Talking to Comic Book Resources, Marvel's E-i-C Axel Alonso has commented on the surprise return of Bucky in the pages of Fear Itself #7.1. The site have also revealed the cover to Winter Soldier #2, which you can view below. Of course, there's a lot more to be found by clicking on the link below to head on over to the site where you'll find details on the launch of Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & The X-Men as well as Marvel's 2012 plans, going day and date digital and more great artwork.
This isn't our first rodeo. We knew there would be righteous indignation that Ed wouldn't write that scene. [Laughter] But [the death of the Winter Soldier in "Fear Itself"] was a story-beat that emerged out of an editorial summit. Matt [Fraction] was working the group through his outline, and Ed [Brubaker] was in the room when we decided to do it. It was a compelling beat in the story -- the final straw that compelled Steve Rogers to take center stage in his old costume -- and it teed up Ed to do the "Winter Soldier" series that he wanted to write.
There's a short list of characters deserving of wider recognition that we're looking to make into major players in the Marvel Universe next year -- like Nova and Hawkeye. We continue to discuss the best way to get these characters in play, how to platform them.
Since you bring up Bucky -- when we decided to resurrect him, we absolutely, positively anticipated a firestorm of controversy. And when word got out what we were planning to do, a lot of fans said it was sacrilege. In the end, Ed won people over the old-fashioned way: By writing a helluva good story. The Winter Soldier has emerged as one of Marvel's most compelling new characters. He wouldn't even exist if we'd bowed to public pressure.
Which goes to show: You can't be afraid to do is take creative chances that make people yell at you. That's been Marvel's mantra for the last decade and counting.