THE FALCON (Sam Wilson

Created By   Stan Lee & Gene Cola

First Appearance   Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969
Role   Cap's Buddy, Token Black Guy (in-universe as well
Group Affiliations   The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., The Heroes For Hir
Avengers Grade   D-Leve
PL 9 (163
STRENGT      STAMIN      AGILIT   
FIGHTIN   1   DEXTERIT   
INTELLIGENC      AWARENES      PRESENC   

Skills
Aerobatics 10 (+14
Athletics 4 (+7
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+11
Expertise (Streetwise) 4 (+6
Insight 4 (+7
Intimidation 3 (+5
Investigation 5 (+8
Perception 7 (+10
Sleight of Hand 4 (+4
Stealth 4 (+8
Technology 2 (+4

Advantages  
Agile Feint, Animal Empathy, Evasion, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Minion 4 (Redwing), Move-By Action,
Ranged Attack 8, Takedown, Uncanny Dodg

Powers
"Link to Birds
Enhanced Skills 8: Persuasion 8 (+10) (Flaws: Limited to Birds -2) [1
Senses 1 (Communication Link- Redwing) [1
"Recall Birds' Memories" Senses 4 (Postcognition) (Flaws: Limited to Birds) [2

"Bird's Eye View" Remote Sensing (Visual) 10 (8 miles) (Flaws: Medium- Birds) (10) -- [11

 AE: "Control Birds" Affliction 3 (Will; Dazed/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Area- 120ft. Burst +3)
(Flaws: Limited to Birds -2) (6)

"Falcon's Wing Harness" (Flaws: Removable) [29]

Flight 6 (120 mph) (Flaws: Winged) (6)
Concealment 4 (Visuals) (Flaws: Limited to Machines) (4)
"Vibranium Micro-Weave" Protection 2 (Extras: Impervious 7) (Weak Point -1) (8)
Senses 3 (Infravision, Radius Sight, Microvision) (3)
"Wing Attack" Strength-Damage +2 (2)

"Grappling Hook"
Snare 6 (Feats: Tether) (Flaws: Limited to One Target) (12) -- (13)

 AE: Movement 1 (Swinging) (2)

-- (36 points)

Offense:
Unarmed +13 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Wing Attack +13 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Bird Control +3 Area (+3 Affliction, DC 13)
Grappling Hook +8 (+6 Ranged Affliction, DC 16)
Initiative +8

Defenses:
Dodge +13 (DC 23), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +4 (+6 Harness, +4 Impervious), Fortitude +6, Will +7

Complications:
Motivation (The Youth)- A social worker, Sam is devoted to helping young street kids learn a better way.
Relationship (Captain America)- Sam idolizes and respects Cap, and is generally known as Cap's sidekick/partner much
of the time.

Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 48--24 / Advantages: 20 / Powers: 44 / Defenses: 17 (163)

---

REDWING
Role: Bird Sidekick
PL 5 (55)- Minion Rank 4
STRENGTH -3 STAMINA -1 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 4 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE -4 AWARENESS 0 PRESENCE -3

Skills:
Acrobatics 6 (+10)
Athletics 6 (+3)
Close Combat (Natural Weapons) 4 (+8)
Expertise (Survival) 6 (+6)
Perception 10 (+10)

Advantages: 
Evasion, Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Natural Weapons), Improved Hold

Powers:
"Animal Senses" Senses 3 (Extended, Ultra & Low-Light Vision) [3]
"Natural Weapons- Talons & Beak" Strength-Damage +4 [4]
Senses 1 (Communication Link- Sam Wilson) [1]

Flight 8 (120 mph) (Flaws: Winged) [8]

"Small Size" Shrinking 8 (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [9]

(-2 Strength & Speed, +4 Defenses, +8 Stealth, -4 Intimidation)

Offense:
Unarmed +4 (-3 Damage, DC 12)
Natural Weapons +8 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness -1, Fortitude +3, Will +4

Complications: 
Disabled (Animal)- Birds cannot speak to humans, nor use their talons to easily manipulate objects.

