A deadly accident haunts Bucky Barnes in this Winter Soldier #5 exclusive

Bucky Barnes just wants to help people get their lives back on track, but you can only go so far to save people if they aren’t willing to follow your lead. The Winter Soldier miniseries from writer Kyle Higgins, artist Rod Reis, and letterer Clayton Cowles has been a remarkable exploration of Bucky’s lasting trauma after decades as a mind-controlled assassin, which motivates him to make up for the sins of his past by assisting people who are trying to escape a life of crime. He sees a mirror of himself in RJ, a teenage boy tormented by Hydra in order to become a vicious killer, and Bucky takes him under his wing in hopes of setting him on a new life path. That mentorship is interrupted by the arrival of RJ’s father, though, and when Bucky confronts the man about his shady plans for his son, a fight breaks out that ends with the father flying into a dumpster and snapping his neck on the rim. It puts Bucky in a complicated position, and the conclusion of this miniseries has him trying to figure out how to break this news to RJ without sending him backsliding into a life of vengeful villainy.