What's up my comic comrad today marvel studios and disney plus are kicking off their second mcu live action mini series with the falcon and the winter soldier and as we always do we're here to give you the comic book history for some of the characters appearing on screen we've already covered the comic history of bucky barnes aka the winter soldier in a previous episode which you could find right here so today it's all about sam wilson aka the falcon but before we dive in we want to thank nordvpn for sponsoring today's episode let's be honest lately it feels like the world has gone bat crap crazy and with so much of our lives going digital one of the biggest challenges we face is the loss of privacy and the vulnerability of our personal data i mean the online research.

History of The Falcon


We do for some of our variant episodes alone probably has most of our team on some kind of list i'm just saying and don't act like you don't have your own freaky fetish search history anyway keeping unwanted pride eyes out of our personal privates is just one of the many reasons why we secure our internet with the best vpn available nordvpn with nordvpn all of your internet data stays safe behind a wall of next generation encryption and to top it off nord has a strict no logs policy which means they don't track collect or share your personal data because they understand that's your business not theirs setting up nordvpn is also insanely simple just go to nordvpn.com variant to set up an account download the app on your computer and your phone then sign in and turn it on and once you turn it on nordvpn immediately starts hiding your ip address by redirecting your connection through one of nord's.

5300 plus remote servers in 59 countries worldwide you can even choose from several additional tools like double data encryption ip masking and obfuscated servers for even greater privacy but because nord has servers seemingly everywhere it gives you the ability to enjoy the internet without limits or borders including access to hundreds of streaming platforms worldwide where you could explore content unique to different countries it's dope listen with nordvpn you can lock down your digital life across all your devices with up to six simultaneous connections insanely fast servers unlimited bandwidth 24 7 customer support and a ton more and nordvpn is so confident in what they do they back it all up with a 30-day money-back guarantee but right now you could also save some cash on your internet security by going to nordvpn.com forward slash variant and they will hook you up with a huge discount on a two-year plan including one additional month for free again head over to nordvpn.com or click the link in the description to take back control of your internet life you'll be glad you did but now it's time for some falcon history roll that bumper falcon.

First appeared in captain america issue 117 in september of 1969 he was created by stan lee and gene collin he's comic's first mainstream black american hero now some of you might be saying hold the phone isn't that black panther and while black panther is the first mainstream black superhero he's from wakanda wakanda forever so again falcon is the first mainstream black american superhero as for how falcon's real world creation came to be co-creator gene collins stated in 2008 in the late 1960s when news of the vietnam war and civil rights protests were regular occurrences and stan always wanting to be at the forefront of things started bringing these headlines into the comics one of the biggest steps we took in this direction came in captain america. 

I enjoyed drawing people of every kind i approached dan as i remember with the idea of introducing an african-american hero and he took to it right away i looked at several african-american magazines and used them as the basis of inspiration for bringing the falcon to life and just like that one of marvel's most popular characters was created but now it's time to take a look at his comic origin now even though we see how sam wilson becomes falcon in captain america issue 117 his childhood and early life was given to us over a hundred issues later in captain america issue 277. so we're gonna start with his childhood working our way up to his adult years seeing how he became falcon we learned via sam's sister sarah that they grew up in harlem their father was rev paul wilson and there was no one on god's green earth like him a man who cared about everyone and not just with words not just from the pulpit sarah goes on to say he was the kind of man who always tested his faith his ideals out on the streets that's how it happened as we learned one day he was trying to stop. 

Two fighting gangs but was killed by a gang member in the process and unfortunately for nine-year-old sam he had a view of the whole thing as one would assume this changed sam but not for the worst instead he spent all of his time after school at the church community center guiding the younger kids as well as reaching out to old people always giving so much of himself to everyone just like his father but unfortunately the worst was not over for sam you see some time after the sam and his sister sarah were just out for a nice walk with her mother when a mugger stole his mom's purse and shot her killing the only parent sam and his sister had left his sister goes on to say this caused sam to snap as it would for many people there was just so much conflict growing up inside of him that he just couldn't handle it he blocked out his father his dream his ideals and became a totally new personality cold serving.

