Summary: Despite being the creator of the very popular comic Not Without You, Steve is virtually unknown in the comic world. Now he wants to make a debut appearance of his new series without worrying that its popularity will be reflected by his first series. When Steve decides to attend his first convention as a vendor in Artist Alley, he’s only expecting to promote that new comic. What he wasn’t expecting was to run into a fan of Not Without You and fall head over heels for him. But Bucky Barnes is already in love with someone else… the anonymous creator of Not Without You!
Steve can’t tell him the truth, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to win Bucky’s affections.
Posted on
Posted on
Crossbones to Steve Rogers: He remembered you …YOUR Bucky
Marvel: Ahh, bros just being bros
Me: Okay… That sounds fake but okay
We know that HYDRA couldn’t completely erase Steve from Bucky’s memory… but maybe they knew that, and manipulated it to their advantage. It’s eerie how much a young Robert Redford resembles Steve Rogers during the 1940s:
Maybe HYDRA chose Pierce to be Bucky’s handler based on his striking resemblance to Captain America. Perhaps he rose through the ranks because of how well he could control Bucky, without using extreme violence. He would have been the perfect brainwashing tool.
So how many times did Pierce take Bucky’s love for Steve and use it against him? Is that partially how HYDRA made Bucky so complaisant, so willing to take orders from Pierce?
A young Alexander Pierce would just have to smile at Bucky while spewing lines about Saving the World, and The Greater Good, and Bucky would have listened. It would have sounded so familiar to him, manipulating the part of his brain that would follow Steve Rogers anywhere.
The manipulation is especially noticeable in the vault scene. Seeing Steve on the bridge confused Bucky, but Pierce brings him back to focus by lecturing him about doing his part to shape the century. Bucky looks abashed, until Pierce says: “[if we don’t do our parts]…HYDRA can’t give the world the freedomit deserves”.At those words, Bucky really looks at Pierce, actually considers him for the first time:
He has a bite to his voice as he replies “But I knew him” – so different from his submissive behaviour seconds before – because now that he remembers Steve, he doesn’t implicitly trust Pierce. Bucky looks resentful, like he’s seeing the manipulation for what it is, though he doesn’t understand why.
Even as his memories return, Bucky could be wary and nervous of Steve, confused by HYDRA’s manipulations. It could explain why he’s running from Steve in Civil War.
okay though if there’s anything that struck me on rewatching the first Cap movie it’s how much Steve and Bucky are such assholes to each other and it’s amazing
and like can you just imagine recovered!Bucky and Steve going on missions together and Steve being like
“wow Buck that thing you did there was actually kind of smart, all the stupid must’ve grown out in your hair”
and Bucky being all
“you might not know this, Steve, but there’s this thing we say these days that might be really useful for you to know and it goes like this: go fuck yourself”
and all the other avengers looking at each other like we read about you in history books, you are national heroes, what even
