Streaming Saturday #14: The Big Three

You know, androids, aliens, and wizards? It also helps to have a plan, partnership, and patriotism; just don't tell that to our two leads....

Hello, Ticketholders, and welcome back to Streaming Saturday!

The second episode of Falcon & the Winter Soldier (titled "The Star-Spangled Man"--appropriately without a plan) dropped yesterday on Disney+, so if you care about SPOILERS!, go and watch it before you continue reading, and remember to like and comment below.

There wasn't much in terms of real story beats in this one, as the majority of the runtime focused on witty banter and impressive-looking action scenes, so I'll take a more critical view this time around.

The main point of contention with characters and viewers alike continues to be Wyatt Russell as John Walker (a.k.a. U.S. Agent, a.k.a. "your new Captain America"). Part of this comes from pre-existing fan knowledge of the comic book version of the character, and part comes from the fact that, between his mother's (Goldie Hawn) deep-set eyes and his father's (Kurt Russell) sizable chin, he looks more like Mr. Hrebert from Family Guy in a Captain America cosplay than someone that the country should take seriously.

At least, not in the way that a superhero should be taken seriously; people like Mr. Herbert should be taken seriously for a number of other reasons, if you know what I mean.

But enough of that subject. This episode does a good job of distancing the character from that initial image of him at the end of the first episode. We get to actually see some character for him that makes John Walker almost sympathetic, putting him through the same publicity stunt rigamarole that Steve Rogers went through in the first Captain America film's early moments. The differences between the two are clear, however: where Cap was young, idealistic, and saw patriotism as a privilege worth fighting for--and publicity as a goofy waste of time; Walker is a more modern, realistic soldier. Prior to becoming "the new Captain America," Walker has already been aged and conditioned by the savage dichotomy of war, relishing the publicity and the adrenaline of the moment but feeling the begrudging burden that the patriotic struggle has become; he is cocky and loves the fight itself, but is weary of having to fight, and Russell plays this aspect of his character admirably.

There's some imprompti couple's counseling with Sam and Bucky, but following the main fight of the episode (a truck-top brawl with the two taking on four enhanced Flag-Smashers and being rescued by Walker and his new sidekick, Lemar Hoskins, a.k.a "Battlestar"), they track down an old frenemy of Bucky's named Isaiah Bradley (played by Supergirl actor Carl Lumbly), who was a test subject for early versions of the Super-Soldier serum, to perhaps find a lead on what the Flag-Smashers are using to enhance themselves. It was cool to see this obscure reference, and to see Lumbly in a non-DC superhero role.

Later on, we are introduced to the true leader of the Flag-Smasher group (who is also one of the enhanced members), Karli Morgenthau (Solo: A Star Wars Story actress Erin Kellyman), a gender-swap on the comic book Flag-Smasher's civilian name, Karl Morgenthau. This character choice has great female-empowerment vibes going for it, but one thing stands in the way of those vibes sticking long enough to make an impact: Baron Zemo. According to credible nerd sources, it was revealed at some point that U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. (the Flag-Smashers' comic book inspiration, which was led by the Flag-Smasher) was secretly being funded by the Red Skull, and Flag-Smasher turned against them. But in the MCU, Red Skull has been rendered several levels of dead, so what other Nazi(?) character can come snaking out of the woodwork to fund the end of? That's right! Baron Zemo! And who did our titular two say they were going to interview at the end of this week's episode? Baron Zemo! So my theory about Zemo being the driving force behind the Flag-Smashers still stands, and a clash of fanatical ideas (between Walker and themselves) is almost thematically assured. However, I no longer fully believe that Walker is the kind of character who would play both sides or accept backing from a known villain like Zemo. Regardless of these characters' goals or intentions, I also do not believe that Disney and Marvel are above, or opposed to, using this series to continue commenting on recent events and to illustrate how the road to Hell is most commonly paved.

The only question that remains is whether they can avoid losing the message in the larger story (or even in the message itself), but time, as always, will tell.

Ticketmaster,

Out.