Warning: contains spoilers for Thunderbolts* (2025)!AsBucky Barnes' Winter Soldier gains new importance in both the MCU and the comics (leading his own New Avengers roster in each), fans have a lot of questions about the hero-turned-assassin-turned-hero. Chief among them, does Bucky have enough of his own villains to truly step out of Captain America’s shadow? The answer is a resounding yes, as we run down the eight strongest Winter Soldier villains in Marvel lore.
Bucky started out as Captain America’s sidekick during WWII and was a member of the original New Avengers, so he’s fought plenty of iconic villains. However, for this list we’re only looking at the bad guys whobelongto Bucky - those who either debuted in his comics or have had the majority of their appearances inWinter Soldierstories. So whileBucky has fought Baron Zemo, Doctor Doom and the Red Skull, here are the eight strongestvillains who are defined by their relationship to the Winter Soldier.
8Leonid ‘Leo’ Novokov, aka Project Zephyr
First Seen in Winter Soldier #2 by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark
After being gravely injured during WWII, Bucky was kidnapped by Russian forces andtaken to the Red Room- a horrific government department tasked with creating Super Soldiers to match Captain America. While Bucky was an agent of the Red Room, brainwashed into various assassinations as the Winter Soldier, he also worked for them on the mysterious Project Zephyr. Like other Red Room projects,Project Zephyr was all about creating Super Soldiers, with Bucky turning Russia’s best soldiers into true killing machines.
Bucky’s biggest ‘triumph’ was Leo Novokov - a psychopathic killer who was stored in a stasis pod until he was needed. However, after the Red Room was attacked, Leo escaped his pod and went on the run, stripped of memories and possessing only the lethal training Bucky had drummed into him. When Bucky later became the new Captain America, Leo’s memories returned, and he set out to punish Bucky for his (unwilling) part in ruining his life.
Leo was incredibly fast and strong, pushing the limits of human ability without being explicitly superhuman. While Winter Soldier proved to be the better combatant,Leo dealt Bucky a heartbreaking blow by brainwashing his longtime lover the Black Widow, removing all her memories of the moments she and Bucky stole together during their Red Room training and turning them into strangers.
7The Outer Circle, aka The Power, The Machine, The Money, The Love and The Revolution
First Seen in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty Volume 2 #2 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Carmen Carnero
Founded in the aftermath of WWI, theOuter Circle are a cabal of secretive mastermindswho influence world history.The Outer Circle arranged to influence the world via ‘the Century Game’ - a formal arrangement where each would take a turn influencing world eventsthrough their chosen method (force, finances, technology and art.) The Outer Circle claimed to be responsible for historical events including WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union.
Four members of the Outer Circle focus on influencing world events - superhuman Wulf Fortunov as the Power, cyborg Ike Agboje as the Machine, shadowy billionaire Etien Argent as the Money, and artist Ava as the Love - while a fifth member tries to undercut their plans, acting as a watchdog to keep the Century Game fair. Known as the Revolution, this member was originally historical assassin Gavrilo Princip, but after discovering the group,Bucky killed Princip and took his place, wanting to bring the Outer Circle down from within.
While this decision put Bucky at odds with Steve Rogers, they were eventually successful in defeating the Outer Circle, withBucky keeping the ‘Revolution’ codenameever since.
6Captain America, aka William Burnside
First Seen in Young Men #24 by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema
While Steve Rogers was seemingly lost during WWII, that didn’t stop America needing its Captain. With Steve Rogers on ice, several people donned the costume and became the new Cap, including William Burnside. Burnside was later corrupted by the villainous hypnotist Dr. Faustus, worsening side-effects from his imperfect Super Soldier Serum and leading to extreme paranoia.Becoming a villainous Captain America, Burnside concluded that the government must be overthrown, planning an attack on the Hoover Dam. Unable to bring Burnside back from his brainwashing and with lives on the line, Bucky (who Burnside had dressed in his WWII costume) was forced to shoot Burnside.
Burnside’s version of the Super Soldier Serum made him even stronger and faster than Steve Rogers' Captain America, but this came at the cost of his mental stability.He wielded a version of Captain America’s iconic shield made of titanium steel, making it strong but not as unbreakable as the original.
As part of his quest to embody the Captain America legacy, William Burnside legally changed his name to Steven Rogers.
