Rikki Barnes

Rikki Barnes
Cover art to Nomad: Girl Without a World #1. Art by Rafael Albuquerque.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Captain America (vol. 2) #1 (November 1996)
Created by	Jeph Loeb Rob Liefeld
In-story information
Full name	Rebecca Barnes
Place of origin	Counter-Earth
Team affiliations	Young Allies (Counter-Earth) Young Allies (Heroic Age)
Partnerships	Captain America
Notable aliases	Bucky, Nomad, Rikki Baines

Rebecca "Rikki" Barnes is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe. First introduced as the Counter-Earth incarnation of Bucky during the "Heroes Reborn" event, Rikki crossed over to Earth-616 in Onslaught Reborn where she operates as Nomad.

Rikki Barnes first appears in Captain America (vol. 2) #1 (November 1996) and was created by Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld.

Fictional character biography

Heroes Reborn

There are currently two versions of Rikki Barnes existing in the main Marvel Universe. The first is the version introduced in the Heroes Reborn series of books. She is native to this world that was created by Franklin Richards in order to save his family, the Fantastic Four, and the rest of the heroes who 'died' fighting Onslaught. Franklin was able to access this world through a blue orb he created. The heroes were healed and given new memories to adjust to this new reality. Rikki Barnes was a native to this world and granddaughter to her world's version of Bucky Barnes.

Her brother John was involved with a radical group led by the Red Skull and through that contact she met Captain America, eventually becoming his protégé. He and the other heroes left this world when they realized the danger they presented to it in Heroes Return, and Rikki stayed behind. Through various events this world was eventually brought into the Marvel Universe proper and is now the new Counter-Earth. But the crossover caused great ecological change and half the world was submerged underwater. Rikki eventually formed a group of like minded individuals to bring order and they called themselves the Young Allies.

Counter-Earth

When Franklin became the target of a reborn Onslaught, made of the mutant energy from the depowered mutants after 'M'Day, Franklin to escape the villain revealed a green orb that contained a copy of the Heroes Reborn universe; however in this world the Heroes did not leave so all the damage that happened when the world was moved from its pocket dimension did not happen. Franklin, while running from Onslaught, eventually encountered Rikki who summoned the Avengers to battled the monsterous powerful enitiy.

The fight against Onslaught would lead to the Baxter Building where Rikki sacrificed herself to push Onslaught into the Negative Zone. Riki died willingly but instead of dying she found herself in the Main Reality.

Hearing that her Captain America was dead she felt lost again and clung to the only things she had, her heroism and her brother. While not technically her brother she sought out John Barnes of Earth 616 and falsified an ID so she could go stay close to him. This John Barnes was actually a pretty nice guy so she pretended to be Rikki Baines his schoolmate and best friend. Rikki heard that there was a new Captain America and she desperately tried to meet him, unbeknownst to Rikki that he was James Buchanan Barnes, the 616 counterpart to her own grandfather. However before she could meet him she was intercepted by Black Widow who knew exactly who Rikki was and cautioned her about trying to meet Captain America.

While in school she noticed several classmates acting odd and believed something was up but John felt she was just being paranoid. Bucky tried to investigate the school at night following the students but instead she found a wolfman who injured her and ripped her suit. When she got back to her modest apartment (which she paid for by washing dishes in a restaurant) she found a brand new Nomad costume and a note that it was for her. The next day at a coffee shop with John she got up the courage to ask John about his family. It turned out that his mother died during childbirth giving birth to his little sister who also died, and his father died in a terrorist attack on Philadelphia. This was difficult for Rikki to hear about how she was never born but just then a bomb went off across the street. Flag-smasher was attacking a military recruitment facility. John was injured in the explosion but Rikki put on her Nomad costume to fight Flag-Smasher. She was aided by Falcon who she remembered but like the others who left the Heroes Reborn universe he didn't remember her. Rikki explained who she was and where she was from and Falcon suggested she continue being Nomad, whoever gave her the costume thought she could handle it. When John was released from the hospital Rikki visited him but he mistook her friendship for attraction and Rikki had to tell him she thought of him as a brother.

He was hurt and refused to speak to her and ended up turning to the people who were brainwashing the students at their school. Nomad investigated Desmond Daniels who the brainwashed students were supporting believing he was behind it. She was then attacked and taken prisoner by the wolfman and mastermind behind it all. John finally became concerned when Rikki missed a few days of school while she was being brainwashed like the others though it was more difficult to affect her. They released her and had her reveal her identity to the whole school in support of the student council nominee the others were supporting. It turned out it was all a plot by the Secret Empire to test if they could influence voting by brainwashing specific members of different groups causing the masses to fall in line.

