The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a problem regarding Bucky Barnes’ powers and abilities, and this continues in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The Infinity Saga coming to an end doesn’t mean it’s the end of the MCU as well, and this connected universe will continue expanding with a new wave of movies and TV shows in its highly-anticipated Phase 4. This new era of content is especially exciting as the upcoming TV shows will directly connect and affect the movies, contrary to what happened with Netflix’s Marvel shows.

Kicking off the MCU’s Phase 4 was WandaVision, and now that it came to an end, viewers are enjoying The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, set a couple of months after the events of Avengers: Endgame. The series follows Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) as he decides whether to take the mantle of Captain America or not, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who continues to struggle with the demons of his past as the Winter Soldier. The first episode was all about catching up with them, and the following one finally saw them joining forces again to fight the Flag-Smashers, but this also showed that the MCU still has a problem with Bucky’s powers.

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Bucky Barnes is a war veteran turned super-soldier by HYDRA after he supposedly died. Under Arnim Zola’s supervision, Bucky underwent various experiments with a variant of the super-soldier serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America, and also went through numerous memory wipes and a lot of reprogramming. As a result, he has enhanced strength, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes, regenerative healing factor, and ages much slower than a normal human. In addition to that, his bionic arm grants him even more strength and is incredibly durable, especially after getting a new one made of vibranium, he is highly trained in combat, excels in knife fighting, and is highly proficient in handling firearms with great precision – and yet, the MCU hasn’t fully embraced everything Bucky can do.

Bucky has been mostly reduced to a character with a weapon who can throw some punches and hasn’t really shown any of those super-soldier skills all those experiments left him with. Bucky has been heavily underused in the MCU, mostly in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (though the latter can be somewhat justified by the big amount of characters present in the Battle of Earth), and is always underpowered, when everyone knows his skills are on par with those of Steve Rogers (and could probably do more). So far, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier hasn’t fixed this problem and continues to portray Bucky as inferior, now in comparison to Falcon, which doesn’t make sense when looking at everything Bucky can do.

Of course, as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is only getting started, there’s hope for the series to finally fix this problem regarding Bucky Barnes’ powers and show him as the super-soldier he really is, making him a very powerful (and dangerous) hero in this new era in the MCU and one with a lot of potential for future adventures.

Key Release Dates
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  • Black Widow (2021)Release date: Jul 09, 2021
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)Release date: Sep 03, 2021
  • Eternals (2021)Release date: Nov 05, 2021
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
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About The Author


Adrienne Tyler
(3303 Articles Published)

Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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