Ridley Rants: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Marvel's Propaganda Problem

For better or for worse, superheroes are a vital part of America’s identity. Specifically, Marvel superheroes have created a national form of lore that not only provides Americans with a sense of connection but serves as a societal and cultural reflection of whatever time they exist in. Marvel superheroes have become role models, with their behaviors demonstrating to many viewers how they should be carrying themselves at home and abroad. However, if superheroes reflect American ideals and have become their new role models, where does that leave the military? After all, soldiers were once considered to be the ultimate display of heroism and bravery to Americans. They were the original role models, the once shining example of American ethics whose behavior people would try and emulate, but, now, United States citizens, young and old alike, have turned to escapism to feel both inspired and to find an example of exemplary behavior to look up to. Comic book characters, currently the most popular heroes in film, are what people are paying mind to, not just as entertainment but also for a mirror to view themselves.

The United States government knows this, and they also know that the MCU casts a wide net in terms of viewership numbers. Furthermore, Marvel, and in turn, Disney, is showing no signs of slowing down their content rollout, releasing new titles every few months to larger and larger audiences across the globe. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had 495 million minutes watched for its premiere episode, besting both season openings of the Mandalorian in addition to the two-episode debut of WandaVision, making it the biggest-ever launch on Disney + to date. Essentially, with viewership numbers this big, the entire superhero genre is the perfect medium to spread and promote American values and assumptions worldwide. Likewise, propaganda is created so that its viewers will embrace the propagator’s message and consequently put those ideas into effect, explaining the Department of Defense’s continued interest in the genre.

By now, it’s no secret that Marvel and Disney have a special relationship with the Pentagon. Their ties to the United States government have been well documented since the debut of Iron Man in 2008. Marvel Studios has spent over a decade collaborating on numerous projects with the military, such as the Iron Man movies, Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain Marvel, and most recently, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The Department of Defense has given these productions permission to use their consulting services and equipment, like uniforms and Air Force planes, a prime example being the F-22 Raptors in Iron Man, among more than a billion dollars price tag for other planes. These films and shows have also been given access to military bases, like Edwards Air Force base in Iron Man and Captain Marvel and Camp Edwards in Captain America: The First Avenger. In exchange for acquiring these services and resources, Marvel has created some of the most prominent propaganda pieces since Roosevelt created the Writers' War Board in WWII, a group that Captain America’s creators, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, were members of. Stan Lee even did his part in producing propaganda during WWII as a playwright, but this was during a less complicated time in history when heroes and villains were more clear-cut. The ends justified the means, which begs the question, what does propaganda look like during an era when it’s not so easy to tell the good from the bad? Well, I’ll tell you what, it looks like a superhero with rockets strapped to their back defending the country against terrorists and alien invasions.

The truth is that the United States government has actively perpetuated inequalities and destabilized entire regions worldwide via coups and military occupation. Unfortunately, these plot points were not addressed in earnest during the show’s run, nor was the topic touched on in a meaningful way outside of the final season one episode. After hearing the Flag Smashers get labeled as terrorists (which they most definitely are at the end of the season) by a Senator, Sam responds, “You have to stop calling them terrorists,” to which another Senate member retorts, “What else would we call them?” Sam then gives a powerful monologue that sums up the themes of the show. Still, first, he explains, “Your peacekeeping troops carrying weapons are forcing millions of people into settlements around the world, right? What do you think those people are going to call you? These labels, “terrorists,” “refugee,” “thug;” they’re often used to get around the question why.” Sam gets it, but I do find it unfortunate that the show’s critiques of society, racism, and xenophobia are mostly unvoiced and unboxed outside of this scene, some dialogue uttered by villains, and the Isaiah Bradley plotline, but perhaps that’s for a reason.

