I hear what you’re saying, friend. I think I’m more ok with the random Flag Smasher biting it because of the way he was characterized. He grew up idolizing Captain America only to be killed by one. I respect the allegory to growing up with America’s politics before realizing what America can really be like. If we’re talking injuries, deaths, and mistreatments to the MCU’s characters of color, I think I’m seeing a trend from Battlestar, Gamora, War Machine, Mantis, Monica, and the questionability of taking out so much of Wakanda at the end of INFINITY WAR (of course that was undone to great effect in ENDGAME). I dunno, it just stuck me as odd that they casted Battlestar for this as opposed to a White sidekick. I think that’s also meant to be allegorical, but imho, the show hasn’t meditated in its themes of America double-standards for race well enough for it to be nuanced instead of just a fridging moment.

Can definitely understand disagreeing with the article. I feel like it’s tricky because the drama is all presented tidily enough, and it’s hard to know how to judge the show’s themes on a show-level or on an episode level. Honestly, given how WANDAVISION failed to stick the landing and how the Golden Age of Television tends to make each episode a thematic, philosophical whole within the greater thesis of a season, I feel like it’s odd for FALCON & WINTER SOLDIER to not have concrete cohesion within single episodes. That said, I’ll easily say that this was the best episode since the pilot and it did crack into the complexities of nationality, extremism, and combat identity, but I didn’t know if it did so in a way that felt whole or directed. It asked a lot of questions, but for me, didn’t answer much.
No hate at all, friend! I just look forward to your thoughts!
Many thanks, friend! I definitely think we’ll be seeing Agatha again soon. Leaving her like that feels like a big set up, possibly for a redemptive arc. My guess is that she’ll help Strange reign in Wanda in DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS.

I also agree about the upswing of FALCON & WINTER SOLDIER. Its characters certainly help smooth things over! Haha you’ve nailed my hopes and dreams for the series: I just want the Thunderbolts in the MCU, and I want them ASAP. Honestly, with how big of a player Ross seems to be in the movies, it wouldn’t surprise me if that happened…
Haha sorry to disappoint, friend! I’m such a stickler for writing that I’ve honestly had trouble getting into most comic book shows apart from Daredevil seasons 1 & 3, Jessica Jones season 1, and Agent Peggy Carter season 1. I respect that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and CW shows have their fans, but both disappointed me severely. While I might be a stick in the mud, I’m glad Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a good watch for you! That’s the important thing! I’m certainly pleased that they adapted a version of Ghost Rider to the screen, so points for that and for the racial diversity.

I’m right there with you on Falcon; I think episode 1’s handling of his family and their troubles adjusting to the post-Blip world and existing-while-Black was interesting and important. Honestly, I want more of that throughout the series, or at least for it to be more relevant. I’d like to see Falcon contend with his own racial identity in a more meaningful way and for him to have at least considered holding onto the shield or believing in himself as much as Cap had. There was better writing to be had here.

Honestly… yeah, it’s starting to feel like the Winter Soldier & Falcon show. Bucky has frequently been the P.O.V. character and seems like he has a better grasp of the plot and always explains things to Falcon -even things that Falcon would reasonably know or suspect.

I do still plan to keep watching, and I certainly hope that the next episode instills greater confidence in me!

Lemar Hoskins aka Battlestar is from the comics. He was the sidekick of John Walker’s Captain America, just like in this show. He is also African American, just like in this show.

Points for the intel, friend! haha my lack of Cap trivia is showing! I knew the character exclusively from being in Silver Sable's Wildpack!

It doesn't really make any sense, but when it happened, I was like "oh this is one thousand percent a setup for a Thunderbolts series".

Putting Zemo in the supervillain prison, you can just as easily stick John Walker in there too. We have a few other odds-and-ends supervillains who didn't get killed in their movies, like Justin Hammer or Abomination and such, so I'd bet money on the idea that The Raft is going to become our sort of collection for supervillains that kinda-sorta have Avengers counterparts.

The Wakanda stuff was weird because it's important for Bucky, it's important for Zemo, and overall it's important to the MCU, but I think a couple things held it back from what it could have been; we know that the show had to reshoot and shuffle a lot of stuff due to COVID, and it wasn't even intended to be out at this point (it was supposed to follow up on Black Widow to a degree) and also the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman probably means the status quo in Wakanda is a big question mark, behind the scenes. If the Wakandans take Zemo, does that mean we're seeing Zemo in Black Panther 2? If the Wakandans kill Zemo, that means he's done and gone.

