[center][img]http://marvelchampions.org/avengers/wintersoldier/ws4.jpg[/img][/center]
[b]| Identity |[/b] 
James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, better known as Captain America.

[b]| Origin & Backstory |[/b] 
James “Bucky” Barnes was the orphaned son of a serviceman killed during a training exercise at Camp Lehigh in Virginia shortly before the start of WW2. Rather than rehouse Bucky the camp adopted him and he soon became accustomed to military life, often dressing up in his father’s uniform and finding himself in alcohol-induced scrapes with other boys around the camp. For his own good as much as the wellbeing of the sailors frequenting the bars around Camp Lehigh, Bucky was sent to England to channel his anger through rigorous training with the SAS. Little did he know that he was being groomed to be none other than Captain America’s sidekick.

For the cameras and the picture books, Bucky would be little more than a teenaged companion for Captain America that would boost morale back at home and support for the war effort. In truth his partnership with Steve Rogers was more practical than the comic books would ever let on. Bucky was capable and willing to do the things that Steve was not. He would sneak behind enemy lines unseen, slit the enemy’s throat, and let Captain America and Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos in before they had the chance to raise the alarm. It wasn’t pretty work, but it was something Bucky took to more naturally than he cared to admit.

Steve wasn’t only his partner, he became Bucky’s closest friend, and their friendship was what got the pair through the hardship they encountered. At every turn they thwarted the Red Skull and Baron Zemo and pushed the Germans back, their presence breathing new hope into soldiers that had long since considered the war lost. Thanks to Captain America, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos the Germans were on their knees and they knew it. They grew more desperate by the minute.

It was their desperation that led Baron Heinrich Zemo to launch that pilotless plane over the North Atlantic carrying enough explosives to level the Northern Hemisphere. Captain America and Bucky climbed aboard, risking their lives to defuse the plane, as it flew across the Artic Ocean, destined to unmake Western civilization as they knew it once it hit. Try as they might there was no defusing the plane and Steve, hard-headed as ever, chose to kick Bucky free from it and force the plane to detonate away from danger the only way he could: manually.

Bucky tumbled towards the icy water and watched as the explosion lit up the sky and his closest friend was engulfed by flames. As he opened his mouth to cry out in anguish he came crashing down into the water and his lungs filled with freezing cold water. The last thing he saw before he slipped out of consciousness was the blast from the explosion above him lighting up the sky like the Fourth of July growing fainter by the second.

[CENTER][B][1945-2005: REDACTED][/B][/CENTER]
It has been nearly sixty years since Bucky plunged into that icy water and for the first time since his eyes open to find himself in a hospital bed. A familiar face is sat at the foot of his bed, that of Nicholas J. Fury, but his surroundings are very far from familiar to him. He is hooked into machines that bear no resemblance to those he grew accustomed to in his time and most significantly of all his left arm has been replaced by a metal prosthetic of some sort. He raises a hand to his face to find it changed, older somewhat, and begins to panic. Fury reassures him but breaks the news to him that Bucky had begun to piece together: he’s been out for a long time, seventy years to be exact, and Steve Rogers is dead. The world is different to the one he left behind, much different, but it still needs a Captain America. In fact, it needs a Captain America more now than ever before.

And only Bucky is fit to carry the shield.

[b]| Attributes |[/b] 
Bucky is an expert at hand to hand combat and is a naturally gifted martial artist, has extensive training with firearms, speaks several languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Russian, and his time as an advanced scout in WW2 has left him one of the most dangerous assassins and spies in the world. The metal prosthetic grants Bucky a degree of superhuman strength and enhanced reaction time, coupled with being equipped with an EMP and a holographic function that can render it undistinguishable from a normal arm at will.

[b]| Character Goals |[/b]

Hopefully I'll succeed in showing the sense of burden that Bucky feels upon assuming the mantle of Captain America to begin with. It's my intention that by the end of my "run" as Captain America, it'll be clear that Bucky not only [i]considers[/i] himself as much Captain America as Steve Rogers ever was but that those around him do too. Of course, there's Bucky's past to contend with and Captain America's sudden re-emergence changes things, though things are far, far less straightforward than they appear to both the public and to Barnes and the repercussions of that will be very far reaching.

[b]| References |[/b]

[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/2990169]#1 - The Pickett County War - Gus vists Renee Hamilton.[/url]
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/2633654]#2 - Maximum Comics - Nathaniel Adam and Clint Barton have a drink.[/url]
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/2795663]#3 - DC: Gods Amongst Us - Even in the 21st Century, Booster Gold is [i]still[/i] a loser.[/url]
[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/3001323]#4 - Guardians of Infinity - Quill and Howard the Duck spoil a romantic dinner.[/url]