The Secret Empire wanted to shut down the experiment but Professor Power who was the mastermind behind it all was pretending to be a politics teacher at the school. Professor Power refused to shut the experiment down and allowed the entire school to riot. He intended to kill Nomad but she managed to escape and fight off the super-villain and his wolfman henchman. The Young Avengers arrived to assist Nomad and the police with crowd control and defuse the situation. However it was John that realized they were brainwashed to follow Desmond Daniels who was an innocent pawn, it was another student Matt Surman inciting the riot. Rikki got Desmond to talk the rioters down while John confronted Matt not knowing that Matt had a gun. Matt shot John and tried to shoot Rikki but her uniform protected her, John was not so lucky and he died. Later Rikki visited John's grave back in their home town of Philadelphia, she didn't blame Matt for the murderer since it was an unforeseen effect of the brainwashing. It was then that Captain America arrived and spoke to her for the first time. He said Barnes was a great name and that she shouldn't let this affect her duty because she'd make Steve Rogers proud. She asked if it was him that gave her the Nomad costume which he replies that he had assumed that she had made it herself. Meanwhile Black Widow had been watching the whole time and smiled suggesting it had been her.

Unaware of these facts, Rikki begins a new life as Nomad in the limited series Nomad: Girl Without A World, by Sean McKeever and David Baldeon.^[1][2] and this led to a Nomad back-up story from the same creative team behind the "Two Americas" storyline.

This story introduced the character to Anya Corazon, which paved the way for McKeever and Baldeon to use these characters as the core of a new team and series Young Allies.^[3][4]

During the team's first mission, Rikki and Araña are captured by a team of teenaged supervillains who call themselves the Bastards of Evil (as they are all the illegitimate children of famous supervillains). In order to establish themselves as a viable threat, the Bastards link up a video feed of the bound and gagged Rikki and Araña across New York city, with the intent of executing the heroines in front of a massive audience. While Araña distracts the villains, Rikki breaks the bonds from her wrists and enables the girls' escape. When the rest of the Allies arrive, they promptly defeat the Bastards, with Rikki taking down Pyro's son Ember. Just as the Allies are about to celebrate their victory, Rikki is attacked and thrown through a wall by a newly-arrived villain named the Superior.^[5] After a fierce confrontation, Rikki and her teammates defeat the Bastards, and turn them over to the Avengers.^[6]

Onslaught Unleashed

Rikki recently began having strange and vivid nightmares from deep in the jungles of South America, the problem appears to be that they may not be dreams at all when her teammate Toro is kidnapped just like she dreamed. Later while investigating Corporate Conglomerate Roxxon for illegal weapons systems, the Secret Avengers come across the plans for Project Power, a new and incredibly deadly power source being secretly developed in the Colombian rainforest. As the Secret Avengers investigate the facility, Beast and Ant-Man find the source of the mysterious energy source to be from the Negative Zone. As Rikki races inside the facility to locate Toro, she stumbles into the control room instead, where the sinister voice of her dreams beckons, clawing his way out of exile in the Negative Zone, the psychic beast known as Onslaught returns to the main universe.^[7]

Powers and abilitites

Rikki is a natural athlete who was trained by SHIELD and Captain America. She is a gifted fighter, marksman and acrobat with the familiarity with technological devices of a SHIELD agent.

Weapons and equipment

As Bucky she wore a bulletproof costume modeled after the original Bucky. She also made use of a vibranium-photonic energy shield along with vibranium soled boots that allowed her to run up walls, move silently, leap greater distances and land from great heights. She also wielded a pistol.

As Nomad, she mades use of much of the same equipment with a new costume based on the Nomad identity once worn by Steve Rogers. She retains the vibranium-photonic shield and now uses throwing discs used by previous Nomads. It is possible she still possesses the vibranium soled boots though she no longer uses the pistol in her new identity.

References

1. ^ Paggi, David (June 22, 2009). "Writer Sean McKeever returns to the Marvel Universe and brings Rikki Barnes along with him". Marvel.com. http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.8497.WWPhilly_~apos~09~colon~_Nomad~colon~_Girl_Without_a_World. Retrieved June 22, 2009. 
2. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (June 21, 2009). "Heroes Con '09: New Girl in Town - McKeever Talks Nomad". Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090621-heroes-nomad.html. Retrieved June 22, 2009. 
3. ^ Phegley, Kiel (March 9, 2010). "McKeever Enlists "Young Allies"". Comic Book Resources. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=25147. Retrieved March 10, 2010. 
4. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (March 9, 2010). "YOUNG ALLIES Joins Marvel's Summer Youth Movement". Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Young-Allies-McKeever-100309.html. Retrieved March 10, 2010. 
5. ^ Young Allies #4
6. ^ Young Allies #5
7. ^ Onslaught Unleashed #1

External links

• Rikki Barnes at the Comic Book DB