With two episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier currently available for streaming on Disney+, I think that's enough to say that Marvel Studios has another hit on its hands. Sure, things can fall apart at any moment, but anyone concerned about a lack of production quality, or a letdown in story or acting has to be pleased with what they've watched so far.
In fact, every little knock that WandaVision got over the course of its run—
The episodes are too short.
The story development is too slow.
There's not enough action! This is Marvel, right?
Where's Mephisto, Reed Richards the Multiverse and all the X-Men?!?
—can't really be said for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
If anything, the knocks could be—
Why aren't there more Easter Eggs?
Why is there so much over the top action?
This show is too macho for my tastes.
Remember WandaVision? Those days don't come back.
Haters Gonna Hate
Whatever. So far, I'm enjoying the new offering. It's been exceeding my expectations, which is a good thing. I think mine were lowered after seeing the trailers for the show, which, I'm afraid to say, don't do the actual series justice.
In particular, I wasn't looking forward to seeing the Bucky Barnes/Dr. Raynor therapy sessions. They seemed to be for comic relief, or worse, some kind of rote, ritualistic event that has to happen because Barnes has been the poster boy for mind-controlled living weapons and of course, the government, in all its wisdom, wants to make sure he's "okay."
Thankfully, though, more has been delved into other than trying to make things as realistic as possible, when of course, we're still talking super powered beings doing some pretty impossible things.
The C and D-Leaguers
While the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was all about bringing the Marvel Comics B-listers together (because the A-listers—Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four—were unavailable, thanks to their movie rights being sold to Sony and Fox, respectively), Phase 4 has been about developing the also ran characters which have been introduced to some degree throughout those first phases, but haven't really been given the spotlight.
WandaVision, because it jumped into the middle of the story without context or pretext, put the viewership on its ear and seemingly begged each week for the fan theorists to guess what was going on.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is more of the Marvel fare most have come to expect, which, as it turns out, has its own advantages. It's much easier to concentrate on what's going on and how that's affecting the characters rather than endlessly wondering what's really lurking under all those layers. It's actually refreshing, though, I thoroughly enjoyed WandaVision and wish there would be six seasons worth of episodes (at least), rather than just the taste will end up living with.
Yes, there are spoilers from here on out. Turn back now if you don't want to be spoilered.
What We've Seen So Far
Bucky Barnes
Aside from the aforementioned Bucky in therapy, we've seen how his past is now haunting him. As the Winter Soldier, he mindlessly had one mission (at a time), and he was very good at what he did (to borrow a description of another Marvel character). Now, in the one present day skirmish we've seen Barnes in, there hasn't been that super soldier drive yet, though it's kind of hinted at after the joint therapy session he has with Sam Wilson.
It will be interesting to see just how effective Barnes is when he's not under Hydra or Soviet control.
Barnes is really taking things to heart, which again, is something he's not had to deal with as a thoughtless death machine. It's hard to imagine him being more upset than Wilson is over the revelation that the U.S. Government has pulled a fast one on the latter's reluctance to pick up Captain America's shield, but so far, Barnes has been the most vocal about it.
We get a personal reason why during the dual therapy session when he tells Wilson that Steve (Rogers, aka Captain America), trusted him with the shield to do the right thing, and if his trust was misplaced, then maybe Steve was wrong about Barnes, too. Meaning, maybe he can't be a good man, after all.
There's a lot to explore there, and four more episodes doesn't seem to be enough to even scratch the surface.
Barnes is now the quintessential man out of time, and without Steve around to show him the ropes. Rogers didn't have to worry about his past haunting him. He was literally on ice for 70 years or so. Not so, Barnes. He'd been weaponized for the majority of that.
And now, trying to make amends, he's running into trouble. He's already met an old Japanese man who, as it turns out, is the father of a man the Winter Soldier killed during an assassination of someone else. An innocent bystander who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. What resolution that will end up taking will be interesting to see.
His attempt at dating hasn't gone well, so far, simply because he's 106 years old, and how do you communicate that to someone who doesn't know who you really are? And how do you build a solid relationship if the other doesn't know who you are, or, how do you do it if they do? It's a literal Catch-22. It's going to take a special person to get through all of the baggage that Barnes has.
So, things aren't all rosy just because Barnes was a part of the Avengers ensemble that won the day. In fact, it's the opposite, for him and the world.
