It's not news that some people were dissatisfied with the way WandaVision ended, thinking that it conformed too much to the typical MCU norm. Well, that's not really a problem you're going to have with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier because the MCU's second Disney+ series has firmly cemented itself as one of the best products to come out of this juggernaut of a cinematic universe. After exploring the magical shenanigans in their previous series, Marvel Studios not only buckled down on the more "human" problems that arose after the events of Avengers: Endgame but also tackled very real issues that many groups of people experience in real life. Without further ado, let's dive right into our series retrospect.
SERIES RETROSPECT AND REVIEW (SPOILER ALERT)
Introduction: After elevating us to a cosmic or mystic level in their past few films/series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier brings the MCU back down to Earth by focusing on our titular characters of Falcon and Winter Soldier (or Sam and Bucky as I'll call them henceforth). Being set 6 months after the events of Avengers: Endgame, we follow Sam Wilson as he struggles to accept the heavy responsibility of being the next Captain America after receiving the mantle and shield from Steve Rogers, primarily out of his belief that he's unworthy of representing America as a black man. Other than Sam's struggles, we also follow Bucky Barnes as he strives to move beyond his past as a Hydra assassin, seeking to make amends and dealing with his PTSD in the process. Although he's disappointed with Sam for giving up the shield, the two superheroes team up to take down the new threat of the Flag-Smashers, global revolutionaries that seek to return the world to the way it was 5 years ago, before the people who were snapped away were brought back by the Avengers, as well as dealing with the new Captain America, John Walker. As the series progressed, we focused on not just the very real world problem of racism but also issues like how veterans deal with PTSD alongside their mistreatment by the US government, all while tying events well into the MCU's past and future.
Series vs comics: For this segment I won't actually focus too much on Sam and Bucky because their origins were covered in previous MCU outings so I'll instead talk about other more important characters. What I will say is that Sam taking on the mantle of Captain America is very similar to what happened in the comics. Both in the comics and the MCU, Steve ages into an elderly man because of different events, with Sam eventually becoming Captain America, wearing a suit that combines the stars-and-stripes with elements of his Falcon suit. Although Sam has since gone back to being Falcon in the comics, he's only just taken on the mantle in the MCU and we'll probably see far more of him in future.
The first character I'll properly talk about is John Walker aka U.S. Agent. As I mentioned in my initial thoughts post, in the comics the U.S. Army veteran gained his powers through the machinations of the Power Broker, a supervillain who grants superpowers through augmentation processes. Walker gains superhuman physical attributes, allowing him to lift about 10 tons and perform tasks beyond human limits. Starting out with the name Super-Patriot, Walker would eventually don on the mantle of Captain America when Steve abandoned the name but would ultimately become known as the U.S. Agent, a name that he's stuck with ever since. As an antihero, U.S. Agent has always treaded the moral fine line in his actions, having fought for both good and evil. While he's been part of many Avengers teams such as the Mighty Avengers or the Dark Avengers (more on this later), he's now part of Force Works, a team independent of the Avengers command structure and commanded by Maria Hill. Walker's a hardline right-wing conservative Christian who puts his country before anything else, befitting his title as an agent of the U.S.
In the series, Walker is still a decorated Special Forces vet, having been awarded 3 Medals of Honour for various acts of valour in combat. After Sam gives up the shield, the government selects Walker to be the next Captain America, seeing him as the perfect soldier. Although initially having no powers, Walker is fairly adept at using the shield and holds his own quite well against superhuman foes. However, he does eventually take the Super-Soldier Serum, gaining peak human (not superhuman like in the comics) physical attributes in the process. While he does start out as a pretty heroic guy, Walker quickly heads into morally grey territory as he constantly gets in Sam and Bucky's way when dealing with the Flag-Smashers, generally hitting first and asking questions later. Walker does ultimately get stripped off the title of Captain America after he brutally kills a Flag-Smasher in broad daylight but redeems himself in the final episode, becoming the U.S. Agent at the end of the episode (with a comic-accurate costume to boot).
