#alexi shostakov

[eponastory]

"Your idiocy triggers my deep cover mode."

- Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier

God I can't wait for Thunderbolts.

[why-i-love-comics]

Thunderbolts #4 (2024)

written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly art by Geraldo Borges & Arthur Hesli

[agent-44mc]

a mission of liberation. 1995. part one

Pairing: Winter Soldier x Red Guardian

Warnings: none, so far.

Summary: Four years after meeting the Winter Soldier, Alexi Shostakov finds himself face to face with the man he once knew. SHIELD assigns him the mission to find and liberate him.

Word Count: 1k

notes: I don’t know where exactly this is going, I usually don’t do this, but I’m so excited about this ship I had to do something. I'm shrugging right now but in a way that i definitely know instead of what the shrug implies. tee hee. because it's so clear they should fuck so it will happen, trust. also this is unedited. i don't have time for that.

edit: why didn’t any of you tell me I was spelling Alexei wrong? I am betrayed and hurt. next chapter postponed.

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐

Alexi had a good life, doing what he loved. A nice house, a dog, a job that he loved more than anything in the world, students that maybe hated him, even a potential girlfriend. Everyone knew him to be a kind spirit, maybe annoying at times with his loud personality, but after he walks through the doors of his beautiful house, feeds his dog, eats his homemade all american meal, and lays down to sleep in his goose feather bed, he thinks of someone he misses so dearly. 

Someone he knew as his best friend. 

And it didn’t feel good to think about him , like Alexi would die for it to be. His chest eroded anytime his existence was uttered by his subconscious while his mind was at rest. His “good life” kept the thoughts of him at bay, but every night, the guilt only made it worse. 

A smile shouldn’t haunt a man. Often, when the Red Guardian thought of the brutal brainwashing his lost friend had been subjected to, he couldn't help but think of his smile when he resisted it. 

The worst part, somehow, was that he didn’t even know his name. Neither of them did- but at least “The Coney Island Hero” wasn’t subjected to remembering that someone had given him that nickname. Alexi was left to suffer that. 

But there are many distractions from this- one being that he now leads a double life, working for SHIELD, doing hero-work, an umbrella term to describe anything from shutting down Nuclear Cold-War weapons and saving people from burning buildings- sometimes even cats. The bastardly things. 

Until one day, on a mission, he saw someone he’d been dreaming about. 

Alexi never went a day without seeing the shadow of The Coney Island Hero, which is why he almost brushed it aside, but then, he slapped him right in the face- which proved nothing. He was seeing The Winter Soldier now. The Shadow of The Coney Island Hero laid in him, even if he might not remember it. 

There’s one who does though, and Alexi knew that this time, he wasn’t going to lose him. He was going to liberate him, in a true American fashion.

 Brainwashing goes both ways. Alexi was going to brainwash the winter soldier back to the man he knew. The man that deserved to live a life free. 

And for reasons unknown to him, there was something deeper stirring under the surface of this fundamental belief. Something… personal. 

MISSION REPORT. 1995. 

“Get that crying baby out of here, I’m trying to talk to the woman,” Alexi ordered, slamming a fist on Peggy’s  desk with a scowl. “This is important, little girl!”

The baby mirrored his scowl. “I’m thwee,” she said, sticking out her tongue and holding her Dad’s hand a little tighter.

“You are a  very cute baby, I cannot stay angry for long,” Alexi gave in, waving as she walked out, grinning ear to ear at the sight. “Goodbye baby.”

Silence wavered between them as Alexi smiled silently, staking in the sights of the stuffy brown office that overlooked the streets of New York City, various noises fading into white noise as he let himself drift away to another place. It was subconscious at this point. 

Coney Island. He’d been there several times hoping to run into its hero. 

He stayed there until a British accent woke him back up. “Alexi, you came here very passionate about something, would you like to… elaborate further on what you saw?” 

