Bucky is still young compared to Captain America as Bucky appears to be somewhere in his 30s while the last time we saw Steve Rogers, he was an old man already. Yes, their age and physical attributes don't really match which makes it really confusing. But there is a real solid explanation to that which has a lot to do with the cryogenesis that both of them had throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is a canon series where Sam and Bucky deal with the post-Captain America world where they would be facing villains old and new and they would be dealing with the post-blip situation.
The Disney+ series of Marvel shows how these heroes are also human with Sam being close to broke having to deal with banks for help and with Bucky facing post-traumatic stress disorder from the time when he was still the cold hitman of Hydra.
In The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, during the first episode, when Bucky was asked about his age, he replies that he is 106 years old and yet his physical attributes say otherwise as if he is just in his 30s. In the last scenes of the Avengers: Endgame, when Captain America took the responsibility of returning the stones to their proper timeline, he returned as an old man. Why is that? Let's backtrack a little bit in history.
Steve Rogers was born on July 4, 1918, a fitting day to be born on given that he later became Captain America. His best friend was born James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes on March 10, 1917. To compute, the year they are currently in is 2023 making Bucky 106 years old, and Steve 105 years old. Just with their birthdays, Bucky is already a year older than Steve, and yet, he's younger looking than Steve.
Both of them last saw each other in the same age and stature in 1945, by that time, Steve was 27 and Bucky was 28. When Bucky fell on the side of the mountain and supposedly died, his age then was 28 while as for Steve, he sacrificed himself by plunging an aircraft into ice to prevent the death of many and his age then was 27.
Since being 27 years old, under a heap of ice for almost 70 years before being discovered again, Steve went into somewhat like a cryogenesis freezing his age of 27 despite the year being 2011. As for Bucky, it was later revealed that he went in and out of the freeze, only when he is needed to be HYDRA's hitman or when he has an assignment would he be out of cryogenesis.
That has something to do with the Super Soldier serum Steve had to be Captain America, and the serum HYDRA replicated for Bucky to be a super-soldier himself. You see, the super-soldier serum does not make one immortal, nor does it become the secret of being forever young. What it gives are enhanced capabilities of super strength, endurance, agility, durability, and even some faster healing factor. Plus factor to that would be not getting drunk.
Both of them were only able to stay as young-looking as they are because of cryogenesis which technically stops their aging and freezes their age until they get out of the ice.
In the case of Captain America, Steve's age and physical attributes aged normally only after he was put out of ice, that was in 2011 and he was 27 years old by then. By the time he fought in Avengers: Endgame, the year is 2023 which makes Steve 39 years old, in the same year, he went back to the past, from 1945 where he lived another 78 years of his life with Peggy. His appearance had to catch up with him and computing his appearance's age, he's, technically, 117 years old looking.
For Bucky, he ages normally only after his last go in the cryostasis chamber, that was in Wakanda, the year 2016. Assuming all the time he was out of cryogenesis at around 2 to 3 years, his appearance would just be around 30 years old, more or less, at that time. Put on top of that another 3 years moving forward to Avengers: Infinity War before the snap of Thanos and Bucky was one of those unfortunate souls who turned into ashes.
To add, all those who were blipped lost 5 years of their lives, and all went back not aging at all. That would place Bucky's age and physique today in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier around 33 years old, more or less.
Hopefully, that clears the air out as to how Bucky appears to look a lot younger than Steve.
Bucky returns in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier which is released weekly every Friday, at 3 AM, on Disney+.
Related: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Avengers Salary Scene Infuriated Marvel Studios
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