We can't talk about this series without mentioning main antagonist Karli Morgenthau and her group known as the Flag-Smashers. If you didn't know by now, this group of reactionary terrorists doesn't exactly originate from the comics but instead spawned from the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. Karli is an adaptation of the comic character Karl Morgenthau aka Flag-Smasher and they both have similar motives, being misguided individuals who want to liberate Earth from the oppression of national rule using the language of violence. As I mentioned up top, in the MCU the world was sent into disorder after people were snapped back into existence and many found themselves without a home. These people were rounded up by an organisation known as the Global Repatriation Council (GRC) and herded into settlements, before deciding that these "refugees" would be sent back to their home countries without any help. Karli and her Flag-Smashers saw this and wanted to turn things back to the way they were before, living by the motto "one world, one people". In the comics, Karl's father advocated for world peace and unity but after he was trampled to death in a riot outside a Latverian embassy, Karl decided to take matters into his own hands and continue his father's fight for a world without borders, this time through violence. While Karl is a normal human skilled in martial arts and wielding a mace (as a symbolic flag-smashing weapon), Karli is a Super-Soldier, having taken a refined version of the Serum that grants her peak human physical attributes without bulking her up.
While U.S. Agent and Karli are the two characters that I'll expand the most on in this segment, I'll also be looking at some characters that had less of a presence in the greater scheme of the series. First up, we have Baron Zemo, who we last saw in Captain America: Civil War and has quickly become a fan favourite after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. After succeeding in breaking up the Avengers, Zemo has spent his time solitarily confined in a max security prison. While the MCU presented him as an ex-Sokovian colonel who commanded a death squad, the series has revealed that much like his comic counterpart, Zemo comes from a line of barons and wears a purple mask to maintain his anonymity. Zemo's primary motivation in the MCU is that superhumans are dangerous and can't be allowed to exist, which was part of what made him take down the Avengers. The series has Zemo planning to take down the Flag-Smashers because of their Super-Soldier nature and he does succeed in the last episode, ridding the world of villainous Super-Soldiers (for now).
In the comics however, Zemo is a German supremacist who has lived by the Nazi ideology of a master race, believing that his bloodline should rule the world. Apart from having slowed aging after taking the Compound X serum, Zemo is also easily recognised by his purple mask, which he wears after he was horribly disfigured by Adhesive X. As you can tell by now, both iterations of Zemo are quite different from each other, with the MCU portraying him as somewhat of a morally ambiguous semi-villain of sorts, raising lots of valid points that counter our heroes' more traditional view of justice, while the comics have Zemo being full-blown evil (although he has been an antihero at times).
Now, I mentioned in my initial thoughts post that the Power Broker would be a presence in the series and I turned out to be right because as it turns out that character would end up having a lot of influence in Madripoor (a classic comic location often associated with the X-Men) and also be the one who commissioned the creation of the new Super-Soldier Serum. In the comics, the Power Broker is a name that has been used by a few individuals but most recently, an unnamed businessman has taken on that role, heading Power Broker, Inc. and granting himself superpowers, namely energy manipulation and flight, among others. There were theories being thrown around about the identity of the Power Broker in the series and one of them was the recently-returned Sharon Carter, who we also last saw in Captain America: Civil War. Having finished the series, I can't believe that after all the huge sikes in WandaVision, us fans would actually get something right. After helping the temporarily outlawed Steve and Sam in Civil War, Sharon would end up on the run from the government, hiding out in Madripoor. Disillusioned with heroism, she would become a hustler of sorts, making connections in the criminal underworld and selling all kinds of stolen goods. Of course, we also find out that she's the Power Broker. Definitely a big change for both the Power Broker character from the comics as well as Sharon herself and it remains to be seen if she's really villainous now or playing double agent.
Bucky says at one point in the series that "the legacy of that shield is complicated" and it couldn't be truer because we're also introduced to the character of Isaiah Bradley, who comic fans will know as the first "black Captain America". In the comics, Isaiah was one of the hundreds of African-American soldiers who were forcibly made test subjects for Project Rebirth's second attempt at creating Super-Soldiers. However, after the death of Dr. Erskine, the Serum was never perfected and so they had to test different variations on these black soldiers. Only a handful including Isaiah survived and the new Super-Soldiers became a covert black ops team. Within the team itself, Isaiah would be the last one standing after a series of tragic events and he would eventually be sentenced to life imprisonment for stealing a Captain America costume and shield before his final mission. After 17 years in solitary confinement, Isaiah was released from prison and sworn to secrecy, with his mind having deteriorated into that of a child as a side effect of his version of the Super-Soldier Serum. He was also made sterile by the Serum.