Cue “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue” by Toby Keith

According to the article “To Tap Into the Military’s Arsenal, Hollywood Needs the Pentagon’s Blessing,” the writer, Samantha L. Quigley, explains: “Strub [the entertainment liaison at the DoD] and the Defense Department won’t support scripts that present negative portrayals of the U.S. military or its chain of command. If you see a film or TV show where service members are taking orders from political aides or fictional intelligence agencies, Strub and the Pentagon are probably not involved with the project.” This is where The Avengers 2012 film comes into play. It was business as usual between Marvel and the military, with the Army allowing the film access to White Sands Missile Range and soldiers to fill out one of the pivotal battles towards the end of the film. In this scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to nuke New York City to stop an alien invasion, which the Pentagon in real life had no problem with. The issue they ran into during production was that Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t consult with the military first, which resulted in the Pentagon dissolving their partnership with Marvel Studios in the middle of production. You have to follow the chain of command, Mr. Fury.

It wasn’t until Captain Marvel that this special relationship between Marvel Studios and the military was repaired. While there was National Guard involvement in The Winter Soldier film, it wasn’t meaningful how its previous involvement with Marvel Studios had been in the past. In contrast, the Captain Marvel production was allowed access to Air Force historians, private locations, and F-15Cs. There was even an Air Force flyover conducted to accompany the premiere of the film. Video games notwithstanding, the film industry is the perfect vehicle for the military to promote themselves and recruit young, impressionable children. Millions of kids around the world grew up wanting to be just like Iron Man and Captain America. How many young girls and boys do you think saw Carol Danvers fly an Air Force jet or watch Sam Wilson glide through the air before deciding that they want to join the military and be a “hero” too, even though they would most likely be operating drones and killing civilians, and not doing barrel rolls at high altitudes?

What’s even more sinister, perhaps, is how the United States military targets People of Color to join their ranks. It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone at this point that the United States government exploits Black and Latinx people by using military enlistment as an escape from poverty. According to an article by Daniel Miessler, a cybersecurity professional and writer, entitled “How the U.S. Military Manufactures Consent Using Movies,” he asks: “Ever notice the massive number of miniorities—especially Hispanics—being shown in these scenes? It’s almost like the military is using blockbuster movies as direct marketing push to attract its favored demographics. Only this isn’t some sort of conspiracy, it’s a fact. Many of today’s biggest movies are essentially massive commercials for the Military that target minorities and the poor.”

Propaganda aside, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier does make some thought-provoking statements, but more on that later

Excluding the show’s criticism of America’s extensive history of xenophobia, racism, and other violations of human rights, Marvel’s propaganda problem persists in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier right from the beginning sequence in episode one. Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, alongside his curiously adorable “pet” drone named Redwing, effectively muscles in on the foreign airspace in Tunisia with the help of Air Force intel officer Joaquín Torres, his military liaison, and future Falcon in training. The Major tells Sam, “US military cannot be seen operating out there,” indicating that they need to be sly because they know they’re doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, to which Sam agrees. Soon after, Torres, one of the only Latinx characters in the MCU, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and DREAMer protected under the DACA act (at least in the comics), makes an unfortunate joke in response to apprehending a man on foreign soil: “I don’t know how jurisdiction works here, but I’mma have to place you under arrest.” Yikes. Did they really have to write this line for a Mexican-American person to say?

In my opinion, this comment felt insensitive because it’s difficult to ignore the parallels between the show and reality, especially when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier doesn’t want us to either. The MCU has shown sensitivity to immigrants in the past; after all, Captain Marvel both protects the Skrulls and helps find them a new home after being forced out of their own. Even so, the MCU also has a history of mishandling important societal issues (Wanda, an immigrant, wants to assimilate so bad that she drops her accent and abandons her own culture to create an entire town of Americana), as does the United States government in real life, so it doesn’t necessarily astonish me that they would make light of something so serious. Lissete Lanuza Sáenz of Latina Medio Co, a woman who was just five years old when the United States invaded her country, Panama, does a great job of dismantling this line and illustrating why it’s so problematic. In her article “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ is Military Propaganda Taken to the Extreme,” she explains: “It isn’t a joke when the US basically ignored the sovereignty of Latin America. It isn’t a joke when in too many countries to count elected presidents were replaced by military regimes with the blessing and often full-on support of the US military. It isn’t a joke when a five-year-old spent days thinking the US soldiers were there to kill her . . .Joaquin doesn’t care about jurisdiction, you say. That’s not surprising to anyone born in Latin America. After all, the US military doesn’t either.”

