Snap Into Marvel — Is Sam Wilson Captain America Worth The Complexity?

Real Name: Sam Wilson

First Appearance: Captain America #117 (September 1969), as Captain America, Captain America (vol. 7) #25 (December 2014).

First Multimedia Appearances: The Avengers: United They Stand voiced by Martin Roach (1999); Captain America: The Winter Soldier played by Anthony Mackie (2014)

Powers and Abilities: Sam possesses a natural rapport with falcons and other birds. Thanks to manipulation by the Red Skull via the Cosmic Cube, his innate abilities are augmented by a telepathic link with his falcon, Redwing, which he is capable of expanding to other birds, enabling them to see through their eyes, access their memories, etc. Additionally, Sam is a highly trained hand-to-hand combatant, and skilled in the use of both Captain America’s shield and his own Wakanadan-designed flying harness.

Comic Book Chronicles

Sam Wilson has a history which dates back to the Silver Age of comics, where he was introduced simply as a social worker with a fondness for falconry, who received training from Captain America and operated as his partner, using the name Falcon. As Marvel’s second black superhero (after Black Panther) and first African-American superhero, Sam has a long history of partnering with Captain America, even co-headlining Cap’s series for a time.

Over time, Sam added a grappling hook to his repertoire, and then, a flight suit with birdlike wings which finally enabled him to fly like his namesake. He first joined the Avengers in Avengers #183 (May 1979). Given membership as part of an affirmative action drive, he didn’t stay long, but returned to the team of his own volition and served off and on for years.

As part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, the super-soldier serum keeping Steve Rogers young was neutralized, causing his body to reflect his chronological age. This leads him to appoint Sam to be his successor as Captain America. Shortly thereafter, one of the more unpleasant pieces of Sam’s backstory is revoked.

Back in the 70s, writer Steven Englehart retconned Sam’s origin, revealing that Sam the heroic social worker was a fake identity created by the Red Skull via the Cosmic Cube to make Sam a sleeper agent, and that he was really “Snap” Wilson, a mob-connected thug. During a later battle with Sin, the daughter of the Red Skull, Sam, as Captain America, learns that the opposite is true: the “Snap” persona was fabricated by Red Skull, and the heroic social worker he was introduced as is his actual identity.

As Captain America, Sam met Joaquin Torres, a teenager who was experimented on by an evil scientist, fusing his DNA with that of Sam’s falcon, Redwing. Sam took in Torres and trained him, with Torres adopting Sam’s old Falcon identity.

Even after Steve Rogers’ youthful vigor returned, Sam continued to serve as Captain America, giving the identity up to Rogers only briefly, in the wake of the second “Secret Empire” story, to help Rogers regain the trust of the country after his actions as a brainwashed agent of Hydra. Eventually, Sam resumed the Captain America identity, with both men operating as the star-spangled hero, an arrangement which continues to this day.

Fit and Finish

Not a ton of variation in Sam’s, um, variants, with the Season Pass variant from He Tianyou effectively recreating the season’s artwork while loading.

The Rian Gonzales Chibi variant does feature a cute cameo from Redwing (or some other bird, at least), which is a nice touch.

Form and Function

The creation of Cap’s shield and the ability to, essentially, fling it across the board and have it return to Sam is one of the game’s better translations of a character’s ability into gameplay. That said, it really captures the ability of the shield more than Sam Wilson — while Sam does throw it, there’s nothing intrinsic to what Sam brings to the identity of Captain America about it (Steve Rogers also throws the shield — and, rightfully, also gets buffed by it in the game).

Making the shield a 1-drop seems like a nod to Sam’s ability as Falcon (to swoop around the board and scoop up all your 1-drops for your hand). But that’s about as far as it goes. It seems like a better option would be to have Sam be movable as well. Toss the shield into a lane and either send it back to Sam, or have Sam “fly” over and get it (while denying that particular ability to the Steve Rogers Captain America card, even as he could still be buffed if the shield returns to him). But that would probably make an already relatively-complex card too complex.