#bucky literally being a military mascot raised by soldiers in the comics?? like that's the real life mascots of us troops in france

[logansgaar]

I've been thinking of ways they could incorporate Bucky's unusual upbringing in the comics into the MCU, what with him having been a literal mascot for an entire army regiment and raised in the training camp. That unusual upbringing is what led him to become Steve's little brother/sidekick figure. Bucky's father, Major Samson, was a soldier friend of his biological father George.

In both world wars, it wasn't uncommon for American soldiers stationed in Europe to "adopt" war orphans in conjunction with the Red Cross workers. Sometimes entire regiments and companies would adopt a French child that they called their "official mascot", there's about 38 cases of this happening (not the FCFS btw that was something else.) They weren't typically adopted as in actually brought back to America after, but it's not inconceivable that George Barnes had enough wealth and pull to formally adopt one of his regiment's mascot.

(Also worth noting that Bucky is the only one who's "Buchanan Barnes", Becca was just Barnes, and it's indeterminate if Buchanan is Winifred's maiden name or not, she's only ever Barnes too. Buchanan is a Scottish name, so idk if there's something there, maybe it could be a Red Cross worker who cared for him or any number of things. It's bizarre that his parents would name him after such a supremely unpopular president, unless he wasn't named by Americans who'd know about that cultural association.)

Bucky would've been almost 2 years old when the war ended, 2 and a half by the time the last American units left France in September 1919 when he was 3. Mascots were anywhere from babies all the way to 16 year olds.

Basically war orphan Bucky Barnes, orphaned in France in WW1 and adopted to America as a toddler/young child.

[gayyybuckyyy]

sit down, kids

bc im about to tell u a story

ok so abt 2 years ago i was trying to get into comics & i decided if i was gonna do this, i was gonna do it right, so i researched lgbtq+ characters in comics & after bouncing around some wikis for a while, i somehow ended up on the page of a character called Arnie Roth. he’s not a superhero, but he’s credited with being one of the first openly gay comic book characters so i decided to keep digging

& i am so fcking glad i did

this is Arnie Roth:

“But it hadn’t always been like this... No, back when they were both growing up on New York’s Lower East Side, during the depths of the depression, the blond-haired adonis was nothing more than a stick-legged young dreamer with his head in the clouds and his hands forever drawing. Arnie Roth was the same age as Steve Rogers -- but he was bigger, faster, stronger...” (Captain America #270)

sound familiar???/???//

ok but buckle the fuck up bc we just started this wild ride

the parallels between MCU Bucky & Arnie are staggering

they even “”””borrowed”””” ideas for steve’s story arc in tws

“... While Steve grew even more withdrawn after his mother’s death.”

R U SEEING THIS SHIT???

MCU Bucky is literally Arnie Roth. Instead of “they drifted apart,” the MCU tacked on the winter soldier plotline & called it a day. but is there rly any Bucky in this character? James Buchanan Barnes, the boy who was raised and orphaned on a military base, who became their mascot “Bucky” and later (when he was 16 btw) Captain America’s sidekick?? is that the man Steve is trying to recover? no. it’s Arnie Roth, his gay jewish best friend.

so wtf is the point of all this u ask? well, it’s simple:

MCU Bucky is gay.

marvel stole a story from a gay character to skirt a potential controversy, slapped on another character’s name (again, avoiding “controversy”) & they knew exactly what they were doing. now, i don’t know that they don’t have any plans to make Bucky a gay character. i also don’t know if the sun is gonna rise tomorrow but i’m pretty damn sure it will. 

to give an example: half of the mcs in thor: ragnarok are canonically lgbtq+ (Loki, Valkyrie), but there was absolutely 0 indication of that onscreen.

plus there was that whole thing with andrew garfield (tbh im a little murky on the details there but from what i gather it was... not good)

i could go on probably but that’s another post for another day.

the fact is this is so much more than just a character mash-up. this is about our stories, our history being completely erased.

still not getting it??? ok here’s some icing on the goddamn shitcake:

Arnie Roth was written into Cap’s backstory in 1982, around the start of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and became a recurring character. in a 1984 comic, when the LGBTQ+ community was still fighting the Reagan administration for federal aid in a growing public health crisis, Arnie was brainwashed by Baron Zemo & forced to say this:

From left to right: “No wonder the Nazies wanted my kind -- the weak, the misfits -- locked away in the concentration camps with the other pariahs! I’m a menace to society... a disease! and you, star-spangled idiot -- you call me friend! Wh-what does that say about you? Most people simply hate men like me... yet you always treated me w-with respect. C-compassion. Why? Is it because... you’re one of us?” (Captain America #296)

Cap’s response?

“You are not a freak!”

1st panel: “You’re as good and decent a man as I’ve ever known!”

2nd panel: “... They can’t corrupt your love for Michael with their lies any more than they can corrupt my love for Bernie! Do you hear me, Arnie? They’re the pariahs! They’re the disease! They--” (Captain America #296)

but of course this wasn’t just Cap talking to Arnie; he was speaking to the hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ+ youth who were struggling. & maybe it was just a panel in a comic book, but there is something incredible about a great hero, possibly your hero, saying he sees you, he accepts you, & you deserve love. That kind of story, the kind that works into the life of a character and embodies the history of a people, that can’t be forgotten. That can’t be erased.

& now marvel has, unwittingly perhaps, given this story more power than it’s ever had. imagine Bucky, who lost his memory when homosexuality was still against the law, seeing all the countries in which gay marriage is legal. imagine Bucky, who never saw the stonewall rebellion, going to Pride. imagine bucky, who fought in a war in which people like him were locked up in concentration camps, seeing the strength and diversity of the LGBTQ+ community. imagine a character who lived in a time in which he could not be himself discovering 70 years of progress & finding the strength to come into his own identity. 

All of this is within reach.