In the penultimate episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson is finally reunited with Steve Rogers' shield, and in training shows a completely different catching style to Bucky. Obviously, as the second generation Captain America, chosen not for his super soldier background but for the strength of his character and integrity, Sam will be a completely different Cap to Steve Rogers, but this hint suggests some logistical differences for the former Falcon too.

Sam Wilson is almost a more pure expression of what Dr. Abraham Erskine wanted as Captain America - a "good man" over the "perfect soldier" - and Steve Rogers saw that in his altruism and his willingness to join a fight no matter the odds. Going further, Sam is seemingly what Erskine believed to be impossible: the spirit and duty of Captain America without the serum that amplified his every power to allow him to carry the weight of his expectations on his shoulders. At first, Sam himself passed on that duty, believing himself to be wrong for the role of Cap because he couldn't separate the man from the symbol. But Sam has grown over the season and came to realize that he wasn't just an appropriate candidate, but the one the world needed.

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Adapting to being the new Captain America will take some work. Sam Wilson's fighting style is different from Captain America's and also to Bucky's and the logic behind why is partly why he appears to catch the shield so differently from his current closest ally. When the pair are training with Cap's shield, after taking it back from John Walker, Bucky takes a more static stance when waiting for the shield to return to him, almost like it were a magnetic boomerang. But when Sam is shown working on his own with the shield, he catches it overhead for the most part or pulls the projectile more across his body when it returns to him. On top of that, Sam trains to consciously adapt further movement into his shield throws, cartwheeling, and using moves reminiscent of a capoeira fighting style. He does both because of his different vulnerabilities to Bucky, adopting a new style that protects his weaknesses and removes the threat the shield represents to his own body.

Sam Wilson Captain America Shield Falcon

Sam's new shield-wielding fight style is far more acrobatic when compared to that of Bucky, because Bucky has fewer concerns about making himself a sitting duck when he throws the shield and waits for it to return. He is, after all, a super soldier with a bullet-proof arm that affords him a second built-in shield on top of his durability and advanced healing factor. In short, he can afford the luxury of being immobile in combat, without too much threat assessment. His increased strength and superhuman reflexes also allow him to catch the shield when hurled at great speed - as Cap found out when he tried to injure him with it in The Winter Soldier - without a great deal of recoil. Sam can do neither because he isn't augmented in any way beyond his training.

Instead, Sam protects his likely vulnerabilities to the shield's dangerous edge by adapting how he catches it, to mitigate the threat of it crashing into his skull and doing serious damage. He also adds in the capoeira moves not simply to be flashy but because he can't rely on durability, and thus has to be mobile even when catching the shield. Taking out enemies with a ranged weapon that is also your primary mode of defense means adaptability to make yourself a harder target is necessary and Sam's military training shines through. It's one of those subtle details in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier that is almost overlooked, but which confirms why Sam will not be a lesser Captain America to Steve Rogers, but just a different one.

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