The MCU version of Isaiah is fairly similar to the comics, although he doesn't seem to have any adverse side effects from the Serum. In the series, Isaiah instead spent 30 years in prison for rescuing his fellow black comrades who were held captive when the higher-ups wanted to blow up the POW camp instead to destroy the secrets of the Serum. In those 30 years, Isaiah was experimented on and was only released because a nurse took pity on him and helped him fake his death. Even now, he's living in hiding, with his name erased from history. While not an especially large presence in the series, Isaiah has a lot of impact on Sam and Bucky, with Sam deciding to immortalise his name in the museum exhibit dedicated to Captain America.
Last but not least, we have Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. We don't actually know all that much about her in the series, considering that she only appeared in the last two episodes in very minor roles but what we do know is that she's someone with influence in the dark shady parts of the MCU, telling John Walker that being a Super-Soldier has made him very valuable to some people and somewhat facilitating his transformation into U.S. Agent. In the comics, Valentina is a Russian S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was once lovers with Nick Fury and was thought to be loyal but in truth was a triple agent, initially secretly working for Hydra (even adopting the name Madame Hydra) but eventually betraying Hydra for Leviathan. After being found to be a sleeper agent in her time in S.H.I.E.L.D., Valentina would surrender to Interpol and was last seen in prison. While I doubt her MCU origins are going to be the same, she's definitely a character we're going to see more of in future.
Pros: There're so many things to enjoy about this series I don't even know where to start. The acting by our cast is phenomenal but special mention has to go to Wyatt Russell, who totally killed his role as John Walker. From the very moment Walker stepped out on screen wielding the shield, people hated his guts and as the series progressed, people just hated him even more. They hated the way he looked, they hated the way he behaved in a superior manner to Sam and Bucky, they hated the way he always got in the way of their plans and ruined things, and it's only through Russell's strong performance that we got a character that we loved to hate. It was very interesting how the screenwriters explored Dr. Erskine's quote of "not a perfect soldier, but a good man" when he picked Steve as Captain America because as we know, the Serum amplifies a person's traits. In a truly good man like Steve, he becomes a true hero and in the hands of a supremacist like Red Skull, he becomes a monster. With Walker, while he's not a bad person per se, he's the "perfect soldier" that Erskine was talking about and that's why he gets corrupted by the power that the Serum gives him.
At the same time, while Walker did come off as a pretty annoying guy and is by no means a real hero like Steve Rogers was, there are many moments where you do feel bad for him, especially when he's thrown under the bus by the government after he kills one of the Flag-Smashers, the same government that he devoted his entire life to. Russell really sells that part well and it's no wonder he got this role. I think it's quite interesting that more than 10 years ago he auditioned for the role of Steve Rogers and while ultimately losing out to Chris Evans, he does wind up taking on the role of Captain America after many years, albeit in a far different form. Anyway, Walker was a really great part of the show and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of Russell's acting in future MCU products. I do want to point out that Russell has gotten a lot of hate as an actor and even death threats because of this portrayal, and while that's definitely testament to how well he plays this role, it's completely unacceptable to threaten someone in that manner for simply doing their job. It's abhorrent behaviour to think like that and if you're one of those people you should be ashamed of yourself.
The next actor I want to praise is Daniel Bruhl, who has to be one of the most talented multilingual actors out there. He was already awesome in his first outing as Baron Zemo, perfectly portraying the cool calculating villain, and he's just as good in this series. With a lot more time to focus on the character here, we delve a little bit deeper into his psyche and Bruhl brings across Zemo's dangerous yet sensible philosophy well. Zemo has won the hearts of many viewers after this series, in no small part due to Bruhl's portrayal and also because of his slick dance moves in Madripoor (check out episode 3 if you don't know what I'm talking about). He really carried quite a bit of the scenes he was in and I'm also looking forward to seeing him in future.