I also find it strange that in the comics, Joaquín Torres was a humanitarian, lending a helping hand to people in great need by distributing medicine, water, and food to migrants making the dangerous and often life-threatening journey across the border, whereas, on the show, Torres’ backstory seems to have been drastically changed. He is now a member of the United States military, serving as First Lieutenant in the Air Force. I can’t help but think it’s because the Department of Defense didn’t want to explain to the progressive, or Hispanic and Latinx Marvel fans why it’s a felony offense to provide food, water, and shelter to migrants crossing the border. I guess we’ll have to wait for season two to know more about Torres’ personal history and where his story goes from here.

For more on Joaquín Torres and his backstory, click here

Let’s backtrack a bit so that we can explore the antagonists of the series in depth. During the five years after the Blip, the people who survived Thanos’ snap relocated and settled down in new areas and countries. While half the globe (and universe) was snapped out of existence, the rest of the world attempted to work through their collective trauma through unification, with no other choice but to lean on each other to get through the tough times ahead. The people left behind were able to move around as they liked in a borderless world, virtually unrestricted by immigration laws. Nevertheless, when Thanos’ actions were reversed, so was the way the world had been operating in half the world’s absence, and with it came the return of previous immigration laws. This meant that the people who had relocated during the five-year Blip period were no longer welcome in their new homes or jobs since the rest of the world came back to reclaim what was once theirs. After the Global Repatriation Council stepped in to mend the situation and systematically failed, Karli Morgenthau, the main villain of season one, concluded that the GRC were more invested in helping the people who Blipped and came back rather than the people who were being pushed out and forced to live in camps. Thus, the immigrants who crossed borders during the Thanos snap crisis were now labeled as refugees and scorned, and the Flag Smashers were born from this disregard and mistreatment.

The Flag Smashers, aka the stand-ins for socialism, fashion themselves out to be anarchist resistance fighters. They aim to abolish the borders that divide the world and unite the globe as one borderless nation. They even have a catchy slogan: "One World. One People." The Flag Smashers perceive heroes like Sam, Bucky, or even the original Captain America (RIP) to be government tools of destruction used for propaganda purposes. They believe that the Avengers are a threat to humanity and peace because they glorify destructive military interference across the world. As a result of the renewed border laws, overpopulated and under-resourced refugee camps, and the GRC’s interventionism and favoritism, Karli, their fearless leader, amasses an army of self-made super-soldiers. Along with the rest of the Flag Smashers, she hopes to abolish world governments, and thus nationalism, altogether. After the climactic battle and during Sam’s monologue, a member of the Senate exclaims, “Those settlements, that happened five years ago. Do you think it is fair for governments to have to support them?” to which Sam responds, “Yes.” Another member then asks, “And the people who reappeared only to find someone else living in their family home. They just end up homeless?” Like many other questions posed during the series, this one doesn’t have a clear answer.

Although some Marvel titles appear to highlight America’s mishandling of foreign policy and the politics of war, such as the argument against weapons manufacturing in Iron Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and most recently with WandaVision when White Vision is weaponized, more often than not, the villains of these stories are not the United States government themselves, but wayward agents or misguided firebrands going rogue and acting on behalf of HYDRA, and not on behalf of America. Another example of this fact is in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when it’s revealed that it was HYDRA doing bad the whole time, running the government behind the scenes, absolving the United States government of all their wrongdoing in history because, “It wasn’t me, bruh.” Without fail, Marvel villains are defeated by the good guys operating in the United States government and military and the bad guys are inevitably revealed to be acting alone or aligned with HYDRA. As we already know, this depiction of villainy is not entirely real-world accurate. At home and abroad, the United States government and its rampant militarism are responsible for plenty of wrongdoing. Our society is helplessly intertwined with racism, patriarchy, and unrestrained capitalism, and all three of these systems, along with militarism, are threats to equality everywhere. Therefore, it can be argued that it’s not a few bad apples to blame for committing injustices and causing unrest, but the whole damn rotting tree.

