The Falcon & the Winter Soldier introduces a new character, Torres, as a sidekick to Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and he has close comic book connections to Sam. The premiere episode started out as a slow-burn character study of Steve Rogers' closest friends in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, and each man is living a very different life. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is finally coming to terms with the horrors of his past as a Hydra operative and as a result, he's retreated from meaningful, close relationships with others.
Sam, on the other hand, is surrounded by people, trying to make up for lost time with his family after being gone for five years in the wake of Thanos's snap. His sister, Sarah (Adepero Oduye), is eking out a living outside of New Orleans with the family's fishing boat and wanting to sell both the boat and the house, and Sam has to contend with that as well as reconnecting with his two nephews, who are now pre-teen boys. Sam has also befriended Torres (Danny Ramirez), a young kid and fellow soldier; at the very least, Sam seems to trust him enough to rely on him for intel.
As it turns out, Torres - full name Joaquín Torres - isn't a character invented from the show, but an established character in the comics. Though his storyline will almost certainly not play out exactly as it does in the comics - after all, they virtually never do in the MCU - if Marvel chooses to even loosely follow his arc in Falcon & Winter Soldier, it could be a significant one for both the series and the MCU moving forward.
Who Is Joaquín Torres In Marvel Comics?
Torres hasn't been around that long in the Marvel comics, having only made his first appearance in Captain America: Sam Wilson #1 in 2015 as the creation of writer Nick Spencer and artist Daniel Acuña. Joaquín was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States with his mother and grandmother when he was just six years old. As a 17-year-old who had just graduated high school with honors, Joaquín had a bright future ahead of him.
From the time he was young, he had a good Samaritan streak in him and felt compelled to help the suffering. This compulsion to help the less fortunate came in the form of sneaking into the desert and leaving food, water and medicine for the desperate people trying to cross the border. Having made that trek when he was six years old, he knew how dangerous and deadly it was and wanted to pay it forward.
Unfortunately, his desire to do good landed him on the radar of the criminal organization Sons of the Serpent, who were secretly kidnapping migrants and refugees and sending them to Karl Malus in New York for experimentation. His grandmother, Maria, contacted Captain America, who by that time was Sam Wilson, about Joaquín's disappearance and Sam eventually tracked down the facility where he was being held in NYC. However, by the time Captain America got there, he found he was too late and Joaquín had been turned into a human-bird hybrid using Redwing, Sam's own avian sidekick. His new hybrid features were permanent mutations, including a pair of wings that allowed him to fly, larger, raptor-like eyes, and taloned hands and feet. Thanks to Redwing, he also possesses a regenerative healing factor and a psychic link to Redwing similar to Sam.
After the young teen showed himself to be resilient and scrappy and a quick thinker, Sam gave him a crash course in fighting, impressed by the kid's natural inclination toward heroism even before gaining his hybrid powers. Soon, Joaquín decided to become Captain America's permanent sidekick, taking up the mantle that Sam had once held and becoming the second Falcon.
How Is The Torres In The Show Different From The Comics?
There's still very much a mentor-mentee vibe in the dynamic between Sam Wilson and Joaquín Torres in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, but Marvel has definitely changed a few things in order for the narrative to work in the live-action MCU. For starters, the MCU's Torres is aged up a bit from the 17-year-old Torres of the comics. Actor Danny Ramirez is 28 years old but has a baby face that plays far younger on the screen. However, while Torres has an air of youthful naivete – such as when he falls for an online conspiracy theory purporting that Steve Rogers is hidden on a base on the moon – he's quite skilled and he's clearly capable enough to handle himself in a fight and for Sam to trust him to be his eyes and ears. So though his age isn't explicitly stated, it's likely that the MCU version of Torres is in his mid-20s.
Also different from the comics is Torres' backstory. Obviously, the MCU Torres has a few more miles on him than the teenager in the comics, but the military storyline is new. Not much has yet been revealed about Torres' life prior to joining the military, or whether or not he knew Sam prior to the mission they worked together in the premiere, but it's likely they met in the MCU working for the military or U.S. government and the veteran Sam Wilson took a liking to the young, diligent soldier.
Still, Torres' personality from the comics appears to have been transferred intact to the screen in Falcon & Winter Soldier. He's still full of youthful exuberance, and the idea of superheroes is still a little awe-inspiring to him judging by the hint of hero worship in his interactions with Sam. He's also a do-gooder who strives to do the right thing, whether apologizing to a police officer he had to knock down, or trying to singlehandedly stop the terrorist group Flag-Smashers even though the only thing that got smashed was his own face. He's a good kid through and through in the comics, and so far, that appears to be unchanged.
How Will Torres Fit Into The Future Of The MCU?
Sam's arc in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier will be about him coming to terms with knowing he's worthy enough to take up Steve Rogers' shield and become the next Captain America. That means by the end of the series, there will be an open spot where the Falcon mantle once existed, and it wouldn't at all be a surprise to see Torres take up the Falcon moniker by the end of the series just as he does in the comics.
If he does, it will be a continuation of the youth movement that Marvel has injected into the MCU both recently and in the short-term future. Joaquín Torres' Falcon joins a younger group of MCU heroes that already includes or will include Spider-Man (Peter Parker), WandaVision's Wiccan (Billy Maximoff) and Speed (Tommy Maximoff), Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), and Ironheart (Riri Williams), along with others that haven't been confirmed yet but may very well be introduced in the next few years.
Marvel introducing its next wave by introducing the legacy heroes in the MCU Phase 4 Disney+ TV shows is smart, allowing for them to integrate the old and new together before passing the torch. Already, it's clear that Torres brings a different dynamic to Falcon & Winter Soldier than it otherwise might have had without. Sam and Bucky are grieving their lost friend and both are dealing with the trauma of everything they've seen and done. The veteran post-Endgame Avengers – those who are left, anyway – are far more jaded, more traumatized, and have more baggage. Having Torres step into the role of the new Falcon, alongside other young heroes-in-training, would inject a renewed sense of vibrancy and energy into the new Avengers lineup. Hopefully, Captain America's legacy won't be the only one being handed down in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, but also Falcon's.