CREATED BY JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY

BUCKY #3:

"A PORTRAIT OF THE ENEMY!"

WRITTEN BY JEFF MELTON

Bucky follows the head guard, who leads him towards the prison once again. There is a smile on the young hero's face, as he nears his destination.

"Just thinking about that pizza that bum Fury is buyin' after this trip already makes my mouth water! This prison food hasn’t been hitting on much!" Bucky thinks to himself, as he leaps down from a tree overlooking the prison, landing as he does on the roof of the prison, keeping the head guard in his sights.

As Bucky lands on the rooftop, he is immediately spotted by two guards, who fire shots at him. "Look!" one of the guards says in Spanish, pointing to Bucky.

"Don't stand there gaping at him, you fool!" the other remarks, then draws his gun and fires at Bucky. "Shoot!"*

{*The guards are talking in Spanish, naturally. But isn’t it nice of me to translate it for you?...JM}

However, Bucky has been dodging bullets since the dawning days of World War II, and easily dodges the bullets fired by the two guards, leaping into the air and seeming almost to glide over to the two guards, as he slams his feet into the first guard's face, knocking him to the ground! The second guard swings his rifle at Bucky, missing as the stalwart hero ducks under the swing. Bucky quickly rises up, delivering a punishing elbow to the guard's chin, slamming his teeth together and putting him out immediately!

"You two remind me of the Krauts I used to fight back in the war!" Bucky remarks, doing a spinning drop-kick, putting out the other guard, who is getting to his feet and reaching for his gun. "And, you serve the same type of master!" Bucky returns quickly to the roof with a leap up to the tree branch, followed by a swift run to a spot on the roof where he can seek cover behind a chimney. He kneels down low on the roof, avoiding detection, and hears the sound of commotion outside the grounds. "It sounds like the other guards heard the shots," Bucky thinks to himself. "So much for the element of surprise." Bucky crawls on the roof, heading towards a skyroof that he opens up, looking down below. "I'm a target up here," Bucky thinks. "And I'm not able to accomplish anything. I need to get down to the ground so I won't be a sitting duck." With that, he notices that there are guards passing below, walking down a corridor under the opening. "There's only five of them," Bucky silently considers. "This looks like the easiest way to get inside and get my work done. I hated to admit it, but Fury's right for a change. This place needs to be cleaned up...and fast!"

With that, Bucky leaps through the opening, landing on two of the guards and scattering the rest in all directions-catching them all completely by surprise with his lightning-fast attack.

"Look!" one of the guards calls out, kneeling on the ground where he was sent flying. Bucky is standing over two unconscious guards, and the guard is pointing in Bucky's direction. "That must be the one we were told to look out for!"

"Why don't you just make a whole lot of noise and let everyone know that, you clown?!" Bucky responds sharply, kicking the guard in the mouth, cutting off his calls and putting him out.

The other two guards, meanwhile, have gotten to their feet and are reaching for their guns. Bucky dives at them, outstretching his arms, tackling them around the knees, and bringing them to the ground! "If I'm lucky, the other guards are too busy looking for me on the grounds to have heard old loud-mouth!" Bucky thinks, even as he brings the fight to these guards. "But, if they get off any shots, it'll bring the whole batallion in around me! That would be a royal pain!" The momentum from Bucky's tackle sends both guards crashing to the ground. One of the guards hits his head hard against the wall, and is kncoked unconscious. The other guard is only stunned. Bucky quickly changes that by sending a haymaker to the guard's jaw. Bucky stands over his vanquished foes for a moment, looking around to determine his next move. "All of this commotion has made me lose the guard who was going to take me to the man responsible for all of this!" After quickly cuffing the unconscious guards' hands behind their backs, Bucky rushes down the hall.

INTERLUDE

Meanwhile, in the dungeons below, in a special room that borders the warden's office, the Black Talon is smiling gleefully as he paints another of his gruesome portraits. He throws his head back and cackles, as the person on the rack in front of him screams with unbearable agony!

"Yes, yes," the evil artist voices his approval, as he glances over his painting, motioning for the torturer to stop for a moment, not wanting to miss any small details of pain in his subject's face, while he looks away from his subject temporarily. Then, a look of anger crosses the Black Talon's face, as he looks over at the subject, then glares at the torturer. "You fool!" he exclaims. "He has stopped screaming! Why IS this?!"

