Falcon and the Winter Soldier episodes I-III Created by Malcolm Spellman and Directed by Kari Skogland

 Falcon and the Winter Soldier episodes I-III

Created by Malcolm Spellman and Directed by Kari Skogland

So at the end of Endgame, an aged Steve Rogers hands off his shield to Sam Wilson, telling him that the shield was his now. Falcon and the Winter Soldier answers the question of what Sam Wilson does now? The series was written and produced by Malcolm Spellman, an African American writer and producer who is also well known for his work on the musical drama series Empire. Canadian-born Kari Skogland directs the series, previously working mostly in television directing episodes of Boardwalk Empire, The Borgias, Sons of Liberty, and Vikings. Now Mr. Spellman was the person who gave the series its direction from what I can find, deciding that race and identity had to be at the core of the show but that didn't mean the show couldn't be fun and action-packed. That at times means walking a fine line but I feel that Mr. Spellman and his writers did a great job doing so. Meanwhile, Ms. Skogland was a Canadian directing an intensely American show and a woman directing an action series. I got to be honest and say I think she also did a pretty great job in delivering us some bone-jarring action series while allowing the series to have room for emotional depth and more mundane drama. I don't want to go in-depth into the whole series this week, so instead let me focus a bit on the characters.

Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) is our lead character and is the character who has to answer the main question of Falcon and Winter Soldier:Can a Black Man even be Captain America in the first place? Now, this is a loaded question given how much of a symbol both Captain America and Steve Rogers have become both within the fictional Marvel Universe and in our real world. Now I would argue that the reason that Captain America is a symbol is Steve Rogers. If it had just been some standard infantry trooper plucked from a combat unit and slapped into a colorful suit and shot up with the super-soldier serum, Cap would not have become the legend he is today. That said, while Steve Rogers gave life to the Captain America legend, what Captain America and his shield symbolize has taken on a life of its own. Because in the eyes of millions if not billions Captain America symbolizes a nation, not just a single man. This means that shield also symbolizes the darkness and brutality of the American government and society, as well as the brightness and promise of the American Dream. It's no surprise that Sam isn't super excited to carry that weight as a black man, and the series does a good job of showing why. For example, when Sam has a discussion with Bucky in public that gets a little loud and heated, the cops are quick to show up and start hassling Sam while ignoring Bucky entirely. Then there's the subplot of his parent's boat, which is becoming a weight dragging down his sister's business. You know there's an issue when an Avenger of all people can't get a small business loan. Sam is struggling to define his life and deal with the fact that he's been gone for five years and on top of that he's got this question about does he even want to be a symbol for the United States, never mind does the United States want him to be a symbol for it?

Meanwhile, Bucky is struggling to try and finally bury the legacy of the Winter Soldier and become a human being. It's harder than it looks and he's haunted by nightmares, an inability to open up to people, and a deep-seated fear that he can't ever be anything but the Winter Soldier. So when Sam passes up on being the new Captain America, he makes it about him instead of it being about Sam. This kind of drives a wedge into their relationship, which without Steve there isn’t a lot of common ground left to build on. While Sam has his sister and nephews and a community to fall back on, Bucky doesn't even have that.  Everyone he knows from his childhood is dead. So it's no surprise that Bucky clings to Sam and that shield like a pair of lifeboats, even using them to duck the hard issues of the rest of his life. This isn't welcomed by Sam as he sees Bucky as another person judging him for making his own decisions and doesn't want Bucky hanging his mental and emotional well-being on Sam's life choices. Luckily for them, there is someone who comes along and gives them some common ground to build around. Several someones really but we're going to focus on Karli and John Walker this week.

