Finally got around to watching “Falcon and The Winter Soldier” and it would have been so much better if Isaiah Bradley’s story had been the first episode, or a stand-alone movie. Instead it’s just told in exposition. If you go read his backstory, it is a pillar of the F&WS plot. Disappointing that an interesting chapter of this universe is confusingly meted out in bits and pieces across episodes. Here’s hoping his “prequel” eventually gets told.
As an aside — am I really supposed to believe Falcon doesn’t get paid the big bucks and can’t afford to pay to fix up his sister’s boat?
I think we were supposed to have a Kang phase leading up to the Young Avengers. Patriot would almost certainly have been a part of that, and given the time-traveling aspect, I could imagine a time-displaced Eli meeting his grandfather in action.
Also, as far as Avengers salaries, Sam was blipped and then Tony died like five minutes after he came back. Sam then turned down the job of Captain America. He’s not on anyone’s payroll, and any savings or assets he had would all be distributed to his next of kin. The whole show is about blipped refugees and the effect of displaced people, and Sam was really able to relate to their struggle.
Edit to add: I’m not defending the show. FatWS was not good. But if anything, I feel like they glossed over the really humanizing parts of the story, trying to provoke thoughts about controversial political issues whilst avoiding making any controversial political statements.
The show had a lot of potential, and some good ideas. It’s just too bad the execution didn’t work out, but I think I heard part of it could be because of the pandemic.
I agree, and I do understand some things are beyond control. But the Captain America franchise is the one that didn’t have any stinkers yet, and I can’t help but feel like FatWS was a harbinger of bad things to come.
If he’s not on anyone’s payroll, how does he afford Falcon suit maintenance and fuel? Or plane tickets to all these exotic locations where he’s fighting crime? Dude needs some endorsement deals.
By that time, his Exo suit was a Stark design, so I assume it was using repulsors and some kind of mini arc reactor power supply.
But you’re right, in the beginning of the show, he’s USAF.
I always figured he had a small network of contacts coming from Cap being a fugitive during Infinity War. Obvious by Endgame it’s a slightly different story, but I figured the loose network of connections continued even as the world changed. Like Falcon knew about all of Caps connections based on their interactions during Ultron. Obviously the entire world changed, but some people still kept things going.
I’m not defending the show. FatWS was not good.
I fucking loved that show. And it’s weird that people have to get defensive about saying anything positive. I think it’s legitimately a great show.
I love comics and the movies based on them. I enjoyed the show, but I recognize it was flawed. My main complaint is that Falcon was the least interesting character, and they were clearly alluding to real life societal problems but fumbled the delivery because the bad guys have to be bad guys. It wasn’t as bad as Secret Wars, but it wasn’t as good as WandaVision, Loki, or Moon Knight.
I didn’t think Moon Knight was particularly good. Just an interesting premise with some flashy imagery. WV was good in the middle, but it was slow to start and disappointing to end.
Loki was phenomenal for the first season, disappointing for the second.
I’ll agree with you about Falcon not really being interesting himself, more interesting than the Flagsmashers though. I thought the societal stuff was handled well enough.
But the guest characters and their contrast with him was fantastic. John Walker in particular is an extremely interesting character. And I was surprised (and glad) that they left his character without condemnation from a narrative standpoint. Sam and Bucky is always fun. Zemo was a real treat. Sam learning to use the shield without enhancements was interesting.
I’ve seen complaints about his speech at the end and I don’t get it. He’s not there to tell them how to figure out the mess, there’s multiple ways available. He’s just there to provide a moral compass. It’s not easy to come up with a resolution that works for everyone. But they should at least work towards a solution that’s not cutthroat.
