Earlier today, Marvel Comics held a press conference call to follow up the news that Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice would be launching a new series, Winter Soldier, coming in 2012. Spinning out of the pages of Fear Itself #7.1, where it was revealed that Bucky did not actually die during Fear Itself, but rather his death was part of an elaborate plot by Nick Fury and the Black Widow to influence Steve Rogers to take up the mantle of Captain America again. Ed Brubaker and editor Tom Brevoort were on the call to give the breakdown of what we can expect in Winter Soldier next year. Brubaker was excited to be able to finally be able to discuss this by sharing with a laugh, “I couldn’t be happier that I no longer have to keep this secret.”
The premise of Winter Soldier, is that now that Bucky is back alive but everyone thinks he’s dead, he can now act from within the shadows, much like he did previously as Winter Soldier when he was under Russian control. Brevoort explained, “No one is going to quite know, necessarily, that Bucky is back and around and alive and out in the world. Frankly, if it’s discovered that Bucky is alive, that’s going to cause some problem for Cap too…These are all points of tension that we’ll touch on as we go.”
Ed Brubaker was quick to explain that this, while not exactly unfolded as he planned, was always his plan for Bucky, “We’ve been sort of building towards this for a number of years in [Captain America]. There was always going to be that Steve comes back and Bucky goes back to being the Winter Soldier and hopefully gets his own series.” The recent stories in Captain America, the Prisoner of War and Gulag storylines, was groundwork that was laid to lead up to this. Brubaker further elaborated that his original plan for the end of the Gulag story was for it to appear as if Bucky died, and have several months of Bucky being dead, before revealing he was in fact alive, after it being a trick that Nick Fury and Black Widow pulled which would lead to Bucky working in the shadows as Winter Soldier again. “I was already talking about about doing that when Fear Itself came up,” explained Brubaker, “Then it was like ‘What if we kill him in this big event instead?’..it will accomplish the same thing that gets me to a place where the vast majority of the Marvel Universe thinks he’s dead so he can sink into the shadows and beome the Winter Soldier.”
In terms of tone of the book, Brubaker revealed that his hope is to take the elements that made the old Steranko Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD book so great, filled with espionage, but bringing it up to date with a modern Marvel Universe feel to it. It was explained that the main mission statement for the book was Bucky, now that he has the knowledge of secrets embedded in his brain by the Russians of things like dormant cold war weapons, will be tracking down these bits of his past and attempting to avoid the damage that could come to be if these old cold war weapons, who are people like Bucky, ever got re-activated. Brubaker made the comparison of the book as mix of James Bond and the video game Splinter Cell.
Art-wise, Brubaker and Brevoort shared that Butch Guice was working to make Winter Soldier look unique from of Guice’s previous work. Colored by Bettie Breitweiser, Brubaker explained, “We definitely wanted the Winter Soldier book to have it’s own identity…we’re trying really hard to make it a book that it’s own thing and really looks kick-ass and really looks like a high tech book. We want it to exist now and not feel retro.” Brevoort added that Guice is giving the book a visual flavor that is hard to describe, but once readers see the art, they’ll see what they’re doing. Brubaker added that Guice is using washes, and along with Breitweiser’s colors, is some of his favorite work. “The stuff he did in Fear Itself #7.1 was some of my favorite stuff he’s ever done, but the stuff in Winter Soldier #1 knocks that out already.” added Brubaker.
It was revealed that Brubaker would be moving into a consultant role on Captain America and Bucky, as now with Captain America and Winter Soldier combined with his screenwriting work, his workload could not sustain continuing to co-wrote Captain America and Bucky with Marc Andreyko. But Brevoort calmed any fears, and said that Marvel would continue to be publishing Captain America and Bucky comics.
Acknowledging that there may be some initial heistation from readers due to how the Bucky death was presented, (as Brubaker put it, “the fake out”) in Fear Itself #7.1, Brubaker is confident that this will be worth it, “”Hopefully I will be able to win everybody back, if there’s any residual anger over the fake out.” It was clear how excited Brubaker is to be launching this new title with his comments about the book, “When Tom and I first talked about this way back in our first phone conversation, I don’t think any of us ever imagined that there would be a day that Bucky was embraced by fans at all…but also that he could get his own series and be one of the most popular new Marvel characters since Wolverine and Deadpool. It’s kind of amazing that this day has come to pass at all. I’m really grateful that people have gotten into what we’ve done with this character for the past 7 years. So..thanks comic book readers who aren’t jerks on Twitter. (laughs)”.
Winter Solder will be double shipping with issues #1 and #2 priced at $2.99 and launches in February, 2012. Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice and Bettie Breitwesier will be joined by Lee Bermejo on covers, with issue #1 featuring a variant covers by Gabrielle Dell’Otto (featured above) and Joe Kubert.
