@overclocks said: like i ain’t need it but for the kids at home: talk about bucky being a normal guy and not all roided out on serum // ask me questions and let me tell you that good good bucky lore
it’s true! he’s a sham! or amazing! really it just depends on how you look at it but–
bucky’s origins have been retconned (see Captain America and Bucky #620), and frankly, it suits him better. see, originally, bucky just kind of stumbled onto steve rogers while he was changing into his captain america costume, and the brass decided to let him stick it out with cap. but in the retcon, bucky was a known troublemaker and a fighter, and the army decided to put that to use, train him, and use him as a spy, assassin, and a propaganda tool all in one.
(from Captain America #5). he was trained by the same people who trained steve (see Captain America #12). and that was just at sixteen!! sixteen!! imagine what age and muscles and body weight did for him. and honestly, it’s impressive that in a team made up of cap, the human torch, toro, and namor, that bucky, the one un-powered human, was able to keep pace with all of them.
he can do all that without a serum. that’s all 100% james buchanan “bucky” barnes right there.
(from Captain America #11). he doesn’t have a drop of serum in his blood. no, he was, essentially, to the russians, a placeholder while they got the widow program up and running. his value was that he was an american who could blend in with the enemy and travel undetected, but would be completely loyal to russia. his combat skills were a bonus utilized later when they did get their super soldier program up and running–it’s why he trained natasha, who is a "version" of russia's super soldier. or perhaps, rather, it's easier to say that the widow program is an answer to the super soldier question in a cold war era. which then generates spies who he can also go toe-to-toe with bucky, to an extent (see Winter Soldier #9).
which, speaking of holding back–bucky, generally, holds back a lot. because he doesn’t want to kill people. his conscience has really redirected a lot of that. but when he’s not holding back? it took wolverine, hawkeye, daredevil, and captain america to take him down (see Winter Soldier #13). he took down logan by himself and was able to lose the legendary tracker, and stopped one of hawkeye’s arrows with his normal arm (see Winter Soldier #12). not to mention everyone’s favorite moment when he uses his normal arm to hurl an arrow, killing a terrorist (see Winter Soldier: Winter Kills).
so don’t get me wrong, bucky is amazingly skilled, very strong, and very, very dangerous. he’s an assassin and world class sniper who holds back to be a hero, who uses his training to be as non-lethal as necessary, and does his best to keep himself above board–but he’s human. 100% human, with his only enhancement really being his metal arm. take the arm away, and he’s essentially the same exact guy, just minus a bit of versatility that the metal arm brings.