“Uh, what?” Alexi stuttered, “oh, yes. The Winter Soldier. I saw him there, Agent Carter. I knew him, yes I knew him well. He liberated me.” 

“The Winter Soldier? He’s a myth.. An urban legend. What makes you think you know him?” Peggy inquirered, grabbing her reading glasses from the desk in front of her, holding her files out far enough to see. 

Alexi laughed. “You cannot fool me, Agent Carter. I know you know what you say isn’t true. You may be the supreme leader of SHIELD, but I was a supreme leader of the Red Room. I knew of the Winter Soldier. But then, I knew him. He didn’t know himself though.”

She looked at him through her glasses. “Alright, fine. He does exist. But you aren’t supposed to know that. It’s what we’d all like to keep a secret.” Peggy became somber, setting down her files. “What do you mean he didn’t know himself?” 

“I mean,” Alexi began. “We bonded. He got us French fries, we had jokes, and I tried to help him remember what his name was. The best he could do was Coney Island. That means he was the hero, no?” 

“The hero? I doubt he was ever a hero. I don’t know who-“

“But he doesn’t remember. He used to be someone! Someone who is no one wouldn’t remember Coney Island,” Alexi said in confidence, his eyes traveling to outside the window once more. “Even if he wasn’t, he deserves to live free.”

“You’re saying that the Winter Soldier was brainwashed?” Peggy asked, practically in disbelief as her soldiers squared, only slightly looking down at her feet when Alexi earnestly nodded his head. 

She got up and walked around the room, seemingly deep in thought about something, in such a manor that made him twist his fingers anxiously in wait for whatever she was going to say next. Perhaps “you’re crazy, we’re taking your job and your money.”  or worse, “there’s nothing we can do.”.

 Finally, she said, “Alexi, I’m giving  you a mission.”

Alexi shot up like lighting to his feet, turning around the face Peggy, who had her hands neatly clasped behind her back, a serious look of final determination on her aged face. 

“Yes ma’am?” Alexi asked, his heart practically breaking through his ribs. 

“Find and free The Winter Soldier.” 

<> part 2 out now

[towritecomicsonherarms]

Thunderbolts #4

[friendstolobsters]

Made myself sad thinking about Winter Soldier in the Alexi AU. Like just them meeting again and Alexi shouting out to his Coney Island Hero and Bucky just being blank and them fighting and ahhhhh

[joezy27]

HAWKEYE - Clint Barton vs Ronin

Widowmaker (2010) #1 Variant cover by Paul Renaud

[bonniebirddoesgifs]

Bonniebirddoesgifs:

Natasha Romanoff, Melina Vostokoff, Alexi Shostakov & Yelena Belova (MCU) - Credit if using

[daydreamerdrew]

Amazing Adventures (1970) #1 and Black Widow: The Coldest War (1990) and Black Widow (2001) #1

[comicsiswild]

The Marvels (2021) #3

[tllgrrl]

This poster makes my mayhem-loving heart very happy.

* * *

John Walker/US Agent: “What the hell is that in the mask?”

Ava Starr/Ghost: “Am I gonna have to choke a bitch out?”

Alexi Shostakov/Red Guardian: “Pochemu on v pizhame?? Such disrespect!” (“Why is he in pajamas?”)

Antonia Dreykoff/Taskmaster: “Vy nakhodites’ v modem lichnom prostranstva—“ (“You’re in my personal space!”)

Bucky Barnes: “What the hell? Babysitting these…man, I’m too old for this shit.”

Yelena Belova: “ Val can screw herself. I’m going to go work at Bergdorf Goodman.”

Bob/Sentry: “Ow!”

