- NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA IN FALCON AND WINTER SOLDIER PLUS
- NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA IN FALCON AND WINTER SOLDIER SERIES
In the Flag-Smashers, it gives Bucky and Sam an underdog of an enemy. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier already has to show that America is worth fighting for, even to the people it’s mistreated the most. Their support certainly indicates those problems are far too entrenched to be solved by some guys in spandex throwing a punch. Not only did the Flag-Smashers make a compelling case against the existing world order, but they even suggested the happy ending of Avengers: Endgame may have created as many problems as it solved. Touting the catchphrase “One World, One People,” the Flag-Smashers opposed the forced resettlement of those displaced when the global population doubled overnight after the Avengers undid the so-called Blip. Despite a terrible name (you can’t smash a flag!) and a nondescript leader, the group often came across as overtly sympathetic-certainly not the menacing threat they were intended to be. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier set up one too many foils with one too many valid gripes, a burden all the more frustrating for being largely self-imposed. No wonder the show wasn’t able to sell its would-be triumphant conclusion.
NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA IN FALCON AND WINTER SOLDIER SERIES
In the end, the series spread itself too thin, fighting multiple battles on multiple fronts. Instead, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier attempted to balance it with critiques of American imperialism and even the idea of superpowers, both literal and geopolitical. Sam’s struggle-with Isaiah, with his family, with himself-to pick up Cap’s vibranium shield could easily sustain six hours of story. As just one subplot among many, it proved far too much. That’s a lot for any superhero show, let alone one marketed for mass appeal on a family-friendly streaming service, to take on. To its credit, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier addressed this irony head-on, working in figures from the comics like Isaiah Bradley, a Black super soldier who was experimented on and imprisoned by his own government. America has a history of both declaring its ideals and belying them with racist violence Sam can’t participate in the former without at least engaging with the latter. But Spellman understood the extra significance, and added nuance, in recasting the symbol of a real-life nation.
NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA IN FALCON AND WINTER SOLDIER PLUS
The MCU already had its first Black Avenger in T’Challa, plus supporting characters like Don Cheadle’s War Machine. Helmed by showrunner Malcolm Spellman, now set to develop Captain America 4 with Sam in the title role, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier didn’t lack for ambition. The ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Season Finale Exit Survey ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Finale Recap: New Job Titles The New Captain America Will Be Fighting for Something Different But when it takes so little to root against them, or at least not actively root for them, it doesn’t bode well for the franchise. The entire point of the series was to set up Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes as worthy heirs to Steve Rogers in future MCU titles-and in Sam’s case, quite literally. That isn’t just a problem for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. (Well, maybe Julia Louis-Dreyfus.) It’s that the show simply assumed we would take the title characters’ side, no matter how half-hearted their rebuttals came across. It’s not that the villains were so overwhelmingly charismatic they couldn’t help but outshine the heroes. But as a group, the arguments they made were far more convincing than those of the ostensible protagonists. On their own, none of these figures were especially alluring. Agent Baron Zemo, the Sokovian noble opposed to the very concept of superheroes. In its overstuffed, often unfocused plot, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier offered up a few different villains: the Flag-Smashers, an anti-nationalist guerilla group the Power Broker, their mysterious benefactor John Walker, the knockoff Captain America now known as the U.S. Less common is the dilemma that faced The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the MCU miniseries that just concluded its six-part run on Disney+. T’Challa may have emerged victorious, but his opponent was allowed to make many more-than-fair points about Wakanda’s obligation to the African diaspora before he lost the war. And in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the gold standard of modern blockbusters, there’s Killmonger, the ostensible antagonist of Black Panther.
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