Alright, so I am not so incredibly lame that I would pick a boy sidekick as my favorite superhero. There is more to the story than him just being Cap's tagalong. Here is some history for you.
Captain America was a giant piece of propaganda for the war effort, to boost moral and to be a symbol of unity. Bucky was his 16 year old sidekick who was to be a symbol for the youth of America to rally around, something to combat Hitler's youth campaign. Even though Bucky was a youngster he was highly trained in martial arts, covert ops, and espionage. Him and Cap kicked some ass during the war.
To make a long story short, Cap and Bucky were in a plane crash and presumed dead. It turns out they were frozen in some ice. Captain America was revived in the 60's and became apart of the famous team the avengers. Bucky was still assumed to be dead, and he carried around a reputation as the only person besides Uncle Ben to stay dead in comics. Well, this recently changed when one of my favorites, Ed Brubaker, starting writing Captain America.
It turns out Bucky was found by the Soviets and brought back to life. He had lost all his memories of being Bucky and then was brainwashed and turned into the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier was a cold blooded killer who carried out many many assassinations for the U.S.S.R. and never left a trace. Did I mention Winter Soldier is a huge badass!
In recent years Captain America found Winter Soldier and helped him get his memories back. In the wake of Marvel Civil War, Captain America was assassinated and there was no one left to carry his shield. Recently Bucky has taken on the mantel and become the gun toting, spylike, CAPTAIN AMERICA!:
Most of you are probaly thinking WTF. You probably think that someone has highjacked my blog as there is no way my favorite hero could possibly be Captain America. I admit it is kind of ironic. I am surely not patriotic and criticize American propaganda campaigns as much as possible.
However for me, the character of Bucky gets to the root of American foreign policy. Throughout our history we have carried out covert actions that sometimes go well and other times fail. But in the long run the things that fail tend to become monsters, just like the Winter Soldier. The reason that James Buchanan Barnes is my favorite superhero is that he gives me hope that the nightmares we have created in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and especially the Middle East, can somehow be redeemed just like Bucky was.
P.S.- The prize for guessing my favorite hero is a presidential endorsement of Michael Anthony Mara in the form of a blog.
Wait - I got to read all this comic business (and yes, I was thinking, "WTF?" most of the time) and now I have to read a blog of why my husband should be president? Lord, help me!
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