Female Winter Soldier (Marvel)

Story: Jessica Buchanan "Betty" Barnes Jr. is born in Shelbyville, Indiana in 1925. Barnes grows up as an Army brat alongside her much younger sister Rebecca "Becca" Barnes .Their mother Winnifred Barnes dies when both children are still young. Later, their father James "Jimmy" Barnes Sr. is killed during a training exercise at U.S. Army Camp Lehigh in Virginia in 1938. Betty and Becca are adopted into the care of their father's colleague Major Samson. Becca is sent to boarding school (one account says she goes to live with her Aunt Ida in Albany) while Betty remains at Camp Lehigh and becomes its unofficial mascot of the camp, wearing a uniform and becoming familiar with military life. By her middle teens, the savvy Betty makes a side-career of smuggling goods into the camp for the soldiers. Engaging in exercises with the soldiers in training, Betty shows a natural ability for marksmanship and physical combat.

On Major Samson's recommendation, 16-year-old Betty undergoes rigorous commando and special ops training under the direction of the British SAS in 1940. In 1941, she is assigned to be Captain America's partner, acting as his back-up, his advance scout, a symbol of American youth and patriotism, and a counterpoint to the Hitler Youth. Betty understands that at times she will be called on to perform sniper missions and other tasks that the US military does not want Captain America to perform, to preserve his reputation as a noble soldier and living symbol. During this time, Betty loses touch with her sister Rebecca, unsure how to talk to her when she must keep much of her life secret. In 1942, after the U.S. officially enters World War II, Rebecca is told that Betty is now an active soldier in the European Theatre, having lied about her age to join the army.

Though given a colorful costume and mask to wear when she operates alongside Cap on missions, Bucky dismisses the need for a superhero name. Newspapers simply know her as "Betty", a not uncommon nickname in the United States during the time. Her sister Becca and her friends at Camp Lehigh do not connect the Betty Barnes they know with the masked, physically formidable adventurer called Betty fighting alongside Captain America in black and white (and often blurry) photographs and newsreels. Together, Captain America and Betty fight Nazi operations both at home and abroad. First they operate as a duo under the direction of the US military, but later they also act part of the independent superhero team operating in Europe known as the Invaders, joining forces with Namor the Sub-Mariner, the android known as the Human Torch, and the Torch's sidekick Thomas "Toro" Raymond. Betty and Toro become good friends, despite the latter being a few years younger. The two of them join with others to form a group called the Young Allies. Betty is also briefly part of a group called the Kid Commandos.

During several World War II missions, Steve and Betty work alongside Nick Fury and the Howlers, a group of US Rangers who are nicknamed the "Howling Commandos." One mission involving Nick Fury takes Captain America to the African nation of Wakanda. After helping the local hero Black Panther against Nazi invaders, Steve Rogers is given a sample of vibranium, which is later used to create a discus-shield of a unique vibranium-iron alloy. The shield becomes famous as Captain America's weapon of choice and Betty learns how to handle it as well. Later attempts to recreate this alloy instead create the metal adamantium. Before the War's end, Nick is given the Infinity Formula, a weaker version of the super-soldier serum.This allows Nick Fury to age at a much slower rate than a normal human while also enhancing his physical traits.

When the Red Skull captures and hypnotizes the Invaders into serving the Nazis, only Betty escapes. Betty recruits help from Jeff Mace, a new masked hero called Patriot, and then broadcasts a call for help from America's crime-fighters so they can stop the Red Skull. Several answer, leading to the formation of the Liberty Legion under Betty and Mace's leadership. The Red Skull then sends his hypnotized Invaders against the Liberty Legion. During this adventure, Betty hides her true movements and plans by asking Fred Davis, a batboy for the New York Yankees, to temporarily wear her costume and impersonate her. The Invaders are freed from hypnotic control and return to the European Theatre with Betty, while the Liberty Legion remains as the "homefront" team in the U.S. From that point on, both teams aid each other whenever necessary.

