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in-universe timeline.
📅 TIMELINE
1917
MARCH 10 → James Buchanan Barnes born. Pisces ♓
1930
Met Steve Rogers for the first time, and rescued him from some local bullies.
1936
Invited Steve to live with him after Sarah Rogers' death by tuberculosis. Turned down, but the gesture was there.
1941
DECEMBER 7 → Went with Steve to enlist immediately after Pearl Harbor, although his friend was rejected. Trained at Camp McCoy with the 107th Infantry Regiment as a sniper; the same unit Steve's father served in during WWI. Rose to the rank of sergeant.
1943
JUNE → Attended the Stark Expo with Steve, and shipped out to Europe.
OCTOBER → While fighting on the Italian front in Azzano, Sergeant Barnes and his unit were ambushed by the Wehrmacht’s HYDRA-powered tanks and captured as POWs. Taken to a war machine facility in Austria and put to forced labour. Eventually handed over to HYDRA scientist Arnim Zola for experimentation, and received the supersoldier serum.
NOVEMBER → Rescued by Captain America.
OCTOBER → While fighting on the Italian front in Azzano, Sergeant Barnes and his unit were ambushed by the Wehrmacht’s HYDRA-powered tanks and captured as POWs. Taken to a war machine facility in Austria and put to forced labour. Eventually handed over to HYDRA scientist Arnim Zola for experimentation, and received the supersoldier serum.
NOVEMBER → Rescued by Captain America.
1944
Bucky and Cap ran missions with the Howling Commandos, attached to the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR).
1945
JANUARY → Fell from a train to his apparent death in the Danube river; was marked as K.I.A. but was recovered by the Soviets, albeit missing an arm. Brainwashed and transformed into the Winter Soldier by Zola.
1951
Deployed to the Korean War, where he fought Isaiah Bradley in a bar in Goyang. The two brawled to a standstill, with Bradley doing enough damage to the Winter Soldier’s prosthetic arm that it would need to be replaced and upgraded.
"Sam, this is Isaiah. He was a hero. One of the ones that HYDRA feared the most. Like Steve. We met in ’51."
"If by met, you mean I whooped your ass, then yeah. We heard whispers he was on the peninsula, but everyone they sent after him never came back. So the U.S. military dropped me behind the line to go deal with him. I took half that metal arm in that fight in Goyang, but I see he’s managed to grow it back. I just wanted to see if he got the arm back. Or if he’d come to kill me."
1963
NOVEMBER 22 → Assassinated John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
1973
MARCH 12 → Almost broke his conditioning and temporarily went rogue. Excerpt from HYDRA's Winter Soldier files. (Captain America #13: The Winter Soldier, Part 5.)
I regret to report that after more than fifteen years of selective use around the world, all to great success, last month’s Winter Soldier mission did not go as planned. The target, Senator Harry Baxtor, was eliminated, and the death was made to appear accidental. But after that, something went wrong.
Codename: Winter Soldier failed to appear at his extraction point. His handlers waited, and listened to police transmissions, but he did not arrive, and the local authorities reported nothing that implied he’d been apprehended. Following protocol, our agents in the U.S. began a wide search for Winter Soldier. All extremes were taken to recover this valuable asset, including several sleeper agents breaking cover. Through that considerable effort, we were able to track some of his movements. Security camera footage showed him in civilian garb at the Dallas train station, boarding a train to Chicago.
Interrogation of several passengers on board the train left the impression that Winter Soldier was confused while onboard. He was apparently confused about what year it was, and appeared uneasy around the other passengers. In Chicago, he was seen boarding a bus for New York City. His movements in New York are unknown to us, but for two weeks he was completely off the grid. It was only through sheer luck that he was found by one of our agents, sleeping in a flophouse on the Lower East Side. It took several agents, in the garb of New York City policemen, to take him into custody.
Yet even after subsequent mental conditioning, Codename Winter Soldier has no answers for his conduct, or any memory of his time out of control. While troubling, the incident appears to be an aberration, requiring nothing more than closer watch. It is further recommended that in the future he be excluded from missions on American soil.
I regret to report that after more than fifteen years of selective use around the world, all to great success, last month’s Winter Soldier mission did not go as planned. The target, Senator Harry Baxtor, was eliminated, and the death was made to appear accidental. But after that, something went wrong.
Codename: Winter Soldier failed to appear at his extraction point. His handlers waited, and listened to police transmissions, but he did not arrive, and the local authorities reported nothing that implied he’d been apprehended. Following protocol, our agents in the U.S. began a wide search for Winter Soldier. All extremes were taken to recover this valuable asset, including several sleeper agents breaking cover. Through that considerable effort, we were able to track some of his movements. Security camera footage showed him in civilian garb at the Dallas train station, boarding a train to Chicago.
