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Captain America has had any number of sidekicks over the years. Not just Bucky, his official sidekick, but folks like D-Man, Sharon Carter and Diamondback. And heck, if you're honest, the entire Avengers team could pretty much be viewed as Cap's sidekicks. But in that ever-revolving slot, there's one guy who really seems to belong, one guy who made the jump up to partner: the Falcon.
A smalltime hoodlum-turned-super hero,
Sam "Snap" Wilson was transformed by the mysterious Cosmic Cube into the heroic Falcon. Able to empathically communicate with birds and fly with a specially designed pair of mechanical wings, The Falcon patrols the skies with Redwing, his trusted companion. Primarily a free agent, the Falcon has also teamed up with The Mighty Avengers to bring his special brand of justice to the skies!
In addition to being Cap's longtime partner (boy, does that sound wrong!), the Falcon holds a special distinction among comicbook characters: he may not be the first black superhero, but he was the first black superhero who didn't have "Black" in his name. How liberal!
Sam is a tall guy, apparently, because his figure stands just under 6¼", which would make him about 6'3" in the real world. Okay, that's not particularly tall by superhero standards, but it's taller than you. Probably. The figure is articulated well, with all the joints you expect from Marvel Legends at this point. He even has those hinged shoulders, to aid him in flying poses. Along with that,
his head tilts pretty far back, so he can look ahead.
Falcon is a fairly slender guy - if he was big and bulky, it would be harder for him to fly. The sculpt, re-used from Iron Fist, is muscular, but he's not as big as, say, Luke Cage. The edges of his costume are raised, and even the small details are good - check out the feathers and claws on his boots. The wings are detailed very well, on par with the ones seen on the Vulture. The wings are two pieces each, so they don't ruin the articulation. One piece is attached to the triceps, while the other is on the gloves. The feathers are individually sculpted, and there's a little bit of technological detailing on the underside, suggesting the harness that allows Sam to fly.
The paint is good, with a dark wash on the red to create shadows. The interiors of his shoulder and neck joints are molded in red,
and they didn't even bother painting them brown: on the plus side, that means the paint won't scrape off. Falcon has a variant in this series - it's him in his modern costume - but there's a problem. The early shipments had the figures' waists reversed: standard Falcon should have completely red pants, while variant Falcon should have white trunks. Like as with Ultimate Captain America, there will be a running change to fix the error, and therefore four versions for completists to worry about.
The Falcon pictured in this review has the wrong hips, but as you can see, the error doesn't really stand out; the colors still line up. Better than they do on the variant, at least. On a similar note, the prototype photos have the right hips, but the wrong forearms, so the poor guy just can't catch a break.
Falcon doesn't have any accessories, per se, but he does have a packed-in extra - his bird, Redwing.
The sculpt on his birdie is good, but the paint is excellent. His feet are a bright yellow, with dark black talons. His body is brown, but with a black brushing on the top and a white brushing on the bottom to bring out the copious detail. Redwing has a 5" wingspan, and connects to Falcon's back via the same clear swoosh that connected Yellowjacket to Wonder Man. Of course, that means it has the same problem as that one: it's too short to really allow him to clear Falcon's shoulder.
The figure is packaged with one of the grosser pieces of this series' build-a-figure,
Mojo: his big, bulbous gut. Mojo is fat enough to make even the most out-of-shape schlub look fit and thin by comparison. We get folds of fat cascading around his belly button, but the worst bit may be the hints of a happy trail, leading your mind to awful places. Best not to dwell on it. He's also got a reprint of The Falcon #1, which is from 1983 but reads like it's about a decade older than that. It's terribly dated in some ways, but it's still a pretty good issue, introducing us to the Falcon and his abilities.
The cardboard backdrop included with the Falcon is another one of those "would be great if not for the characters" pieces. F-Bird gets a rooftop scene, which could work for any number of characters. But then we've got Captain America and Nick Fury's flying car behind him. Okay. Really, stick to the buildings and the skyline, and leave the other heroes out of it.
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