In the blink of an eye, six glorious episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are now
behind us.
Let's take a look into some of the characters we've come to know over the season, and why
they mean more than you might think.
We first met Karli Morgenthau in Episode 1 as a masked Flag-Smasher with what appeared
to be superhuman skills.
She proved to be a super soldier in Episode 2, and we found out she was the leader of
the Flag-Smashers, a group trying to get the world back to the way it was before the blip.
When it comes to Karli in the comics, well, there's no such person — at least not directly.
Karli was based on a comic book character with almost an identical name — Karl Morgenthau
— aka Flag-Smasher.
Karl's first appearance in the comics was in "Captain America" #312, and he was a violent
opponent of nationalism.
Unlike Karli, Karl was not a super soldier, only highly skilled in martial arts, especially
karate.
While we could have seen a lot more from Karli, given Karl's history in the comics, she met
her end in Episode 6 by the hands — or gun — of Sharon Carter.
Unfortunately for the Flag-Smasher, super-soldiers are not immune to bullets, and Karl's legacy
in the MCU is now over.
We meet John Walker in the conclusion of Episode 1 as he's being introduced to the world as
the new Captain America.
Fans had a hard time accepting the new Cap, especially when he became a murderous lunatic
in Episode 4.
We did get a bit of redemption for John, though: he checks himself during Episode 6's big fight
scene, where he opts to save the GRC hostages rather than beat up on some Flag-Smashers
a little more.
We see him finally become U.S. Agent at the end of the episode, officially given the title
by the charismatic Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine.
In the comics, John first appears in "Captain America" #323.
He is first introduced as Super Patriot, who later becomes Captain America, and is eventually
named U.S. Agent — the name he now holds in the MCU.
U.S. Agent is more of a morally ambiguous character in the comics, living in shades
of gray, sometimes helping our heroes and sometimes fighting against them.
He also works directly for the government, but that doesn't appear to be the case for
the character in the MCU, since we still don't really know what Valentina's deal is.
He did once lead the West Coast Avengers in "West Coast Avengers" Vol 2 #44-45, a possible
future role for our MCU character.
The death of Lemar Hoskins is definitely one we didn't see coming, and it was just as much
of a devastating blow to the viewers as it was to John Walker.
Okay, maybe not as devastating, but one of the only people keeping Walker in line was
Lemar, who we assumed would have a solid future in the MCU, as he's got a solid comics history
to work with.
First appearing in "Captain America" #323, Lemar was a wrestler who, like his friend,
was granted superhuman abilities by the mysterious Power Broker.
After John is dubbed the new Captain America, Lemar becomes the new Bucky Barnes, a loyal
sidekick to the so-called hero.
He eventually takes on the moniker Battlestar, a force for good who was a part of several
superhero teams including the Underground, the Ducky Dozen, and Silver Sable's Wild Pack.
It looks like Lemar's inclusion in Falcon and Winter Soldier was to serve as the sacrifice
that would ultimately push Walker over the edge, and we're now left with the thought
of what could have been since he was a solid hero during his stint in the comics.
While Battlestar might not have as complicated a history as his friend John in the comics,
he could have kept the U.S. Agent in check, and we suspect he'll need to be kept in line
again in the future.
Joaquin has been a ride-or-die ally to Sam Wilson since Episode 1.
We always suspected he was going to have a future in the MCU given his substantial — albeit
relatively new — history in the comics, and when Sam left him his old broken down
wings, we knew it was just the beginning.
We only got a brief glimpse of him in Episode 6 as he listens to Sam's speech to the Senators
in the GRC, but it's definitely not the last we'll see of him.
The character was first introduced in "Captain America: Sam Wilson" #1, as a teenager who
was kidnapped and experimented on with DNA from Falcon's Redwing — an actual bird in
the comics.
This turns Joaquin into a falcon-human hybrid, with him eventually taking on the mantle of
Falcon after Sam becomes Captain America.