John Walker is the government-mandated Captain America 2.0: Blonde, blue-eyed, physically and mentally in the top 10 to 5% of humanity. A decorated soldier, a good friend, and a loyal husband... And walking proof that a government committee has no business picking Captain America. I had a friend tell me that John Walker is total butts and frankly he does seem widely hated as a character. Strangely, I don't hate John Walker, which is weird because I completely loathe the comic version. Instead, I take one look at John Walker and go 'oh no buddy you should not be in the field at all.' John Walker wants to do a good job, all his life all he's wanted was to do a good job and he's suffering for that. He's not emotionally stable nor is he mentally all there. In some ways, he almost seems to be tweaking as if the government doped him up with something before handing him the shield. Worse, he only seems to have two supports in his friend Lemar Hoskins, Battlestar, a fellow veteran who is tapped to be Cap 2.0's partner, and his wife, who he honestly doesn't seem to completely confide in. This is realistic - When you're a vet telling the person you love everything that happened on the battlefield is a hard ask. There are things you simply do not want them to know. You don't want them to know about the smell or the sounds or the aftermath. You don't want to risk that they'll look at you with that same flicker of doubt you see in the mirror sometimes. Lamar, having been part of his unit, was there and now provides extra support but you can't just have one pillar of support. What if it cracks? Or isn't there one day? I look at Walker and I see a guy who wants to be good but his whole idea of good is externally enforced and he's only now coming to grips with that. On top of that, he hasn't had a chance to come to grips with what he's already suffered or done. Whoever put John Walker in that damn suit did him no favor and may have set a perfectly decent man on the road to destruction. One thing though that Bucky and Sam can come together over is that Walker isn't fit to carry the shield and they want nothing to do with him. I can't blame them as Walker seems to breeze in and expect everyone to treat him as if Steve has returned from the dead and frankly when you're talking to veterans of a war against a Mad God? That ain't happening.

Then we have Karli Morgenthau, who serves as an antagonist. I don't think of Karli as a villain. I don't agree with all of her goals or methods but I fully understand why and if nothing else I respect that Karli isn't doing this for personal power or enrichment. Karli is one of the people who weren't snapped away and whose life improved in some ways because of the snap. Due to a lack of labor, national borders were eased and all sorts of emergency measures were likely put in place to keep the lights on. Now that the snap has been undone, many of the folks in power would prefer to return things to the way they were and that means destroying Karli's life and community. Frankly, it's not surprising that Karli has turned to violence and created the Flagsmashers, she is having violence done to her. We can dress it up all we want but when you tear apart a community or tear down someone's life by taking away their house or destroying their identity, you are committing violence. It doesn't matter if you do this through laws, court orders, or by uniformed men with boots and guns, it's still violence. Karli doesn't have laws, she doesn't have court orders but she does have super-soldier serum she stole, people willing to follow her, and nothing left to lose. That said, I'm not surprised by her turn to violence. She frames her struggle in wartime rhetoric, turns to theft, and creates a cadre of super-powered followers to carry out her will, embracing direct kinetic action over any other form of resistance from day one. Her escalating the violence of her movement was inevitable, she just needed the right emotional push and opportunity. Now, none of this seems to be a conscious decision on her part but she never really seems to grasp the fact that she has a mass international moment of people willing to break the law for her and that's vastly more powerful than 9 or 10 super soldiers. The CIA once estimated that it only took resistance from as little as 5% of the population to unseat a government. Imagine if Karli could convince her followers to go on a general strike for just 3 days? It would be a gamble but if it worked frankly the governments of the world would have to give her and her moment a seat at the table and listen to her. It would be more effective than blowing up a single building at least but it wouldn't be as immediately satisfying or feed into Karli's need to strike back directly. A lot of this is because she is young and she needs to do things for herself and her thought process is being influenced by that damn serum. We'll talk about that next week though.

No grade this week although just based on the 3 hours I've seen I'm going to encourage you to watch Falcon and the Winter Soldier if you haven't already. Next week we'll look at the entire series and I'll give my final grade. Until then, stay safe and keep reading. 

Editor Mike, who had no comment.

Reviewer Garvin