Karli and the Flag Smashers’ violent actions and warped perceptions notwithstanding, I don’t think their personal experiences are hard to empathize with, similar to Wanda Maximoff and her backstory

Given the criminal existence of detention camps at the border and the separation of families under the Trump administration, which Biden has recently signed executive orders to address, but not implemented new policies for at the date of writing this article, I find The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s handling of immigration and asylum-seeking to be troubling. How many times are we going to watch the United States military try and justify the unjustifiable, on and off-screen? The humanitarian crisis at the border exists as a direct result of decades of American military intervention in Central and Latin America, resulting in over 18,000 migrant children held in federal custody when writing this article. Marvel’s choice to make a villain out of someone fighting for immigration reform seems more than careless and fully complicit with America’s anti-immigrant stance and fixation on border security.

According to the Truthout article, “US Military Intervention in Latin America Fuels Migration and Instability,” Salvadoran American journalist Roberto Lovato explains: “You have the ongoing epidemic of U.S. policy and the crisis that is not of migration as much as it’s the crisis of capitalism, backed by the kind of militarism and militarized policing that you see not just in the United States, but in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, on and on . . .The border is the ultimate machete of memory. It cuts up our memory so that we forget 30 years of genocide, mass murder, U.S.-sponsored militarism and policing, failed economic policies.” The Falcon and the Winter Soldier missed a huge opportunity here to discuss America’s military interventionism, but perhaps this passing on the issue is intentional. After all, if the show took a harder stance on America’s role in destabilizing the world and causing the current humanitarian crisis at the southern border, they probably wouldn’t have been allowed access to military uniforms, aircrafts, consultations, etc.

It appears that Karli must have been making too much sense to the audience for the Pentagon’s liking, so Marvel Studios went ahead and gave her the Killmonger treatment after realizing that the villain was more right than not and that the heroes were perhaps standing on the wrong side of the argument. After the Flag Smashers steal resources out of a stockpile of goods within a Global Repatriation Council warehouse, Karli makes the executive decision to detonate a bomb and blow up the entire building with innocent people inside injuring eleven and killing three. “This is the only language these people understand,” she explains, fully crossing over from “Hey, the girl has a point” territory into “Damn, Karli bad” land. In the season one finale, she further emphasizes her position by stating, “These people will never stop, not unless we make them,” which felt more like she was talking about herself at that point than anyone else.

Red, the color of communism. Did they have to cast a redhead too? I kid, I kid

Karli, along with the Flag Smashers, like Killmonger before her, wanted to arm the oppressed so that they could liberate themselves from a cruel system and those who wish to mistreat them. Swap out vibranium for super-soldier serum, and you just about have the same motivation between the two characters. Killmonger wants to empower disenfranchised Black people, and Karli wants to empower immigrants and refugees. In both instances, the United States government and other world governments have failed them and continue to do so. John Walker, a man who believed he was sent to liberate innocent people and introduce them to “democracy,” joins Karli and Kilmonger’s ranks as the offspring of the American military-industrial complex’s long list of failures. Let’s not forget that Killmonger, along with Walker, fought in Afganistan, following orders and committing the crimes and misdeeds they were trained to execute.

In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Karli and the Flag Smashers want to unite people as citizens of the world, not citizens of a given nation. Karli says, “They imposed struggle and hardship on us, then labeled us as criminals for pushing back, but the struggle is what brings us all together. People have nothing in common. For we are, after all, simply one world and one people, so live accordingly.” This idea in itself is so terrifying to Americans and the military that Karli and her cohorts had to murder innocent people to be seen as the show's villains; otherwise, they would have been making too much sense, same as Killmonger in Black Panther. They are revolutionaries written as terrorists. Both characters are immensely flawed, and as it turns out, they didn’t want to distribute power amongst the people who need it but consolidate it for themselves. Still, you have to admit; Marvel does have a track record of taking a wide-left turn and making the antagonists do something unforgivable the moment they hit a fork in the road. This action is done to easily demonize them when they start making more sense than the heroes are.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d probably take that serum so I could impress hot people at parties by doing backflips and tearing phonebooks in two

Be that as it may, the MCU is not all mindless pro-military nonsense. Fortunately, some characters and storylines defy authority and rebel against the status quo. Throughout the series, Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, has difficulty adjusting to the world off the battlefield, living with post-traumatic stress disorder and struggling with the trauma surrounding his backstory. Throughout the series, Bucky must reconcile with his shameful past as an assassin and HYDRA agent while also making amends to the people he hurt the most (take note, Wanda). Although his trauma in the MCU is ultimately brought on through being brainwashed by a cheeseburger hating, anti-American “communist” like Baron Zemo (lolz), the fact that Marvel is touching on mental health issues is a big step in the right direction.

