The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

After Endgame, I think I was in the same boat as a lot of people in that, while some Phase Four MCU projects were interesting to me and I was looking forward to them, I wasn’t as all-around pumped for new Marvel content as I had been and wasn’t sure what the universe would look like going forward. But then 2020 passed without a single Marvel film or show, and now that the Disney+ series have got off the ground, Black Widow is finally on the horizon, and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in the Shang-Chi has me wondering if it’s fair to pick a new favorite MCU character without actually having seen the film yet, I can say it feels good to have new Marvel stuff on my screen, new reasons to write Marvelous Wednesdays posts. The latest outing, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is certainly more “standard Marvel fare” compared to the wild WandaVision, but while it’s not without its issues, I liked it an awful lot.

Still figuring out what their lives are going to look like after the events of Infinity War, the Snap, and Endgame, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes are thrown together into an unexpected mission when a new radical group known as the Flag Smashers turns out to be fronted by super-soldiers. The mission takes them around the world and unearths old friends and enemies alike, as both men struggle to relate to one another without the connective tissue of Steve Rogers bringing them together. Along the way, Sam wrestles with the legacy of Captain America as the shield, which Steve left to him, is given to another man who takes up the mantle.

As I said, WandaVision features a lot of bold depatures while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is in many ways a return to form. We’ve got fun quips, great interpersonal stuff, killer action (I appreciate the fact that this show has reminded me how incredible Bucky’s fighting is in The Winter Soldier and Civil War,) and a third act that doesn’t quite live up to everything that preceded it. The show seems to have a hard time deciding exactly who it wants the Flag Smashers to be, the humor gets just a little forced at times, and the series sometimes gets close to taking a strong stance and then backs away from the edge. I think, on the whole, WandaVision is probably more solid.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a hell of a lot to love about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As with WandaVision, it’s a great opportunity to dig more into two characters who’ve always had plenty of potential but were always positioned behind the main heroes in the movies. Sam and Bucky are two characters defined by their relationship to Steve, and it’s really interesting to see what they’re like in a situation where Steve is no longer there, when they’re still relating to one another primarily as his friends, arguing over his legacy and what he would want, each failing to recognize how the other is struggling now that he’s gone. The show offers up plenty of their enjoyable bickering, but it also goes deep into both of them as characters, and the two come out on the other side in a very different place than they began.

And even if the show doesn’t always go as far as I’d like in its messaging, I appreciate the fact that it grapples directly with Sam’s uncertainty about taking up the shield as a Black man. Watching the show, it occurred to me that I don’t think any of the major characters of color in the MCU movies have actually been alluded to as people of color outside of the projects written by BIPOC. Yes, in The Winter Soldier, Sam recommends the Trouble Man soundtrack for Steve’s list, but this is the first time we’ve heard him say the words, “As a Black man…”, the first time he’s sighed and rolled his eyes when he hears kids referring to him as “the Black Falcon,” the first time it’s openly acknowledged that the public doesn’t look at him the same way as they looked at Steve or Tony – or John Walker, the “new Captain America,” for that matter. I appreciate that Sam is a much fuller character here and that his race is allowed to be a part of that.

Both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan kill it in their roles as Sam and Bucky. They play off of each other so well, both comedically and dramatically, and both are great in exploring the individual focus given to their characters. I love seeing how fluidly Sam slips into a leadership role even as he’s still struggling with the Captain America question, with Mackie bringing warmth, humor, and steadiness to the role, and Stan does a fine job showing a Bucky who’s trying to find a way forward on his own after all the trauma he’d endured. (I unfortunately do need to point out that, as much as I love Stan and as wonderful as he’s been throughout the franchise, he’s also an able-bodied actor playing a character with a disability.) In addition to returning actors Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo and Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, the show also features Erin Kellyman from Solo, Adepero Oduye (who I loved in Pariah,) the always-great Carl Lumbly, and a few surprise MCU appearances.

Warnings

Comic-book violence, thematic elements, language, drinking, and an able-bodied actor playing a character with a disability.