"I don't know," the torturer replies absently. He would not admit it to the others, but the Black Talon makes him uneasy. He has seen the sheer brutality and insanity of this man who is in charge of his work and, despite his own great stature, he knows better than to deny him anything.

"CRETIN!" the Black Talon exclaims, backhanding the torturer across the face. "Why do you think your master placed this room so near his office? He positioned this room in such a way-and even adjusted the accoustics-so that he can hear every scream of torment eminating from this room! He can hear every cry of agony, every glorious sensation of pain echoing from the throats of every fool who comes here! Continue the work, and do better. Perhaps you realize that you can be placed on the rack...or worse...just as easily as any of the others?! And I am always in need of additional subjects."

"Yes, master," the torturer replies without a moment's hesitation. He has not given thought to what the Black Talon told him, but he does not doubt its accuracy, and he knows that the Black Talon is not making idle threats, but is fully prepared to do just what he has claimed. He bends forward, straining his large muscles to the limit, as his victim screams out in response to the intense, searing pain that is surging through his limbs. His screams of agony fill the room. Up above, the warden of the prison smiles a sinister smile, content with the sounds he is hearing, as he drinks from his glass of wine.

"Yes, yes," the Black Talon remarks, sending his brush across the canvas faster and faster, his face contorted with the look of ecstacy and sheer brutality, even as he hurries to finish his painting while the subject is still able to "model" for him. "Stretch the fool more...now!" the Black Talon orders, as he sends out another brush stroke across the canvas. "My portrait nears completion!" His face is a dark picture of sinister glee, as the dying victim screams out in intense agony, his death scream filling the room, just as the Black Talon finishes his painting.

Black Talon looks over at the dead figure on the rack. Then, he looks back at his canvas, smiling with satisfaction. "This is truly brilliant!" he says, not attempting to contain his obvious pleasure with his work. "I must show this to Hector. He will be most pleased. This is even better than my last creation." The Black Talon then heads up the stairs leading to the warden's office. He turns around to look at the torturer before he reaches the door. "You may live," he says coldly. "But, get rid of that fool's body. Dump it into the pit of maggots. And, get me another...subject. I am feeling quite...inspired."

The torturer does as he is told, intentionally diverting his eyes from the Black Talon, who opens the door and closes it behind him, leaving the torturer to ponder what the future might hold in store for him if he fails again. It is not a pleasant prospect, however, and he turns away, returning to the work at hand, prefering not to think of such matters. END OF INTERLUDE

Meanwhile, Bucky is making his way along the hallway leading to the warden’s office. He starts around a corner, but ducks back at the sight of several guards standing together twenty feet down the hall around the corner.

"This place is crowded!" Bucky silently considers. "But they all have to be taken out if I’m going to get to the big dog! And I think I have an idea of just how to do it too!" With that, the young adventurer opens up his belt buckle, withdrawing a small firecracker. He smiles. "I love this trick!" he thinks, as he lights the firecracker, holding it in his hand for a second. Then, he tosses it into the hallway in the direction opposite from the guards. As it cracks and makes loud sounds similar to gunfire, the guards instinctively duck, thinking that they are being fired upon!

"What?!" one of the guards asks, getting up from the ground. "What was that?!"

"It sounded like gunfire!" another guard adds.

"It came from that direction!" a third remarks, pointing in the direction that Bucky tossed the firecracker.

"Let us go then!" comments a fourth guard, while the others look on with some degree of concern.

"But, what about the master?" a fifth guard asks. "He gave us specific instructions that we are not to leave his side."

"That is true," a sixth guard adds. "But, we must investigate this."

"Fools!" the sergeant admonishes, glaring at the guards under his command with contempt. "If we capture the intruder, we will not have to worry about the master! And, think about the rewards we will receive when he has been captured!"

"Yes," the second guard agrees enthusiastically, his eyes glazing over at the thought. "Those women! There are many female prisoners here that our master takes every nihgt. He will no doubt share the wealth!"

"Ha!" the first guard laughs. "Carlos, that is most funny!"