In the closing days of World War II in 1945, when Betty is 20-years-old, she and Captain America find the villainous Baron Zemo trying to destroy an experimental Allied drone plane. When Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive device on it, Rogers and Barnes jump aboard. Captain America falls off the plane and descends to the Arctic Circle below. Simultaneously, Betty unsuccessfully tries to defuse the bomb, and it explodes in mid-air before reaching its intended target. With both Betty and Steve vanishing from the public eye after the plane's explosion, they are assumed dead by the U.S. military. In truth, Rogers is frozen alive by the freezing waters of the North Atlantic, the super-soldier serum in his system keeping him alive and in suspended animation.

Soon after the explosion, Betty is found in the water by USSR General Vasily Karpov and the crew of a Russian patrol submarine. Despite possessing no enhanced traits such as Captain America or any superhuman abilities, Betty is still alive, her body partially preserved by the freezing waters, and is able to be revived. Along with the loss of her left arm, she has brain damage and amnesia as a result of the explosion and her time in the water. Realizing she still has her learned combat skills, expertise, and combat instincts, Karpov sends her to the secret Soviet agency Department X.

Rebecca Barnes is informed her sister Jessica died during a "classified" mission in Germany in early 1945. At some point in her life, she marries and takes the name Rebecca Proctor, eventually having children and grandchildren. She does not learn the truth about Betty's secret identity and the circumstances of her apparent death until decades afterward when she is found and approached by Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, fearful that reporting the deaths of Captain America and Betty will damage American morale, the U.S. government asks superhero William Naslund (known as the Spirit of '76) and teenager Fred Davis to officially assume the identities of Captain America and Betty. The public is largely unaware of the switch, and only other superheroes and those who have worked closely with Bucky immediately realize that the teenage Davis cannot be the original, older Betty.

Following the end of World War II, Naslund and Davis operate as Captain America and Betty in the group the All-Winners Squad. Later, Naslund dies in battle and is succeeded as Captain America by Jeff Mace, who first met Fred Davis during the Liberty Legion's fight against the Invaders. The two are partners until Davis is wounded and retires. Mace later retires as well. During the 1950s, years after Mace and Davis have left their costumed roles behind, a man named William Burnside and a college student named Jack Monroe become the new Captain America and Betty. After they go rogue, they are placed in suspended animation. By the Vietnam War, the public is aware that the original Captain America and Betty vanished in 1945 and were succeeded by different people.

Winter Soldier: Department X scientists give Betty Barnes a bionic arm to replace the one she lost. After undergoing hypnotic training, she is used as a secret assassin called the "Winter Soldier." In-between her various covert wetwork missions, she is kept in cryogenic stasis, placing her in suspended animation for months and sometimes years at a time. As technology improves, the Winter Soldier's bionic arm is regularly updated.

In 1968, the Winter Soldier is sent to kill Professor Zhang Chin, whom she had met over 20 years earlier. She was thwarted by an intangible being called the Man with No Face, though she was able to escape. On assignment in the United States in the 1970s, she has a breakdown and goes missing for days after assassinating her target.The Winter Soldier aids the escape of the mutant called Wolverine from the Weapon X laboratory that experimented on him against his will, bonding his skeleton with the indestructible metal adamantium. Later, the Winter Soldier murders Itsu, Wolverine's wife. Her unborn son Daken survives the attack after being cut from his mother's womb. At some point, the Winter Soldier, who at times shows hints of her human personality, briefly shares a romantic affair with Russian operative Natalia Romanoff, the Black Widow. During one of her active periods, the Winter Soldier trains several sleeper operatives.

Eventually, superheroes rise in society again. Several join forces as the original Avengers team. Months after the team's formation, its members Iron Man (Tony Stark), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Giant-Man (Hank Pym), and Thor discover the frozen form of Steve Rogers. After being revived from suspended animation and learning decades have passed since his final battle alongside Betty during 1945, Steve resumes his role as Captain America and joins the Avengers. On occasion, he also works as a special agent for the military and for the international espionage and counter-terrorist agency S.H.I.E.L.D., led by his World War II comrade Nick Fury. In time, the Black Widow defects from Russia and joins the Avengers, becoming a trusted ally to Steve. During a battle against the Grandmaster, the Avengers face a new incarnation of the Legion of the Unliving, a group seemingly composed of reanimated corpses, and Betty Barnes is seen among them. Since it was later revealed that Betty was actually alive, it is uncertain whose body this was or if the Grandmaster simply created an illusion to cause Captain America distress.

