The Only Marvel Character To Show Up In Every Captain America Movie

There are few stranger types of movies than a Marvel Cinematic Universe film sequel. Most MCU sequels feel less like their own movie and more like an episode of a TV show that's decided to focus on a specific character for the week. You know how a typical episode of "Lost" would spotlight one cast member while the larger plot continued to progress around them? By the time we got to the mid-2010s, that's how most non-"Avengers" MCU movies felt.

The "Captain America" movies are perhaps the biggest example of this. "The First Avenger" ended with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) waking up 70 years after World War II; a typical second movie in the series would've followed up on the cliffhanger, making Steve's struggles to adapt to the modern world a major focus. But because "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" happens after "The Avengers," Steve has already gone through that struggle in a different movie. Instead, "The Winter Soldier" finds him thriving in the 2010s and friends with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), and the audience is expected to know that going in.

This trend only grows more extreme with "Captain America: Civil War," which is barely a "Captain America" movie so much as an unofficial "Avengers" story. If you're only watching the "Captain America" movies on their own, this would hardly be a satisfying conclusion to the Steve Rogers trilogy. Things would get even more confusing if you immediately followed the film up with "Captain America: Brave New World," which would reveal that Steve retired and gave up the Captain America mantle between movies.

Indeed, despite having the same superhero moniker in their titles, all four "Captain America" movies feel strangely disconnected. Not only do they heavily feature characters who were introduced outside the "Captain America" films themselves, but there are very few actors who've stuck around throughout the whole journey. In fact, there's only one character who appears in all four films, and his continued presence is especially surprising, considering what happened to him all the way back in "The First Avenger."

Characters like Peggy (Hayley Atwell) or Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) may come and go, but James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Shaw) is here to stay. He's introduced in "The First Avenger" as Steve's unflinchingly supportive best friend, both before and after Steve gets swole. And while Bucky holds his own in one of the film's battles, he gets unlucky during an ambush and falls off a train, plunging down into the Austrian Alps.

This might be a controversial opinion, but I think Bucky is sort of boring in "The First Avenger." He's a little too wholesome to be interesting and a little too similar to Steve to feel memorable. That's why it was a pleasant surprise in "The Winter Soldier" when Bucky returned as a brainwashed superhuman Hydra soldier. Bucky was no longer a goody two-shoes; he was a tortured anti-hero who was only saved because Steve refused to give up on him.

Bucky's evolution throughout the MCU is slow and steady. By the time "Civil War" picks up, Bucky is still a wildcard and is now being protected almost solely by Steve, as nearly everyone else wants him dead for one sympathetic reason or another. From there, things improve for Bucky over the next few MCU films; by the time he shows up in "Brave New World," he's largely back to the reliable, heroic man we met in "The First Avenger."

There's an argument to be made that Bucky is the real protagonist of the "Captain America" movies. (Or, at least, he's the main protagonist of the first three films.) Whereas Steve Rogers is already the ideal leader from start to finish, Bucky is the one constantly forced to change. He's a man who falls into the depths of Hell and must painstakingly climb his way back out. This arc can't happen without Steve's involvement, but that doesn't change how it's still Bucky, not Steve, who is going through the more compelling, transformative journey. Bucky is the true heart and soul of the first three "Captain America" films; it makes sense that he'd be the only original character still around for the fourth.