I can understand it. Part of the appeal of Captain America as a concept is that he's simply the best a person can be. Even his "powers" aren't flashy. At most he's somewhat above human, but never to the level of anything like Hulk or even Spider-man. Adding flight to that dynamic throws it off and muddles the image. It's like if Batman had heat vision or the Punisher had a healing factor.
I like Sam so I'm good with him being Cap and he's a good choice given his history with Cap both in the MCU and Comics.
But I do feel keeping the Falcon aspects of his Costume always made him feel like a hybrid character and not "Captain America" which always made him feel like a place holder to me and they (Marvel) weren't fully committing to the idea. I will be honest when they 1st announced him as Cap a few years ago I thought Elijah Bradley was a better choice given his lineage to the Super-Soldier Program.
I get it, but let's be honest - Steve getting his strength "from a bottle" doesn't exactly fit the bill in terms of good ol' American bootstrap ideals. It'd be one thing if the new Captain America was like Superman, but flight doesn't go against the image for me - I mean, one of the symbols of America is an eagle with a shield.
Let's be honest Sam was always only going to be a place holder, the same with characters like Jean Paul Valley and Dick Grayson taking over for Batman and Bucky taking up Cap's shield previously. That Sam is "All new, all different!" is part and parcel with him taking over in the first place, it's a move specifically meant to be different from what came before. Jean Paul had crazy armor and was more brutal than Bruce, Dick operated in broad daylight and smiled and waved at the citizens of Gotham, Bucky had his big metal arm and used a gun...and Sam incorporates the wing suite from his identity as Falcon.
If that kind of storytelling doesn't fit your preferences I guess that's fine, we're all different after all but it's still a weird gripe in my eyes because if you're going to have someone take up the mantle for a previous hero they should be different in some integral way otherwise what's the point of replacing the original at all? And if it's that you don't want a replacement, again that's fine but a separate issue than thinking that Sam shouldn't still incorporate his wings.
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Well when watching FatWS, I was wondering if Sam would somehow get injected with Nagel's perfected SSS. I knew Walker would, just thought Sam would somehow, too. It's a pleasant surprise he didn't.
The thing is, one existing hero becoming another existing hero (ie taking a different mantel held by someone else) his/her powerset doesn't go away. If the Steve CA had the gifts of the SSS, Sam needs something equivalent. Not 1:1 obviously but he needs to bring something the fight other than good intentions. The wings and his skill with the shield will do, IMO.
My only worry is he'll be a guest star in his own movie, but beyond that, I look forward to seeing more of what we saw in the tail-end of FatWS when he got the Wakandan-made suit and wings.
Not feeling the name change, I think its a bad idea, but the rest of it, cautiously optimistic!