Cap learns about those who succeeded him and Betty Barnes, and fights a revived William Burnside. Burnside's young ally Jack Monroe seeks redemption and becomes the hero Nomad, working alongside Steve and on his own. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier is left in the care of Karpov's protégé, Russian general Aleksander Lukin. At this point, the Winter Soldier has aged little more than ten years since 1945 due to her repeated cryogenic stasis.

Eventually, Lukin sends the Winter Soldier to kill the Red Skull and Jack Monroe. The Skull survives his own assassination by placing his mind inside a damaged Cosmic Cube. On Lukin's orders, the Winter Soldier launches a terrorist attack on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, killing hundreds and recharging the damaged Cosmic Cube in the process. Sharon Carter, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and former lover of Steve Rogers, tells Captain America the Winter Soldier looks like Betty Barnes. Later, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury confirms the Winter Soldier's existence, and Steve sees evidence that the assassin is actually Betty, still alive but brainwashed and unable to remember her true identity. After battling the Winter Soldier, Captain America uses the Cosmic Cube on her, saying, "Remember who you are." The Winter Soldier's brain damage is repaired and memories are restored. Overwhelmed by guilt over her actions as an assassin, Barnes crushes the Cosmic Cube and escapes.

Shortly afterward, the Winter Soldier helps Captain America fend off a terrorist attack in London. She then asks Nick Fury for employment and new equipment. Soon after this, the Superhuman Registration Act in America demands that all superheroes become registered operatives of the government, unable to act without authorization, or be imprisoned without trial. This leads to a superhuman Civil War, with Steve Rogers defending unregistered heroes from being imprisoned by Tony Stark and those who believe in enforcing the SHRA despite the cost. This leads to the eventual surrender and arrest of Steve Rogers, in exchange for amnesty for any heroes who were against registration before but now choose to comply. The Winter Soldier helps Fury plan the escape of Steve Rogers. Before they can act, Steve is seemingly assassinated by a hypnotized Sharon Carter and agents of the Red Skull, who now possesses the body of Lukin.

The new Captain America: Realizing Tony Stark will oversee the appointment of a new Captain America, the Winter Soldier steals Captain America's shield so that it cannot be handed down. The Red Skull has the evil Dr. Faustus attempt to brainwash the Winter Soldier. After he fails, Barnes escapes and is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., which is now led by Tony Stark. Tony reveals Steve Rogers left a letter asking him to watch over Barnes and requesting the Captain America legacy continue. Stark suggests Barnes become the new Captain America. Barnes agrees to do so only if Stark guarantees her complete autonomy, freeing her from the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA), and has S.H.I.E.L.D. telepaths seek out and eliminate any subliminal Department X commands still present in her mind..Stark agrees, but keeps the arrangement and his support of the new Captain America secret since it violates the SHRA.

Barnes adopts a new Captain America uniform laced with adamantium. To compensate for the fact that she is not a super-soldier such as Steve, having not been treated with the super-soldier serum or Erskine's "vita-rays", she carries a pistol and a combat knife along with the shield. Barnes' first major adventure as the new Captain America involves teaming up with Falcon, Sharon Carter, and S.H.I.E.L.D. against the original Red Skull, Dr. Faustus, and William Burnshide, saving the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates from assassination. The adventure ends with Barnes accepting she is now Captain America. She begins a new friendship with Black Widow.

A time travel incident transports sixteen-year-old Barnes and the Invaders from 1941 to the present-day, where they encounter both the Mighty Avengers and the New Avengers. At one point, the teenage Betty Barnes encounters the current Captain America, not realizing it is an older version of herself. Without revealing her true identity, the future Barnes attempts to change her history by telling her younger self not to disarm the bomb on the experimental plane in 1945.The teenage Barnes decides to ignore this advice and follow her instincts when the time arrives, allowing her life turn out the way it should rather than risk causing unforeseen damage by changing history.

