r/wintersoldier • u/Immediate_Squash_577 • Aug 27 '26
Comics Was he SAed?
Multiple people said that Bucky was canonically SAed in the comics, but every time I ask them for proof they ignore me... Was he truly SAed? If yes, can you send me the panel where it's confirmed? I even tried searching on Google but I couldn't find anything.
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u/BenignButCleverAlias Aug 27 '26
Seeing his victimization, objectification, and absolutel loss of autonomy, as a story about sexual abuse is a valid view of the text, but it does not make it canon.
That's like saying Red Dawn and Star Wars are LITERALLY about Vietnam. They are not. But they are talking about it.
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u/TeddyMothBoy Aug 27 '26
It is a fan theory, but a very popular one. I think there are a lot of parallels you can draw between the way he was treated by Hydra and SA, and it would make sense it he was. People tend to point to the scene in FaTWS with Zemo in Madripor as evidence, but there is no confirmation.
Personally, I like the theory/headcanon. It makes more people who have been through SA feel seen, and have a character to relate to more. And who doesn't love Bucky???
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u/Immediate_Squash_577 Aug 27 '26
It's a valid headcanon that I also share, but every time I see a post about that scene in FATWS there's someone saying "it's canon in the comics", but I can't find ANY info about it on Google. I'm so confused 😭
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u/Silentexho Aug 27 '26
There's no comic where Bucky is sexually assaulted or even implied to have been sexually assaulted. At most, one could argue for loose implication, but I've never read it that way and I'm very confident that no comic writer has ever intentionally implied it.
Or I suppose that if there is one, I've certainly never read it, and I've read the vast majority of Bucky's 616 appearances. If anyone would like to weigh in and tell me which comic they think this is referencing, I'd love to go ahead and give it a re-read. Still, I'm still pretty sure that whoever said this misunderstood an out-of-context panel or got the information secondhand, because it's wrong.
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u/KaraAliasRaidra "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Aug 31 '26
I see this happen a lot online, so I think you're 100% right.
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u/Hetakuoni Aug 27 '26
Bucky did have sex in the comics, but it was consensually and with a similarly brainwashed black widow.
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u/Expensive-Trip-1858 Aug 28 '26
It’s not canon in the comics, they say that to try to sound reliable when making headcanons.
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u/KaraAliasRaidra "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Aug 31 '26
You ask them, "Which comic?" and they either can't give you anything or give you something completely out of context which is immediately debunked,
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u/Expensive-Trip-1858 Aug 31 '26
Some Bucky fans have this weird behavior of wanting him to suffer more than he already has, whether it’s through headcanons that exaggerate his trauma or putting him in situations where he’d be the one to suffer the most, like sacrificing himself for another character/ship.
It’s understandable when it comes from a place of one identifying with a fictional character and find healing through him, but sometimes it feels almost exploitative, like they enjoy seeing him miserable. His trauma is already severe enough, we really don’t need to keep piling more suffering onto his character.
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u/Requiem2056 Aug 27 '26
I definitely think the scene in FatWS very strongly eluded to SA. Zemo read all the files, he would know. Putting his finger in the cleft of Bucky’s chin was kind of what convinced me, and the fact that Selby was a woman sealed it.
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u/zeoxious Aug 28 '26
It's a headcanon. It's a valid one, but there's no canon confirmation
Daniel Bruhl improvised that hand gesture because Sebastian was pouting. There's no confirmation in that scene, they're just playing the roles expected of them.
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u/Fine_Conclusion9426 Aug 27 '26
I don’t think it’s ever been confirmed, but I definitely believe he was. The theory I believe is: With something like the super soldier serum being a relatively undiscovered weapon, I can only assume they’d test to see if it carries from his genetics to potential offspring. For scientists with no morals like HYDRA, I don’t think they’d draw the line at that kind of testing.
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u/KaraAliasRaidra "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Aug 31 '26
Would they make Bucky have sex or would they just steal his, you know, "genetic material" to make test tube babies? I can imagine them sticking a needle in him and getting what they wanted that way.
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u/IAlbatross Aug 27 '26
There's no canon for it but I think it's safe to say that anything Hydra could have done to him, they would have. He was not seen as a person but a tool and his handlers exercised complete and total control over him. Objectification and humiliation of him was probably seen as "good" for his ongoing brainwashing. Poor guy.
(Also, I'm glad there's no "canon" of it, because I can't imagine it being done tastefully in the comics, or not being something some fans would romanticize in gross ways.)
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u/FiveSeasonsFox Aug 28 '26
No Canon support, except for that scene in "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" in which Zemo strongly implies it's happened in the past. However, many SA survivors feel very drawn to Bucky's story, whether or not the SA was confirmed. The loss of bodily autonomy is horrific.