I also thoroughly enjoyed that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier explored Sam’s back story and his experience as a Black man and superhero in America. This is a significant conversation to have in the MCU, especially given the overdue conversations surrounding institutional racism, lack of representation, and racial injustices that America is finally talking about today. Marvel rightfully promoted Sam Wilson from his “happy to be a sidekick” role into a main character and superhero in his own right. It’s about damn time, too. More often than not, People of Color are sidelined to supporting roles and not given the respect, trust, or space to lead a franchise themselves. Relegating Black characters to play the supporting roles to White superheroes only bolsters the main character’s arc, not the supporting characters, which remain underdeveloped as a result. In turn, they are defined by their relationship with the main character, not by who they are as individuals. In essence, characters like Sam, Rhodey, Maria Rambeau, and Battlestar primarily exist to assist the White lead on their emotional journey or to help alleviate their trauma. They become plot devices, not actual characters, because of this.

What The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gets right is how honestly it tells Sam’s story. Although Sam is Steve Roger’s first choice to take on the role of Captain America now that he’s gone, Sam doesn’t believe in himself at the beginning of the series. Sam makes the decision not to take on the mantle for multiple reasons, but the most interesting of which is that the flag doesn’t represent the same thing to White people as it does to People of Color. On top of that, Sam doesn't believe that he deserves the shield on some level, which is textbook imposter syndrome. This phenomenon occurs when individuals doubt their skills and capabilities, believing that they’re not competent or that they’re somehow a fraud. This persisting fear makes people think that they aren’t talented and don’t deserve their accomplishments, but also that they got to where they are in life due to pure luck, not through their hard work or efforts.

Sam asks if he deserves the shield, while the show asks if the shield deserves Sam

Sam’s self-doubt is a big part of why he decides to donate the shield to the Smithsonian and not take on the Captain America moniker for himself. Steve Roger’s left some big shoes to fill in his absence after Endgame, and Sam wonders if he can live up to Steve’s legacy. Not long after Sam makes his donation, his trust is betrayed, and the shield is handed down to John Walker, a blonde, blue-eyed White man who has never even met an Avenger, nevermind battled aliens, androids, or super soldiers himself. To make matters more complicated for our hero, Sam also has to deal with his family's struggling fishing business back in Delacroix, Louisiana, while simultaneously confronting the harsh realities Black Americans face every day, enduring both systemic racism and the more casual kinds of degradation that permeate every corner of the country. From being denied a bank loan to almost being gunned down by the police for no other reason than the color of his skin, showrunner Malcon Spellman and the series director, Kari Skogland, tackle the issue of institutional racism by fusing real-life history with the fictional world that exists within the MCU. At one point during the series, Karli turns to Sam and addresses America’s cognitive dissonance with its past and present, saying: “That shield is a monument to a bygone era. A reminder of all the people history just left out. If anything, that shield should be destroyed.” I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that John Walker, a symbol of privilege and entitlement in the show, forcibly tears the wings off of a Black man so he can’t fly. The symbolism surrounding racism and power dynamics in America are subtly interwoven throughout the show’s six episodes. While the show lacks depth on many of the issues it confronts, partly because it tries to tackle so many, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is thought-provoking nonetheless.