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THAT was the reason why they faked Bucky’s death? The excuses for characters surviving are getting more lamer as time goes by. That being said, might give it a shot, as Winter Soldier was my favorite Cap story of recent years.
I’ll probably be on board for this title as Bru has never let me done with Bucky stories so far. I’m just crossing my fingers we can see more Guice and Guidiano collaboration like in the “Gulag” storyline. That was some of the best art in a Cap book in years.
Did anyone in the press ask why the resurection of Bucky couldn’t have happened in the resolution of Fear Itself #7 ?
probably no room to fit that in. I love Brubaker and Fraction to death, but this all just seems like the resurrected straw that broke jean grey’s back. Death has to mean something if you’re doing it in the big event. Something.
Will this be available digitally when released?
Called it.
Will check out this book when it comes outs, but yeesh, could that reason for “faking it” be any lamer?
Agree.Couldn’t they just say this story takes place before he becomes Cap(prior to Steve’s death). To “kill” just so he can go under cover?
@Jesse
Why not? Worked for The Doctor.
So the entire world was in peril, and pretty much everyone thought it was over. All of earth was going to be destroyed… and this was the best time to fake your death so that you could work in the shadows against future threats. Future threats that wouldn’t matter if the world was destroyed.
I’m just saying.
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. Nick Fury and Black Widow either have Precognition or is an omega level Guesser. Seriously guys, just let Fear fade into memory, or better yet, retcon it so that it happened on an alternate earth. (We can keep Incredible Hulk though, that would be OK >.>)
Burrito, did you read the whole thing here? Brubaker said that he planned all along for Bucky to fake his death so he could once again work in the shadows, but he hadn’t gotten around to plotting that part out yet. Enter Fear Itself, and it dovetailed with his plan so he could take care of it, and Bucky “dies” in a massively public way.
@Burritoclock Read Fear Itself #7.1, it explains quite clearly that it didn’t happen that way.
nail on the head
I read it yes. I believe Brubaker had a better idea of when to kill him, and it was decided that Fear Itself would be better with more deaths. (I know there is some suggestion it was fraction’s idea but could have been editorial as well) NO I did not read 7.1 because I love myself (but not too much since I read all 7 before it), but I’m assuming that Bucky just got beat up real bad, and then after it was all over they decided to fake his death?
It’s still dumb, no matter how they wrote their way through it. BUT to each his own I certainly don’t begrudge anyone that’s OK with it. Would have been nice for Brubakers original approach of killing him in the gulag, which would probably have made alot more sense and been more feasible. Again though, after an issue of Brubaker writing Winter Solider, no one will care either way, ha!
I bet Thor’s “death” was faked for the same reason. The God of Thunder working from the shadows.
In many ways Brubaker seems like the modern Peter David with Editorial continuously sticking its nose into his long running storylines, and making life difficult for him.
“…but rather his death was part of an elaborate plot by Nick Fury and the Black Widow to influence Steve Rogers to take up the mantle of Captain America again.”
Lolwut? Sounds more like Brubaker wasn’t going to take any of that shit after the years of work he put into Cap.
I can imagine the conversation between Brubaker and Fraction
Brubaker: Hey, I’m planning to do a Winter Soldier series after Fear Itself
Fraction: Oh, but I was going to kill him off…
Brubaker: …. Did I fucking stutter?
@TheGoddamnDeadpool
I love you. This was awesome.
ha.. yes i love you too. TGDeadpool… and yes neums it was awesome.
winter soldier rocks.
According to Brubaker, it was Fraction’s suggestion to move Bucky’s “death” from the end of Gulag to Fear Itself. Him going undercover as Winter Soldier was always gonna be the end result.
Hey, someone else who actually read the entire article before posting! How refreshing!
I actually prefer this. And if Spider Island is any indication, we won’t see the end of “Commander Rogers” either. He’ll be rocking that outfit when he’s on official government business (and probably other Secret Avengers business). So now it won’t contradict things when we see him in either costume. Also, I don’t have to ditch my Cap’n Steve T-shirt.
I feel like this is out of character for Bucky, he wouldn’t want to “trick” cap. If widow can know, why can’t cap.
SPOILER ALERT: In 7.1, Bucky told Steve in order to keep him from beating the holy hell out of Fury after he pulled the reveal. Steve’s well aware that Bucky’s still alive, and almost gave it away when he was smiling while eulogizing Buck (Clint picked up on it). It’s going to potentially be a problem for Steve down the line if it becomes public knowledge that Buck’s still out there Winter-Soldiering it up.
@ ed209AF Read Fear Itself #7.1, it explains quite clearly that it didn’t happen that way.
Right, my reading of the issue was that Bucky had no idea that Steve was out of loop until after the fact, at which point he makes sure that he finds out.
