With the release of the first episode of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier mini-series on Disney+, we thought it would be best to suggest some reference materials to understand what could be expected out of the upcoming seasons and what characters could make an appearance, and what plotlines can open up alongside them. Even though Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon, has been given the mantle of the next Captain America as we saw Steve present him with the shield that he has fought countless battles with throughout his life. In the comics, many have had the mantle passed down to them, however, the most notable characters to hold the mantle have been both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Without further ado, let us take a dive into the pages of Marvel comics to get a better understanding of the characters:
1. Uncanny Avengers: Counter-Evolutionary
The Uncanny Avengers: Counter-Evolutionary by Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña is the comic book that could bridge the gap from watching WandaVision to The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. A war takes place in 2012 between the X-men and the Avengers, in the middle of all the chaos that ensues, Steve Rogers introduces a new team formed with members of the Avengers as well as mutants. He named the team The Avengers Unity Squad. The comic book covers all five issues of the second series with that team in the spotlight as Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon takes over as Captain America and joins the squad.
The team includes the trio of Wandavision: Wanda, Vision, and Quicksilver. The twins had just discovered that they are not the children of Magneto as they previously thought to be. The story sees Cap leading the Avengers on a search for Wanda and Quicksilver and uncovering the truth about their origin.
2. Avengers: Standoff
This comic book has it all, the characters, the plot and the action to boot. It starts out with Steve who has started to feel his age finally catching up with him and Sam who has taken over the mantle of Captain America.
You might be asking, where is the Winter Soldier in all of this? The answer is, he’s busy attacking SHIELD as he finds out about their secret faction that operates off the books. When Steve and Sam find out what he’s up to, the new Captain America decides to lend a hand in bringing this faction to an end. This not only lines up quite nicely with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it also has elements that could be added in the mini-series of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier.
3. Thunderbolts
The comic starts with a new team of heroes who are later revealed to be nothing other than the Masters of Evil that is lead by Baron Zemo himself. Zemo, if you’ve watched Captain America: Civil War, is the villain that managed to pit the Avengers against each other without even pulling a punch.
The same villain is set to be the main antagonist for The Falcon And The Winter Soldier mini-series as shown in the previous trailers. Reading this comic will get some insight into how Zemo gets his hands dirty in more than one way and how his character will play the villain in the series.
4. Secret Avengers
Captain America gets resurrected and the first thing he does? He builds another team alongside Black Widow, Sharon Carter, Moon Knight, and many others in the Marvel Universe to stop any local or intergalactic threats that have the potential to put entire planets out of existence.
Now, we have not seen a fully-fledged Secret Avengers team in the MCU as of now, however, we have seen its potential in Avengers: Infinity War, when Captain America brings the fight to the Black Order along with his team.
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier mini-series seems to have the same vibes coming off of it as we witness Sharon Carter join the fight with Sam and Bucky against Zemo. Reading this comic might give some in-depth knowledge of what team-ups are yet to come into existence in the MCU.
5. Generations: Captain America
Every legacy hero is thrown into parallel or strange timelines in this comic book, which makes for some great character development and plots to be told. However, in this book, we get a much better look at Sam Wilsons’ character as he is thrown back in time. Sam joins the army while the fight for WW2 takes place. He goes through the problems of being a black man enrolling in the army at that time.
We see Sam fight the war with his signature wings alongside with Caps shield, he tends to fight while trying not to be in the spotlight which naturally gets taken by Steve. After the war ended, he realizes that he had made his legacy, free from Steves shadow, and lives out his life waiting for him to come back from his 70-year-old nap in the ice so that he can return the shield.
We see Sam in The Falcon And The Winter Soldier face a similar problem in the first episode as he decides to give up the shield feeling that it is not a mantle that belongs to him.
What do you think about our picks that relate to the show? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section down below:
