Emily Hummer

Text Review Assignment

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a new television series streaming on Disney Plus.  The season will be six episodes total and five of them have already aired. This series is a continuation of Marvel’s cinematic masterpieces, but this series is different in that Marvel is showing real world issues we are facing now. One of the main themes of the story is Sam “Falcon” Wilson having to deal with Steve Rogers giving him the Captain America shield as an old man at the end of Avengers: Endgame. This was a critical moment for Sam because not only would he become the new Captain America, but he would be a black man as Captain America. The thought of a black man having this much power in America wasn’t something the U.S. government forces wanted, so they manipulated Sam into retiring the shield and instead created a new Captain America, another white man. This exemplifies the power structure of the United States, how historically we have “othered” people of color and are still fighting this battle today.

Something else this series shows is a police confrontation. The two main characters, Bucky “Winter Soldier” Barnes and Sam, are in a verbal confrontation in the street when the police show up. They treat Sam and Bucky completely differently, as Bucky is white. Bucky, talking about Sam being the Falcon, finally says, “Do you know who this is?” Then the police finally realize it and back off. I think this really shows injustice within our police system at a time when it is truly relevant. Just before this scene Bucky had taken Sam to see Isaiah Bradley. Isaiah had not yet been introduced to the Marvel movies until now and he is a very important character, so Marvel took a huge step showing him. His back story is that he was the first black super soldier as well as technically the first black Captain America. But the cost of all of this was him being put in jail for 30 years to be experimented on. It opened Sam’s eyes to the possibility of a black Captain America because it has happened, but the cost in unbelievable.

This show is able to embed some very important concepts of injustice and power structures in a way Marvel has never done before. Marvel’s Black Panther took the huge step of showing an almost entirely black cast of strong fighters, and now with all of the underlying messages in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Marvel is taking leaps to show the world something we all needed to see. I think the main idea the author wants you to take away is that a black man is just as worthy of that shield as anyone else.

Picture showcasing Isaiah Bradly (left) and Sam Wilson (right)