Marvel Officially Redesigns the Winter Soldier

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Bucky Barnes has spent enough of his life being used as someone else’s weapon that another mysterious assignment should probably set off every alarm he has. Between his history as the Winter Soldier and his time carrying Captain America’s shield, he’s earned the right to ask a few questions before following orders. His latest predicament makes those answers especially important, considering he shouldn’t be alive to take the job in the first place.

The Winter Soldier was among the casualties of Marvel’s Avengers: Armageddon, which left the superhero community facing a world that has turned against it. His fatal clash with Red Hulk looked like another devastating loss for a character whose life has rarely offered much breathing room between tragedies. But Bucky’s story is already moving beyond that confrontation, and the circumstances of his survival could have consequences well beyond his own future.

Marvel has unveiled Ben Harvey’s main cover for Immortal Soldiers , revealing the Winter Soldier’s new look as he joins Nick Fury Sr. for a mission that will help shape the publisher’s upcoming stories. Arriving in January 2027, the one-shot comes from writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Christian Rosado. First announced at New York Comic Con, the issue will explore Bucky’s mysterious resurrection following his death in Avengers: Armageddon , with Marvel confirming that Fury brought him back for this particular assignment. That makes Bucky’s return considerably more complicated than a miraculous second chance. Fury has a purpose for the resurrected soldier, and the announcement positions their partnership as groundwork for some of the biggest storylines ahead. What the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director needs from Bucky, and exactly how he reversed his death, remain questions for the issue itself.

Four powers, and four completely different kinds of person behind them.
Here is what you would wake up with, what it would cost you, and why the MCU keeps handing it to
somebody exactly like you.

You get the power that is really about taking the hit so that
nobody else has to. Strength in the MCU always lands on people who were already carrying too
much, which is exactly why it suits you.

• Your instinct is to put yourself between the problem and the people, and you do it
  before anybody has thought to ask.
• Bruce Banner is the most interesting version of this because his story was never about
  lifting things, it was about control.
• The catch with strength is that people stop checking whether you are alright, since you
  have made a habit of looking like you always are.
• You would be the one everybody calls at two in the morning, and you would answer every
  single time.

You get the power that never switches off. Spider-sense is a gift
and a nervous system on permanent alert, and the people who get it in these films are always
the ones who were already worrying about everybody.

• You read a situation faster than you can explain it, and you are usually right in a way
  you cannot show your working for.
• Peter Parker is the template because he takes on more than he can hold and then
  apologises for not holding it well enough.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back to being local, broke
  and permanently on call.
• The cost here is real, since a power that warns you about everything also means you are
  never quite off duty.

You get the quietest power in the building, and quietly the most
useful. Invisibility comes with force fields for a reason, because the people who prefer not
to be seen are usually the ones holding a shield around everybody else.

• You notice everything, largely because you spend more time observing a room than
  performing in it.
• Sue Storm is the strongest member of her team and the least interested in anybody saying
  so, which is very much your energy.
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally gave the family a proper MCU home in 2025 and
  made her the centre of it.
• Your risk is that being unseen becomes a habit rather than a choice, and the people who
  love you would like a look in.

You get the biggest and least comfortable power on the list, the
one that runs directly on feeling. Chaos magic is not really a superpower in the MCU so much
as an emotional state with consequences attached.

• You feel things at a volume other people do not, and you have spent years managing that
  rather than being managed by it.
• Wanda is the best written character Marvel has, precisely because her power and her
  grief turned out to be the same thing.
• WandaVision remains the high point of Marvel television, and it works because the
  spectacle is only ever a symptom.
• The warning attached to this one is simple. A power that answers to how you feel is only
  ever as steady as you are.

The Winter Soldier’s Return Comes as Marvel’s New Avengers Go After Mephisto

Image via Marvel Comics

Image via Marvel Comics

Image via Marvel Comics

Bucky and Fury’s assignment is only one part of the trouble brewing after Armageddon. Marvel also revealed details for January’s Avengers , which pairs Zdarsky with artist Marco Checchetto for the beginning of an arc titled “Chase the Devil.” After Mephisto unleashed Hell on Earth, Spider-Man’s new Avengers team intends to make him answer for it. Naturally, picking a fight with Mephisto comes with complications beyond getting the team together. Marvel teases that the villain has some shocking new allies, giving the Avengers another problem to contend with as they pursue him. The run also follows events in Zdarsky’s Captain America, where Steve Rogers and Doctor Doom team up to overthrow Mephisto in Hell.

The new Avengers roster brings together Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Wolverine, Luke Cage, and Miracleman, an eclectic lineup stepping into a world that has lost faith in its heroes. Their series launches with Avengers on November 4, with the debut also available in Marvel’s True Believers Blind Bags. Between that team’s battle with Mephisto and Fury’s unexplained plans for Bucky, the end of Armageddon has left plenty of unfinished business.

Immortal Soldiers and Avengers release in January 2027.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier