Marvel: Why Was Bucky So Surprised When He Met Spider-Man for the First Time?
Going back and analyzing when The Avengers met one another during the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline can still bring some interesting insights into how they felt about one another. Initial impressions at first meetings can always be different from how things turn out once thrown into a mission to save the world.
One can say that about Bucky Barnes and Spider-Man, a team-up that nobody really talks about too much. They really are as far apart as one could imagine in terms of age and experience. Nevertheless, when they first met in Captain America: Civil War, things really went wrong.
Maybe many will consider the first meeting between Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson the most memorable of all. Even so, that Spidey/Bucky meeting does bring back some chortles.
How did Bucky Barnes and Spider-Man get along at first meeting?
Fans have to go back four years to when The Avengers split up into two warring factions to see when Bucky first encountered Spider-Man. Of course, Bucky was acting as The Winter Soldier and had his memories restored about his time with Steve Rogers in the ’40s.
Prior to Civil War, though, Bucky had not yet met all The Avengers. His first meeting with Spider-Man was not a friendly one. It was during the throes of battle, a scene posted on Reddit recently by a user.
The above still shot is a tad funny because the original thread starter suggested Bucky was laughing when first catching sight of Spider-Man. Many will remember Bucky and Sam Wilson were running and happened to spot Spider-Man crawling through an upper airport walkway.
Fighting had already broken out in this setting, complete with Captain America fighting War Machine and Ant-Man battling Natasha Romanoff.
What did Bucky and Sam say when spotting Spider-Man?
It was Bucky who caught sight of Spider-Man first and yelled out “who is that”? Sam, as his usual droll self, replied “everyone has a gimmick now.”
Yes, talk about the most awkward first meeting. Within minutes, Spidey and Bucky were eye-to-eye after the former knocked Sam aside. Just as Bucky was going to use his metal arm to knock Spider-Man senseless, the latter intervened. Spider-Man quips to Bucky: “You have a metal arm? That is awesome dude!”
No doubt Bucky was a bit shocked to hear a squeaky teen voice emanate out of Spider-Man, a superhero he never had interacted with prior. Little did he know he would eventually work alongside him and the others to take on a greater cause when Thanos became a threat.
What makes that first meeting even more hilarious is neither Bucky nor Sam apparently knew how web-slinging worked either.
Spider-Man using his webs to tie down Bucky and Sam
With each taking swipes at each other during the above fight sequence, Spider-Man manages to use his web-slinging abilities to tie Bucky and Sam to the pavement. At one point, Sam yells out: “That’s coming out of you?”, proving the first-time interaction with Spider-Man is usually perplexing.
Then Sam releases one of his flying weapons from his Falcon suit, flinging Spider-Man out a glass window in the terminal. Bucky, lying on the ground, utters “you couldn’t have done that earlier?“
As many laughs as this sequence brings, it was a rare opportunity to see how first-time superhero meetings frequently never go over well. Even if there was no civil war underway, egos might have made a meeting between Bucky and Spidey a bit tense.
With such a huge compendium of superheroes besides, seeing them meet and slowly become friends is sometimes interesting to behold. An easy argument could be made none of them would have formed an emotional bond with each other later without Thanos threatening civilization.
