Snap Into Marvel: Redwing Completes The “Card Circle Of Life”

First Appearance: Captain America #117 (June 1969)

First Multimedia Appearance: Redwing first appears as a droid-like drone used by Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as Falcon in Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Powers and Abilities: Redwing possesses all the natural abilities of an otherwise-ordinary falcon, along with a telepathic link to Sam Wilson, as some mild vampiric abilities due to an encounter with Baron Blood.

Comic Book Chronicles

Well, he’s the Falcon/Captain America’s, uh, falcon. Nuff said?

Arguably the most interesting thing about Redwing is the telepathic link he shares with Sam. When first introduced, he had no superhuman abilities, and was merely someone with a knack for falconry. Redwing debuted right alongside Sam in Captain America #117, and served as his partner all the while Sam worked with Captain America. Eventually, it began to seem like Sam and Redwing’s minds were linked, and Professor X of the X-Men suggested that Sam may be a mutant with some low-level telepathic abilities. This theory was seemingly put to rest not long after it was first raised, when writer Steve Englehart revealed that Falcon’s mind had been messed with by the Red Skull using the Cosmic Cube, and that the link with Redwing (and, eventually, all birds) was a result of that manipulation.

Yet the “is Falcon a mutant?” question was raised a few years after that in the second issue of a dedicated Falcon miniseries, with Sam pursued by a mutant-hunting Sentinel and text on the letters page teasing the idea that maybe Falcon is a mutant after all. That was enough to get readers thinking about the idea again, and for years, “Falcon is maybe a mutant” was batted around in fan conversations. It got to the point that writer Kurt Busiek was asked about it so often, he made a point to state definitively in an Avengers Annual that Falcon was not a mutant, and that his connection to Redwing was a result of the Cosmic Cube and Red Skull, as Englehart had intended.

The second most interesting thing about Redwing: he’s a vampire. During a fight with Baron Blood, Redwing is caught by Blood and bitten in All New Captain America #5. By the end of the story in the next issue, Redwing turns up alive and well, albeit with mysterious red eyes. It is shortly thereafter revealed that Redwing became a vampire as a result of his encounter with Baron Blood, but that thankfully (conveniently?), the more negative aspects of vampirism — like bursting into flames in sunlight or being, you know, evil — don’t manifest in avian carriers.

Fit & Finish

Despite the Captain America: Brave New World tie-in-ness of the season, there are no “MCU drone” variants of Redwing (which is probably for the best), with the rest all simply featuring traditional bird-based Redwing images. Both the Rian Gonzales (with little Chibi Captain America on his back) and Mooncolony variants are quite adorable.

It remains unclear if the red eyes on the He Tianyou variant are just the result of paramilitary goggles, or meant to be an indication that it’s featuring Vampire Redwing. Either way, fingers crossed for a full-on, unquestionable Vampire Redwing variant someday (maybe timed to Halloween).

Form & Function

Appropriately, given his connection to Falcon, Redwing’s card pulls a card out of your hand, in the same way Falcon scoops up cards and puts them back in your hand. Together, they complete the card circle of life, so to speak. Unfortunately for comics-to-card synergy, however, most of the best builds to put Redwing into don’t really feature Falcon. Whereas Falcon is used most prominently in Bounce decks, the fact that Redwing needs to be moved (vs moving on its own) means that the card will require at least some Move components to do its thing.

Ultimately, Redwing seems like a card that will be held back by the mechanics of triggering its ability. But the real shame is that there’s not really any benefit to playing it alongside Falcon.