5Crossbones, aka Nicholas Fury Barnes
First Seen in Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier #3 by Ales Kot, Marco Rudy and Michael Walsh
One of Winter Soldier’s most confusing and mysterious villains,thisisn’tBrock Rumlow’s original Crossbones. Rather, it’s a villain from an alternate universe who dedicated his life to killing the galaxy’s heroes after they failed to save his world. Crossbones was the nemesis of the Bucky Barnes of that reality, eventually coming to Earth-616 where he became a cosmic assassin. Superstrong and durable with a powerful healing factor, this Crossbones also had access to unique weaponry that could destroy entire planets. Crossbones eventually tried to return to his home reality and was killed in the attempt.
4The Natural
First Seen in Falcon and Winter Soldier #1 by Derek Landy and Federico Vicentini
The Natural was a normal human who possessed Super Soldier levels of strength and athleticism due to a natural quirk of genetics.Originally befriending Winter Soldier and Falcon as a Captain America superfan, it was later revealed thathe’d been recruited by Hydraas a skilled assassin, hoping to rebuild the organization into a new, more successful version.
The Natural is easy to underestimate, but even when fighting him together, Falcon and Winter Soldier were easily beaten. The Natural’s only weakness was his overreliance on his shield - as a sincere Captain America fan, he was prone to using it as much as possible in battle, but because it wasn’t unbreakable, this created vulnerabilities in his fighting style.
3The Man with No Face, aka Philip Wing
First Seen in Captain America #77 by Don Rico and John Romita
A Chinese Super Soldier, the Man with No Face has enhanced strength, durability and a healing factor, however that’s just the beginning.Wing can also turn intangible and weightless, allowing him to fly, had a powerful healing factor, and didn’t require sleep or food.The Man with No Face phasing through biological entities caused them immense pain, but his intangibility could be scrambled by electricity. Prior to the Winter Soldier, the Man With No Face had one appearance against Steve Rogers in 1954.
He returned with a vengeance in 2009, acting as a bodyguard for the mad scientist Professor Zhang Chin, who was designing a superweapon designed to kill hundreds of millions. Zhang Chin captured former members of the Invaders the Human Torch and Namor, designing a virus that caused those who contracted it to spontaneously combust. Thankfully, Winter Soldier fought past the Man With No Face and freed his friends,with Namor snapping Wing’s neck in revengefor his actions.
2The Electric Ghost, aka Tesla Tarasova
First Appeared in Winter Soldier #15 by Jason Latour and Nic Klein
The Electric Ghost has a tragic connection to Bucky Barnes as the daughter of Linus Tarasov - one of his early targets as the Winter Soldier. After her father’s assassination she was taken in by the Orphanage - a black ops training camp designed to create child soldiers. Studying her father’s work,Tesla gradually worked out how to control cosmic rays- the same radiation that granted the Fantastic Four their powers.
Using her newfound knowledge and technology, Tesla became the Electric Ghost, gifting herself ahuge range of powers including intangibility, invisibility, telekinesis, telepathy, and healing. However, her true goal was to gain enough control to achieve time travel by constructing a new kind of Cosmic Cube. While Tesla did manage to change aspects of her past, she was too obsessed with revenge to fix her life, and seemingly drowned after her Cube ran out of control, destroying her base.
1Skadi Culsdottir, aka Sin, aka Sinthea Shmidt
First Seen in Fear Itself #1 by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen
Originally thevillainous daughter of the Red Skull, Sin was transformed and possessed during the events ofFear Itself. When Odin’s brother Cul (aka the Serpent) attacked Earth, he scattered seven mystic hammers across Earth, each containing the spirit of a god or demon who had supported him in the past.Sin took up the hammer of Cul’s daughter Skadi, becoming the new host of the vengeful goddess.As Skadi, Sin became a literal god, with strength and durability comparable to Thor. She could also control lightning and teleport thanks to her enchanted weapon.
As Captain America, Bucky fought Skadi directly, with Sin’s hatred for the hero influencing Skadi to focus on killing him. She seemingly succeeded, ripping off Bucky’s arm and grievously wounding him, with most of Marvel’s heroes believing him dead. In fact, Bucky was saved thanks to Nick Fury’s Infinity Formula, but chose to end his career as a public hero and go back to doing good in the shadows as the Winter Soldier.
Those areWinter Soldier’s eight most powerful villains, showing how Bucky Barnes' story can continue to evolve in both the comics and the MCU.
