The second episode of this brilliant new Marvel series has just dropped and it has ramped up the action and tension. There is a lot to unpack in this episode and Marvel isn’t afraid to tackle anything, from what we can see. Sam and Bucky finally meet each other at the beginning of this episode and it is to admonish him about giving up Steve Roger’s shield. Like we mentioned earlier, this episode dropped a ton of easter eggs, references and callbacks and we will pick out the 10 important ones which will be important in this series or in upcoming future Marvel projects and talk about it below:
Star Spangled Man
Similar to how Steve started out his journey as Captain America, John Walker, the new Captain America is going around the country, doing press tours, shaking hands with “official important personnel” and interviews. Unlike Steve though, John seems to have a better handle of himself during these PR events. So far, John is handling the Shield just fine, with a decent backstory making him likeable to the everyone watching (both within the series and the ones watching it).
Red Wing
Red Wing has been getting a lot of hate from the Winter Soldier, but the flying machine also didn’t curry any favour points from the Black Widow in ‘Captain America: Civil War’. Although it is a bot controlled by Sam, Red Wing received an upgrade from Tony, so we wouldn’t be surprised if there was an AI embedded deep within the Red Wing’s system. Red Wing in the comics is Sam Wilson’s trusty falcon.
White Panther And White Wolf
This double Marvel character name drop is not as important as the other references in this list, but it makes an important point about how a Marvel character from the comics ends up portraying other roles in the MCU. Both White Panther and White Wolf have been long time antagonists of Black Panther, so Bucky carrying the title of “White Wolf” is interesting to say the least. We wouldn’t be surprised by White Panther appearing in an upcoming Marvel project, with the appearance most likely being in Black Panther 2.
Captain America And Battlestar
When John Walker takes up the mantle of Captain America in the comics, his buddy Lemar Hoskins joins up with him to fight side-by-side against villainy around the globe. Hoskins goes on to take the codename “Battlestar”. So far, this was found to be true within the MCU as well. John Walker gets an upgrade to his Captain America upgrade, while Hoskins gets a black suit which has traces of a blue, white and red star (paying homage to the comic book character’s actual suit).
Karli Morgenthau
Karl Morgenthau is the name of the villain Flag-Smasher in the Marvel comics books. In this MCU Phase 4 web series, the character has swapped genders and has been re-christened as Karli, who is the leader of the “freedom fighting terrorist group” Flag-Smashers. She has also gained the powers of a super soldier, but how she got her powers remained somewhat of a mystery, until the final few minutes of the episode. She was also called Robin Hood, a callback to an android which called itself “Robyn Hood” in the Marvel comics.
The “Blip’s” Aftermath
We get to see more of what happened after ‘The Blip’ occured. People who came back from the 5 year disappearance seem to be getting priority help and assistance around the globe, and that seems to be the primary motivating factor behind Flag-Smasher’s attacks. Their motto of “One World. One People”, is their way of getting equal rights for everyone (Which is very relatable on so many levels).
Isaiah Bradley
This forgotten Marvel Comic book icon (both within the web series and comics) was one of the few successful super soldier serum-recipient survivors within the US military and he went on to become “Black Captain America” within the comics. He was however sentenced to jail for nearly two decades for helping out during the war effort in World War II. This story seems to be the same in ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ series as well, and Isaiah has every right to be resentful. We also get a glimpse of his powers when he threw a metal box halfway into the wall.
Racism and Racial Profiling
Marvel, thanks to the major success of most of their films, have understood that they can actually start talking about real world problems and should do it as it influences the people (and children) who watch them. They have shown that they are not afraid to tackle any topic and one heavy topic that we saw in this episode (and had a glimpse of in the previous one), and we expect will be a running theme in this mini series, was racism experience by the African American community and the racial profiling they endure from cops because of the colour of their skin. We see Isaiah Bradley and Sam Wilson experience some of this in the series (Isaiah’s experiences are told by Isaiah himself), and so does Sam’s sister, Sarah.
Powerbroker
This major character is not shown, only mentioned in this mini series. In the comics, he is a scientist who managed to recreate the super soldier serum, and since there have been super soldiers popping up on the show, we are guessing he is the one who made Karli and her friends strong or made the serum which ended up being used by them.
Zemo
Finally we get to see the main antagonist from ‘Captain America: Civil War’ movie, Baron Zemo and we expect the next time we see Bucky and Sam, they will be talking to the current CIA prisoner (or at least he was at the end of the third Captain America movie). The man who knew a lot about the Super soldier experiments will probably know where to find the serum as well, so it was not a bad idea from Bucky to suggest meeting this comic book villain. We expect him to be one of the antagonists of this series as well.
The first two episodes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier are currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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