These societal issues that the show confronts are underscored by Isaiah Bradley, a Black super-soldier stripped of his identity and erased from history, forced to undergo inhumane experimentation while being imprisoned for 30 years of his life. Along with countless other Black soldiers, Isaiah was fighting for a country that contended for democracy abroad while grossly mistreating its soldiers back home. Isaiah even nods to real-life history, stating, “I used to be like you, until I opened my eyes, until I saw men in the Red Tails, the famous 332 fight for this country, only to come home to find crosses burned on their lawn.” This is where the show shines, even though the closure of the Isaiah storyline felt rushed in the season one finale. During the series, the audience and Sam discovered that Black soldiers were forced to be test subjects for the government’s super-soldier serum. The consequences of the experimentation proved to be detrimental to their health and safety, and ultimately, Isaiah is the last man standing. In real life, the government ran similar experiments on unsuspecting Black citizens in Alabama by infecting them with syphilis and withholding treatment, subsequently lying about the status of their infection so that the United States Public Health Service could observe and report the progression of the disease untreated. This disgusting event in American history is called the Tuskegee Experiments. Consequently, deep-seated distrust of public health officials and vaccines remains today in many African American communities. This topic is all the more relevant given the current circumstances the world is experiencing.

The world is watching

Though Marvel is attempting to tackle race issues in America, that doesn’t solve their propaganda problem, which persists primarily undeterred. After executing a man in cold blood to a large international audience, John Walker is removed from his role of Captain America and stripped of his title, authority, and military benefits. Instead of facing jail time, John is allowed to walk free, while in contrast, Isaiah Bradley was thrown in prison for far less of a crime. Isaiah disobeyed orders to save his comrades, much like Steve Rogers did in Winter Soldier and Civil War. Still, in the case of John Walker, the United States government in the MCU skirts responsibility once again by placing the blame solely on him and no one else. What’s different in this Marvel outing compared to Hayward in WandaVision is that John’s dialogue addresses the unchecked militarism and the system that formed him. When John confronts the higher-ups at his hearing, slamming his fists on the podium in anger, he exclaims, “I lived my life by your mandates! I dedicated my life to your mandates! I only ever did what you asked of me, what you told me to be, trained me to do, and I did it— and I did it well . . .You built me.” As you’ve probably already ascertained, John Walker isn’t acting on behalf of the United States military but has gone rogue. John Walker is an insecure and entitled man living with undiagnosed PTSD. He is traumatized and hurting, and exploited by the United States government during his tours in the Middle East and home. Even though he wants to do the right thing, he lets his flaws get the better of him and behaves violently.

However, it’s important to note that this is where the schism exists between Steve Rogers and John Walker. While the latter did things at war that haunt him morally and ethically, he did them anyway because he was so dedicated to the cause and completing his mission that he never stopped to question if the missions were worth finishing in the first place. John Walker, unlike Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson, never asked himself or his superiors why. In this sense, he is a much better soldier than Sam, Bucky, or Steve ever will be, but that’s not a good thing. Rather than laying their lives and other people’s lives on the line to mindlessly serve an organization fueled by greed, violence, and interventionism, John Walker needs to learn to reject the military-industrial complex, like how Marvel Studio’s audience should. When will America grow tired of watching the military use human beings as commodities, chewing them up and spitting them back out when they’re done with them? Yes, Sam and Bucky are depicted as liberal, broad-minded, and anti-establishment in the series, the same as Steve Rogers throughout his entire run as Captain America. Having said that, some of Sam and Bucky’s actions are in direct conflict with much of their characterization. Yes, Sam initially ended his military career by becoming a counselor, focusing on helping people damaged by career warfare. In spite of all that, he then goes on a mission in Tunisian airspace, someplace he’s not supposed to be, nor the American military for that matter, along with his drone Redwing.

Generally speaking, John Walker isn’t the real problem but a living symptom of the challenges America faces today. He is a byproduct of a patriarchal, white supremacist society that has simultaneously failed him and failed him up. It’s important to note that American bureaucracy is not always corrupt, nor is it inherently bad. Be that as it may, when leaders within that system unabashedly abuse their power and betray the public’s trust, it doesn’t exactly make Americans want to put their faith in federal agencies that continue to fail them. Everything is pretty much blamed on HYDRA within the Marvel universe, and the United States government shoulders none of the blame. The unethical behavior of world leaders, or rogue agents, only serves their dubious interests and selfish political ambitions, and they do not represent the government. Essentially, everything evil about America in the MCU is because of terrorists acting alone or as puppets who don’t realize they’re just pawns on HYDRA’s chessboard.