During the 2008 "Secret Invasion" storyline, Betty Barnes aids Earth's heroes against the Skrull invasion of Earth led by Queen Veranke herself. In the aftermath of the failed invasion, S.H.I.E.L.D. is replaced by H.A.M.M.E.R., a more sinister organization led by the villainous Norman Osborn (often known as the Green Goblin). The New Avengers team continues to act as outlaws, defying the Registration Act and H.A.M.M.E.R. Betty joins as their new Captain America, and offers her home as a base of operations. At one point considered a possibility for team leader, she turns it down due to her lack of experience in working with a full team. Later, Betty discovers Professor Zhang Chin intends to use the inert android body of the original Human Torch to create a virus to exterminate half the Earth's population. Barnes and Namor the Sub-Mariner stop Chin and then give their former Invaders teammate a proper burial.

In the 2009–2010 "Captain America: Reborn" storyline, Barnes finds out Steve Rogers was not killed but has been trapped in a fixed position of time and space, a complex revenge plan enacted by the Red Skull. A machine intended to bring him back is damaged, causing Steve to relive his own past. As Barnes teams up with a group of former Avengers, the Red Skull projects his consciousness into Steve's body, intending to take it over. Barnes and her group intercepts the Red Skull's ship near the Lincoln Memorial and a battle ensues with his agents. Barnes battles the Skull, in Steve's body, who uses the shield to cut off her cybernetic hand. However, the Skull realizes Steve's consciousness is fighting back and may kill him. The Skull inhabits a robotic body for safety. Steve, back in control of himself, leads an attack against him. The robotic Red Skull is finally destroyed. Although he is now back to life, Steve does not mind Betty continuing to operate as a Captain America. The two simultaneously operate in their distinctive Captain America uniforms, sometimes fighting alongside each other. Barnes insists on Steve using the shield. Following the Siege of Asgard, Rogers returns the shield to Barnes and retires his uniform officially, deciding to now operate as a maskless hero and leaving Barnes as the only active Captain America.

With Barnes' identity becoming public, she is put on trial for the crimes she committed as the Winter Soldier. She is found not guilty in an American court, but Russian officials take her away, holding her responsible for crimes against the state and claiming she killed two civilians. Sharon Carter and Black Widow discover Barnes' victims were not civilians but in fact connected to Department X's Red Room division, the same covert assassination program that created the Black Widow operatives. Barnes escapes imprisonment and returns to the United States, but believes she may be too tainted by the past to continue as Captain America.

Fear Itself and return as Winter Soldier: During the Fear Itself storyline, Barnes takes up the Captain America identity again, but is apparently killed in battle with the villain Sin (temporarily empowered by Asgardian forces as Skadi). Betty is revived and restored by the Infinity Formula, the same chemical used on Nick Fury during World War II. This increases Betty's vitality and physical abilities, though to a lesser degree than Steve Rogers. With the world believing the new Captain America to be dead, Betty secretly returns to covert operations, now working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and the US military. Only Rogers, Nick Fury, and Black Widow know the Winter Soldier is back in operation.

Betty and Black Widow learn the sleeper agents she trained during her original Winter Soldier days are active. After tracking them down, they learn the operatives were awakened recently by Ivan Kragoff, the villain called Red Ghost, and Lucia von Bardas, former Prime Minister of Latveria.

During the Original Sin storyline, Betty participates in the investigation into the death of Uatu the Watcher. She and others learn that over the decades, Nick Fury has secretly and single-handedly protected Earth from various alien threats by using brutal and lethal methods not authorized by any government and which many of Earth's heroes would not condone. Fury decides to act as the Watcher's replacement, while Betty takes over Fury's role as Earth's ruthless guardian, "the woman on the wall."Other events lead to Steve Rogers aging several decades. Now an old man, he turns the role of Captain America over to Sam Wilson, the Falcon.