A personality he would call snap essentially he had so much emotional trauma and conflict within him that whenever he got really pissed off he would snap becoming very angry and aggressive taking on the persona or name snap which is clearly extremely on the nose but hey it was the 60s and 70s anyway sometime after this sam was on his way to rio de janeiro but on his way his plane crashes on a remote island that was taken over by a group called the exiles said group used to work with the red skull but he betrayed them and banished them to this island once banished there they enslaved all of the natives this brings us to captain america issue 117. 

In this issue we learned that red skull has used the cosmic cube to swap bodies with captain america and once he does he sends captain america now and red skull's body to the same island that the exiles are on cap ultimately runs into the exiles who of course think he's red skull and start attacking him for his betrayal the cap is saved when a falcon named redwing swoops in and starts attacking the exiles with its talents this gives captain america the distraction an upper hand he needs to escape he then realizes that the red skull's grotesque skull face as he says is just a mask and chances are that the exiles have never seen the face beneath so if he just takes off the mask they won't recognize him meanwhile back in new york captain america is parading around the city and captain america's body enjoying all the attention anyway back on the island we're shown sam wilson for the very first time where redwing is returning to his hand with sam saying good work redwing once again we've taunted the exiles by robbing them of a victim even though that joker in the red jumpsuit looked as though he might have taken them by himself while sam is walking away with his falcon captain america comes up behind him saying hey hold it i want to talk to you sam then says who are you and how did you get on this island cap tells them you wouldn't believe me if i told you but i might be grateful of you in that sharp clawed pet of yours sam then says you're the one in that scarlet jumpsuit who is fighting the exiles any enemy of theirs is a full-time friend of mine as he proceeds to take him back to the natives village where he lives sam then tells cap he's been trying to organize the natives to fight the exiles to get their island back 

But it's an uphill job it's at this point sam tells captain america more about his origin when cap asks what's a stake in this how did he get here he then tells cap ever since i can remember i've been nuts about birds i used to have the biggest pigeon coop on any rooftop in harlem man i pretty much could make those high flyers talk but then i got all hung up on falcons it started in rio where i went for a vacation the first time i saw one i was hooked for good then i finally found red wing and bottom for my own we've got something going on that nobody else could understand he's more than a bird more than a falcon it's like he's part of me which expands upon what i told you earlier about sam's child years we find out that when he was a kid he trained birds and as he got older after his parents died he became fascinated with falcons ultimately befriending redwing but more on that later because there's a twist long story short sam asked captain america if he'll help him fight the exiles captain america tells them you couldn't stop me but it's gonna take more than guts they've got the arms you'll need a gimmick sam says yeah like what steve replies i think i've got it you need something to serve as a symbol to the natives and something to unnerve the exiles make them wonder who they're fighting a mask and costume ought to do it together with a stirring name like for instance the falcon that's right good old captain america came up with and named sam wilson's fighting persona sam is hesitant at first.

But captain america tells him don't knock it fella it's been known to work then on the last page of the issue we see the natives making sam a costume and even see him fully don his first version of the falcon costume as the issue ends after this things play out as you would assume captain america and falcon team up to defeat the exiles and then the red skull with captain america eventually being put back in his real body but there's a twist of sorts we later find out that red skull didn't only use the cosmic cube to swap bodies with captain america he also used it to mentally fuse wilson with redwing creating a mental link that over time gave sam a broad range of powers over all birds which explains sam's strange connection with redwing that he mentioned to cap red skull also used the cosmic cube to rewrite sam's past and erase the years wilson spent angrily living as snap wilson in the new reality he created for him sam was a cheerful social worker who was eventually brought to the exiles island where he would rally the natives to fight for freedom along with captain america which we just went over.

What i'm saying is if any of that is confusing that's because comics but now it's time for story arcs and publication history after the events i just told you in origin sam wilson now the falcon would move back to new york city where he would fight alongside captain america for most of the 70s so much so they changed the name of the captain america title from simply captain america to now captain america and the falcon starting with issue 134 and lasting through issue 222 with the exception of issue 193 simply just being called captain america it was during this captain america and the falcon run that sam wilson became the iconic character many of us came to love it's also where he would get his classic red and white costume he would wear his original green and yellow costume from issues 134 to 143 but then got an all new and now classic look and captain america in the falcon issue 144 but even with his new look he was still wingless falcon wouldn't get his wings until nearly 30 issues later in captain america and the falcon issue 170. in the issue we learned his wings are custom improvements done by black panther with wakanda tech we learn they're powered from their tips by wafer thin integrated circuits feeding off of a sunlight charged power pack all controlled by a direct link to sam's brain.

