Hot Mess: The Falcon

When it comes to the publishing endeavors of the current comic book industry, frequent reboots, relaunches and other spin the wheel antics are sadly now a very common thing, but they are actually little more than hot messes that can be appealing for a variety of reasons; most notably because they're generally unexpected, capricious, and/or agonizingly provocative in tone and content. Additionally, numerous contingent factors render these increasingly less rare and constantly repetitive cycles virtually inconsequential.

No one set of guidelines exists to determine what distinguishes each seasons "hot mess" from the previous effort that has now come to be considered the train wreck that it was. Fandom is mired in a case of “here we go again” as the same caustic social media frenzy kicks off another round of shout down the other side of the aisle. Regardless of the circumstances, you know it when you see it; because they are conspicuous and thus always heavily marketed slices of the moment.

The Falcon was one of my favorite bronze age heroes, although depending upon how you gauge when each comic book age began and ended, he probably counts as having squeeked in at the end of the silver age. Sam Wilson was an interesting character in his own right who quickly bonded with fans and moved to cover prominence headlining the series Captain America and The Falcon for many years. The two characters were partners and friends and remained that way until Steve Rogers succumbed to aberrant effects of his super-soldier formula aging out in short order. Sam was given the chance to succeed his pal in the patriotic role and name of CAPTAIN AMERICA. The thing is, this actually belittled the Falcon and weirdly, it is a half-assed attempt to seem diverse by pandering to a limited fan audience who just got familiar with The Falcon due to his inclusion in the blockbuster Captain America and Avengers film franchises. It makes fuck all sense, but it does give a couple of white creators a chance to seem with it. To which I say, "Sweet Christmas!"

Sam Wilson is The Falcon. He is not Captain America no matter how many issues that storyline ultimately runs. Strangely, having his costume altered as a tribute to his friend was a nice gesture, but robbing the character of his own unique identity that had beend established for decades stained the whole enterprise.