Why Falcon Taking The Shield In Avengers: Endgame Will Ruin Future Movies
Just like Tony Stark said it would be, Avengers: Endgame serves as an ending to an eleven-year journey -- an amazing ending at that. Endgame carries most of the original Avengers' members to the conclusion of their story arcs. Steve Rodgers happens to be one of these members, and his ending happens to be one of the few happy ones.
Tony Stark perfects a time machine in the movie with the use of the time vortexes in the Quantum Realm -- just as most of us thought he would. This time machine miraculously survives the film, and in the end, Steve uses it to fulfill his long wish of returning to his own time and starting a life with Peggy Carter. But just because Steve’s Rodgers story is over doesn’t mean that Captain America’s is done. An old man now, Steve decided to pass the shield and mantle onto someone new: Falcon.
Captain Falcon
A lot of us had a feeling something like this was going to happen. That Endgame would wrap up Steve Rogers Story arc and his shield would then be passed on to one of two people: Falcon or Bucky. One is Steve’s best friend of the present time, and the other is Steve’s best friend from the past. It would only make sense that one of them gets the shield if Cap is either unable to wield it or decides he doesn’t want to anymore. The choice just happened to be Falcon -- thank God.
Aside from giving us the wonderful meme of a backstory that after retiring from racing fictitious formula 1 race cars, Captain Falcon decide to take up "hero" work, the choice of giving Falcon the shield over Bucky makes the most sense. The MCU has done a pretty good job of making Anthony Mackie’s Falcon come off as more of a partner to Cap than his sidekick, but the stigma is still there. Falcon gaining the shield over Bucky helps to further solidify Falcon as his own heroic force. Bucky doesn’t need the shield; he never has.
As the Winter Soldier, Bucky has his own powerset that has always allowed him to rival Captain America. He’s one of the few human-esqe characters that stand a very good chance of beating or killing Steve whenever they square off. In both the comics and the movies, Bucky has always come off as more of an equal to Captain America. Him taking up the mantle serves more as a tribute to his friend than anything else because he doesn’t really need it. His “metal” arm pretty much does everything the shield is meant for aside from disobeying every law of physics that challenges it. He can still uphold his friend’s philosophies without taking his up his shield as well. Besides, after everything he’s done, his time would be better served cleaning up his own moniker before he tries upholding someone else’s.
Sure, both Bucky and Falcon have wielded the shield and adopted the alias of Captain America in the comics, but Falcon is still the better choice sensibly. Bucky just has enough on his plate as it is whereas Falcon still has room to further develop his superhero name. Also, since the two of them are going to be sharing a tv show together, giving Falcon the shield helps to even the playing between them. If Bucky had all of his abilities on top of being the new Captain America, the show would easily lean more on him. But by giving the shield to Falcon, there’s a better opportunity for them to share the spotlight. Falcon can focus on being the new Captain America while Bucky can focus on being a reinvented Winter Soldier. Just as Bucky was equal to Steve’s Cap, this scenario makes it possible for him Falcon to be the equal of Bucky.
The Role of Captain Falcon
It should be made clear (if it hasn’t been already) that just because Falcon has taken up the Captain America alias, doesn’t mean that he will be “Steve Rogers’” Captain America. What does that mean? Well, it pretty much means what it sounds like. Sam Wilson isn’t a super-powered individual. We’re not going to be seeing him flexing on any badies by holding back their taking-off helicopter with his sculpture-like biceps anytime soon. He’s not going to be falling from six stories worth of height without breaking something that’s probably important. This means that any potential high-octane movies that the Captain America title is now known for won’t be happening.
We don’t know how the Black Widow movie is going to be when it arrives in theaters, but any movie Sam has would be more equivalent to that than it would be to a Captain America title. That being said, we probably won’t be seeing a Captain America 4 featuring Captain Falcon. If by some miracle we do, it won’t be for a very long time. His show with Bucky would have to do exponential well, and a large part of that would have to based of off Falcon’s own charisma (which Anthony Mackie admittedly has given to the character). All these factors would have to be in place for any future Captain America movie with Falcon to succeed.
If any of them aren’t, it’s quite possible that any new Cap movies with Falcon will be a train wreck. For one thing, to the audience, yeah Falcon is awesome, but he’s just not Steve Rodgers’ (Chris Evans’) Captain America. Throwing Falcon into the forefront of a new Cap movie too soon could be disastrous, looked at almost like their trying to recast the character. The saving grace for Falcon in this instance is that he’s an already established character who thankfully happens to have a different name. But the point still stands.
