I'm intrigued, outside of the fact that it's got the sense of visual spectacle that anyone who hasn't been to a movie in over a year hasn't really been able to experience, The Falcon & Winter Soldier has got a stewing pot full of [Current Year] hot-button issues compressed simply into a Superhero narrative. Which is sort of inevitable if you're dealing with the Captain America end of the MCU brand.
While my predictions are usually 20% correct --
Spoiler
Show
I'm going to guess right now that the Flag Smashers are a false-flag operation to give this new Captain America a deliberately ambiguous anti-nationalist "them" for him to win against. Much like AIM was trying to do with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 except with a more coherent strategy not coded in Middle Eastern terrorism but a non-national, non-religious, quasi-anarchist sect which will appeal directly to American's sense of patriotism. That, without a WW2 to fight, this new guy has to be seen doing something to validate himself beyond wearing the suit and holding the shield and this is tailor-made for his sudden appearance on the national stage.
I suspect that the Flag Smashers superpowers are the same we'll see from this Captain America, as they got it from the same place. Maybe the Winter Soldier program since they've had more than enough time to go through Hydra's old stuff.
Edit: On a weird-to-me note. I'm watching Once Upon a Time on Disney+, and I had totally forgotten that Sebastian Stan was the Mad Hatter in that. Were just at the point where he's relevant in the show in the first/second season. With us knowing generally where the series is going my roommate couldn't help but comment that they wished he was The Winter Soldier instead, a ruthless cyborg assassin would solve so many problems down the road.
Re: The Falcon & Winter Soldier
Reply With Quote