Bucky's Winter Soldier Backstory Can Set Up The MCU's First Mutant Villain

Bucky Barnes' past as the Winter Soldier can help expand the MCU history of mutants such as Omega Red prior to the release of an X-Men team-up movie.

The MCU's first mutant villain can be incorporated into Bucky Barnes' 20th-century backstory as the Winter Soldier prior to the release of an actual X-Men movie. There have been very few references to mutants in the MCU up until the beginning of Phase 4, as Disney's acquisition of Fox hasn't been reflected onscreen yet. With the release of a full-fledged X-Men movie still some way off on the horizon, some minor mutant characters can be peppered throughout different movies and TV shows. This way, the arrival of the X-Men won't feel as abrupt.

Arkady Gregorivich Rossovich a.k.a Omega Red is a twisted serial killer that, like Wolverine, gets experimented on by scientists in search of a copy of the super-soldier serum. But instead of Wolverine's Adamantium, Arkady is injected with the knock-off metal Carbonadium; and instead of retractable claws, the evil mutant receives near-indestructible tentacles that come out of his wrists. Additionally, Omega Red has the ability to drain the life energy of his victims, which he uses in place of a Carbonadium synthesizer that he requires to survive.

Omega Red is a powerful mutant with the potential to become a formidable MCU villain and an origin story that could complement Wolverine's MCU story whenever he debuts. At the same time, he offers the possibility to connect with other notable MCU characters and events. Since Omega Red's famous weapons are the result of a Soviet-era experiment, he could have crossed paths with Arnim Zola and Bucky Barnes in Siberia after World War II. Captain America: Civil War proved that Bucky wasn't the only Winter Soldier, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier revealed that there were more undisclosed attempts to recreate Steve Rogers' transformation into the perfect super-soldier. It's quite likely that many more similar experiments to Project Rebirth are hiding in the MCU's history.

One of the many feats Phase 4 of the MCU aims for is rewriting its history. WandaVision revealed that the Salem Witch Trials involved actual witches like Agatha Harkness, and Loki revealed that the mysterious real-life plane hijacker D.B. Cooper was actually the God of Mischief in disguise. Introducing Omega Red as another test subject in HYDRA's experiments would be fairly easy. This would also ease viewers into accepting mutant-related characters prior to the debut of more famous figures like Magneto, who deserve a more impressive entrance.

In the comics, mutant characters such as Apocalypse, Mister Sinister, and Omega Red have strong ties to Marvel's fictional version of world history. It wouldn't be difficult for the MCU to retcon the X-Men into its canon by gradually incorporating some related events and characters. Besides, it wouldn't hurt Bucky to have Omega Red as a final test that forces him to face his dark past one last time and put the infamous Winter Soldier to rest.

More: Why X-Men's Mutants Will Work In The MCU (When Inhumans Didn't)