Thanks
“but rather his death was part of an elaborate plot by Nick Fury and the Black Widow to influence Steve Rogers to take up the mantle of Captain America again.”
made me think he was being kept in the dark. might have to read that 7.1 just to see Cap and Fury tangle.
Fuck, really? Look I like Bucky and was happy when they brought him back. Brubaker’s work with the character has been some of his best writing. I normally don’t even mind “comic book death”. However, for this specific character, alive, dead, fake dead, alive again, is fucking lame. I would have much rather had Brubaker’s original idea take place and have him die in the gulag instead of using him for the sake of an EVENT. Also I agree with John that they could have put this little revealation in F.I. #7. I’m not buying any of the F.I. point issues.
But he wasn’t going to die in the gulag anyway. They were going to fake it all along, and include Bucky on the plan to do it. However, the events of F.I. gave them a better opportunity to do it. Rather than have him “die” in a Russian gulag under the thumb of a crooked warden, they have him “die” publicly at the hands of Skadi in the Battle of New York. He “dies” on a much grander scale there.
On another note, I’m glad it happened this way. I was so pissed when they knocked him off in F.I. It seemed too much like a throwaway death right at the beginning of the event, just say “shit got real, someone’s dead.” Now, with the payoff that was 7.1, I’m so much happier that he’s back and kicking ass once again as the Soldier.
OOOOOOOO big surprise a comic charecter back from the dead , what is this the second or third time for him ?
Isn’t this almost like what happened to Stephanie Brown a little while ago?
Yeah, but it wasn’t right away like this . . .
Winter Soldier as a name now seems a little irrelevant seeing as how he is no longer a Russian agent. I mean it sounds decidedly Cold War and fairly Soviet to me. I wish they slapped three white and two red stripes onto his lower torso below that belt and just called him U.S.Agent. That seems a perfectly sensible notion and a great re-use of the name. Other than that this seems to be regular comics fare to me.
I’m gonna have to tattoo this on me somewhere, but it needs to be painfully written somewhere on my person so I can always remember: “Never Doubt Brubaker.”
Ugh! All the set up is painful! This is all we’ve wanted since Captain America Reborn! I’ll definetly pick this up though.
I imagine Fear Itself 7.3 will be a conversation between Black Widow and Nick Fury going like this:
BW: “Hey, remember that time you had the brilliant idea to get Steve back to being Cap’ by making him believe his formerly dead partner is dead again, so that he could lead us into victory against the Serpent?”
Fury: “… Yeah…”
BW: “And remember when it turned out Steve’s a big coward who told everyone to runaway with their tails between their legs and kiss their Devil-Saved Aunts goodbye?”
Fury: “Yeah…. and how do you even know that last part?”
BW: “And remember when Steve needed Tony Stark to come hand him ill-explained special weapons to save the day? Did James need any of that?”
Fury: “What of it? It worked di–”
BW: “You’re a #()#)*@)* dumb ass.”
Won’t be the case. Each Point issue deals with a separate hero/heroes involved. That’s why this issue was 7.1: Captain America. 7.2 will deal with Asgard and probably set up this new Tanarus guy and 7.3 is an Iron Man issue. So each Point issue, now that I think about it, deals with one of the “Big Three” of the Avengers.
You seem to be operating under the mistaken impression I was at all serious.
Kind of yes, kind of no.
No in the respect that half the people who came in and commented on this article didn’t seem to read the actual article, only choosing to harp on the “story” provided by just the headline.
Heh. I enjoy that no one seems to take issue with this guy calling the depiction of Steve Rogers in Fear Itself as cowardly (It’s a major reason behind why I dumped the book.).
@Neums You are an expending quite a bit of effort in positive spin in this thread, it comes off like you’re schilling for the company.
@PraxJarvin I’m a page designer for a newspaper, and print journalism is dying a slow death. If Marvel offered, I’d go for it. Combination of 2 passions of mine.
This whole thing seems kind of meta-textual to me.
Why can’t they just say: “We fucked up” and move on with it? Brubaker is lying so badly here it’s really sad.
Also, considering his spark for all of these characters has died long ago I’m surprised he wants to do yet ANOTHER Cap related ongoing. (Yes I know he’s quitting Captain America and Bucky but still…)
I don’t think he’s quitting Cap and Bucky. the co-writer is just switching from Marc Andreyko to James Asmus as far as I know.
from the article:
“It was revealed that Brubaker would be moving into a consultant role on Captain America and Bucky, as now with Captain America and Winter Soldier combined with his screenwriting work, his workload could not sustain continuing to co-wrote Captain America and Bucky with Marc Andreyko.”
Yay Bucky!
All you knee-jerk reactionaries should at least read the article or the issue. I see a lot of people oversimplifying it or getting it totally wrong.
