SHOUT-OUT! The Falcon Week — Day 3
I dig this cover quite a bit. The dark ominous Sentinel in the background is reminiscent of GALACTUS, which can’t help but add to the flavor of the presentation. It is definitely an omen, and is revealed in this second issue of the limited mini-series, The Falcon — Sam Wilson is a mutant.
He is able to establish a psychic bond between himself and Redwing. I suspect there have been quite a few allusions to this revelation. Did it happen in Captain America #119-#120? (not yet part of my collection) — possibly! I wonder if Black Panther is the only Black superhero that did not originate from the ghetto?
It would seem that The Falcon, Green Lantern, and Black Goliath, have hailed from down on skid row. Clearly, being from the streets — bitch!!! yields some advantages:
The Falcon Week continues…Bahlactus has spoken.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I think the Falcon being a mutant was later retconned away, but I’m not certain where!
October 17th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
When the Falcon met the X-Men in CAP #172-173, Professor X noticed that Falc’s ability to command Redwing seemed to be beyond what mere “bird-training” could do, and speculated that he might be a mutant. This turned out to be a bit of a red herring, as well as foreshadowing…
In CAP #186, it was revealed that Falcon had been an unconscious “sleeper agent” for the Red Skull all along. Back when the Red Skull had the Cosmic Cube (circa CAP #115), he used it on a racketeer named Sam Wilson. He replaced Wilson’s criminal personality with that of a “good guy”, gave him the ability to command his pet bird Redwing (which both Prof. X and that Sentinel mistook for a mutant power), and then set things up so that Captain America would take Sam on as a partner, giving the Skull an “inside man”.
It was certainly a clever and shocking twist by writer Steve Englehart, but unfortunately it pretty much ruined Falcon as a viable character. Years later, in CAP #276-278, J. M. DeMatteis tried to undo the damage by establishing that Sam Wilson had started out as a nice guy, but the death of his father caused him to have a mental breakdown, turning him into the callous, greedy racketeer that the Red Skull recruited. Thus, when the Skull scrambled his brains with the Cosmic Cube, he was really just bringing back Sam’s original “good” personality.
Aren’t you sorry you asked? ;-)
October 17th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
‘Preciate the heads up info on the Falcon — so it would seem that there is ALOT going on with my man that really adds to the flavor of his story. The whole Cosmic Cube scenario from Captain America #115-120 is interesting the way it involves the Falcon — I had no idea that the brutha was grimey before he was a hero. I need to get into his tale some more. Good looks on the info :)