The MCU has always had things planned out relatively far in advance, but I think recent years have made stuff like that impossible, so they're very much playing it by ear and trying not to commit to anything incredibly far-spanning. It's why the lame cliffhangers for Wandavision were "Wanda will return, eventually" and "Monica is going to be in Captain Marvel 2", two total "duh" scenes. I doubt we're going to get anything remotely like the Thanos stinger from Avengers, or even soft surprises like "Bucky's going to Wakanda!" until things are way more stable and Disney feels more confident in planning things out way in advance again. You can definitely tell where things are kind of held together with duct tape, and I don't necessarily blame the showrunner for "we probably had certainly plot threads planned a bit better before COVID happened and one of the biggest stars in the MCU died".

Side note, what did you think of the big cameo in this episode? I was surprised you didn't mention it. The fact that said cameo character was originally supposed to appear in Black Widow first makes a lot of sense, since her totally casual and rapid introduction in this episode made me go "huh!?"

Yeah, Zemo in the Raft feels like an obvious Thunderbolts setup. They're among my favorite Marvel teams, so I'm excited to see how they might look. Zemo's philosophy is so strict that I don't see him working with Walker, but I do see Walker working with the Contessa on a version of the Dark Avengers.

Haha truth be told, I already forgot about the cameo. I'm not a sitcom guy, so it was more like "oh, I know that actress," then I had to look up who she was (I'm a stranger to the Cap and Fury universe!). "Oh, the bikini lady?" I said, and that was about as far as I got. Cool setup, I guess, but I know so little about that universe that the specifics of why she might be cool were lost on me.

Finally caught up with Falcon and Winter Soldier. DAMN GOOD show, though I only watched it for the entertainment value (1st time) instead of analyzing it. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to your dials for them

Glad you dug it! I hope the finale delivers hard!

Haha guess I have to get working on the dials, then! Hopefully they don't disappoint!

Now that I'm caught up - I get the initial frustration. Episode 3 was kinda rough.

- Zemo's breakout was sort of outta nowhere.
- Lots of bad writing and awkward dialogue.
- The MCU is full of shortcuts and fridge logic, and normally I'm willing to roll with it, but Zemo still having access to his wealth, cool cars, and power after 5 years in supermax prison felt like it was flirting with being a bridge too far.
- Most of the Madripoor sequence felt like padding, and Madripoor is an inherently problematic location in the comics that is done no favors here in its MCU introduction. As is the case in the weakest entries in the MCU (early AoS episodes, the first two Thor movies) Madripoor feels like a backdrop and collection of tropes and not a real "place". Like, none of this place holds up to any sort of scrutiny or analysis, ya know?
- I'd say Sharon is acting wildly out of character, but the Russo's didn't really give her a character and it's been 5 years of exile + Blip so I guess I'll give them a pass.
- Definitely felt like Falcon was an extra in his own show.

I think the show climbed out of the dive on Episode 4, which was generally a lot better - but I definitely feel like they fridged Lamar. I know it probably doesn't meet the criteria of the trope to a tee, but it sure feels like fridging, and like his character only exists to die and motivate others to action.

Episode 5 is where it all clicked for me - I thought it was a stand-out episode that did right by Anthony Mackie and Falcon, while also doing good work with Bucky and keeping Walker suitably complicated and interesting even as he increasingly goes off the rails. I felt like Falcon's chat first with Isaiah, then with Bucky, was this show's whole thesis statement - it's been obsessed with Legacy, but as Sam says "it doesn't really matter what Steve thought". It's a shame it took them so long to get there.

Here's hoping they can stick the landing - I'm bracing myself for them to not given that I'd say WandaVision didn't and I also am on record in feeling like Captain America: The Winter Soldier (the movie this one is clearly hewing closest to in terms of tone and structure) also doesn't really stick the landing.

Definitely agree with all this.

There's an interesting conundrum in the Russo-written MCU to breeze over or outright skip major beats in the narrative (EX: INFINITY WAR's cold open) or in character development (EX: Professor Hulk in ENDGAME). Their movies also have a lowkey way of shifting around in theme and in plot beats (the Sokovia Accords and Avengers internal politics flitter in and out of relevance in CIVIL WAR). I think it's a result of them writing by character relationships first and maybe not having the time to rewrite with the demands of the MCU production schedule & speed.