Total: Abilities: -2 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 4 / Powers: 25 / Defenses: 12 (55)

-The late 1960s and early 1970s were an interesting time for comics, comic strips, and race relations in general. It was
this time, in the shadow of the death of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, that black culture became "normalize" a bit,
and you could feature blacks in stuff without worrying about boycotts from the South quite as much. As such, long-term
comic properties all of a sudden started including what became known as Token Black Guys into things, in a move that
was seen as quite progressive and a "FINALLY we can do this!" kind of thing. Gone were the occasional shots of black
train porters and horribly-racist accents (my personal favourite is the time Billy Batson decked himself out in blackface
to gain some information, complete with the "Excuse me, suh, but you ya tell muh when my mammy's gettin' here?"
voice), and all of a sudden everyone had a black buddy show up. Charlie Brown suddenly met a black kid named
Franklin, who had zero personality and never did anything. Archie Andrews met Chuck Clayton, a new kid with a cocky
streak a mile long, who later morphed into a superfluous nobody who had an obsession with art. And Captain America
met... The Falcon.

-The Falcon's Avengers run is so short I had no idea he was ever a member at first, but hey, it's actually pretty
progressive to have an "I won't be your token black guy!" arc way back in the '70s & '80s. Basically a big, long run as
"Cap's Buddy", Marvel's been trying to semi-legitimize him ever since, but it's mostly in baby steps of him teaming with
Cap & Cap allies while other, more popular black heroes take the forefront. Being the Aquaman of Birds probably
doesn't help him, which is too bad. Still, he was pretty progressive, especially for his time (Stan was very liberal and
very PC-conscious to a point, as long as wimminfolk weren't involved).

-There's a whole bunch of nitpickery based off of who came first amongst black heroes, but The Falcon's way up there.
DC had a black cowboy character named Lobo who was the first black solo star, but Gabe Jones (of the Howling
Commandos) & Joe Robertson came a few years ahead of that as co-stars (people quite rightly ignore "Whitewash"
most of the time- good ol' '40s comics), with the Black Panther being the first black superhero. Falcon holds the record
for first black superhero to debut without "Black" in his name, predating John Stewart by a couple years, and Storm by
six. But since the Panther is entirely African, Wilson is the first African-AMERICAN superhero in mainstream comics,
which is a pretty big deal. Any way you slice it, he was extremely progressive. Though my personal favourite
commentary about race in comics of all time is from that recent Documentary on comics, where a black writer admits
that his favourite moment as a child was reading a comic where Peter Parker is walking around and just kind of goes
"hey" to some black kid from his class. It wasn't IN YOUR FACE like all of DC's black-themed stuff was, nor was it
Token-y. The sheer fact that Peter talked to some random black kid like nothing was weird about it was in ITSELF
highly-progressive for the era- "Oh my God- Peter Parker goes to an INTEGRATED High School!"

-That said, I've read scarcely any Sam Wilson comics. Matter of fact, until the Brubaker run (which uses him as a
random Token Buddy most of the time, pushing Sharon & Bucky more often), I don't think I'd EVER read a single
appearance of his! ... Actually, re-reading The Captain, I can see that Sam was ALL OVER in that one, but he did so
little (and had so little characterization, beyond "good guy") that I forgot about him ENTIRELY! So any aspersions I cast
to the character are pretty minor- I barely know him at all, but what I have seen has shown a pretty bland, inoffensive
guy who doesn't do a whole lot. He was initially a black social worker who wanted to help people, but Steve Englehart
retconned him into a former mob-connected thug who got brainwashed by the Cosmic Cube. He was made a mutant in
the early 1980s (with the ability to now TALK to his trained Falcon), but this has apparently since been retconned as
well (??- apparently more Cosmic Cube junk. I have no idea).

-Falcon's a very decent PL 9, going WAY over-points thanks to some pretty killer gear (the Harness), and great fighting
skills- he's up there just under Bucky-Cap, and equal to Spider-Man & Shatterstar in terms of close-combat fighting
ability, which I think makes sense. He Goonsweeps with the best of them in Brubaker's Cap run, without being
overpowered or crazy. Some things are quite expensive, like his Bird Control and his Remote Sensing (he can keep an
eye out over an ENTIRE CITY with his powers- looking through the eyes of birds). He's got Bird Control AND Persuasion,
with the latter being more of a natural Skill than part of his powers, thus covering all his bases. All in all, Sam Wilson
makes a pretty good sidekick/partner to Cap or Bucky, despite being a few PLs below them. Add Cap's Shield to him
(for his modern incarnation), and you boost him to a PL 11 defensively, and give him more versatility in combat.