Falcon & The Winter Soldier X-Men Connection:
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’s worldwide release on the Disney+ OTT came out on the 19th March 2021 and has been the next greatest thing on Disney+ so far. After the finale of Season 1, from the WandaVision arc, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier narrative seems to have started with a bang. The viewers on the OTT platform have been unable to wait for the release of the consecutive episodes as the buildup has been more exciting than ever. So here is a theory, which we will try to demystify in an attempt to get a clearer picture of the entire narrative.
**Spoiler alert** for any one of our readers, who have not yet watched The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, season 1 – episode 1 & 2.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier witnesses two partners who were close friends to Steve Rogers. The entire narrative revolves around how these two different individuals come together to keep the legacy of their friend alive. Bucky Barnes is seen undergoing therapy after his crimes were pardoned off by the president. But what Bucky is also trying to do, is makeup to every individual that he directly or indirectly impacted during all those years he was working under Hydra’s control.
Bucky made a list of all the deceased people, after they met Bucky, and made a list of their closest relative or friend. He even made a list of people in power, who got there because Bucky got his hands dirty. Dealing with the second lot was much easier for Bucky, as he searched them out and warned them of not using their power for the wrong means. But for the 1st half of the people, it was not going to be an easy ride in the Ballpark. One can trace down people, but how does one apologize to the relative of a deceased, especially when you were the one responsible for the death. In the story, we witness Bucky trying to befriend an old Asian gentleman, who a few years back lost his son under uncertain circumstances as told to him by the cops. But Bucky’s expression suggests that when he goes to confront the old Asian man in his apartment, he is unable to gather the strength to tell the man that it was Bucky who was the unforeseen circumstance because of which he had lost his son.
However, Sam Wilson aka Falcon has been seen running missions for the Air Force with reconnaissance and hostage rescue missions. Episode 1 of the narrative starts with Sam trying to rescue defense personnel from the clutches of the Libyan army. The audience witnesses the proficiency that Sam has achieved with the Falcon flight suit, and also the arsenal upgrade that he has made to his drone aka ‘Redwing’. Coupled with a Gatling gun and missile launchers, he has even been able to implicate Redwing with AI from Stark industries, as he can give orders and also converse with ‘Redwing’. The story witnesses Sam feels the weight of the shield given to him by Steve Rogers and stuck in a dilemma of whether to take up the mantle of Captain America or hand it over to the government.
But the real action comes into play in the second episode when a group of the terrorist organization, calling themselves ‘Flag Smashers’ makes an impromptu entry into the episode while looting a bank. The story witnesses one of the ‘Flag Smashers’ give Sam a nice ass whooping, as he moves in to stop the apparent leader. And it is then that it is realized, that just like Bucky and Steve, there have been other super soldiers and that they have finally decided to come out of hiding. Both the protagonist seems to be fighting the terrorist group in the very next sequence. Now, this may be a quiet hint on the arrival of mutants into the MCU, and most probably the X-Men. These soldiers seem to possess superhero strength.
Along with these terrorists, the viewers also witness the arrival of a government-appointed Captain America. The story also shines a bright light on Isiah Bradley, and how he was one of the test subjects of the super-soldier serum initiative. And that how he had been one of the lucky ones to survive the experimentation of the serum, being trial run by the US government on African-American volunteers, being used as Guinea pigs. The story shines a bright light on the way the US government had been working for long on the super-soldier serum and after the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine, they had very limited success in replicating the serum without any side effects. The story of the super-soldier serum almost runs parallel to the ‘Weapon X’ program and might witness a few characters from the X-men narrative.