...but I think the rest of the latter MCU writers have adapted this approach which means you get great moments like Zemo dancing, but you also get lots of awkward beats and whiffed ideas like Madripoor, Lamar's death, or the muddied messaging about soldiers and militarism.

Here's a fun question for you- Would you change up any of the dials you've made for MCU and DCU based on the rule changes?

Hard to say! Outside of the extra gimmicky ones, I have trouble remembering them. I'd have to go back and look.

There are several in my Non-MCU Marvel thread that I've been wanting to go back and update after receiving notes by Dial H for Heroclix, but it's always been a case of picking and choosing priorities.

I'm eager to continue using the new rules in this set and another set I'm doing, as I see what wrinkle they bring to the game and how they affect game speed. Because I think of the new rules as creating a dramatically different pace of game with far stronger pieces than the most recent old rules set (I could Future Foundation as a 2021 rules set, considering its design paradigm), I don't think many of my old dials would be fully compatible. A few of the ability pairings wouldn't hold up, and I know I costed the figures with certain abilities, indomitable, and pushing in mind.

Knowing the new rules are here to stay, my only wish is for optional pushing. I'm sure most official sets won't include them, but for dialing movie characters, it just helps with the dial's storytelling.

haha winding down the rant, I view my dials -especially the ones from my earliest threads- as products of their time, designed with the paradigms of their time -same as official sets. It's nice when they're compatible and seem like they'd play well with new sets, but a little sad when power creep/leap renders them obsolete.

Wrong thread. Probably shouldn't post until I've had coffee.

Points for comic accurate suit.

Points deducted for the suit's execution in live action being a bit mawkish. Is this the first time we've seen the hair-exposed-headband mask in live action? I've seen this costume polarize folks online, and while I'm thrilled to have a Sam Wilson Captain America and to hear that he'll star in CAPTAIN AMERICA 4, I think the costume could be better.



#011 Captain America
Real Name: Sam Wilson
Team: Avengers Initiative
Range: 6
Points: 100
Keywords: Avengers, Soldier, Armor

11 11 18 3

10 11 18 3

9 11 18 3

9 11 18 3

9 11 18 3

8 10 18 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Captain America's Shield: Captain America may begin the game with Captain America's Shield equipped at no cost.
Wing Shield: If Captain America has no Action Tokens, Impervious.
Redwing: FREE: Once per game, generate a Redwing Bystander within 5 squares of Captain America.
Aerial Tactics: When Captain America hits with an attack, choose one:

• No damage, but place 1 hit character adjacent to Captain America.
• Deal hit characters 1 Action Token.
• Counter 1 standard ability on 1 hit character until the beginning of your next turn.

#011b Redwing
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 0

9 10 18 2

011c Captain America’s Shield
Points: 10
EQUIP: Power Action
EFFECT: Invincible, adjacent friendly characters can use Mastermind. Once per turn, the equipped character may unequip the shield to make a RANGED OBJECT attack, minimum range value 5. After the attack resolves, place this Object in a square adjacent to the targeted character.

UPDATED 05/03/21 - Thanks, Hein2208 & Kaden!

Nice! I especially love that attack special (although the counter is missing a duration).

I also really like the suit. The only part I find weird is the black strap for his goggles. It appears to not be a separate part, but rather just a decoration on his mask. It looks to me like the goggles are not removable.
I find that really weird. What in-universe explanation could there be for that black line, if it’s not a part of removable goggles? It only makes sense as an homage to the comic costume (or maaaybe previous MCU Falcon costumes).

Many thanks, friend! It's funny, that attack special was pulled wholesale from the pilot's crazy aerial fight. I kept waiting for something to top its scale and insanity, but it would up being the most actionable!

Great catch on the timing (haha one of my usual bugbears)! I've updated the dial and sent you rep! Thank you!

Yeah, there's a certain dysfunctionality to the mask and goggles that seems jarring against Falcon's previous costumes. It seems like the directive was to hit comic accuracy, but maybe less real-world functionality? I keep thinking of how the mask shape like it is wouldn't travel with all neck movements, making it need to be regularly adjusted. You'd think that would have occurred to me with all the series' other mask types by now!