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts* (2025) Official Poster

[why-i-love-comics]

Thunderbolts #4 (2024)

written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly art by Geraldo Borges & Arthur Hesli

[agent-44mc]

i feel like this right now because of new yaoi that doesn't have fics as a fic writer

[towritecomicsonherarms]

Thunderbolts #4

[stressedbeetle]

If Bucky, Yelena, taskmaster and Alexie don't speak in russian to keep secrets from John Walker I will be so disappointed

[icepandawarrior]

I WANNA KNOW WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE BOTH PREDATORY ASS MEN IN NAT'S LIFE TO BE HER FATHER FIGURES IN THE MCU!?

ALEXI (BEFORE I STARTED READING BW COMICS) WAS ALREADY NOT GOOD IN MY DAMN BOOK WHEN HE EFFORTLESSLY GAVE UP CHILDREN TO BE TRAFFICKED AND THEN YEARS LATER ACTED LIKE IT WAS JUST A WHOOPSIE DAISY AND ALL WAS FORGIVEN... DAVID HARBOUR IS NOT SAVING HIS TRASH ASS

BEFORE I EVEN GOT TO READING THE COMICS, AN EDIT OF THE (UNDERWHELMING) BLACK WIDOW MOVIE SHOWED UP ON MY FYP TRYING TO MAKE NAT, YELENA AND THEM OTHERS LOOK LIKE A BIG HAPPY FAMILY... WHILE SCROLLING THROUGH COMMENTS SOMEONE TALKED ABOUT HOW GROSS IT WAS THAT THE MCU TOOK SOMEONE SHE WAS MARRIED TO AND TURNED HIM INTO A "FATHER FIGURE" INSTEAD... TRUTH BE TOLD, I WAS SHOCKED AND APPALLED

THEN LATER DOWN THE YEAR OR THE YEAR AFTER THE BLACK WIDOW MOVIE CAME OUT, I STARTED ON FINALLY READING THE COMICS. AS MUCH AS I WAS AMAZED FOR MOST OF HER SOLO COMIC RUNS, I HAD THE MISFORTUNE WITH READING ONE OF HER WORST THAT BEING DEADLY ORIGIN... AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT HOW BAD CAN IT POSSIBLY BE REALLY (APART FROM THE MAIN STORY'S WEAK WRITING AND IT'S HORRENDOUS ART STYLE) THIS WASTE OF FUCKING OXYGEN SHOWS UP. THIS ALONE BARELY SCRATCHES THE SURFACE OF HOW FUCKING TERRIBLE HE WAS TO NAT

AND THEN THERE'S THE OTHER ONE, IVAN WHO WAS MENTIONED ONCE IN AVENGERS ENDGAME BEFORE THE COMPLETE FUCKERY HAPPENED AND WAS REFERRED TO IN THE BLACK WIDOW MOVIE. DESPITE NOT BEING PHYSICALLY PRESENT HE WASN'T EXACTLY GREAT EITHER CONSIDERING HE GAVE UP NAT AS A BABY TO SOME SICK FUCK TO BE GROOMED AS A CHILD SOLDIER... BUT IT'S OK BECAUSE AFTER THAT HAPPENED HE WENT LOOKING FOR HER AND GOT KILLED IN THE PROCESS

AND MAN DON'T ME STARTED ON HIS COMIC COUNTERPART... I WAS GIVEN NOT EVEN A SPEC OF INFORMATION ON HIM. AND THAT'S BECAUSE UNLIKE ALEXI HE'S NOT ALL THAT RELEVANT... HE'S AT LIKE A D LEVEL OF RELEVANCE AT BEST

AND I AM GRATEFUL FOR THAT CONSIDERING READING DEADLY ORIGIN (THE SAME COMIC ALEXI HAS AN APPEARANCE IN). HE'S JUST AS BAD IF NOT WORST AND WORDS FROM ME PERSONALLY CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE IT THOROUGHLY... MANIPULATIVE AND REPULSIVE AS FUCK ON BOTH ENDS

LUCKILY, HE'S DEAD AND HASN'T MADE AN APPEARANCE SINCE THIS COMIC... REST IN PISS 😊 AND HOPEFULLY ALEXI WILL MEET HIS MAKER TOO