The Rayner-West Effect: Bucky Barnes as Captain America

[darthphere]

The debate on the internet has begun. Fandom has taken sides and the battle lines have been drawn. New Cap versus Old Cap, Bucky versus Steve. Here are the facts on this debate:

Comments

[jude_judith82]

You make a lot of valid points. I'm one of those Wally West/Kyle Rayner fans and I pretty much had that reaction of thinking great these old dudes are coming back what now? It would be cool for Bucky to become like Nightwing a character who has ties to other characters but can go off on his own and is his own character. Here's hoping. Any way nice of you to post again it gives me a good excuse to use my comicbook icons.

Anubis

[jude_judith82]

Spot on old bean. Spot on.

[darthphere]

Of course, Bucky becoming a Nightwing like character makes too much sense, it will never happen.

[stillawkward]

I think you've pretty accurately summed up the issue. With Dan Didio insisting that it's time for a return to the old school, Marvel is skirting a problem that DC is just on the brink of. (See Also: Cassandra Cain vs. Barbara Gordon.) When the ultimate goal is to make money in a recession, both companies seem to feel that the tried and true models are generally the best ones, despite any past success of new models.

Personally, I love Kyle and Rebirth.

[darthphere]

Oh definitely, old is new again, especially when old sells better.

Also, Cassandra Cain FTW!

[akoya]

You sir, are you sure you're not a scientist. You've got the knack for naming things.

The Rayner-West Effect is quite simply a brilliant discovery, only to be upstaged by pointing our Bucky could very well be Marvel's Nightwing.

So which GL and Flash are the ones you grew up reading?

[darthphere]

I started reading comics at the very beginning of the Geoff Johns Era with his Flash run. So Wally is #1 in my book. Of course over the years I've come to the realization that:

Alan Scott + Jay Garrick >>>> Hal, Barry, Kyle, Wally, Bart.

[akoya]

Ahhh, is that Hal, Barry, Kyle, Wally and Bart all combined or seperate? Because for the math to work, you need operators. Unless your goal was to have five seperate equations. :/

*mathout*

[darthphere]

Well Math went out the window when I used 4 greater than signs.

[terra]

I agree with you, though I think they probably could have gone on until the movie or whatever to bring Steve back. From a storyline perspective, Bucky finally has a status quo he's comfortable in-- for being Broodypants Barnes, he's pretty happy right now. Hence, Steve's return provides more drama.

The problem here is that unlike Dick Grayson, Bucky doesn't really have an alternate identity to fall back on. He can't be a sidekick again, really, and the Winter Soldier is his brainwashed assassin identity. So that's what I'm kind of skeptical about, but it remains too soon to bring out my Fanboy Rage thesaurus.

[darthphere]

We shall see what happens with Bucky. I think the Marvel Universe is better off with Bucky being around. I mean, how many identities has Clint Barton gone through? I'm sure Bucky can come up with something. I wouldn't even be against him going by Winter Soldier again.

[terra]

It's a much better identity than Nomad. I don't care how many times he shot Jack Monroe, that costume is too grave a punishment.

It's more that there would have to be a story about that, because the name has obvious unfortunate implications that Bucky'd have to face up to. (I'm not sure he's ever actually referred to himself as "Winter Soldier" in his head, much less out loud.) But I'm sure Brubaker could write it and make it awesome.

[darthphere]

Yeah, I'm interested in what Brubaker has planned for both Cap and Bucky. Bru has worked too hard establishing Bucky in the new Marvel universe to just let him sit on the back burner somewhere.