The Winter Soldier: Comic book to film expectations

With the release of the second official Captain America film (The Winter Soldier), it is time to reread the original comic book of which it is based on and to make a few predictions about the film.

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM READING IF YOU WISH TO AVOID THESE.

In the run up to the story, the Red Skull wanted to blow up several city’s with WMDs, however, before he can act out his master plan he is murdered by an assassin who works for a man called Lukin, who is the head of staff for the vice president of America, and who also owns a big corporation known as Kronas. This assassin of his is known only as the winter soldier.

However, it comes to light that the Winter Soldier is non other than Cap’s best friend, Bucky Barnes, a man who was badly injured in his accident (in the book it was a plane crash) back in WW2. But as it turns out he was rescued by Hydra who nursed him back to health, replacing his destroyed arm with a robotic one. Fortunately for them Bucky’s memory was erased by the accident so they trained him to be on their side of the fight. Lukin gives the Winter Soldier the cosmic cube to look after.

After a series of events, Captain America, Iron Man and Falcon discover that Kronas has recently received a new advanced research lab in the middle of nowhere, and whilst they investigate they are attacked by some men and the Winter Soldier. In a long fight between Bucky and Steve Rogers (Captain America), the battle is about to be won by the Winter Soldier, however, Captain America manages to get his hands on the cosmic cube and restores Bucky’s memories with it, making Bucky a good guy once again.

We then leave to see Lukin looking out of his window onto the city below, talking to a mysterious source without any form of telecommunication device. We then see the Red Skull’s face in the reflection of the window.

This book was one of the greatest Captain America stories I have ever read, and it is no surprise that they decided that this would be the basis upon which they created the new movie. In fact, in all of Marvel universe of comics, it is said to be in the top 60 of all Marvel comics since the 80’s, as according to the Marvel Graphic Novel Collection.

On the other hand, the films usually differ allot from the actual comic’s they are based on, for instance, Iron Man 3 was based on Iron Man Extremis, a book which had no mention of the Mandarin (a man who differs completely in the books). But I still believe that the Winter Soldier will remain the same – as will the jist of his story. Moreover, we can clearly see from the trailers that Falcon is in the film, but sincerely doubt the presence of Iron Man.

Trailer