"Let us go!" says the sergeant. The others rush with him down the hallway.

As they reach the corridor where Bucky was waiting, the young Avenger leaps out at them, tackling them three at a time with his first lunge! "Guys, it looks like what I hear about prison guards is the truth!" Bucky remarks, leaping into the air, kicking two more in the face and sending them directly to the ground. "You're all pretty stupid!"

"It is the intruder!" the sergeant calls out, drawing his gun. "It must be! Stop him! STOP HIM!"

"I don't think so!" Bucky replies, leaping through the air, and delivering a massive blow to the sergeant's face that puts him out! "That's not in the game plan!"

The remaining guard fires at Bucky, who leaps out of the way, as the bullet misses him and is imbedded in the wall where he was a split-second before. The guard reacts with utter shock. "No one is that fast!" he exclaims.

"Well, I have to admit, I am one of a kind!" Bucky replies, smiling. "For that, I'll go easy on you!" Bucky then spins around so fast that the guard only sees a blur of movement. Bucky sends a karate chop to the side of the guard's neck. Before he even knows what has hit him, the guard is lying unconscious on the floor. Surveying the unconscious guards, Bucky smiles at his handywork, then looks down the hall. "They were guarding that door, so that must be the warden's office. Either that or the donut shop! I'm betting it's the warden's office!"

As Bucky starts to walk down the hall toward the room, he hears shots fired and leaps down to the floor, diving into a corridor, even as he hears more shots fired down the hallway.

"KILL HIM!" a voice yells out. Bucky hears the sound of marching footsteps draw ever nearer.

"Yes, we must stop him!" another voice calls out. Bucky listens intently, as he hears the voices and the footsteps draw nearer.

"I think I've just about got them where I want them!" Bucky says, leaping out of the shadows of the corridor, landing in the midst of ten more guards! They are all caught completely off-guard by his forceful, fearless attack! "All right, boys!" Bucky remarks, as he comes down on the heads of two of the guards, sending them directly to the ground, and scattering the rest. "You're in my way, but you won't be for long!"

One of the guards cracks a whip, but Bucky ducks under it, hearing the scream of another guard as it strikes him in the face. "These close quarters really act against these guards, because they all get in each other's way," he thinks, as he reaches up, grabbing the whip end and pulling it forward with such force that the guard who was holding it is sent flying forward, where he crashes into another guard, who was unable to get out of the way in time. Both are knocked unconscious. "Case in point!"

Another of the guards swings his rifle at Bucky, who side-steps it, , sending out his leg in a sweeping motion that brings his opponent to the ground, his rifle crashing into another guard as he falls to the ground. As Bucky leap-frogs over another guard, pushes him on top of the one who just fell. The guard who was still on the ground is knocked out, and the other is dazed.

"Whoever's in charge of this joint didn't spend much money on teaching you goons how to fight, did he?" Bucky remarks, ducking under the blows of four guards, who are all swinging at once. One of the guards has a cut across his nose from the whip earlier. "Pitiful!" Bucky adds, as he comes up swiftly, slamming two fists into the faces of two of the guards! They are sent flying back, but are unconscious before they hit the wall head-first!

Bucky then flips back, landing on his hands, as his body is bent backwards. He sweeps his feet forward, slamming them into the faces of the other two guards who are standing in front of him! The attack sends them landing hard against the wall, stunned. Bucky flips back onto his feet, and finishes them off with two swift kicks.

"Halt!" the last guard calls out. He is just rises from where Bucky knocked him. "I do not know how you finished all of the others, but you won't get away from me!" He is holding his rifle, pointed at Bucky, who shows no concern.

"Do you really think you can stop me, fella?" Bucky asks. "Haven't you seen me dodge all of those bullets? What are you trying to do...insult me? I might get mad, you know!"

The guard holds the gun unsteadily, his hands shaking involuntarily, as he keeps his eyes trained on Bucky. "Do not try to scare me!" the guard retorts, trying to convince himself. "You cannot dodge at this close range!"

"Oh, can't I?" Bucky asks facestiously. "Care to try your luck, because I will put you out, one way or the other, and you won't stop me! With or without your precious gun!"

