my favorite turtleneck wearing espionage power couple

the amount to which the mcu completely ignored that bucky and nat even knew each other must make us all yelling about them seem very strange to people who've only seen the movies

HIII i totally am and i would love to recommend some things and also blab about comics.

so if you're looking for reading orders for those characters, aka every single comic they've ever been in, i just found this site which has pretty good lists for all three of them. bucky, natasha, steve (classic and modern). this would be a lengthy undertaking but if you do actually want to read every single appearance of all three of them i commend you for that.

that said, i haven't read those entire lists because honestly? you don't have to. here's some of my favorite arcs for them, with amazon links for reference but dont actually buy them there, check out ur local comic shop or bookstore! or ebay! also full disclosure i've read way more bucky and nat comics than steve comics so theres that

captain america: the winter soldier - okay so like this is where the modern era of bucky all began. i'd read some wiki recaps on his story in the classic comics, but it's very important to know that from the 40s until 2004, bucky was capital D Dead. the old adage used to go, "the only people who stay dead in marvel, are uncle ben, gwen stacy, and bucky barnes". so this was a big deal. i'm actually gonna recommend this podcast episode that i love cause it does a good job recapping the atmosphere around the change to Bring Back Bucky. they did it and ed brubaker did such a good job. everyone say thanks ed

captain america: the death of captain america - this is how bucky becomes captain america. it's awesome. the entire buckycap arc is really well done and a very good look into comic bucky's psyche and all that, plus about just how important steve was/is/etc. it's also the aftermath of the civil war event which is really different in the comics vs the movie and i have #Opinions about that but i will restrain myself for now lol

captain america: the trial of captain america - oops! everyone finds out about what bucky did as the winter soldier! and he's cap! fuck! no but this actually rocks because it goes into what his experience of being the winter soldier was like, steve's thoughts on the whole matter, and also bernie rosenthal who kicks ass in every way.

winter soldier (2011)- bucky drops the shield...and thus begins his time reclaiming the winter soldier mantle and doing missions under that mantle. it has lots of natasha. it's some of the best bucky writing ever because as i said before, ed brubaker knows what the fuck he's doing

winter soldier (2018)- this series is tragically super short but if the mcu really wanted to go with the "bucky making amends" plot, they shoulda based it on this. it's ridiculously good and the art is great

black widow: the name of the rose (2010)- imo this is the beginning of well-written natasha solo stories. liu is a novelist by trade so the writing in this one is just top notch.

black widow (2014)- i think this might be the best natasha writing ever? paired with one of my fave marvel artists? such good introspection from nat about her past and the way she feels about it. i would read the 2011 winter soldier first, this'll hit harder if you do.

black widow (2016)- between this and the 2011 daredevil, mark waid and chris samnee are like, theeeeee best team in marvel i swear. some more espionage and natasha's morally gray backstory and also some red room action which is always. well i wouldnt say "fun"

honorable mention to captain america: home of the brave. which i hear is great and the panels i've seen are gorg however i'm waiting to find a physical copy irl to read it lol it's taking awhile eventually i'll cave and get it on ebay i'm sure but Anyways

so that's my faves! definitely not exhaustive but the ones that have stuck with me the most in the 10 goddamn years i've been reading comics. i will also link this great buckynat reading order by @hunkahulkaaburningfudge because it does a great job with specific appearances in issues within the arcs. i'm bad at keeping issue numbers straight lol.

welcome 2 comics i hope now you will understand why we are all still yelling about bucky and natasha and also the direction they're taking bucky in the mcu (and the way they fucked up steve lol)

does anyone wanna see some pics of all the cool judaica we get at work

grief is fucking weird i dont want to go to work but i have no idea what id do otherwise and i slept like shit cause spent like 40 minutes fuming loudly in my brain before i could actually fall asleep and then kept randomly waking up this fuckin sucks man