![]() Suffice it to say, these villains were so average, they added little beyond motivation for Wilson's Falcon and Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier to bond. If you need to dig into the complicated backstory of the Flag Smashers, you can read it here. These were average people who had taken a substance similar to the "super soldier serum" which gave the original Captain America his increased speed, stamina and strength. This also explains why so much in this series outside of Sam Wilson's storylines felt so underdeveloped, especially the supposed bad guys, terrorist/freedom fighters, the Flag Smashers. So it was particularly satisfying to see this series create a Captain America for a new age – when so much of the nation's systemic racism is directly challenged. In the comic books, Marvel's storytellers realized a long time ago that Captain America had the most impact when he challenged and resisted the nation's exceptionalist propaganda, rather than reflecting it. Pop Culture Happy Hour In 'The Falcon And The Winter Soldier,' Sam And Bucky Are Vib(ranium)ing We watched him become a Black hero who could shoulder Captain America's red-white-and-blue Vibranium shield, fully aware of all the issues he was taking on. Rogers' last act in that movie was to hand his legendary shield over to Sam Wilson as an old man, encouraging his former sidekick to continue its heroic legacy.īut having a Black man step up to be a symbol of America at a time when police brutality and systemic racism are front-page issues couldn't be a simple matter.Įven though the first season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier focused on a complicated plot about super-powered freedom fighters becoming terrorists, the real purpose was to spend six episodes transforming the Falcon. As any real superhero fan knows, the original Captain America - Chris Evans' blue-eyed dreamboat Steve Rogers - decided to return to the 1940s and live out his life as a normal man at the end of Avengers: Endgame. The consequence of the reveal was underscored by a new series title flashed at the end of the season finale: Captain America and the Winter Soldier. The show used him as the onscreen White Guy Learning Lessons, styled hilariously like the '90s Ghost Rider in a leather jacket and nice jeans.The reveal came during the final episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a Disney+ series that mixed splashy fight scenes and awesome cameos from underused Marvel movie characters with weighty talk about the nature of heroism. Bucky no longer even reads like a Brooklyn dude from the 1940s, with a dangerously grandparent-ish notion of race relations. It would require that this eternal warrior always thought he was doing the right thing, like so many predatory CIA agents and war-hawk presidents who made the world "safer" one napalm burst at a time. The tougher interpretation of a character like this would necessitate a sharper view the 20th century. It's not his fault he killed the bystander son of Yori (Ken Takemoto). It's not his fault Iron Man's parents died. But: He was brainwashed, like sci-fi brainwashed, with no control over his actions. He is sorry for decades of brainwashed murder. Every Winter Soldier scene depends on a fundamental flaw in motivation. Kindly un-handcuff the ever-charming Sebastian Stan from this dull character. Throw in John Walker ( Wyatt Russell) as a lethal new Captain America, a pale imitation with a chip on his shoulder and a willingness to break all the rules for his definition of justice.īut what does Bucky think about racism? is, I'll admit, not a question I've ever asked myself. Sam and Isaiah: Two good men, two different generations, two different perspectives. ![]() Big budgets arrived for superhero cinema right alongside overwhelming whiteness, so Lumbly's haunted gravity evoked the double erasures of American political history and onscreen genre history. That was also the era of Meteor Man, Spawn, and Blade. back in the mid-90s, playing a paralyzed scientist with a high-tech exo-suit. Lumby starred in the one-season wonder M.A.N.T.I.S. A Black man carrying a star-spangled shield suggested new depths of personal politics, especially when Sam met Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a super soldier terrorized by our government into genetic slavery and wrongful imprisonment. ![]() Without the other Avengers around, Sam Wilson turned out to be very much like Anthony Mackie: a genial New Orleans guy with a wry smile and an awesome boat. You kept on glimpsing the great show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier could have been.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |