After traveling a long road towards redemption, Bucky Barnes is ready to pay it forward. Marvel today announced a new Winter Soldier miniseries from the creative team of Kyle Higgins and Rod Reis. The five-issue series will follow the former Soviet superspy and assassin as he helps others atone for their past misdeeds as he did.

Once one of the few comics characters everyone thought would stay dead forever, Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting reimagined and resurrected Bucky in the guise of the Winter Soldier in 2005. Since then he’s remained a central figure in the Captain America mythos, taking over the mantle when Steve Rogers became unstuck in time after the events of 2006’s Civil War, and wielding the shield until his supposed death in 2012’s Fear Itself storyline. He’d cheated death once before, though, and the Winter Soldier quickly returned to headline his own series written first by Brubaker and later by Rick Remender. Barnes was a member of the Thunderbolts prior to the events of Secret Empire, and has recently appeared as a co-lead in the Marvel Legacy Tales of Suspense miniseries.

In speaking on the character, writer Higgins downplayed Bucky’s role as Cap’s former sidekick, focusing on Barnes as a hero in his own right:

“Losing his mind, becoming a weapon for the enemy, committing terrible deeds he would one day regret… it was a backstory that gave the character a world and a journey that was specific to him. The fact that he used to be Captain America’s sidekick informed him, but did not define him.”

Check out the preview image, in which the Winter Soldier both rides a motorcycle and wields a comically-large gun, below, and look for Winter Soldier #1 in stores in December.

1 COMMENT

  1. Does Marvel still have artists who specialize in creating cover roughs? I believe Ed Hannigan performed this function years ago, but assume the practice has gone by the wayside.

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