It’s also good to remember that Falcon doesn’t have the same connections with the Avengers that Steve had. So just because Steve passed on to Falcon the Captain America title that doesn’t mean that Falcon is going to be muttering “Avengers Assemble” to thunderous applause in future Avengers movies (that honor will probably belong to T’Challa). While Falcon has a sense of loyalty to his fellow soldiers like Steve, he doesn’t have it for fellow Avengers members, as evident by how quickly he was willing to help Steve split the team apart in Civil War. It’s hard to imagine who his supporting cast would be in his new solo films other than Bucky Barnes. He doesn’t really have a support system outside of that. Steve had Sam, Bucky, Black Widow and the rest of the Avengers to help him. Falcon does not. He’ll need some time to develop his network, but even if he does, he definitely won’t be as prominent to the Avengers team as Steve was.
Comic Book Controversy
We touched on the fact that Falcon has adopted the Captain America title before in the comics and want to elaborate a bit more on that. In fact, he did so almost in the same manner as he does in the movie: receiving the shield from Old Man Steve. Considering all the nods and easter eggs to comic lore that happen in Endgame, this isn't really a surprise.
In the comics’ version of things, Steve is turned into an old man by the personification of a powerful relic called the Cosmic Cube. As such, he’s unable to accurately perform as Captain America. Sooo ~ he knights Falcon with the shield and mantle. Again, this is an excellent choice, however, it was dampened by the political climate. People are pretty sensitive nowadays, and the wrong words or choices can set off just about anybody. This happened with Captain Falcon. Falcon -- being black -- had comic stories that dealt with issues black people deal with. He had these stories while holding the mantle of Captain America, and a good portion of the Marvel fan base wasn’t happy about it. It didn’t help that when Steve Rodgers eventually did regain his youth and returned as Captain America alongside Captain Falcon, he was running around like a filthy Nazi spy (something Endgame did a glorious easter egg of).
The point is, is that Falcon wasn’t looked too kindly on as a Captain America. His character was otherwise shunned and ridiculed along with Marvel and what they were doing with their comics. Things have definitely seemed to have cooled down since then, but you know -- you never know. Again, it’s way too easy to trigger people nowadays. One wrong move with Falcon as Cap could trigger a salt storm the likes of which you’ve never seen.
It’s a good bet to think that the MCU, on the other hand, has earned their audiences’ trust, but even it is not a stranger to controversy. Brie Larson is still getting shot up for comments she made about not needing a certain demographic of people to see her Captain Marvel movie in order for it to succeed. A lot of people from said demographics are still pretty sore about that. To be fair, sometimes controversy only serves to give a property an even bigger audience than originally expected. Despite Brie’s comments -- or perhaps because of them -- Captain Marvel still blew the hell up at the box office. It didn’t make it to Black Panther’s status, but damn if it didn’t pull in numbers.
So will Captain Falcon ruin future MCU movies? More than likely not. If anything Endgame has a bigger chance of doing that just by presenting itself as an end to things. Even then, by how awesome the movie, you’re probably thinking about how stupid that statement sounds. Yes, the MCU prints money at this point. They would have to deliberately do something drastically negative to sabotage themselves and ruin what they have. Considering Disney’s recent inclusion of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four it doesn’t look like the MCU is going anywhere anytime soon, even if the general audience does happen to become smaller.
Wrap Up
Falcon is and always was the best choice to take up Steve’s Captain America mantle. It gives him the most potential for further development into his own hero, and provides an opportunity to develop both Sam and Bucky without taking away from the other. Besides, no one else alive that doesn’t already have a powerset of their own relates to Cap more than Sam. It’s one of the reasons their onscreen chemistry worked so much. Also, the connotations behind the name Captain Falcon are just way too good to pass him over for Bucky instead.
There are a few worries about Falcon getting the shield, but they’re nothing life threatening to the MCU. Any controversies that Falcon may run across over his race will more than likely be avoided like extended family at Christmas, and even if for some reason they aren’t, the resulting arguments could breed an even bigger audience. It’s also well known by this point that Disney is starting a streaming service and that one of their new programs will feature Falcon and Bucky. So Captain Falcon has a platform on which he can grow and develop and be audience tested. He’s also not actually becoming Steve Rodgers, just carrying on his legacy. So after some time has passed and the “Chris Evans being Captain America” hype has died down some, Falcon may be able to carry on the films if Marvel decides to continue them.
Finally, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson is just a likable character. It’s very hard to sensibly dislike him. When it comes to casting roles, the MCU seems to have never failed (except for the first Incredible Hulk, but we don’t talk about that. We treat him too like we do extended family come Christmas). Falcon’s upgrade to Captain Falcon is something that the MCU has earned for the character. It’s easy to trust that wherever they take him will be enjoyable to see. With the charm Anthony brings to Sam it’s hard to imagine Captain Falcon not taking off to grander heights.
