The Winter Soldier was, in both the comics and the movies, a legend and a myth amongst Marvel’s spies and politicians. He was the boogeyman, and while Bucky Barnes has distanced himself from the title of the Winter Soldier, the legend follows him, as does the Soldier’s kill count.
That count includes some of history’s most influential people, low-level political wannabes, supervillains, and innocent people caught in the crossfire. Some are long forgotten to everyone except Bucky, but some shaped the future of the Marvel universe and some of its most popular characters.
10 Trapster And Stilt-Man Got Power In An Alternate Timeline
During the House of M: What if? story where Wanda Maximoff said “No more powers” instead of her original “No more mutants” declaration, tech-based heroes and villains were mostly unaffected by the change. In their surprising climb to power, Trapster And Stilt-Man caught the attention of the Winter Soldier, and it didn’t end well for either of them.
While they’re not on the 616 Bucky’s conscience, and they’re not the most impressive supervillains he’s taken down, their deaths show how, in any universe, the Winter Soldier is a threat.
9 Senator Baxtor Goes For A Swim
Of the many political hits in the Winter Soldier’s career, this one is more notable for what happened after, than the man who was killed. This was one of the few times that the Soldier’s programming failed, and he went rogue.
Though he was eventually found, the Winter Soldier was confused by the time his handlers tracked him down. He’d been all over the US in the weeks he was off the grid. It could be seen as the first sign that the perfect weapon was rejecting his programming, but it would be decades before it would happen again.
8 The French Defense Minister Became A Target During The Algerian War
Jacques Dupuy was, according to Steve Rogers, the French Defense Minister in the 1950s. He was killed in Algeria and his death was implied to be the work of the nationalist movement in the country at the time. This all lines up with the real-world Algerian War for independence in the 1950s.
This is not the only tie the Winter Soldier’s actions has to real life events. Putting events like this on the Winter Soldier’s record is a reminder that, while he’s a fictional assassin, the world he operated in isn’t that different from the real one.
7 Agent Neal Trapper Dies Doing His Job
Being a SHIELD agent is not a particularly safe profession, but this becomes even more obvious when a power like the Winter Soldier is involved. After tracking a bomb threat, Trapper ended up on the wrong side of the soldier’s mission. His body was found with the bomb, and his death sent his ex, Sharon Carter, on the trail of what happened to him with Captain America in tow.
While Agent Trapper was not a direct target of the Winter Soldier, he’s a good example of what happens if someone gets too close to what is really going on.
6 Mother Night Holds The Line For Her Cause
Susan Scarbo had a place at the side of the Red Skull for decades before her end came at the hands of the Winter Soldier. She was one of his more trusted lieutenants and raised his daughter, Sin, to follow in his footsteps (and was heavily implied to be in love with the supervillain.)
Her death was off-panel, and while it was something of a surprise that a character who had menaced Captain America for 30 years met such an inglorious end, her death cemented the threat that the Winter Soldier posed to everyone involved.
5 Bucky Allegedly Shot John F. Kennedy
While Bucky is believed to have been the gunman that took down the president in 1962, there is some debate in the 616 as to whether or not that’s true. During the Trail of Captain America arc, both the Black Widow and Tony Stark (who was the director of SHIELD at the time) said that he wasn’t the one that pulled the trigger.
They also claimed that JFK was a Skrull and that the shot that killed him came from the CIA, not the Winter Soldier.
4 The Red Barbarian Got What Was Coming To Him
A Soviet colonel with a reputation for violence toward his own officers, and for vodka, Andre Rostov had many roles in his career. From trying to get secrets from Iron Man and Tony Stark (before those identities were revealed) to running a gulag, he was a busy man.
That came to an end with a mysterious assassin’s bullet after his retirement. It’s believed that the bullet was the Winter Soldier’s. His name also shows up in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, on Bucky’s list of people he needs to confront, so he may be joining the MCU soon too.
3 Jack Monroe Was Dying Anyway
This death may have been a mercy in disguise since Jack Monroe was already dying due to the unstable super soldier serum he’d been given. He spent most of his last year in a bar while struggling with his mental health. That was where the Winter Soldier found him and killed him.
Jack Monroe’s legacy as a sometimes hero, sometimes the villain is tied heavily to his adoption of Bucky’s mantel. And while that time led to his death, it seemed poetic that the original Bucky would be the one to put him out of his misery.
2 Itsu Akihiro Is A Casualty Of Her Husband's Enemies
During one of his many breaks from his work, Wolverine settled in Japan and married Itsu Akihiro. They were expecting a child—in fact, she was heavily pregnant—when the Winter Soldier was hired to find Logan and kill his new wife.
Itsu’s death allowed Romulus, who had hired the Winter Soldier in the first place, to take the baby, raising him to hate his father, and the baby eventually became Daken (the Dark Wolverine.)
1 The Red Skull Makes The Best Of Being Dead
The Winter Soldier succeeded where Captain America couldn’t (or wouldn’t) and he killed the Red Skull. But, this time, his timing was not as good as it normally was, and the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to transfer his mind into the body of Russian oligarch, Aleksander Lukin.
Unfortunately, the death of the Red Skull’s body, and the survival of his mind in Lukin, created more problems than it solved. The combination of the Red Skull’s influence and minions, and Lukin’s resources, figured prominently throughout Bucky’s recovery from his mind control and his time as Captain America.