Is Bucky Barnes’ metal arm a powerful weapon? ( Photo Credit – Twitter )
Advertisement
Bucky lost his arm in 1945, and in 1946, he revolutionized the treatment to replace it with a titanium arm from his old nemesis, Hydra. Iron Man destroyed this arm in 2016. In 2018, T’Challa gifted Barnes a vibranium arm, which Nebula later gave to Rocket.
The third episode of MCU’s What If…? season 3 authenticates his feats of power through Bucky’s iconic metal arm. The series presents alternate timelines, contrasting the unfortunate and fortunate disposition of Earth-616 against other realities in the Sacred Timeline, including Hydra’s unfortunate theft of the Super Soldier serum and the Avengers building mechas to fight Hulks.
Becoming the Winter Soldier
When Bucky Barnes fell from a train, he lost one of his arms. HYDRA made the artificial arm to reconstruct him; it would probably be in some secret Soviet Union facilities after World War 2. The communist red star imprinted on the arm made Barnes become the deadliest case of the Winter Soldier.
With his metal arm attached, Winter Soldier executed several assassination missions for HYDRA. In 1951, during the Korean War, a super-soldier named Isaiah Bradley ambushed the Winter Soldier in Goyang, and through combat, Bradley destroyed half of his prosthetic arm; HYDRA later replaced it.
How strong is Bucky Barnes’ metal arm?
The bionic arm grants Bucky more strength than Captain America, almost at par with Iron Man. This Winter Soldier could easily tear a S.H.I.E.L.D. armored SUV’s door, rip apart Sam Wilson’s EXO-7 Falcon to shreds, and destroy a concrete floor with a punch. The Winter Soldier could overpower Captain America in battle with an additional boost from his new bionic arm to enhance natural strength.
The Avengers Civil War saw the strength of the bionic arm against Spider-Man, who could counter the blow thrown at him by the Winter Soldier as the former held superhuman strength. With his vibranium and Panther Habit, Black Panther almost defeated the bionic arm since it did not allow movement. But the arm had no comparison with the gauntlets of Mark XLVI as Stark quickly countered it before disintegrating it with his unibeam.
In What If…? season 3, episode 3, the Winter Soldier demonstrates the versatility of his metal arm by preventing Red Guardian from getting shot, sliding down a building, and taking a hit from a police van. The metal arm doesn’t have the benefit of any vibranium enhancement. Yet, still, it defines a highly multipurpose MCU weapon, with the added benefits of his super strength, speed, and reflexes. Indeed, Bucky’s metal arm is a powerful and flexible weapon throughout the series.