A huge part of this series revolved around many social issues, with the most prominent ones being racism and mistreatment of veterans. By no means am I the foremost authority on both topics because I've experienced neither of the two (thankfully) but what I will say is that these topics are woven seamlessly into the plot and told through the eyes of Sam and Bucky. Of course, Sam has to deal with the burden of potentially being America's face as a black man and worries about the backlash or judgment he would face. This is directly pulled out of the comics when Sam took on the mantle of Captain America and even in real life, it's something that minorities face everyday, not just black people. One of my favourite scenes in the entire series, a scene which almost made me tear up from how powerful it was, was Sam's speech in the last episode. Having fully accepted his role as Captain America, Sam slams the GRC politicians, addressing the deeply rooted problems facing the world nowadays and how the GRC don't understand these everyday problems because they're up on their high horse. It's amazing and Anthony Mackie delivers that speech with such conviction that you really feel it in every fiber of your being. There're many scenes in the series that appeal to your humanity, especially those touching on racism including Sam's speech. In that same vein, I really liked the inclusion of Isaiah Bradley into the MCU and Carl Lumbly's performance was awesome as the jaded, bitter man who history forgot. Did you feel uncomfortable watching them? Good because that's exactly what the screenwriters intended, forcing us to want to make a change for the greater good.
Veteran mistreatment is also an idea that's present throughout this series but on a lesser scale. We see this with how Bucky's therapist treats him terribly despite his obvious PTSD and we see how Walker goes through the same thing further down the line with the government. It was really interesting to delve into Bucky's psyche through his PTSD and one of the best scenes has to be when he's in therapy with Sam. Bucky believed that Steve was a good judge of character and that he made the right decision picking Sam as his successor but because Sam gave up the shield, Bucky thinks that Steve was wrong about Sam and in one of the most impactful lines in the series, the former assassin rants that "if [Steve] was wrong about you then he was wrong about me". The delivery of that line was so impactful and really gives you a crystal clear look at what's really going down in Bucky's head, as he seeks to pick up the pieces and recover his true self again. Sebastian Stan did an excellent job as the tortured soul who wants redemption and I have nothing but praise for him.
Cons: It's surprisingly hard for me to come up with anything I didn't like about this series because unlike WandaVision, I didn't feel that the last episode fell into the MCU norm of a big villain battle, not in the same way at least. Granted there was still a final showdown between the Flag-Smashers and the heroes, with John Walker coming in for good measure but at the same time, it just felt a little more earned. Of course, at the end of the day, this series isn't perfect. I mentioned in my initial thoughts post that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was always meant to feel like a movie cut into 6 episodes so I guess in some ways, there're people who would've preferred to consume this series as one film, with some editing for runtime purposes. Personally, I didn't think this was a problem but to each their own.
The future of the MCU: Right after the series finale, it was revealed that a fourth Captain America film is currently being written by the screenwriters behind The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, picking up right where the series left off, with Sam now officially recognised as Captain America, complete with a sick comic-accurate costume to boot. Apart from this, it's pretty clear to everyone that this series will tie-in to the greater MCU, with one of them being the setting up of the Young Avengers. In WandaVision, we were introduced to twin superheroes Wiccan and Speed, and looking at future MCU products like Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Ironheart or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we're starting to see that Marvel could be introducing this Avengers splinter team in the near future, with characters like Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, Riri Williams and Cassie Lang all becoming part of the MCU in the near future.
While not incredibly obvious, Isaiah's grandson Elijah Bradley (played by Elijah Richardson) does appear in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier but there's no mention yet if he'll ever return in future. In the comics, Elijah is the Young Avengers' leader and briefly went by Patriot. Although initially using varying dosages of Mutant Growth Hormone to augment his physical attributes to varying levels of superhuman, Elijah would eventually get a blood transfusion from Isaiah and became mutated from the Super-Soldier Serum in Isaiah's blood, with the teenager becoming a Super-Soldier in his own right. Whether anything like that will appear in the MCU remains to be seen. Apart from Elijah, there's also USAF soldier Joaquin Torres, Sam's support staff. I mentioned in my initial thoughts post that Joaquin does take on the mantle of Falcon in the comics when Sam became Captain America but I doubt they'll go the exact same route since that involved him becoming a human/bird/vampire hybrid. Instead, we do see that he's taken Sam's old wingsuit after it was broken by U.S. Agent and is fixing it for himself, so in future we could definitely see Joaquin become the next Falcon. Although he's not a Young Avenger, being a member of the Champions instead, Marvel can definitely adapt his character slightly differently and add him into the Young Avengers' roster.
