Hasitha Fernando on the biggest takeaways from episode one of Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier…
With the conclusion of the uber-trippy, sitcom fuelled WandaVision a few weeks prior, Disney+ has unleashed the next new venture in their slate of goodies – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This TV show will focus on the lives of ace USAF Pararescue man Sam Wilson and ex-Soviet sleeper agent cum assassin Sgt. Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes, as they try to adjust to civilian life whilst tackling the innumerable threats unfurling across the globe in a post-Endgame world. A far cry from the magical-fantasy hijinks of WandaVision, tonally this show has more in common with the Russo Brothers’ Captain America films than other MCU offerings. Now without further ado, let’s jump right in and have a look at the biggest takeaways from this installment of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
1. The Return of Georges Batroc
If you cast your mind back to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Georges Batroc a.k.a Batroc the Leaper, is the French mercenary who was hired covertly by Nick Fury to hijack the Lumerian Star as a cover to access classified information pertaining to Project Insight. After a brief but unsuccessful scuffle with Cap, Batroc was eventually captured and interrogated by S.H.I.E.L.D at a safe-house in Algiers, to gain information about his secret mission. Here, we see him alive and well, heading a criminal organization known as the L.A.F. These extremist nutjobs seem to be profiting off the chaos in a post-Endgame world and also appear to be possessing quite a lethal skill set, armed with a wide array of cutting-edge gadgets and advanced weaponry. It’s unclear how Batroc and the L.A.F will factor in to the series’ overall story, but one thing is certain…this ain’t the last time we’ll be seeing either of them.
2. Lieutenant Joaquin Torres
There’s certainly more than meets the eye, with the infectiously charming First Lieutenant Joaquin Torres portrayed by Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick). For the uninitiated, he’s the one who takes up the Falcon mantle briefly in the comics when Sam becomes Captain America. In the source material Torres gets kidnapped by the racist group named Sons of the Serpent and gets experimented upon by the twisted Dr. Karl Malus, irrevocably turning him into a human-falcon hybrid. Given the grounded nature of the show it seems unlikely Torres would undergo a similar transformation here, but him eventually taking up the Falcon mantle? Now that is a possibility. But whether this would happen with or without Sam’s concurrence, that is a different question entirely. Another possibility is that Malus – who had an unhealthy obsession with the subject of superhuman powers in the comics – may also show up in the series in some shape or form, as the man responsible for juicing up the anarchist group called the Flag-Smashers. But more on them next.
3. The Flag-Smashers
During the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we are introduced to a group of masked anarchists who call themselves the Flags-Smashers. Torres who has been monitoring their movements for some time described that their essential objective is to have ‘a world unified without borders’. These misguided ideals eerily mirror the twisted sentiments shared by Karl Morgenthau, who is the villain known as Flag-Smasher from the comics. Morgenthau’s goal is to liberate Earth from the oppression of nation rule. He firmly believes that nationalism is an outmoded concept which promotes disunity amongst man. Because of these radical beliefs, the Flag-Smasher has come to odds with Cap on many occasions in the past.
The MCU version of the antagonist however, seems to have undergone a slight alteration in the form of a gender swap, with the character now being called Karli Morgenthau played by actress Erin Kellyman (Solo: A Star Wars Story). Further, as evidenced by the innumerable trailers and TV spots, Karli appears to be the leader of these ragtag band of misfits. It would be interesting to see if Karli will have an origin story similar to that of her comic book counterpart, but the biggest question on everyone’s mind is how the Flag-Smashers come to have superhuman strength? Are they Mutants, Skrulls or part of a government experiment gone wrong? We do know that at least some version of Cap’s super-soldier serum exists out there, as evidenced from what we saw in The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: Civil War. So, this could be a botched government effort gone haywire after all. Or… will this be how we will be introduced to the MCU’s iteration of the mad scientist Dr. Karl Malus? Only time will tell.
4. A New Captain America
At the conclusion of episode one we are introduced to a new Captain America, donning Cap’s iconic shield and wearing a slightly tweaked version of the original uniform. Although his name isn’t revealed in the short intro, the episode’s end credits feature a poster of him with the caption ‘John Walker: Cap is back’. So, who is this John Walker? In the comics Walker took the role of Captain America when Steve Rogers abandoned his identity due to Red Skull’s manipulation of the Commission on Superhuman Activities. Unsuccessful in his run as Cap, Walker’s death was faked by the Commission and he re-emerged as US Agent. He possesses superhuman speed and strength, after having undergone a strength augmenting process for the Power Broker Corporation. The showrunners of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seem to have taken the liberty to alter the character’s persona somewhat, as it seems that this John Walker is a douchier model of The Boys’ Homelander. Whether the MCU’s John Walker will have superpowers of his own is unknown, but this much is certain: the U.S government is certainly not having our superheroes’ best interests at heart.
Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
Originally published March 20, 2021. Updated March 26, 2021.
