The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 2 saw a fun exchange between Sam Wilson and a young boy who called him “Black Falcon”, but this scene has a lot more meaning than it seems. Now that the Infinity Saga came to an end and with that the arcs of most of the original Avengers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is ready to move forward with a new wave of content and new teams of superheroes. The highly-anticipated Phase 4 began with WandaVision, which explored the story of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and is now moving on with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Set approximately six months after the events of Avengers: Endgame and thus the passing of the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier follows Sam as he struggles to decide whether to carry on as Falcon or become Captain America, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian), who is still dealing with the consequences of his dark past as the Winter Soldier. The first episode of the series was all about catching up with these characters separately but the second episode finally saw them together again, as they have a couple of problems to solve together.
Sam and Bucky had their first battle against the Flag-Smashers and their leader, Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman), and realized that they aren’t dealing with some ordinary bad guys. This led Bucky to introduce Sam to someone he met during his war days, and through this new character came another big reveal: Steve Rogers isn’t the only super-soldier in the MCU. Bucky took Sam to meet Isaiah Bradley, a forgotten super-soldier, but on their way there, they came across two curious kids, one of which referred to Sam as “Black Falcon”. Sam corrected him by telling him he’s “just Falcon”, to which the kid replied that his father told him he’s “Black Falcon”, so Sam challenged this, asking him if it was because he’s black and the Falcon, and so on that line, he would be “black kid”.
Although this was a fun moment in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it also felt like the MCU’s subtle way of challenging the audience to not refer to Sam as “Black Captain America”, thus establishing that there can’t be two Captain America in this universe. Through this exchange, Sam is also highlighting the lack of diversity of the comic book industry and how unnecessary it is to add “black” to the names of black superheroes, so with that in mind, there can’t be a “main” Captain America and then a Black Captain America. This could also point at John Walker’s (Wyatt Russell) time as Captain America not lasting long and Sam eventually taking on the mantle as Steve Rogers intended, and so there will only be one Captain America in the MCU.
The “Black Falcon” moment in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 2 is a great example of the subtle and clever ways in which Marvel has challenged the audience in its movies and TV shows, and while it was a funny moment, it means a lot more than just Sam showing his sense of humor once more and “messing” with a young boy.