With the potential introduction of a new superhero team, we need villains to take them on and that's where the Thunderbolts come in. In the comics the Thunderbolts started out as a team of "reformed" supervillains led by Baron Zemo under the guise of Citizen V. However, they were merely masquerading as heroes, only wanting to gain the authorities' trust so that they could steal the resources of cities they were "protecting". The Thunderbolts have gone through various lineup changes but most recently the team is led by Taskmaster and is a force for good, with current members including Batroc the Leaper and Mister Hyde (all of whom are part of the MCU funnily enough). By introducing Contessa Valentina, who Marvel has confirmed will play a bigger role in future, we're definitely going to see some form of the Thunderbolts appear onscreen.
We already know that despite being in The Raft, Zemo still has influence on the outside world, enough to instruct his butler to kill the remaining superhuman Flag-Smashers with a car bomb. Not only that, Valentina has directly instructed U.S. Agent to be ready if anyone calls him and you can bet your bottom dollar that she was setting up the Thunderbolts. Truth be told, many people theorised that the Power Broker could've been Gen. Thunderbolt Ross, who also heads The Raft, so there were theories that with access to the world's most dangerous supervillains, Ross could then create the Thunderbolts as his own strike team. Whether Ross will have any presence in the future remains to be seen but as of right now, it seems that Valentina will be the next step to the Thunderbolts, being a sort of "dark Nick Fury" of sorts.
Lastly, let's talk about that mid-credits scene. As we know Sharon is the Power Broker or at least the public face of the Power Broker. Heck, she might even just be one Power Broker and there could be others. Regardless, we know that she's been pardoned by the US government for her role in Civil War and is now back in the CIA. However, she hasn't left her double life of crime behind and is still operating as the Power Broker, using her position to sell all kinds of weapons and juicy secrets on the black market. This is very dangerous for the MCU and will more than likely set up future MCU outings. We've known for some time that this series will link to future films or series but with the revelation from this mid-credits scene, we now know that this could very much be setting up Armor Wars, the upcoming Disney+ series with War Machine having to deal with the aftermath of Tony Stark's tech falling into the wrong hands, possibly as a result of Sharon Carter's underground dealings. This could also play a part in the future Captain America film, with Sam having to face off against his former ally. It's all speculation at this point so we just have to wait and see what Marvel has in store for us.
Final thoughts: "The only power I have is that I believe we can do better." This will go down in history as one of the greatest lines in MCU history or maybe even in Marvel film history. It truly resonated deep within my soul, the entirety of Sam's speech did, and I think it will for you too. Of all the MCU media to hit us over the past decade or so, I can firmly say that the Captain America trilogy is probably some of the strongest stuff, with this series being the icing on top of the cake. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier isn't the perfect series but then again nothing is. There'll always be flaws in everything that we watch and we can accept that. The important thing is, this series has shone on a light on important issues that people all over the world tackle, even if it's primarily told from an American perspective.
You don't have to be black to experience racism and I'm sure countries all over the world have veterans dealing with PTSD. Even if you're fortunate enough like I am to not be part of these marginalised groups, this series should invoke enough of a response in you to want to do better, just like what Sam said. While the Flag-Smashers clearly weren't right all the time, they're definitely not wrong and Sam recognised that. Something as extreme might not happen in the real world and "one world, one people" might not be the best slogan to preach but it's still food for thought. What can we do to help others who are in need? You don't even have to think big or global, you can start small and just look at how you can contribute to your community and make the lives of those around you just a little better.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the first MCU product to bring me close to tears because of how real it was. I went in expecting something more in line with what we've seen in the MCU prior but I got so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Sam and Bucky's journey to becoming better heroes and that final title card with "The Falcon" replaced with "Captain America" just cements our hero's arc coming full circle. Without a shadow of a doubt, Sam Wilson is now Captain America. What an excellent series and everyone should give this masterpiece a shot. Thanks for reading.
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