It was also in this series issue 186 to be exact that writer steve englehart recon several aspects of falcon's past here we see while sam wilson was originally depicted as a social worker in reality he was revealed to be a mob connected thug whose memories were altered by the cosmic cube which i told you about during the origin segment and was like yeah comics because what is comics if not using an object or thing to alter the reality of a character's past and continuity this takes us to the late 1970s where falconer briefly joined the defenders superhero team appearing in issue 62 through 64. now as cool as the defenders are we know there's two major superhero teams in marvel comics the x-men and of course the avengers but since falcon isn't a mutant he would join the avengers in his initial run with the team he would appear from issues 183 through 194 but by the time 1983 rolled around falcon finally starred in his first solo series which was a four-issue mini-series now a few seconds ago i said falcon was not a mutant well this series actually revealed that.

He was in fact a mutant but the reason i said he wasn't is because this was later retconned in the avengers 2001 annual so even though he was for a brief period in time he no longer is which i think is for the better and clearly marvel does too as i reckoned it but let's continue shall we as we rolled into the 80s and 90s falcon would be a regular appearing character in volume 2 of captain america before rejoining the avengers in avengers volume 3 issue 1. however this time the series was cemented as one of the most prominent members of the avengers team after this falcon would appear in a brand new captain america in the falcon series in 2004 but the series only lasted just over a year and ran for 14 issues then in avengers disassemble the scarlet witch temporarily brought back sam's criminal snap personality but again it was temporary but this all leads us to the most significant moment for sam wilson and that's when he became captain america in 2014. 

Now i'm not actually going to talk about how he became captain america and his time as cap because.we already did an entire episode on that which you could find right here anyway of course steve rogers would ultimately come back reclaiming his captain america mantle meaning sam became falcon once again this time leading the avengers he also gained a new sidekick rayshawn lucas who helped him out during the hydro invasion raeshan would become a sidekick patriot falcon and patriot would then set out to keep the world a better place but with that my comic comrades it's time for powers and abilities like briefly mentioned earlier falcon has a telepathic link to birds he can understand them and even see through their eyes this ability was granted to him after the red skull used the cosmic cube on him then like mentioned earlier sam has a pet falcon named redwing he has a paranormal empathic link with him so because of falcon's connection with birds he can command them and use them as his eyes and ears in the sky sam is also an expert in martial arts due to captain america training him in multiple forms and besides being an extremely dangerous combatant he's also a master acrobat because much like captain america training him in martial arts he also trained him in gymnastics and acrobatics to the point where he's roughly on par with captain america himself sam has also been known to be one of the best aerial fighters in the world exceeding.

The skills over other flyers like iron man and ms marvel sam is a master in weapons and has some pretty great equipment for instance falcon's costume is from wakanda so his glider wings are the peak of technological advancement and literally connected to his brain meaning his wings become an extension of his arms his goggles have a range of functions like night vision 360 view infrared and the list goes on falcon's costume also contains vibranium microweave making his costume bulletproof from most bullet fire recently however falcons costume uses new vibranium nanotech which makes it even more durable he's also had the addition of flash grenades and wrist mounted flamethrowers because let's be honest that's just kind of awesome besides that he has an array of other gadgets and abilities but i think you guys get the point so now it's time for reading recommendations if you guys are looking for some good falcon reading recommendations check out captain america 117 captain america 277 falcon take flight all new captain america volume 1 hydra ascendant captain america masterworks volume 6 and the brand new falcon and the winter soldier miniseries that should be more than enough to get you all started and just like that that brings today's episode of ant to a close but if you enjoyed today's video be sure to check out this one to my left and if you like all of our content be sure to subscribe like and comment it always helps us out but other than that i'll see you guys next time when i talk about all things comics