No, the first episode did not feature Captain America’s funeral like many fans surmised (including me), but that doesn’t mean that the homage to the fallen Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) was forgotten. In fact, most of the first episode was dedicated to the discourse surrounding his legacy.
While “WandaVision” was a more unconventional exploration of some of the under-developed characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Disney +’s latest venture, “Falcon and Winter Solider” is back to basics, giving us a layered story that packs a punch. And if “WandaVision’s” success told us anything, it’s that Marvel Studios are not holding back in their television adaptations. Each one is more complex, inventive and unique and “Falcon and the Winter Solider” furthers this narrative.
The story comes around 6-Months after the blip. The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), who was introduced in “Captain America: Winter Solider in 2014,” is back and adjusting to life with the loss of fellow Avenger and best friend, Steve Rogers. At the end of “Avengers: End Game”, we see that Rogers hands down the iconic Shield to Sam (The Falcon) to continue on the legacy of hope. This legacy, and the pressure to measure up to Steve’s shadow, weighs heavily on Sam’s shoulders as he voices his feeling of inadequateness that the Shield and symbol doesn’t feel like it should be his.
After a lengthy search and rescue mission on the border of Libya, one that requires the gift of flight, we are introduced to the vigilante group The Flag-Smashers, a group of rogue civilians who believe that the world was better during the blip, when half of the population was wiped out. The Flag-Smashers are set up to be the major source of conflict between the peace that had been restored to the world after the Avenger’s stomping win over Thanos.
As Sam leaves the middle East, he returns back to D.C. to attend a museum opening for Captain America at the Smithsonian where we discover that Sam has no intention to continue on the legacy of Captain America. That he plans to return the iconic Shield to the museum, or so the government says.
We later find out that the government had no intention of collecting the Shield to store in a case at a museum. Instead, they planned to take it and give it to their new Captain America, a white man stepping in to fill the part. As we weave more into Sam’s backstory, we can see that Marvel is layering the story with aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement and we know that race will be an important subject, as it should be addressed based on our current climate, surrounding Sam’s rise to fill Steve’s shoes.
“We need new heroes, ones suited for the times we are in.”
While the first half of the episode is dedicated to Sam, it spends the rest of the time fleshing out the back-story of James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan), also known here as The Winter Solider. Bucky has been pardoned from his crimes by the US Government, however, part of his pardon includes attending regularly sanctioned therapy sessions where we discover that Bucky’s re-introduction into civilian life has been much rockier than Sam’s. Suffering from nightmares and flashbacks of PTSD during his time as a weapon for Hydra, Bucky is searching for a new purpose to fulfill and is coming up blank.
We know that he has no family and his best friend is Yuri, an elderly man who lives down the street. The two spend their time together during lunches at the local restaurant where Yuri openly grieves the loss of his son and Bucky tries to assimilate back into society. In these scenes we see Bucky struggling, but trying, to make contact with others and suffering along the way. Like Sam, Bucky is searching for a purpose now that he is back from the blip, unsure how to make the step forward into his new life.
Although the first episode doesn’t feature Bucky and Sam together on the screen, the buddy team-up is coming as the trailers have teased the witty banter back and forth.
New “Falcon and Winter Solider” Episodes will be released every Friday on Disney +.
Season 1 will feature at least 6 episodes, spanning around forty-minutes each, a longer runtime than “WandaVision.” Marvel has done such a fantastic job weaving in some of the lesser-developed Avenger’s characters into these mini-series to explore their background and provide more depth to their story. And the numbers don’t lie, people are loving it, which means we should expect more in the future!
And that’s the sitch.
Comments