By Jim Beard

James "Bucky" Barnes—Winter Soldier no more. Long live the new Captain America!

Barnes, the former sidekick-turned assassin-turned renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, stands revealed as the new Captain America—and the Marvel Universe may never be the same. He's been blown up, mind-wiped, controlled, and wracked with guilt, but Bucky's greatest challenge lies before him right now: taking up the mantle of the greatest hero of them all!

Excited fans buzzed anxiously over advanced reports of a new Captain America and his revised look, curious as to who would don the stars and stripes for a new generation of action. It seemed to many as if Bucky, former sidekick to the late Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, had the inside track for the job. CAPTAIN AMERICA writer Ed Brubaker, responsible for the current hard-driving storyline, knew what readers wanted and did not disappoint.

"I think anyone reading the comic knew who the next Cap would be," says Brubaker with a smile. "It had to be someone in the book, after all, or it would have felt very inserted, since our story is so involved and has been going on so long, with each arc leading right into the next one."

The writer's not resting on the revelation, though, as energy levels from rave reviews on the series push him through any jitters over orchestrating such a massive story of legacy and duty.

"I was pretty anxious as I wrote the issue, actually," Brubaker admits. "Because I knew it was going to be a big deal. But a few issues into writing Bucky as the new Cap, I'm feeling pretty confident in it. It really fits with the path he's been on since issue 14."

The plot that's led up to CAPTAIN AMERICA #34 has been a thick one, a chess game involving important pieces and weighty movements. Bucky himself has gone through hell, literally, to reach this point in his life, and the people around him much the same. Adversaries loom, friends have become few, and allies chew decisions of their own…where do we find everyone's heads on this momentous occasion?

"Bucky is trying to find a way to live up to his best friend's legacy, basically, and hopefully find a path to redemption," explains Brubaker. "Sharon [Carter]...well, her head is pretty messed up right now, and not in her control.

"The Skull and Faustus are on top of the world as their plan to destroy the [United States] is going off without a hitch, yet. And [Tony] Stark, well, as you can see at the end of [CAPTAIN AMERICA #34], things aren't getting any easier for him, and he's going to have a lot to deal with in the coming days, explaining to government officials what his people did."

Baggage comes with Steve Roger's legacy, to be sure, and continuing his mission as America's defender, her symbol to the world, cannot be an easy path. Bucky's shaken off his own death, his Soviet brainwashing, and divested himself of the yoke of Nick Fury. Now, the costume of Captain America stands before him—and his writer envisions the stakes.

"My thought is that he's trying to be the man that he thinks Steve would have wanted him to be, basically," muses Brubaker. "He's trying to fill the void Steve left, as well as finding out what being Captain America means.

"They were like brothers, and anything irritating about each of them, after five years fighting in the war, would have become kind of charming or funny," he continues, musing on how Bucky shapes his memories of Steve Rogers. "Bucky always thought Steve was too serious, and didn't have fun enough, was his biggest complaint about him. That he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Now he's finding out about that weight himself."

The newest issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA serves as another piece of a larger epic for loyal readers and the perfect jumping-on point for new fans. Brubaker certainly sees it both ways:

"It's definitely part of the larger 'Death of Captain America' epic we're telling, but in some ways, it does feel like a new era, too, which is complicating things for me a bit, because now there are other stories I want to see in the book—like Clint Barton finding out about Bucky's new look. I want to see that, and yet I've never used Clint in the book, so how do I get that in there?

"I'll figure it out, I hope," he chuckles.

And to further complicate things for the book, there's a certain matter of…a baby?

"There's no baby yet," Brubaker laughs again. "But...yeah, that's going to be very complicated."

CAPTAIN AMERICA #34, with the debut of the new Captain America, can currently be found at comics shops and on newsstands everywhere, ready to be enjoyed and discussed by all interested parties! Also, be sure to check out CAPTAIN AMERICA #25, the death of Steve Rogers, available for free until February 11 on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.