Missed the Mark - The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Part 2)

Welcome back, everyone.

As covered in the previous post, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (FATWS) was a bit too heavy-handed in its messaging. Subtlety and timelessness were sacrificed for immediate relevance. Last time we covered how a shift to an allegorical discussion of race through super powers could have made the message more universal and effective. Today, we will take another shot, going episode by episode to apply the allegory within the existing framework of the show.

Please take a few minutes to read through Part 1 if you haven’t already or if your memory is fuzzy. Otherwise, let’s dive right into it.

Taking Another Shot

With our allegory established, let’s go episode by episode by episode.  I’m not going to give the series a full treatment.  Instead, I’m just going to call out the specific scenes and elements within each episode that I would change.

Episode 1.01 – New World Order

The only change I’d make here would be to cut that line where Sarah Wilson accuses the banker of racism.  As stated above, it is very forced.  Bluntly calling out the issue like that would also muddle the allegory by having the allegory and what it represents exist side-by-side.

Episode 1.02 – The Star-Spangled Man

In the existing FATWS, John Walker’s introduction includes a line about his impressive physical attributes.  This is good, but it can go a bit farther.  In the new version, Walker will also have received enhancement, something that the US government will emphasize in his PR campaign.  He’s not as strong as Steve, Bucky, or (as he’ll later discover) the Flag Smashers, but he’ll on par with Olympic athletes.  This change will set Walker up as a foil to Sam in the super soldier versus Everyman conflict from the very beginning of the story.

Making Walker a super soldier will also help to resolve some of the continuity issues caused by all the superhuman enhancement programs introduced to the MCU over the years.  Between Erskin’s formula, the Winter Soldier, the serum established in The Incredible Hulk, Extremis, Project Centipede, and now Red Guardian, there are too many functional super soldier programs and not nearly enough soldiers.  It’s bizarre that world powers wouldn’t keep pursuing this tech, especially after what happened in Sokovia.  Walker will fill in this ever-widening plot hole by establishing that the research is progressing, albeit with unreliable results.

(This would then raise the question of why Lemar Hoskins doesn’t get the same treatment.  An easy solution for this is that Walker was rushed through the program and into action for PR, with Hoskins making some comment about being on the list for the next round of enhancement candidates.)

We then get the truck fight in Munich.  This would remain mostly unchanged.  Walker’s performance would need to reflect his improved abilities relative to Sam and Hoskins, though he should be clearly weaker than Bucky and the Flag Smashers.

Next comes the Bradley scene.  I would leave this as-is, save for removing any lines that explicitly tie Bradley’s treatment to race.  (This will, after all, be implied within the context of the allegory.) I don’t believe Bradley gives Sam his backstory until later, so his hostility can be applied more broadly to the idea of super soldiers.

I should note that the Black Falcon line comes at the start of the Bradley scene.  While I feel that most of the lines about race break immersion, this is a small moment that doesn’t shift the focus of the scene.  It triggers a short, lighthearted interaction that’s great for characterization.  The one potential downside is that it could confuse the allegory, as mentioned above.  However, this comment feels natural and subtle enough that I think it could still coexist with said allegory.  It also gets a small yet nice payoff down the line.

Episode 1.03 – Power Broker

I’d recommend changing Zemo’s line about Sam’s outfit.  Unlike the Black Falcon exchange, this doesn’t get any payoff.  What Zemo should instead say in something snarky about superhero costumes, such as, “You fly around in a bird costume, yet this outfit bothers you?” or maybe, “Captain America dressed far more garishly than this.  Does that make him a clown?” Otherwise, I can’t think of anything that needs to be changed here to suit the allegory.

Episode 1.04 – The Whole World is Watching

Again, not much has changed here.  Walker and Hoskins’s chat about the serum will need to be tailored a bit to reflect that Walker already has power, and that the Flag Smasher serum would just make him stronger.  Maybe throw in a line about how more power would enable him to do more good, or some other such justification.  Beyond that, this episode fits the allegory as-is.

Episode 1.05 – Truth

In the original FATWS, this episode tries to carry the identity politics messaging.  It collapses under the weight.

The Bradley Scene

This is where we get Bradley’s story and are expected to just buy that his treatment was due to the US being racist, rather than the more obvious tale of Cold War tensions, shady black ops, the desperation to produce more super soldiers, and possible interference from HYDRA via SHIELD.  Maybe, if the show was only about racism, this would work better, but too much focus is on the Flag Smasher conflict.  The whole scene with Bradley feels like the writers pulling the audience aside to rant about racism rather than advancing the narrative.

We need reframe this scene so that it focuses on the allegory.  Bradley’s new backstory will run something like this:

The Korean War was the first major armed conflict for the US after Truman desegregated the military under Executive Order 9981.  (This is historically accurate, though desegregation of the military was not nearly so neat in practice.) Bradley demonstrated incredible valor and heroism in the conflict, with many calling him the Captain America of Korea.  He is sent after Bucky in 1951.

The key point, though, is that Bradley had no powers.  He was accomplishing these feats and defeated the Winter Soldier with nothing but his natural abilities.  Then, at the end of the Korean War, the US military asks Bradley to support something called the Weapon Plus program.  They tell him that they believe he could be the next Captain America, a new symbol to inspire all citizens of the United States in the era of nuclear weapons.