Sam Wilson
Unlike Barnes, Wilson actually has a life (to a degree). We've seen him trying to fit back into that with his sister and her sons, since he was blipped and they weren't. He wants to save the family business. She doesn't. She had to scrap and scrimp and scratch and fight just to feed her family and a keep a roof overhead. Wilson, in typical hero fashion, thinks he can save things.
The idea to get a bank loan to finance some renovations and produce some operating capital goes awry. While it's nice to have half the world back, it's not been without its share of mega-headaches. So, even though he's a hero, with Air Force contracts, he and his sister are turned down for the loan.
While the subplot of giving up the shield has been front and center through two episodes, the reason for giving it up, beyond preserving the legacy of Steve Rogers, has been danced around. Wilson had an opportunity to get into his reasoning during the therapy session but chose not to. It seems inevitable, though, that we'll find out why he gave it up, which to date, the big money is riding on him being a Black man and supposedly what that might mean to America. A predominantly white America.
I'm not sure how I feel about that. If this story were taking place in the 60s or 70s and earlier, I could see a potential problem. The introduction of Isaiah Bradley as an actual Black Super Soldier that apparently managed to defeat the Winter Soldier during the Korean Conflict definitely points to Wilson's reasoning.
I'm hoping not. I enjoyed the fact that he corrected the young man on the street when the latter called him "Black Falcon* and told him it was just Falcon. When the kid pressed him he asked, "Is it because I'm Black and I'm the Falcon?" The boy says yes, and so Wilson turns it back on him by saying, "So does that mean you're the Black Kid?"
It would be great if we could get through these episodes without zeroing in on identity or race. While it's been high on the list of the real world's issues, it hasn't been such a thing in the MCU. We haven't seen anyone, really, demoralized or dehumanized because of who they are, the color of their skin, their gender, etc.
Maybe this is something that Marvel Studio can lead out on, by simply letting Wilson be himself, and be the best version of himself he can be, free of identity. Instead of being among the best black superheroes, he can be among the best superheroes, period.
John Walker
At the end of episode one, we get introduced to the U.S. Government's choice for the new Captain America. He is not a meta, or enhanced in any way, though he does have higher than normal human abilities. Whether or not that's going to be enough to go up against the powered up folks we've seen so far may actually lead to him receiving some version of a super soldier serum.
In the meantime, Walker's fighting an uphill battle when it comes to Barnes and Wilson. Walker keeps wanting to team up with them and they keep finding reasons to avoid it. Some of those are more valid than others, but there's quite a bit of emotion involved, which Walker's own hubris does not help. In my mind, he's a decent enough guy, but he's definitely feeling the full weight of the Captain America mantle upon him simply because he's not Steve Rogers.
As he rightly states, he's got big shoes to fill. If he's smart, he'll find his own path. However, it's not looking good in that regard thus far.
Because he's been humanly exceptional all his life, while he tries to be humble, he's used to being well above average. Rogers started out life as a puny kid who lost all of his early fights, and couldn't really become stuck on himself because he was constantly reminded of just how frail or weak he really was. That turned out to be his greatest strength, though, something that Walker is lacking.
Whether he will rise above that in the MCU version of himself will no doubt unfold over the remaining four episodes. So far, it's not heading that direction, but we could be seeing the lead up to a name change, where he goes from Captain America to U.S. Agent (leaving the Super Patriot moniker untouched) to either step aside for Wilson to reclaim it, or to simply retire the Captain America title altogether.
The World
Basically, it's in turmoil. There are people who want it to go back to the way it was before the blip, and there are others who actually liked where the five years without everyone around was going, and want it to continue. That seems to be the main idea behind the Flag Smashers (no boundaries, one world, one people), and the status quo, which includes the governments of the world and factions like the one led by someone called the Power Broker.
So far, I've had a hard time disliking the Flag Smashers, who've been the show's purported protagonists so far. In fact, this could be one of those times, until a more nefarious motive or true bad guy is revealed, where the good guys and bad guys are actually flipped—the Flag Smashers are actually Freedom Fighters like quite a few people are saying, and it's the governments of the world trying to restore order that are the actual oppressors.
That could be at least partially motivating Wilson giving up the shield. Yes, he's flying solo missions for the U.S. Air Force, but he's not necessarily representing an entire nation. One that has its fair share of issues, problems and hard history.
