The epilogue makes for a poignant revelation: NPR

Falcon and Winter Soldier It explores the question of whether there can be Captain America lions.

Chuck Zlotnik / Marvel Studios

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Chuck Zlotnik / Marvel Studios

Falcon and Winter Soldier It explores the question of whether there can be Captain America lions.

Chuck Zlotnik / Marvel Studios

Warning: There are a lot of spoilers here regarding the final episode of Season 1 of Marvel Falcon and Winter Soldier.

It’s hard to imagine a better week for TV fans to meet Black Captain America.

Days after the world breathed in relief Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, Marvel unveiled Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain of America – in the process, he made a poignant case why a black hero stands up to the defense of a country that often abuses people who look exactly like him.

The revelations came during the final episode of Falcon and Winter Soldier, The Disney + series that mixes exhilarating fight scenes and gorgeous underused Marvel movie characters with heavy talk about the nature of the tournament.

The reveal result was confirmed by a new series title that appeared at the end of the final season: Captain America and the Winter Soldier. As any true fan of superheroes knows, Captain America – blue-eyed Chris Evans boatman Steve Rogers – decided to go back to the forties and live his life as a common man at the end Avengers: Endgame. Rogers’ last act in this movie was handing over his legendary armor to Sam Wilson as an old man, encouraging his ex-boyfriend to continue his heroic legacy.

But having a black man touting to be a symbol of America at a time when police brutality and systemic racism were front page issues couldn’t be a simple matter.

Although the first season of Falcon and Winter Soldier Focus on an intricate plot about superpowered freedom fighters becoming terrorists, and the real goal was to spend six episodes changing the falcon. We watched him transform into a black hero who could withstand the red, white and blue Vibranium shield from Captain America, keenly aware of all the problems he was facing.

“Every time I pick this thing, I know there are millions of people who are going to hate me because of it,” Wilson says in a touching speech at the season finale. “However, I’m still here. There is no super serum. There are no blonde hair or blue eyes. The only strength I have is the belief that we can do better.” At a time when ordinary people risk their safety to protest police brutality, and put a lot to the test in believing that America can be made better through the hard work of serious people, this kind of rhetoric sounds like a rallying cry.

In comic books, Marvel storytellers have long recognized that Captain America had the most influence when he challenged and countered the exceptional state’s propaganda, rather than reversing it. So it was particularly satisfying to see this series make Captain America for a new era – when so much of the country’s systemic racism is being directly challenged.

It also explains why so many in the series outside of Sam Wilson’s stories feel so retarded, especially supposed villains, terrorists / freedom fighters, and Flag Smashers. These were laypeople who took a substance similar to the “super soldier serum” that gave Captain America the Native America his increased speed, endurance and strength. If you need to dig into Flag Smashers’ complex backstory, you can Read it here.

Suffice it to say, these villains were pretty average, and added little to the motivation behind Wilson Falcon and Winter Soldier Sebastian Stan for bonding. The Flag Smashers also gave the heroes a reason to capitalize on the expertise of a villain dedicated to killing anyone taking a super soldier’s serum, Daniel Bruhl’s Baron Zemo.

I hope the show also spent a little more time with John Walker, a former PTSD soldier who was initially picked by ignorant American officials to be the new Captain of America – only to lose the title when he killed one of the flag wreckers. Walker, played by the blue-eyed celebrity son White Russell, is seen in the final episode with another compelling character, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), at a hint we’ll see more of the two.

Here, Walker is often set up as a terrifying example of what happens when an insecure and damaged man chases after Captain America’s mantle – and the Super Soldier’s serum – for all the wrong reasons. (I still don’t understand why his only punishment for killing a disguised terrorist suspect in broad daylight was a job loss. Although that sounds familiar).

I’ll also jump into the superhero bunny hole a little more to complain about something else Falcon and Winter Soldier: Combat scenes. Marvel superhero movies have always been wary of how each hero’s power piles up against others, even across movies. So it always bothered me a little that those average – if desperate – people with great speed and strength from the serum, could thrive against the Winter Soldier, a highly trained assassin with matching speed and strength, a Vibranium arm who fought The original Captain America tied several times. Yeah. I feel better now.

I’ll be honest: As a black comic book and superhero lover, I haven’t always liked the big-screen Marvel version of Sam Wilson / The Falcon. The movies had a way of always reminding us that he was also second Captain America – in ways that inexplicably encouraged the same character, a proud black man. “I do what he’s doing, slower,” said Wilson, nodding his head at the white hero, Steve Rogers, in one memorable line from the 2014 movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Ugh.

The black letters accepting the dependency are always calling me the wrong way. So it was a discovery to see the argument advanced in the series that all of the performance-enhancing vaccines, propaganda gatherings, and traditional hiring decisions of the world’s white bread couldn’t outrun a dedicated black man bent on defending his nation while also keeping it in charge.

Withdrawing two steps of defense and accountability may be the new Captain America’s biggest achievement.

And this black superhero comedy nerd can’t wait to see him try.