This article contains spoilers for “Captain America: Brave New World.”

Before the endgame of “Captain America: Brave New World” kicks in, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is watching over the injured Joaquin “Falcon” Torres (Danny Ramirez) in a private hospital room after the international incident between Japan and the U.S. near Celestial Island. Suddenly, a door opens. With Joaquin hurt and Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) unfairly imprisoned, Sam is decidedly not in the mood for chitchat, but his mood shifts when he realizes who has walked in. Instead of the most likely culprits like Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross or Shira Haas’ Ruth Bat-Seraph, we see none other than James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan, who originally thought he’d only play the role for one movie), aka the Winter Soldier. 

The originally ornery duo became fire-forged friends during the events of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” so it makes sense that they’ve been keeping tabs on each other. However, something about Bucky seems strange this time around. He wears an expensive suit in lieu of his usual street clothes, with a very politician-coded American flag pin on the lapel. After the pair share some pleasantries and a quick heart-to-heart, we find out that Mr. James Barnes is indeed now a politician, and aspires to become a congressman in the upcoming election. 

The idea of one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most consistently tormented superheroes voluntarily adding even more difficulties on his plate by getting into politics is a fun one. However, the character’s newfound passion in politics also raises several questions about his current legal status in the universe, as well as the parts of his MCU future we already know about.   

Bucky Barnes has proved to be a good man many times over, but his past is forever marred by the fact that he spent decades as a brainwashed Soviet assassin with a fearsome reputation and a hefty kill count. If the various challenges his history poses (or the fact that he’s technically 110 years old) won’t render him ineligible for election, they should at least give his political opponents plenty of ammunition against him. Even discounting everything else and taking into account his heroics after he came to his senses, just the fact that he killed the parents of Earth’s most esteemed savior, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), carries the makings of a career-ending scandal. 

There’s also the not insignificant matter that the next Marvel movie, “Thunderbolts,” features Bucky running around with what amounts to a black ops team, which is an activity U.S. congressmen historically tend to avoid. Combine Bucky’s history and his looming “Thunderbolts” future with the fact that Thaddeus Ross’ (Harrison Ford) Red Hulk antics likely don’t exactly do any favors for superpowered folks looking to become elected, and it certainly starts to seem that the character’s budding political career is little more than a one-scene wonder. 

The thing is, there’s also some indication that he’ll actually get elected. At the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, Sebastian Stan and his “Thunderbolts” co-star Wyatt Russell casually revealed in an interview with ComicBook.com that Bucky will indeed be a congressman in the movie. For the aforementioned reasons, this raises even more questions than the failure of his political aspirations would — but, for now at least, it seems that this extremely unlikely character is joining James “War Machine” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) in Washington D.C.’s halls of power.