Interrogation of several passengers on board the train left the impression that Winter Soldier was confused while onboard. He was apparently confused about what year it was, and appeared uneasy around the other passengers. In Chicago, he was seen boarding a bus for New York City. His movements in New York are unknown to us, but for two weeks he was completely off the grid. It was only through sheer luck that he was found by one of our agents, sleeping in a flophouse on the Lower East Side. It took several agents, in the garb of New York City policemen, to take him into custody.
Yet even after subsequent mental conditioning, Codename Winter Soldier has no answers for his conduct, or any memory of his time out of control. While troubling, the incident appears to be an aberration, requiring nothing more than closer watch. It is further recommended that in the future he be excluded from missions on American soil.
1972
Arnim Zola’s physical body succumbed to a terminal illness, and the Winter Soldier Program was handed over to Colonel Vasily Karpov, a HYDRA operative embedded within the Russian military. Karpov moved the Winter Soldier to a facility in Siberia complete with a state-of-the-art cryostasis chamber and continued to activate the soldier for high-stakes wetwork, albeit far less frequently in an age of greater surveillance.
1991
DECEMBER 16 → Dispatched against Howard Stark and his wife Maria, while they were on their way to the Pentagon with the newly-completed recreation of Erskine's supersoldier serum. Successfully eliminated his targets and recovered the serum for HYDRA.
1992
Trained a new generation of Winter Soldiers in Siberia. Only five candidates survived all the trials, although they were extremely erratic and psychologically unstable. When they rebelled against their HYDRA controllers, Vasily Karpov was saved only by the intervention of the original Winter Soldier. The five second-generation super soldiers were put into semi-permanent cryostasis thereafter.
At some point in the early 1990s, he also stormed the Hotel Inessa in Russia, to eliminate an oligarch and his retinue of bodyguards for HYDRA. Also killed a civilian witness: RJ Nakajima, a young management consultant staying at the hotel.
At some point in the early 1990s, he also stormed the Hotel Inessa in Russia, to eliminate an oligarch and his retinue of bodyguards for HYDRA. Also killed a civilian witness: RJ Nakajima, a young management consultant staying at the hotel.
1995
The leader of the Red Room, Dreykov, sent the Red Guardian Alexei Shostakov and Black Widow Melina Vostokoff into deep cover in Ohio, where they stole files on Winter Soldier conditioning from the North Institute (a SHIELD facility, secretly under the control of HYDRA). This data was later used to brainwash the next generation of Widows.
2009
Shot Natasha Romanoff outside Odessa, Ukraine, and successfully assassinated the nuclear engineer she was protecting.
"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists; the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years. [...] Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me. [...] Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried. Like you said, he's a ghost story."
2014
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER.
Activated for HYDRA's attempted takeover of SHIELD. Attempted to eliminate Nick Fury, fought Steve Rogers, and had his memories shaken. Abandoned HYDRA and went on the run.
Activated for HYDRA's attempted takeover of SHIELD. Attempted to eliminate Nick Fury, fought Steve Rogers, and had his memories shaken. Abandoned HYDRA and went on the run.
2016
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR.
While living in Romania, was framed for a bombing in Vienna by Zemo, igniting the civil war between superheroes. Went on the run with Steve et al. After the battle, took asylum in Wakanda for the next two years for some ✨healing✨, fearing the relapse of his brainwashed conditioning.
While living in Romania, was framed for a bombing in Vienna by Zemo, igniting the civil war between superheroes. Went on the run with Steve et al. After the battle, took asylum in Wakanda for the next two years for some ✨healing✨, fearing the relapse of his brainwashed conditioning.
2018
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.
Became known as the 'White Wolf' during his recovery. Received a new vibranium arm from Shuri & T'Challa. Participated in the battle of Wakanda, and was snapped out of existence by Thanos.
Became known as the 'White Wolf' during his recovery. Received a new vibranium arm from Shuri & T'Challa. Participated in the battle of Wakanda, and was snapped out of existence by Thanos.
2023
AVENGERS: ENDGAME.
Returned thanks to the time heist, fought in the battle for Earth, and said farewell to Steve.
Returned thanks to the time heist, fought in the battle for Earth, and said farewell to Steve.
2024
© TESSISAMESSTHE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER.
Six months after Thanos, now operating under a conditional pardon and mandatory therapy. Joined forces with Sam Wilson to confront the Flag Smashers and John Walker.
Six months after Thanos, now operating under a conditional pardon and mandatory therapy. Joined forces with Sam Wilson to confront the Flag Smashers and John Walker.