After Captain America: Civil War played with the idea of introducing more super soldiers into the MCU, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has actually gone ahead and done it.
Last week’s episode explained that former HYDRA doctor Wilfred Nagel had re-engineered the super soldier serum and it’d been stolen by Karli Morgenthau to give her and her fellow Flag Smashers superpowers. But this week’s outing has debuted another super soldier who may be even more dangerous than them.
Yes, episode 4 saw Wyatt Russell’s John Walker AKA the new Captain America interfere with Sam and Bucky’s investigation into the Flag Smashers in Latvia. Despite his gung-ho nature, it didn’t go well for him and he was bested in a fight by both Morgenthau and the Dora Milaje. However, he then witnesses Zemo getting the better of Karli and destroying the remaining serum vials. All except one, which he pockets.
Later on, during a clash with the Smashers, Karli accidentally kills Walker’s partner Battlestar. The next time we see him, Walker suddenly has increased strength and agility, meaning he’s taken the last serum. He follows one of the Smashers out into the open and, fuelled by revenge, decapitates him with the shield in front of dozens of witnesses, who record the incident on their phones. It looks like the people of the MCU are about to hate him as much as Marvel fans do in the real world.
Though he now has the same abilities as Steve Rogers, Walker’s thirst for bloody vengeance has shown him to be made of very different stuff, and it’s likely that this event will tip him over the edge. In fact, it’s possible that Sam and Bucky will have to team up with Karli and her Flag Smashers in order to stop the newly powered – and newly crazed – Captain America.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier airs its penultimate episode next Friday on Disney Plus.
