Fanboys Anonymous

Ever since it was first announced that there would be spin-off television shows on Disney+ that would deal with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I've been trying to think of what this could all be about and where I'd like to see these different shows going.

I had some ideas heading into Avengers: Endgame, but after seeing that film, some of them changed, and now, I'm more convinced than ever that I have a good idea for at least the Falcon and Winter Soldier series, which I wanted to toss out there in case not only am I right about where they're going, but possibly have an even better idea. Plus, I'm interested in knowing what YOU want in these shows and your thoughts on my concept.


Basically, since Sam Wilson as given the shield from Steve Rogers, who is definitely stepping down from the mantle of Captain America, this show has to be about Sam reinforcing how he's earned the right to fill those shoes. He has Steve's blessing, but it isn't quite the same.

To give him that hurdle that he has to cross, he needs someone standing in the way of that, and that person should definitely be John Walker.

Storyline backstory on Walker: He grew up in Custer's Grove, Georgia. In the comics, he idolized his brother, Mike, who was a helicopter pilot who died in the Vietnam War. We have to change that a bit to work with the times, so for this, Mike either needs to be his father to keep the Vietnam thing going on, or Mike needs to have served in Afghanistan or something like that. (It depends on if you want to keep the idea of his father and mother, Caleb and Emily, getting killed by the Watchdogs, who have appeared on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or if you want to just skip over that). The point needs to be that he idolizes a family member who died during combat, and while he wants to live up to that, he's unable to.

Let's incorporate some different elements by having Ethan Thurm be his manager and/or friend, possibly doing the whole Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation angle, blah blah. He goes by the name of Super-Patriot. Or, maybe, that's just his nickname throughout the hero community with him trying to be the next Captain America.

The point we're getting at is that, through the help of "the Power Broker" Curtiss Jackson, he is given powers that allow him to become the government's choice for the next Captain America replacement, wherein he takes the shield and starts working alongside the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. and so on. This could be The Commission of Superhuman Affairs or Freedom Force, if you want to give them either of those names.

He fights whatever throwaway villains you want him to fight. Maybe it's the Serpent Society. Fabian Stankowicz. Skeleton Crew. I would DEFINITELY suggest Dennis Dunphy, aka Demolition Man for this. For that matter, maybe we can even play around with Grand Director William Burnside being in control of this program and nominating Walker for the role, wherein we find out that Burnside is a white supremacist and his racist attitudes are part of why he didn't want Sam Wilson to be a black Captain America.

But Walker is far more brutal than Steve ever was, and it's causing problems that Sam feels responsible to deal with, as he's disparaging the Captain America name. Maybe his parents are killed by the Watchdogs and that's what makes him snap, or maybe he's just a jerk. That's a more specific story element, whereas I'm giving a general outline here. (Side note: Left-Winger and Right-Winger totally have to be brought in here, too).

Basically, Sam struggles with the Walker situation. But what are we doing with Bucky? Well, his primary villain is Flag-Smasher.

Flag-Smasher has been a few people, so let's play around with that and make them two people, or possibly even a group, but primarily two. These Flag-Smashers are Karl Morgenthau and Guy Thierrault. (Note: toss in a Captain Anarchy reference, if you can). They are anti-nationalism and basically want people to dissolve the idea of countries and so on. Essentially, they're terrorists, so they would absolutely hate the idea of another Captain America.

Bucky is involved in this part of the story because we need someone who seems like a parallel to him, too, and these people come off as the type of evil that Winter Soldier was and could have been, had Bucky not been able to break free from him programming.

Maybe, if you're feeling very bold about the future, the Flag-Smashers could kill a young group of superheroes called the Liberteens. If you don't want to kill them off and save them for a future thing, no biggie.

When push comes to shove, John Walker's Captain America isn't good enough to deal with this threat of the Flag-Smashers and has lost control of his psyche, and it's up to Sam and Bucky to not only restore faith in the Captain America name, but to take down the Flag-Smashers, stop their big evil plan of the madbomb (yeah, we're pulling that out) and to overthrow Grand Director Burnside.

And they do. Sam feels ready for the mantle, and he's given full-on clearance from Nick Fury to be the next real Captain America, Bucky feels a little more vindicated in his quest for redemption and is seen as more of a hero in the community, Grand Director Burnside is replaced by Valerie Cooper, who is not a total racist scumbag, and all is well...sort of.

Thunderbolts are definitely coming, with the government wanting their sanctioned Suicide Squad knockoff version of the Avengers. So at the end of this, we get confirmation that Freedom Force or whatever you called it is still in effect, as just because Burnside was a horrible person doesn't mean they don't still have the same goals in mind. Dr. Valerie Cooper is, in part, in control, as well as General Ross and whomever else you want to steer the ship, but we know some of the other members that are in recruitment can be all sorts of different people (Atlas, Fixer, Beetle, Karla Sofen, Songbird, whoever..maybe even the next Black  Widow, Yelena Belova). We know one of the people in the group, though, is Helmut Zemo.

Walker is approached with joining the team. His head is not in the right place to be the Captain America this world needs, but he still wants to do good, he's still a valuable asset with powers, and he's someone they feel they can control if given the proper missions. He's rechristened USAgent and we're off to the races with basically the person who will be the Rick Flag of Marvel's Suicide Squad story, in a sense.