It was clear this is where things were going after Sam left his old wings for his new pal
behind, and Joaquin's comic past could hint at him joining the MCU's rumored Young Avengers
team.
Now that Sam is officially Captain America at the end of Episode 6, it's time to name
his replacement as Falcon.
We first met Georges Batroc in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as an adversary of Captain
America on the hostage-occupied SHIELD ship.
The two men fought hand-to-hand, Cap tossing his shield to the side, with Batroc coming
out on the losing end.
He was back in all his villainous glory in Episode 1 and reappeared in Episode 5 to give
Karli and the Flag-Smashers some high-tech weapons for their upcoming attack on the GRC.
Batroc is only interested in killing Sam Wilson, and gets his chance in Episode 6.
He is unsuccessful, and is himself later shot and killed by Sharon.
Known as Batroc the Leaper in the comics, the villain first appeared in "Tales of Suspense"
#75.
Batroc is a mercenary, and former member of the French Foreign Legion, who excels in savate,
a form of French kickboxing that focuses on the feet.
Mostly an adversary of Captain America, Batroc has worked for HYDRA and has kidnapped Sharon
Carter, and also briefly worked for Zemo.
Batroc has some altruistic moments in the comics where he actually works alongside Captain
America and Falcon, such as in "Tales of Suspense" #85.
However, for all intents and purposes, he's mostly a villain.
Unlike so many other characters we met in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Ayo and
the Dora Milaje were not new to us, having first appeared in Captain America: Civil War.
"Move.
Or you will be moved."
While her first appearance in the series is calm, her second is decidedly not: she lays
the smackdown on John Walker and Lemar Hoskins with two other Dora Milaje, a group we also
first saw in Black Panther.
In the comics, the Dora Milaje are a small group of female warriors who are the personal
guardians of the current Black Panther.
Ayo, Nakia, and Okoye have all served in the prestigious group, though the latter two are
no longer involved in the comics.
Ayo is currently a member of the Midnight Angels, a subgroup of the Dora Milaje who
first appeared in "Doomwar" #5 in 2010.
This group joined Deadpool in combating Victor von Doom, a notable Fantastic Four villain
who is rumored to appear in the MCU going forward.
This could mean this isn't the last we see of Ayo if the Marvel Studios writers keep
with her comic history.
Isaiah Bradley's story in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is just as devastating as that
of his comics counterpart.
Isaiah gives Sam Wilson a crash course on his life as a soldier in the United States
Army, where he was experimented on and became a super-soldier himself and actually fought
the Winter Soldier in 1951.
First appearing in "Truth: Red, White & Black" #1, Isaiah was one of 300 Black soldiers experimented
on in an effort to perfect the super-soldier serum that was a success on Steve Rogers.
Only a handful of men survived including Isaiah, and he eventually stole a Captain America
uniform and escaped to Europe to fight in the war.
He was imprisoned by the U.S. government for his "treasonous" actions and served 17 years
in solitary confinement before he was released and pardoned by President Eisenhower.
Isaiah's backstory in the comics is based on the real-life Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,
a racist and scientifically unethical medical study conducted by the United States government.
It saw 600 Black men tricked into thinking they were receiving free health care to treat,
quote, "bad blood," when in actuality they were being observed to see how their syphilis
would progress in an attempt to study the disease.
Then men who were sick with syphilis — 399 of them, as 201 men were in a control group
— were left to suffer without treatment, causing many to go blind, insane, with some
even dying as researchers looked on.
Eli Bradley made brief appearances in three episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
— when Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes went to meet Isaiah Bradley in Episode 2, and when
Sam went back to Baltimore in Episodes 5 and 6.
Not much is said about Eli in the series, as he sort of just looms in the background,
but Eli's story from the comics is quite an impressive one.
There is definitely a chance we see more of Eli moving forward in the MCU, possibly in
connection with the rumored Young Avengers.
