Bucky Barnes ☆ adorable trainwreck manpain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
soldieronwards) wrote2014-06-02 04:46 pm
soldieronwards) wrote2014-06-02 04:46 pm
some resources and teasers
About those comics. They are hard to get into and frequently stupid. So what do you do?
I'm going to provide some recommendations and links for comics featuring Bucky Barnes as he was revived and reinvented almost ten years ago, just in case anyone is curious.
Super Relevant Bucky Stuff
The greatest bulk of Bucky's story in modern Marvel Comics can be found in Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America, starting in 2005 (maybe 2004? I'm not entirely clear on this) and going until I think 2011. After that, he branches off into his own book, Winter Soldier, which mostly doesn't impress me a lot, and then sort of disappears into some kind of nebulous angst limbo when that gets canceled about a year ago. Aside from those two sources, he shows up in a handful of specials and a number of minor appearances in other characters' books.
I'm not going to link you all of that. Maybe I'll try writing up a guide later. For now I'm just going to provide some arcs I find to be good places for beginners. These aren't necessarily my favorites, but they require relatively little context and give you good insight into Bucky's character.
First up is The Life Story of Bucky Barnes, a five-issue arc which is actually one of the last things Brubaker wrote on Captain America (together with Marc Andreyko this time). It doesn't contain a lot of stuff in the "present day" of Marvel Comics, but rather features Bucky narrating snapshots of his life up till then. Most of it addresses his time as a kid and then as a sidekick in World War II, but there's also an issue that mostly deals with Winter Soldier stuff. It's pretty valuable for understanding how he ticks, and it has fairly good writing, not to mention my favorite art in the whole run (by Chris Samnee).
⇒⇒⇒ Buy it here.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
It's a little more difficult to pick out a specific present-day arc to show off Bucky's character without requiring too much backstory and pre-reading, so I'm going to link two three-issue arcs here, one leading into the other. These are Time's Arrow and Old Friends and Enemies, a couple of arcs set just after Bucky becomes Captain America. In them, what starts off as an ordinary villainous plot needing to be foiled by Captain America slowly unravels to reveal a mess of connections to different parts of Bucky's past--both during World War II and afterwards. Namor puts in a guest appearance, which is always good, and Natasha Romanoff holds her own pretty well too. As a whole, these arcs do a pretty good job of capturing Bucky's actions as Captain America as well as how his past plagues him.
⇒⇒⇒ Buy it here.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
In addition to those arcs, there are a few one-shots worth reading for a newcomer. Winter Soldier: Winter Kills is a story of Bucky fighting together with some of the Young Avengers on Christmas; you can download it here. I'm also fond of the Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special for his characterization, which you can find here
Other Things You Might Enjoy Reading
Like I said, Bucky also shows up in a few other places, albeit generally with much-reduced focus. I'll provide a couple of those here, less because they offer so much insight into his character as because they're worth reading.
You can give Name of the Rose a shot. It's Marjorie Liu's five-issue run on Black Widow, in which Natasha is framed for espionage and betrayal and must go on the run to uncover who's taunting her with her own past. Both the writing and the art are terrific, and despite having only a small role as the troubled but supportive boyfriend, I think Bucky's character comes across pretty well. Plus, he has entertaining banter with Wolverine.
⇒⇒⇒ Buy it here.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
I would be horribly remiss if I didn't link Avengers vs. Pet Avengers here. Bucky's role in this four-issue special is very small, but he is surprisingly in-character for a book in which he gets turned into a frog and eaten by a dragon (don't worry, everyone's okay in the end). I just feel this special has to be read to understand why superhero comics are so wonderful. Especially if you've read the much grittier other arcs I've linked here. Think about those, and then read this, which takes place in the same universe, with the same characters.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
I'm going to provide some recommendations and links for comics featuring Bucky Barnes as he was revived and reinvented almost ten years ago, just in case anyone is curious.
Super Relevant Bucky Stuff
The greatest bulk of Bucky's story in modern Marvel Comics can be found in Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America, starting in 2005 (maybe 2004? I'm not entirely clear on this) and going until I think 2011. After that, he branches off into his own book, Winter Soldier, which mostly doesn't impress me a lot, and then sort of disappears into some kind of nebulous angst limbo when that gets canceled about a year ago. Aside from those two sources, he shows up in a handful of specials and a number of minor appearances in other characters' books.
I'm not going to link you all of that. Maybe I'll try writing up a guide later. For now I'm just going to provide some arcs I find to be good places for beginners. These aren't necessarily my favorites, but they require relatively little context and give you good insight into Bucky's character.
First up is The Life Story of Bucky Barnes, a five-issue arc which is actually one of the last things Brubaker wrote on Captain America (together with Marc Andreyko this time). It doesn't contain a lot of stuff in the "present day" of Marvel Comics, but rather features Bucky narrating snapshots of his life up till then. Most of it addresses his time as a kid and then as a sidekick in World War II, but there's also an issue that mostly deals with Winter Soldier stuff. It's pretty valuable for understanding how he ticks, and it has fairly good writing, not to mention my favorite art in the whole run (by Chris Samnee).
⇒⇒⇒ Buy it here.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
It's a little more difficult to pick out a specific present-day arc to show off Bucky's character without requiring too much backstory and pre-reading, so I'm going to link two three-issue arcs here, one leading into the other. These are Time's Arrow and Old Friends and Enemies, a couple of arcs set just after Bucky becomes Captain America. In them, what starts off as an ordinary villainous plot needing to be foiled by Captain America slowly unravels to reveal a mess of connections to different parts of Bucky's past--both during World War II and afterwards. Namor puts in a guest appearance, which is always good, and Natasha Romanoff holds her own pretty well too. As a whole, these arcs do a pretty good job of capturing Bucky's actions as Captain America as well as how his past plagues him.
⇒⇒⇒ Buy it here.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
In addition to those arcs, there are a few one-shots worth reading for a newcomer. Winter Soldier: Winter Kills is a story of Bucky fighting together with some of the Young Avengers on Christmas; you can download it here. I'm also fond of the Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special for his characterization, which you can find here
Other Things You Might Enjoy Reading
Like I said, Bucky also shows up in a few other places, albeit generally with much-reduced focus. I'll provide a couple of those here, less because they offer so much insight into his character as because they're worth reading.
You can give Name of the Rose a shot. It's Marjorie Liu's five-issue run on Black Widow, in which Natasha is framed for espionage and betrayal and must go on the run to uncover who's taunting her with her own past. Both the writing and the art are terrific, and despite having only a small role as the troubled but supportive boyfriend, I think Bucky's character comes across pretty well. Plus, he has entertaining banter with Wolverine.
⇒⇒⇒ Buy it here.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.
I would be horribly remiss if I didn't link Avengers vs. Pet Avengers here. Bucky's role in this four-issue special is very small, but he is surprisingly in-character for a book in which he gets turned into a frog and eaten by a dragon (don't worry, everyone's okay in the end). I just feel this special has to be read to understand why superhero comics are so wonderful. Especially if you've read the much grittier other arcs I've linked here. Think about those, and then read this, which takes place in the same universe, with the same characters.
⇒⇒⇒ Download it here.