During the Avengers: Standoff! storyline, Betty and Steve Rogers learn S.H.I.E.L.D. never discarded a dangerous project involving Kobik, a girl empowered as a living Cosmic Cube. Their investigation leads them to the town of Pleasant Hill, where Steve Rogers is seemingly restored to his prime by the cosmically powered Kobik. After the Pleasant Hill incident, Winter Soldier is approached by Kobik, who offers to help her do good. Betty and the heroes do not realize that the restored Steve Rogers is actually a newly created version of Steve Rogers (known to fans as "Hydra Cap"), a version who has been loyal to the terrorist organization Hydra since World War II and secretly plans to use his influence to achieve worldwide domination.

During the Secret Empire storyline, Hydra Cap, now Supreme Commander of Hydra, begins his final moves to take over the United States. Baron Helmut Zemo uses Kobik to send Winter Soldier back in time to World War II, attempting to kill him. Realizing Steve has been replaced by a version she does not know, Winter Soldier manages to escape death in the past and falls into the ocean, where she is rescued from drowning by Namor. To cover her tracks, she disguises herself as Namor's bodyguard. Once Sam Wilson begins his own plans to defeat Hydra, Namor tells Winter Soldier the time has come to remove her disguise and help their allies.

During the resistance's preparation for the final battle against Hydra to restore America to normal, Winter Soldier reveals Kobik was a misguided child Hydra manipulated into replacing the real Steve with an evil counterpart. While the hero Hawkeye leads the resistance against the Hydra army in Washington D.C., Ant-Man and Winter Soldier go inside the Cosmic Cube. Winter Soldier manages to save both Kobik and the real Steve Rogers. Restored to life and once again in his prime, the original Captain America defeats his evil counterpart and Hydra's takeover is defeated.

After the end of the Secret Empire, Winter Soldier goes to Madripoor, mourning the Black Widow who was seemingly killed by Hydra Cap. She is soon joined by Hawkeye in the search for Yelena Belova, who temporarily replaced Natasha as the Black Widow several years prior.

Powers and abilities: Having trained under Steve Rogers (the original Captain America in World War II) and others in the time leading up to World War II, "Betty" Barnes is a master of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, as well as being skilled in the use of military weapons such as firearms and grenades. She also used throwing knives on occasion and was a gifted advance scout. Her time as the covert Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier helped to further hone her skills, making her the equal to her predecessor in combat skills and an expert assassin and spy. She is also fluent in many languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Latin, and Japanese. She can understand French

Winter Soldier's left arm is a cybernetic prosthetic with superhuman strength and enhanced reaction time. The arm can function when not in contact with Barnes and can discharge an EMP causing electronics to either shut down or become useless.

As a result of gaining the Infinity Formula, Betty Barnes has enhanced vitality. Her general strength, resiliency to injury, speed, stamina, and agility are also a few times greater than a normal human being of his size and physical build. None of her traits operate on superhuman levels (not counting the use of his cyborg arm) and she does not operate at the level of a super-soldier such as Steve Rogers.

As Captain America, she possesses the original, indestructible, vibranium-steel alloy shield used by her predecessor, as well as a Kevlar/Nomex blend shock-absorbing costume. She often carries several conventional weapons such as knives, guns, and grenades. Her costume was designed by Alex Ross with input from Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Tom Brevoort. Ross aimed to maintain the elements she saw as symbols of Captain America, such as the winged helmet and the "A" emblem, while updating the costume to make it feel modern. The artist drew inspiration from Rogers' appearance in the 1940s, integrating the shape of the original triangular shield in the form of the breastplate of Barnes' costume, and replacing the chain mail with chrome armor, which Barnes wears over a plain black outfit.

Personality: good hearted, kind, loyal, brave. But as the Winter Soldier, Betty was an elusive, dangerous, and amnesiac assassin. She was ruthless, brutal, and under the complete control of HYDRA.

Appearance: Her height is 5'9, hair long till the back of her neck, dark brown, eyes sharp and brown, athletic and muscular built, fair skin.