Sam Wilson A.K.A.
The Falcon was the first African American superhero in mainstream comics.
No, not Black Panther.
He’s just African, not African America, but with how popular the Falcon has been in
the Marvel cinematic universe, let’s take a look back and look through his comic book
history and origins.
Sam Wilson was raised on the streets of Harlem and always had an affinity for birds.
In fact, he claims to have had the largest pigeon coop in the entire city.
Though living in the ghetto wasn’t all fun and games.
In fact, both of Sam’s parents were murdered in front of him with his father being killed
after trying to break up a fight and his mother being shot down by a common mugger.
This left Sam as the head of the household and before he turned eighteen, Sam was working
three jobs to support his siblings, but he still found time to volunteer at local shelters.
But when his siblings were good on their own, Sam became an international aid worker and
when returning home from a trip to Rio de Janeiro, he accidentally crash landed on an
island controlled by bad dudes.
But guess who else was randomly there?
A little known guy called Captain America who changed bodies with his arch-nemesis the
Red Skull because of some tomfoolery with the powerful Cosmic Cube and because comics.
Working alongside Captain America, Sam took up the mantle of The Falcon and he helped
free the island, helped get Steve’s body back, helped defeat the Red Skull, and returned
to the United States with Captain America as the newest and hottest crime fighting duo.
So all this makes Sam out to be a pretty nice guy, right?
Well, he actually wasn’t.
You see, apparently Sam’s entire early history was all an illusion.
What really happened after Sam’s crash landing was that he was discovered by the Red Skull,
who used the Cosmic Cube to brainwash Sam, gave him fake memories, a desire to be a hero,
and the ability to talk to birds.
Because comics.
In reality, Sam actually joined the mob after his mother’s death under the name “Snap”
Wilson and really crash landed on his way back from a huge drug trafficking score in
Rio de Janeiro.
This was the status quo for years, but in 2015, it was made ambiguous if Sam’s early
criminal career was real or just the Red Skull messing with him.
Captain America writer Rick Remender elaborated on this in an interview with “There never
was a "Snap" Wilson.
"Snap" Wilson was a construct of the Red Skull.
He was an attempt to defame Sam.”
Though personally, I like it not set in stone and I enjoy Falcon’s struggle with the uncertainty
of his own past.
Regardless, Sam took up a job as a social worker in Harlem while also fighting alongside
Captain America, but he quickly started to feel outclassed.
I mean this guy is literally a super soldier.
To help out, Cap reached out to his good friend, Black Panther, who designed Falcon his now
iconic Vibranium wings.
Later though, the Panther redesigned them so that the wings were made out of solid light
and he even threw in a Vibranium microweave costume for good measure.
Falcon originally joined The Avengers as a favor to Captain America because the team
needed to fill a quota thanks to affirmative action, but having not been a fan of being
the token black guy, Falcon quit as soon as soon as he could.
Since then though, he’s been an off and on member of the team.
You know, just like pretty much every other Marvel superhero.
Though to quote Sam himself “I was never what you’d call a big fish in the super
hero pond” so he decided to try to help a different way by running for Congress.
Yet when his criminal past came to light, Sam lost the race and went right on back to
being Falcon.
Sam worked solo for a good length of time before briefly teaming back up with Cap for
a quick mini series, but his next major role wouldn't be until the superhuman Civil War.
Now oddly enough, Sam’s identity as The Falcon was publicly known for years.
Heck, when his time as “Snap” Wilson was first revealed, Falcon’s trial for his crimes
was broadcasted all over the world.
Even so, when Captain America stood up for superhumans to have the right to a secret
identity, Sam joined right alongside him.
In fact, Falcon was the unofficial second in command and even filled in for Captain
America when he was injured.
Since Civil War, Falcon was relegated to the background, appearing in various teams like
the Heroes for Hire and the Mighty Avengers.
However, when Falcon finally made a movie appearance in Captain America 2: Winter Soldier,
Sam started to get bigger roles in the comics.
Most notably, when Steve Rogers was drained of his Super Soldier Serum and turned into
an old man, he was unable to continue on as Captain America so he passed the shield onto
Sam, turning him into what I like to call Captain Falcon.
As the new Captain America, Sam was a prominent member of the Avengers and was affected in
the Axis even where the bad guys became good and the good guys became bad.
The inverted Captain America was heartless and brutaly took down even the pettiest of
criminals.
He even worked with his fellow inverted Avengers to try and KILL the X-Men and shut down the
Mighty Avengers.
Though after being turned back to normal, Captain Falcon pulled himself away from S.H.I.E.L.D.
after he publicly opposed putting a whistleblower on trial.
Instead of taking S.H.I.E.L.D.’s backing, Sam went solo and had misadventures such as
getting turned into a wolf and recruiting his own Falcon sidekick, but instead of having
artificial wings, this kid was literally part Falcon.
Yet despite being busy with his solo career, Sam still finds time to lead the Avengers
and he’s in a pseudo relationship with the current Thor, Jane Foster.
And that ladies and gentlemen brings us to the time of this recording.
But if you’d like to read more of Sam Wilson’s adventures, then I’d recommend checking
out Captain America and The Falco, All-New Captain America, and All-New, All Different
Avengers
But if you want to learn more about one of Falcon’s Avengers teammates on The Avengers,
then just click that annotation right here to see my complete history video of Miles
Morales, the Spider-Man.
Oh and do you guys like the redesign of this set?
I actually am kind of digging it.
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