Obviously, one could say the same thing about any country.
Regardless, we'll have to see who the actual bad guys will be, much like we did in WandaVision. Supposedly, we're going to catch up with Helmut Zemo this Friday, who has been locked away in a cell (presumably blasting his favorite classical music?) in a Hannibal Lecter style interrogation where Wilson and Barnes will attempt to get him to help them track down the origins of this new round of super soldiers.
What We Don't Know
Yo, Steve!
Is Steve Rogers even alive? Apparently, he's not on a moon base, though, why the heck not? I mean, we know Nick Fury's been up to something in space. Regardless, I don't think a cameo of old Steve is necessary, but if anyone could coax Wilson to pick up the shield, he could. It's kind of the way it goes down in comics, anyway.
Is Zemo Behind It All?
I've been wondering, ever since Barnes announced his intentions to see Zemo at the end of episode two, just what Zemo's role will actually be. One of the earlier trailers intimated that he had escaped and had returned to his previous singular focus—rid the world of super powered beings. While I'm sure he's had some time to think upon it, and the mercy shown him by T'Challa at the end of Captain America: Civil War notwithstanding, I'm thinking it could go either way at this point.
He could be the shows big bad, or he could be the character seeking redemption.
Which Side Will Wilson and Barnes Ultimately Be On?
All indications are, the duo will make their own way. How they will manage to do that, though, without necessarily picking one side over the other, will hopefully be what unravels.
The Avengers had to grapple with their own issues—were they actually the good guys, or merely part of the problem if not actually the problem. Ultron wasn't that sympathetic of a character, but the fact he existed in the first place thanks to Tony Stark (aided and abetted by Bruce Banner), one could argue, at least the science division of the Avengers could stand to be put in check.
However, Thanos, who probably had at least half of the Internet wholeheartedly agreeing with him, thanks to the tie in to real world issues of Earth with presumably finite resources, was much more sympathetic, and yet every superhero available was mustered to defeat him. Thankfully, genocide of half the world's population still counts as evil in the MCU, because it seems iffy at best in the real world.
The big resolve in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier appears to be what kind of world will prevail—the status quo, pre-blip, or the way things were, post blip. Before this current Marvel show, we've been given the impression that things weren't all that great after the blip. People continually missing loved ones. Those left behind most likely suffering traumas from the impossibility of so many people suddenly gone, and their own survivor's guilt. All of that mixed in with an overwhelming, overpowering sense of helplessness.
But Banner's snap brought everyone back. Shouldn't everyone be happy? Apparently not. After five years of finding their way, those who remained were starting to get somewhere, which must have meant a power redistribution to some degree. We don't know what world leaders may have disappeared, or how that affected entire governments, but surely, it did. Blipping half the world, seemingly, did not necessarily mean a straight half down the middle. We know that because a lot more heroes fighting Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War disappeared than remained.
In fact, conveniently enough, we were left with the original Avengers, and precious few else.
So, given how that went down in Wakanda, it's not that much of a stretch to say that some governments could have been wiped out while others went relatively untouched.
And it's the returning of those which were wiped out that's causing the most upheaval, leading to the unrest.
Like It Or Not
The blip wasn't just a McGuffin. There are MCU-world consequences, and Marvel isn't backing down from it. We also seem to be in a post-Avengers world, too, and since power abhors a vacuum, there's now a battle over who will wield it.
While WandaVision was every bit a morality play, its stage was much smaller (though the implications are certainly enormous—multiverse enormous). Wanda's love and grief and the consequences of both while being the legendary Scarlet Witch was a very personal drama.
On the other hand, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is on a much grander scale, with the direction of the whole planet in the balance. Which way will Earth's denizens go? And who, among the superheroes, will ultimately help them get there?
We Shall See
I get rather tired of saying things like, "time will tell," but it seems unavoidable. I did way too much speculating and prognosticating with WandaVision. It was fun, but it was ultimately distracting. From now on, I'm in it for the sheer joy of the journey. Besides, whatever way Marvel Studios goes is already locked in.
If I don't like it, I can just not watch it.
I'm liking it a lot, though, so come Friday morning, I'll be watching episode three.
Until then...
...Enjoy!
All Images source—The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Media Kit on disney.com