First appearing in "Young Avengers" #1, Eli is the grandson of Isaiah and Faith Bradley
and the son of Sarah Gail.
Since Sarah was born before Isaiah received the supersoldier serum, Eli is without superhuman
ability, but that doesn't stop him from becoming a hero.
Eventually given the name Patriot, Eli founds the Young Avengers, which includes Speed and
Wiccan, the children of Wanda Maximoff and Vision we met in WandaVision as Tommy and
Billy.
The Young Avengers also includes Kate Bishop, who is to be played by Hailee Steinfeld in
the upcoming Disney+ Hawkeye series.
Just a brief appearance of Eli in "FaWS" could mean big things for the MCU moving forward,
stoking the fire of the rumored Young Avengers storyline that could launch in Phase 5.
In a move virtually no one saw coming, Episode 5 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced
us to Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
"You know, it's hard, and I don't like to repeat myself.
So you can just call me Val."
After giving John Walker a brief talking to, Val takes off not to be seen in the series
again, but we know it's not the last we'll be seeing of her, especially since she mentions
she'll be calling John.
Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine first appears in "Strange Tales" #159 from
1967.
Once a former sleeper agent of the Russian Leviathan, Valentina eventually became an
agent of SHIELD and the lover of Nick Fury.
She also led the Femme Force, a group of elite female agents who were introduced in "Captain
America" #144, and were formerly led by Sharon Carter.
Valentina's background is complicated, with her being a triple agent working for the Leviathan,
SHIELD, and HYDRA at one point.
She has even been dubbed "Madame [MAD-ahm] Hydra" in the comics, but her loyalties were
never to the famous organization, and where her true loyalties lie remain foggy.
Sharon Carter's presence in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seemed odd and many believed
she was the Power Broker from the get-go.
It turns out all the theories were true as Sharon was revealed to be the mystery character
in Episode 6 — we think.
Some are suggesting she isn't, as she never confirms Karli and Batroc's comments, so we'll
just have to keep guessing until we see her again.
Nevertheless, the Power Broker is a Marvel comics character with quite the rap sheet.
First appearing in "Machine Man" #7, the Power Broker — aka Curtiss Jackson — is the
leader of The Corporation and later forms his own group: Power Broker, Inc.
His business was strictly to profit from making super-soldiers.
He is killed by the Punisher, another character who might rejoin the MCU one day.
First appearing in "Tales of Suspense" #75, Sharon Carter has no connection to the Power
Broker in the comics.
She is a force for good but has once worked for General Thunderbolt Ross, a character
many had also suspected to be the Power Broker throughout the season.
If these two are working together remains to be seen, but their ties in the comics suggest
it's a definite possibility.
Ross could very well be on the other end of the phone in Episode 6's end-credits scene.
We have not seen the last of Baron Helmut Zemo, and that's a fact.
The last we saw of the dancing menace was in Episode 6's finale when he was catching
up on some reading in his Raft cell.
He seems happy to hear over his radio that the remaining Flag-Smashers had been murdered,
putting an end to all super-soldiers on Earth.
Interestingly enough, it was his adorable butler Oeznik who planted the bomb inside
the armored car that was transporting the remaining villains to the Raft.
Based on what we know of Zemo's backstory from Captain America: Civil War and what we
saw in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we can make some educated guesses on where
his story might be heading.
First appearing in "Captain America" #168, Zemo's got quite the backstory in Marvel Comics.
Two of his biggest roles in the comics include his position of leader of the Masters of Evil
— such as in the "Avengers" issue #273 — and founder of the Thunderbolts, such as in the
"Incredible Hulk" issue #449.
The Masters of Evil were a true terror for both the Avengers and the Guardians of the
Galaxy.
Zemo's Thunderbolts actually housed former Masters of Evil members.
The Thunderbolts are a team of reformed criminals that turned on Zemo and became heroes in "Thunderbolts
Annual" from 1997.
It's possible that Zemo will create the Thunderbolts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which might
lead to his own downfall.
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