Sure, why not. Nothing better to write about. These aren't so much recaps or reviews as an excuse for me to talk about comics. As we pick up the story with two Captain America–adjacent characters, we find the Falcon retiring Cap’s shield to the Smithsonian and having problems with his family’s seafood business. The Winter Soldier is having flashbacks to his time as a Hydra assassin.
Who is the Falcon in the comics? Sam Wilson took on the superhero mantle in 1969 in Captain America, making him one of Marvel’s first Black superheroes. He was a loooonngtime associate and ally of Cap’s and for awhile in the ‘70s, the two were co-billed in Captain America comics. The Falcon joined the Avengers in the late ‘70s when the government criticized the whiteness of the team and told them to recruit a Black member. However, the Falcon felt like a token on the team, so he left after too long. He would occasionally return to active Avengers duty in emergencies.
The Falcon doesn’t have any powers but in the comics he does wear a suit of wings, similar to in the movies. In the comics, Redwing is an actual falcon that Sam trains and has a rapport with, so while the living Redwing may not have all the technological capabilities of the mechanical one on TV, real falcons will mess you up, making him pretty handy in battle.
On the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam is dealing with money problems, like everybody else, exacerbated after he was missing for five years. He and his sister and trying to get a loan and save their family’s seafood business. (Did I miss something or did they leave takeout orders of shellfish unrefrigerated in the cab of their pickup while at the bank?) The Louisiana connection comes straight from the TV show; in the comics Sam was from Harlem and was sort of the protector of the neighborhood.
The Falcon noted that the Avengers only were paid in exposure and goodwill, but didn’t make any money for saving the world. In the comics, the Avengers got a paycheck, presumably from Tony Stark, and could also live at Avengers Mansion if they wanted, saving themselves the cost of New York City rents. I don’t know what they made in modern times but in 1983, that salary was about $52,000. I know this because Spider-Man ran into She-Hulk on the street in an Avengers comic, and she told him she made $1,000 a week (not sure if this was net or gross). This made the perpetually broke Peter Parker want to join the team. A thousand a week may not be much of a salary today for saving the world and living in New York, but it was more in 1983, and Marvel’s sliding timescale makes the comparison meaningless anyway. The point was, they did make some money, although some of the Avengers had side jobs. Captain America was a commercial artist. Thor, as Don Blake, was a doctor. The Wasp was a model and fashion designer and was an heiress anyway. So they all did OK.
Anyway, the Winter Soldier’s story in the comics was basically the same as in the movies. James “Bucky” Barnes was Cap’s partner during World War II and died in the mission that left Cap in suspended animation in the ice. Cap thought Bucky was dead but didn’t know the Soviets brainwashed him and would use him as an assassin and send him back into suspended animation when they didn’t need him, or when his memory resurfaced. For decades, Marvel Comics had an informal rule: The only characters who didn’t come back from the dead were Uncle Ben and Bucky (and I guess Gwen Stacy). When Bucky resurfaced in 2004, everybody liked the story, as it wasn’t cheap and made sense of Bucky’s story and legacy. He later overcame his programming and became an ally of Captain America.
In the show, the Winter Soldier is coming to terms with his time as an assassin and making amends to the people he hurt. At first, I thought his friendship with the old man was sweet, since as a 106-year-old man out of time, he probably can’t identify with any young people. Then I realized he befriended the man because he killed his grandson and the friendship became something darker.
A few minor Captain America villains appeared on the first episode. Batroc the Leaper is pretty straightforward in the comics: He’s an acrobat who likes to kick people in the face, who speaks with a French accent full of “zis” and “zat.” He wasn’t meant to be taken seriously in the comics, and nobody did. One thing I remember Batroc doing in an old issue of Captain America was team up with Mr. Hyde (Daisy’s father from Agents of SHIELD) to hijack a ship with a nuke onboard, which they were going to detonate in New York Harbor, a plot Cap foiled. The Flag Smashers in the comics are the Flag Smasher, a guy who objected to nationalism and borders and fought Captain America in the ‘80s.
Also, I know who the new Captain America is, and his comics background, but I’m not going to tell you until next week.
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