Brubaker’s explanation makes sense to me, as by the ending of Fear Itself 7.1, I felt that he had placed Bucky in the same spot he was at the end of Gulag, which at the time had seemed like a very intriguing direction to take the character. I have faith in Brubaker, so I’ll be picking up the Winter Solider title. Also, very glad to see that it’ll only be 3 bucks . . .
I do agree that a name change from Winter Solider would make more sense. Perhaps the idea is that Bucky won’t let go of the Soviet identity until he finally feels absolved of his past actions? Or, it could simply be a branding issue . . .
Now, let’s see how or if Fraction gets Tony back on the wagon again . . .
Winter Soldier sounds cool. Ship it.
Ya probably a branding issue…
can you remove tattoos from steel? A laser perhaps. or they could always add some stripes and 49 more stars.. and we’d be in business. Just turn the whole steel arm into a flag…
In all seriousness though.. maybe down the road a little bit.. they could use a different name. Trouble is bucky is kind of cheesy 1940’s name to begin with.
Didn’t they “rebrand” his bionic arm a while back? I thought it went from the red star to a star-in-circle, reminiscent of Cap’s shield. Plus, didn’t it have some kind of chameleon function so it’d look like a real arm? Maybe just the hand?
That sounds about right.
Did they “not really kill” Thor either? Because I would like to have “not really read ” this mess.
Thor is mentioned in the issue synopsis of the second issue to come out after the “new” Thor-replacement guy takes over. So he’s dead… but… y’know not.
Totally hoping Winter Soldier will be in one of the up-coming cap movies; he’s such an interesting character.
(Random) Who would win in a fight, Winter Soldier or Red Hood (Jason Todd)?
Well all right then.
I think we really can all just pretend that Fear itself never happened.
“Make your own continuity.” -Conor Kilpatrick
Brubaker writing a Winter Soldier book? Didn’t we already get that? Oh, right, it was called Captain America.
Here’s the thing to me about the people who are upset with the fake out death. Death in superhero comics already means nothing. What’s the difference if it’s 2 months or a year? I actually rather a fake out death like this explained immediately after, as opposed to a big death where we’re supposed to take it seriously for the next year or so. And all the time knowing it’s just a matter of time til we get the lame ret-conned explanation for the character coming back to life. I’m sick of reading that a character wasn’t dead, just lost in time. This, even if it was a bit of a cheap fake out, I much prefer.
Happy that Bucky/Winter Soldier/Captain America is not dead. Love the character, and I will read this book. Still think it is interesting though to go to through the business of faking one’s death shortly after going on public trial for your activities as the Winter Soldier by then coming back afterwards as . . . *drumroll* the Winter Soldier. Yes, I read that article that this factor will be a point of tension in the ongoing storyline. LOL. But really, most people that fake their deaths don’t assume a new identity as their old selves . . . no matter how undercover you may be.
Great point. Are the other “weaponized” people out there also called Winter Soldiers, though? I seemed to gather that from the Gulag story, but I could be wrong. Maybe he’s taking the name back.
He could be taking it back. 🙂 Either way, like the character and will pick up the book. I liked someone’s earlier suggestion that Bucky could reappear on the silver screen in a future Captain America movie as the Winter Soldier as well. That would be very cool indeed.
Wasn’t it odd how Bucky’s almost “throwaway death” mirrored how quickly he was (I’m gonna say) lost in the movie?
Doing a Winter Soldier story would be a great Cap movie plot. Great espionage action, all that. Maybe introduce the Lukin character in #2 as a thorn in Cap’s side, build up to a post-credits scene of Lukin and Skull shaking hands or something.
You can probably pull out any excuse for having a Winter Soldier book by Brubaker and I’d be OK with it.
This. That is the bottom line. haha
Sounds great. Looking forward to it.
Looking at the amount of comments left on this page, Brubaker did something right. People are talking.
Welcome back, Winter Soldier. You’ve been gone too long.
Imagine explaining this to someone who doesn’t read comics. I’m pretty sure you’d lose them at “it was explained in Issue 7.1.”
Follow up: just asked someone who doesn’t read comics on a regular basis (but is familiar with and appreciates the medium) what they thought about the idea of .1 issues.
“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”
I’m actually really glad he ‘came back’ right away instead of dragging it out and making it a big thing later down the line. Winter soldiers a cool character and Bru’s a fantastic writer so sign me up.
I for one love as it would be lame to b ring him back after all these years, induce more interest and lore for both him and Cap then kill him, the Winter Soldier mythos looks and is cool as hell, and if thats the excuse I hope they were honestly “building towards” and not last minute pondering then i’m behind it as a valid reason for Steve to dawn the Cap mantle once again and Bucky to not be dead in a “fake out” and return in his own culminating Winter Soldier Steranko style series at $2.99 no less, and with Brubaker and Guice with Bermejo covers, I love it.
I wanna see more of Winter Soldier with Black Widow and Hawkeye doing delta force/black ops type S@#T! yeah!!!