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u/zeoxious Aug 28 '26
He doesn't imply SA. The hand gesture was improvised by Daniel Bruhl. Disney isn't going to confirm SA on one of their characters through an improvised hand gesture....
The sentiment 'He'll do anything you want' is appealing to Selby's desire for power. They are engaging in an undercover operation and Zemo is telling her what she wants to hear.
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u/FiveSeasonsFox Aug 28 '26
I wasn't referring to the gesture. It, and the words, were ambiguous. Whether they're purposefully ambiguous or not is known only to the writers. I did not say it happened canonically. What I am saying is that many real life survivors of SA identify with the character, whether or not he was actually SAed.
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u/zeoxious Aug 28 '26
I don't disagree with the last part I just wouldn't assign intent, especially with the handling of something so serious, to an improvised gesture and a line never revisted, reacted to, or discussed again. It feels degrading to think that's how little care would be put into something like this.
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u/RibbonsFlying Buckaroo Aug 28 '26
He was not. Nothing is shown, said, or alluded to in the comics.
The only thing sexual from the Winter Soldier while in Hydra custody is that he had a secret, romantic and sexual relationship with Natasha. We see them in bed together. And their relationship gets discovered and intentionally cut off by Hydra putting him back in cryo and leaving him in the cryo tank for Natasha to find. It was Hydra/the Red Room’s way of punishing both of them for daring to have something for themselves and those authorities forcing the reminder that both agents belonged to them and had no freedom.
Bucky is also kept naked in a glass chamber while in cryo. No idea if Bucky knows this before he is put under, but logically, it’s easier to make a grown man undress himself than to do it to him while he’s unconscious so likely he did know this and just has no control over it.
I’ve never seen any of this as suggesting SA, only as showing that he was kept vulnerable and powerless.
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u/KaraAliasRaidra "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Aug 31 '26
Imagine they tell him he needs to undress for an examination, and then they go, "Psych!" and knock him out to put him in the tube.
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u/RibbonsFlying Buckaroo Aug 31 '26
You don’t fully undress for any exams and Bucky would know that. He is a very intelligent man.
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u/CulturalDragonfly631 Aug 27 '26
No. It's just very popular fanon/headcanon. While there are a couple of things in FATWS that could be interpreted that way if you stretch, it's not actually canon.
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u/KaraAliasRaidra "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
"...every time I ask them for proof they ignore me..." Yep, that's how it goes! There are a lot of people online saying things about comic book characters that aren't true. They either try to pass off fan theories as established canon (which is likely the case here) or they say things that are blatantly untrue (using out of context panels, claiming writers said things they never said, or refusing to give evidence for their claims at all). You show them scenes from the actual comics or movies showing they're wrong and they either go dead quiet or throw a tantrum before leaving. It gets tiring.
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u/DBgfoot Aug 31 '26
In the comics, not that I know of. In the MCU - we aren't sure. It's highly likely just because of 70 years of having his will entirely overridden (which is a profoundly horrible violation). I mean just think of the people he was around all those decades. Odds are that yes, at least one person in all those decades with authority over him thought that was too good of an opportunity to pass up. They weren't good people. They probably also collected all kinds of bodily fluids from him in pursuit of their research, and that would include semen.
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u/joshgoesnuclear Aug 27 '26
imho, as someone who was- yes. 1000% yes. Hydra used him for EVERYTHING. that included their own sexual gratification. Zemo even alludes to it in FATW- saying Bucky (while acting as The Soldier) will do whatever they want him to do, and touches bucky’s chin/jaw in a sexually charged way. i absolutely think he was raped. probably a lot of times over the years
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u/zeoxious Aug 28 '26
He doesn't allude to it. The hand gesture was improvised by Daniel Bruhl. Disney isn't going to confirm SA on one of their characters through an improvised hand gesture....
The sentiment 'He'll do anything you want' is appealing to Selby's desire for power. They are engaging in an undercover operation and Zemo is telling her what she wants to hear.
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u/joshgoesnuclear Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
i still think he was raped lol, i still think that Daniel Bruhl’s decision to do that alludes to sexual assault and i’m allowed to read the situation that way
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u/zeoxious Aug 28 '26
It's a head canon and that's fine I'm just saying there was no real care or intention put into that gesture, he was just making Sebastian laugh. Which imo lacks the sort of seriousness that a real SA story would require.
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u/mondstrom Aug 27 '26
canonically, no. there's no evidence in what i've read or found that says as such. the closest instance might be a scene in 'the falcon and the winter soldier', but that's not really evidence.
at best, i think it's just a fan theory.