This change does three things:

1)      It serves the allegory at a surface level.  Bradley was a hero without being a super soldier; he was already an unofficial Captain America, yet his lack of powers held him back from being officially acknowledged.

2)      It enhances the allegory at a subtextual level.  Bradley is offered a chance to be a symbol for everyone.  The implication is that, if he becomes Captain America in fact, it will help black communities struggling in the social climate of the 1950s.

3)      The Weapons Plus is a comics book reference that serves both the MCU and the messaging.

-          In the mainline comics continuity of Earth-616, the Weapon Plus program started as an effort to recreate Captain America, who was retroactively dubbed Weapon I (that’s “one” – the Plus program uses Roman numerals).  The program eventually evolved into a shadowy agency dedicated to hunting mutants, producing mutates and brainwashed mutant soldiers.  Wolverine was a product of the Weapon X generation.  This provides a potential tie-in for mutants in the MCU and establishes the Weapon Plus program as a future source for enhanced individuals.

-          Weapons III through V specifically experimented on minority groups, providing another subtle nod to the subtext.  Perhaps Bradley could even comment that they probably recruited him because they assumed he wouldn’t be missed, though again, he wouldn’t come right out and declare that this was because he was black.  We can fill in that detail ourselves.

Back on topic: the Weapon Plus program experimented on Bradley for those 30 years.  He never met the program’s expectations (which would obviously be due to the inadequacy of the experiments, not any fault of his), so they never delivered on their promise to present him to the world as the new Captain America.  Eventually, the experiments gave him the strength that Weapon Plus desired, but his nervous system was too damaged for him to ever be fielded in combat.  He was too valuable, though, to risk letting him walk free.  Bradley remained a prisoner until the nurse faked his death.

Bradley’s takeaway from this experience, “They will never let an ordinary man be Captain America.” He is bitter about the very idea of superpowers and superheroes; he has been forced to hide for years so that his broken body would not be seized by the government again.  At no point does he ever make it about race, but he doesn’t have to.  We can take his cynicism about being judged for the circumstances of birth and apply it universally, including to the writers’ intended interpretation of him being a victim of racism.

Giving Up the Shield

Skipping ahead, we then get to the scene where Sam and Bucky discuss why Sam gave up the shield in Episode 1.01.  Here, the focus is put on the fact that Sam was overwhelmed by having to live up to Steve’s legacy despite not having powers.  (Yes, Sam has been heroic without powers before, but Steve went toe-to-toe with Thanos and lifted Mjolnir.  That’s not something that normal people can casually live up to.) With the benefit of Isaiah’s story, the subtext of race will be there.  We then have Bucky apologizing (again, swapping out the reference to race with the reference to powers).  He could then follow this up by telling Sam about how he saved Steve from that alleyway brawl in The First Avenger, using this to point out that Steve never let a lack of physical strength hold him back.  Steve’s own circumstances of birth never stopped him from trying to be a hero.

Episode 1.06 – One World, One People

This is an episode of only minor changes.  I’d recommend keeping the Black Falcon moment of this episode intact as a payoff for Episode 1.02.

The “you need to do better” speech is insultingly bad.  The pages of the script where it was written should have been put to the torch.  However, we’re not here to deal with that mess, so let’s just remove any reference to race within the speech.

The Bradley scene at the end of the episode is a nice touch that is essential to closing out the allegory.  Finally, Isaiah Bradley is immortalized as the Captain America of the Korean War, a man who proves that a person didn’t need superpowers to be a hero and a symbol to many.

Final Thoughts

And there we have it: a version of FATWS that maintains the core themes and the subtext, but dials things back to a level where they hopefully won’t shatter audience immersion or be tethered to the times we now live in.

I won’t claim that it’s perfect.  I’m also working with the benefit of hindsight, building off a script for a show that I mostly enjoyed.  It’s easier to criticize and revise than to create.

Hopefully, this exercise has demonstrated something I strongly believe: that writers shouldn’t choose between their message and their story.  The message should be an integral part of the story, with the story being the first priority.  People come to fiction to be entertained, so if you have something you want to say to them, make sure you say it in a way that doesn’t hurt their enjoyment or break their immersion.

What’s Next

That was a rather spicy start to the series, wasn’t it?

I have a handful of other stories, franchises, and/or series that I’d like to tackle as part of Missed the Mark.  You can expect essays on Kenobi and Captain Marvel in the future.  I will also be launching a series called If They Planned in All Ahead, wherein a multi-part work (such as a television show, a film series, or an adaptation of a book series) receives this same sort of scrutiny, with a specific focus on generating a more cohesive narrative via the rewrite.  We’ll be look at the Harry Potter film adaptations, a revision for One Upon a Time, and in-depth rewrites for both The Legend of Korra and the Star Wars Sequel trilogy (the latter of which seems to be a rite of passage in this day and age).

Regardless, it’s going to be an interesting journey.  I hope to see you all on August 8th, when we dive deep into how the Harry Potter films could have landed a little bit better If They Planned It All Ahead.