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It’s a testament to Ed Brubaker’s epically-plotted and tightly-scripted Captain America saga that not only did he manage to bring back the one character deemed “completely unbroughtbackable” by fans and publishers alike, but he managed to rewrite Cap’s wartime sidekick from “Gee Willikers” spunky tween go-getter (read: punchable) into the Ruskies’ Weapon of Mass Awesomeness: brain-washed contract killer the Winter Soldier.
Once Steve Rogers unbrainwashes the bad-ass back to the Light Side, he goes and gets himself shot repeatedly in the chest after giving himself in to SHIELD custody at the close of the Superhero Civil War (oopsy).
Cue an aching legacy to fulfil, and one decidedly edgier replacement who’s guilt-tripped by a beyond-the-grave Rogers to replace him.
Backlash? While the die-hard Marvel naysayers flocked to fanboy forums to decry the decision, most fans were confident and trusting enough to appreciate that Brubaker had a grand masterplan in place. And considering how skilfully he’d ingratiated that once most hackneyed of heroes back into the Cap universe – and made him interesting to match – readers were intrigued to see where Barnes would go next.
Gender/Sexuality/Ethnicity Reassignment? More of a disability reassignment then anything else, with a one-armed Barnes bringing a clobbering robo-fist (not as dirty as it sounds) into play, alongside an edgier, gun-toting combat approach.
How Long Did They Last? A whopping four years all in all. While Rogers himself was resurrected in January 2010 (after being offed in March 2007), it was only Marvel’s current mega-event “Fear Itself” that wrote Barnes out (murdered at the hands of the Red Skull – again) and allowed Rogers to pick up the shield once more.
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