Like I said in my WandaVision article, all these Marvel heroes need therapy, even if it solely exists for comic relief

The Captain America movies and the Black Panther movie notwithstanding, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series is the closest the Marvel franchise has come to explicitly criticizing America’s violent history and the crimes it’s committed in the name of patriotism, while simultaneously examining its relationship with the military. Surprisingly, it’s Baron Zemo, a villain by all accounts, who poses the most interesting point related to the show’s theme: “The very concept of a super-soldier will always trouble people. It’s that warped aspiration that led to Nazis, to Ultron, to the Avengers . . .The desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideals. Anyone with that serum is inherently on that path.” Has anyone mentioned to the United States military and Disney that they’re mainlining super-soldier serum themselves? The United States throws more money into its defense spending than Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the U.K. combined. Disney is also viewed by many to be the ultimate Hollywood Imperialists, and many people argue that Disney should be broken up.

With the apparent propaganda in the show aside, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier makes several attempts to challenge America’s existing state of affairs and everything that the United States pretends to be. The audience is finally treated to a fuller picture of Sam Wilson’s backstory and a more true-to-life telling of his struggle as a Black man and superhero in America. Viewers also get to see Bucky Barnes come to terms with his past crimes as a brainwashed HYDRA agent as he gets help from a court-ordered therapist to confront his mental health issues and right the wrongs of his past by bringing those responsible to justice and taking accountability himself. While the show takes several easily digestible jabs at the shameful issues plaguing the United States and other countries, the topics of anti-immigration, domestic and foreign terrorism, interventionism, and Black Lives Matter are only brushed on and rarely confronted directly. While I disagree for the most part with critics that these storylines are hollow lip-service made in vain, I wouldn’t put it past Disney or Marvel to include “woke” storylines to avoid controversy or to cater to their demographics. It’s a great marketing strategy, but a risky one too. Marvel going woke is a delicate balancing act, but ultimately, these conglomerates follow the money, which could be why they’re choosing now to address systematic racism and racial injustice; because it’s not only safe and marketable to do so, but catering to the left means they can make more money.

In the Minutes article, “Be Woke or Go Broke: Why Today’s Most Successful Companies Take Social Responsibility Seriously,” the staff writers explain: “Recent demographic shifts mean that much of America’s wealth is being generated in blue districts. In particular, economic growth has been centered in major democratic strongholds like New York and California.” The article also talks about how research conducted by McKinsey & Company, a financial advisor and counselor to some of the most influential businesses and institutions in the world, found that “ . . .millennial and Generation Z customers, who already account for a combined $350 billion in spending power in the US, “are seriously concerned with social and environmental causes” and “increasingly back their beliefs with their shopping habits, favoring brands that are aligned with their values and avoiding those that don’t.” A company like Disney knows that touching on these topics is a great business strategy. They also know that if they don’t, people will bring their viewership elsewhere, or worse, completely boycott the Marvel brand altogether. Sure, Marvel has always been aware of social injustice. It’s why The X-Men are my favorite group of heroes and anti-heroes, not just in Marvel but in fiction. Regarding the MCU, I wonder how much of the actions they’re taking to combat social injustices are virtue signaling versus actual activism.

Although this show is a tremendous step in the right direction, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series is too intermingled with the military-industrial complex for my liking. That overshadows a lot of the storytelling for me outside of the specific plot lines I’ve highlighted in this article. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier still supports American interventionism and neocolonialism, and the presence of its military on foreign soil. Even though it has some storylines that seemingly critique it, one can argue that those points exist in a Trojan horse sort of way. America’s long-standing history with Imperialism and militarism is a substantial global issue; this can’t be denied. As far as Marvel and Disney are concerned, I don’t think the pro-military propaganda is going anywhere anytime soon, considering the mixed messages about capitalism, interventionism, and immigration persisting within the show. After all, Sam is fighting using military-grade weapons and a flight suit, carrying out covert missions on their behalf. Even so, the message of the show remains, “We can all do better,” as Sam puts it in the season one finale, but that sentiment fails to address the fact that some people have more power than others, and perhaps those are the people that should be carrying more of the burden to do better than most. In the case of Disney and Marvel, I think we all know who needs to start using their power more responsibly.

Now that my argument has been made, can someone point me in the direction of the store where all these Marvel characters purchase their jackets?