"Silence!" the guard exclaims, obviously nervous, and not too happy with Bucky's showing of confidence. "I should kill you now! The warden won't care! As long as you are stopped! He might not..." He sees Bucky move, and draws the gun back instinctively.

Bucky hears the hammer move in the gun and immediately leaps into the air, as the shot fires across to where he had been only a split-second earlier! The guard is so confused and overcome with surprise that, although he is nervously fumbling to try to get off another shot, turning to find where Bucky has gone so quickly. However, he does not need to search, because Bucky is upon him!

"You didn't listen, did you?" Bucky asks, sending out an elbow to the guard's chin, knocking him back. "Some people never learn!" he adds, leaping into the air and putting his opponent out with a flying drop-kick to the cheek! The guard lands near the other guards, who are equally unconscious! "Tisk-tisk," Bucky remarks. "Well, now it's time to pay a little visit to the head of this outfit. I've got to talk to him about the low quality of the guards he's hiring!"

Bucky reaches the door, looking at it. "Should I be subtle?" he asks. Then, smiling, he shakes his head. "Nah...!" With that, Bucky kicks the door in, stepping forward. He sees across the room someone seated at a table, but before he can get a good look at him, he is immediately grabbed by two large guards-each one 6’6" and between 280-300 pounds.

"This is some kinda welcome, pal!" Bucky remarks. "I was just trying to help you out with your guard problem. It seems like they all need some serious training! I think you should call in for a refund myself!"

"Silence, you fool!" one of the large guards demands, holding Bucky fast.

"Is this supposed to stop me?" he asks, quickly ducking down and kneeling forward-a movement that sends both guards flying across the room! One of the guards smashes into the warden's table, smashing it and knocking the guard out in the process! The other guard quickly gets to his feet and rushes over at Bucky, who quickly leaps over him, spinning around in mid-air and kicking his opponent on the back of the head, just above the base of the skull! This stuns the guard, who gets to his feet slowly.

"You will pay for that!" the guard admonishes.

"Oh?" Bucky asks sarcastically. "And just who intends to do the collecting?"

The guard lets out a gutteral growl, as he rushes at Bucky. Bucky leaps into the air just a split-second before the guard can reach him, kicking the guard straight between the eyes with such force that it reverses his forward momentum and sends him careening across the floor, smashing head-first into the wall. He does not get up.

"Very good, my young friend," the warden offers. He is getting out of chair. "Such a display deserves an award."

As Bucky turns around to face the warden, he sees that it is none other than The Swine! "THE SWINE!" Bucky exclaims, remembering the face from Cap's old files.

"So I have been called," the Swine agrees, pushing a red button under his desk. "I think my friend and guest will very much like to see this brash young upstart," the Swine adds mentally. Then, he says to Bucky: "And you are Bucky, the young partner of the accursed Captain America. He and I had a run-in a few years back.* I am pleased that my reputation precedes me. It is truly an honor." He then motions for Bucky to come forward, as he pours out two glasses of wine. "Come, we have much to discuss. You must try the wine. It is most excellent. I once had a...guest here who loved it so much that it literally killed him."**

{In the classic Captain America #206-207...JM!)

{**This grisly event occurred in Captain America #206...JM}

"This isn't a social call, Swine!" Bucky retorts. He's very familiar with the treatment of the prisoners here, and knows of the Swine's track record in the past. "And you know that!"

"Ah yes," the Swine replies. "How typical of your type. You lack the culture to appreciate the finer things in life. I must admit that I am disappointed. Judging from your display earlier, I had thought you would be more than the borish lout your mentor proved himself to be. No matter. I should have expected it of your type. Always wanting to get down to business." The Swine quickly pulls out a gun, and whirls around to face Bucky, menacingly. "That can be arranged!"

To be concluded next issue!

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BUCKY GRAMS

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This issue reveals the villain of the storyline, none other than Hector Santiago, the Swine! I thought it only made sense for The Swine and the Black Talon to form the kind of partnership that they have. I like establishing friendships among the villains as well as the heroes, because it allows for additional characterization of the villains (something which is too seldom done at times, IMO). I'm still accepting comments about the mini-series, and I'd like to hear from you. My e-mail address is jx2melton@aol.com.