"Falcon" A Soaring Adventure Grounded in History
Marvel's latest superhero miniseries brings nuance and questions to its star-spangled history.
By Jason Goldman-Hall
Marvel's latest superhero miniseries brings nuance and questions to its star-spangled history.
By Jason Goldman-Hall
There’s a small, vocal subset of geekdom that rails against what they perceive as politics in their entertainment, and it, oddly, tends to happen a lot with characters like Captain America, who, when he premiered in 1941, was a dutiful, white-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed, cisgendered, heterosexual, patriotic Hitler-puncher wearing the American flag as a costume.
This came to a head in recent years in the comics, when Cap, real name Steve Rogers, was either dead, incapacitated, or (briefly) a Nazi, passed his shield and title on to Sam “The Falcon” Wilson.
Just as some of our nation is struggling with the shrinking political power of people who look like Steve Rogers, some comic fans were unhappy to see a black man given such an iconic title, either out of devotion to “the way things were” or thinly-if-at-all-veiled racism.
And that argument was brought to the screen in the waning moments of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” when Chris Evans’ Rogers passed his shield on to Anthony Mackie’s Wilson. That moment serves as the focal point and emotional core of Disney+’s recently-concluded series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
Much like its MCU-TV predecessor “WandaVision,” “Falcon” is a worthy entry into the canon, the special effects were solid, and the plot turns were familiar enough to feel connected to the movies that led into them, primarily the last two Captain America movies.
The acting was strong for the most part, with excellent turns from MCU newcomers Wyatt Russell, as Rogers’ replacement John Walker, Erin Kellyman of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” fame and “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The story only really suffered from pacing, the season was only 6 episodes long, and some plot points, including the Kellyman’s revolutionary Flag-Smashers and their connections to the mysterious Power Broker character felt unexplored, just as Brühl’s excellent Baron Zemo felt forgotten for several stretches.
Where the series shined brightest, however, was in its development of Captain America as American mythology. Just as the nobility and unwavering patriotic perfection of World War II era military might hide atrocities committed against Japanese-Americans and Black soldiers, the series delved quickly and directly into Marvel’s version of the infamous Tuskegee Experiments with the introduction of Isaiah Bradley, played beautifully by Carl Lumbly, a Black veteran imprisoned to hide his status as a forgotten super soldier.
Forcing the heroes, and the audience, to wrestle with the skeletons in the closet of their own hero’s legacy was a powerful reminder that pride in one’s country (or its icons) doesn’t have to mean ignoring the truth of history.
In its most touching (but unsubtle) scene, found in the penultimate episode, was a conversation between Barnes and Wilson, as they played catch with the iconic Vibranium shield. Wilson explained to Barnes that a Black man taking on the mantle of Captain America, even if he was asked to by the old Cap himself, wasn’t an easy thing, and Barnes stopped and just simply apologized for not understanding it. It was simple and direct, and addressed issues not touched on in the big-budget blockbusters that led into it.
The other standout of the series was Wyatt Russell as the new Captain America. If Rogers was the hopeful, idealistic, at-times-blissfully-unaware America of the WWII era, this version of Russell is the angry, resentful, violent America of the post-9/11 world, and his not-Cap-ness was played up to anger the audience.
But like Zemo and Loki and Thanos before him, Russell brought enough pathos to the character, and was given enough development that at the end, we’re happy he’s not gone, and excited to see what he might do as the renamed “U.S. Agent” who all the comic fans knew he was going to grow up to be anyway.
While I’m definitely Team Rogers over Team Walker, the idea that redemption for his past actions is possible by putting down his resentment and working with the heroes was a welcome note for the character.
What remains to be seen is if some of what felt like plot holes or pacing issues, like Zemo’s lack of development or Walker’s compressed character arc, are just that, or rather setup pieces to be elaborated on in either another miniseries or the recently-announced fourth Captain American film, being written by series showrunner, and East Bay native, Malcolm Spellman.
Regardless, like its characters, the series honored the legacy of Captain America, evolved the mythology and held a mirror up to our own society, something that storytelling was born to do.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is streaming in its entirety on Disney+.
This came to a head in recent years in the comics, when Cap, real name Steve Rogers, was either dead, incapacitated, or (briefly) a Nazi, passed his shield and title on to Sam “The Falcon” Wilson.
Just as some of our nation is struggling with the shrinking political power of people who look like Steve Rogers, some comic fans were unhappy to see a black man given such an iconic title, either out of devotion to “the way things were” or thinly-if-at-all-veiled racism.
And that argument was brought to the screen in the waning moments of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” when Chris Evans’ Rogers passed his shield on to Anthony Mackie’s Wilson. That moment serves as the focal point and emotional core of Disney+’s recently-concluded series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
Much like its MCU-TV predecessor “WandaVision,” “Falcon” is a worthy entry into the canon, the special effects were solid, and the plot turns were familiar enough to feel connected to the movies that led into them, primarily the last two Captain America movies.
The acting was strong for the most part, with excellent turns from MCU newcomers Wyatt Russell, as Rogers’ replacement John Walker, Erin Kellyman of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” fame and “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The story only really suffered from pacing, the season was only 6 episodes long, and some plot points, including the Kellyman’s revolutionary Flag-Smashers and their connections to the mysterious Power Broker character felt unexplored, just as Brühl’s excellent Baron Zemo felt forgotten for several stretches.
Where the series shined brightest, however, was in its development of Captain America as American mythology. Just as the nobility and unwavering patriotic perfection of World War II era military might hide atrocities committed against Japanese-Americans and Black soldiers, the series delved quickly and directly into Marvel’s version of the infamous Tuskegee Experiments with the introduction of Isaiah Bradley, played beautifully by Carl Lumbly, a Black veteran imprisoned to hide his status as a forgotten super soldier.
Forcing the heroes, and the audience, to wrestle with the skeletons in the closet of their own hero’s legacy was a powerful reminder that pride in one’s country (or its icons) doesn’t have to mean ignoring the truth of history.
In its most touching (but unsubtle) scene, found in the penultimate episode, was a conversation between Barnes and Wilson, as they played catch with the iconic Vibranium shield. Wilson explained to Barnes that a Black man taking on the mantle of Captain America, even if he was asked to by the old Cap himself, wasn’t an easy thing, and Barnes stopped and just simply apologized for not understanding it. It was simple and direct, and addressed issues not touched on in the big-budget blockbusters that led into it.
The other standout of the series was Wyatt Russell as the new Captain America. If Rogers was the hopeful, idealistic, at-times-blissfully-unaware America of the WWII era, this version of Russell is the angry, resentful, violent America of the post-9/11 world, and his not-Cap-ness was played up to anger the audience.
But like Zemo and Loki and Thanos before him, Russell brought enough pathos to the character, and was given enough development that at the end, we’re happy he’s not gone, and excited to see what he might do as the renamed “U.S. Agent” who all the comic fans knew he was going to grow up to be anyway.
While I’m definitely Team Rogers over Team Walker, the idea that redemption for his past actions is possible by putting down his resentment and working with the heroes was a welcome note for the character.
What remains to be seen is if some of what felt like plot holes or pacing issues, like Zemo’s lack of development or Walker’s compressed character arc, are just that, or rather setup pieces to be elaborated on in either another miniseries or the recently-announced fourth Captain American film, being written by series showrunner, and East Bay native, Malcolm Spellman.
Regardless, like its characters, the series honored the legacy of Captain America, evolved the mythology and held a mirror up to our own society, something that storytelling was born to do.
“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” is streaming in its entirety on Disney+.