explosion that put Captain America in suspended animation in 1945. How he survived was shown in issue #8. Steve received the file that showed how the Russians turned Bucky into an assassin last issue. Although Steve doubts its validity here, the truth is confirmed in Captain America (vol. 5) #14.

2. Marvel Holiday Special 1991 was the first time it was mentioned that Bucky’s parents were dead. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 specifies that George Barnes died in a training accident while serving in the military at Camp Lehigh. Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special #1 goes on to say that he died in December, 1937, just before Christmas. His mother, Winnifred Barnes died of an unspecified illness in 1935 as per Captain America and Bucky #620.

3. Winter Soldier has been busy over the last dozen or so issues. The details:

   • His first victim was the Red Skull, who was seemingly killed in Captain America (vol. 5) #1. However, the Skull managed to cheat death using the Cosmic Cube to transfer his consciousness into the body of Aleksander Lukin, as we’ll learn in issue #14.

   • Jack Monroe, aka the Bucky of the 1950s, aka Nomad, was murdered by the Winter Soldier in Captain America (vol. 5) #3/7. This was in order to make it look like he killed the Red Skull and was responsible for….

   • The death of Neal Trapper and countless residents of Philadelphia from a bomb set up beneath the city in Captain America (vol. 5) #6.

Topical References

• The starting bid for the Cosmic Cube is at one hundred billion dollars. Adjusting for inflation this would be closer to 153 billion dollars. Bids made are for 120 billion (183 billion in 2023) and 150 billion (203 billion in 2023).