Captain America and the Falcon #7

Mar 7

Mar 7 Captain America and the Falcon #7

Lost in Translation

Captain America (Steve Rogers) has found himself in the middle of two moral dilemmas recently. First, he has found himself at odds with his own government over what to do about the rogue agent, the so-called Anti-Cap.[1] More immediate, Steve has seemingly given into romantic tension he has been having with the Scarlet Witch, leading to the pair spending the night together.[2]

The following morning, Steve wakes up to find Wanda on his couch and feels immediately guilty. She tells him how she was raised by Django Maximoff, who tried his best to give them a good life, however she always found herself fleeing for most of her life. She is now through with fleeing. She then tells him the parable about reason and fortune. The moral of the story is that when reason and fortune come face to face, reason moves at out the way so fortune can pass. She understands that prior to last night, Steve probably saw her as nothing more than an exotic girl. After the fact he has second thoughts because of their age gap as well as her past relationships with the Vision and Wonder Man. She says that love doesn’t isn’t always convenient, orderly, or logical, and the two kiss once more.[3][4][5]

Meanwhile, in Harlem, Leila Taylor wakes up after a romantic evening with her new boyfriend, Norman. When she gets up to go to the kitchen, she finds her ex — the Falcon (Sam Wilson) — waiting for her.[6] Sam has come to get Leila’s continued help trying to find out the connection between the United States Navy and the Rivas Cartel. Leila is not interested in pursing it anymore after her last attempt at uncovering the truth had her briefly incarcerated and then running for her life. He tells her how he and Captain America have Anti-Cap and the bio-weapon they were trying the Navy was trying to recover. More, he has heard word that Damocles Rivas — the brother of the now deceased Manuel Rivas — believes they killed his brother. Now known as the Saint, Damocles was once a great assassin before allegedly turning over a new leaf after finding religion. Sam says that all of this still makes Leila a target and he wants to stick by her and make sure she remains save.

That’s when Norman enters the room and says that Sam can get out of his house. Wilson takes this as a challenge and says that Norm can call the apartment his house if he can kill Sam before Sam can kill him. The Falcon even gives him the pistol he has been using recently. Leila is horrified by how quickly things are escalating. When Norman threatens to call the cops, that’s when the Falcon attacks him and beats him into submission. Sam then tells Leila that this will be their safe house for the time being. Taylor is horrified and fears that Sam has become his old “Snap” Wilson persona, lashing out at the world over the loss of his mother.[6] Sam denies this, but Leila isn’t convinced.

Meanwhile, Captain America has been having a nightmare about Bucky, his wartime partner. He relives the moment of Bucky’s death. Once more, Bucky says “too many wars” before the blast. Steve then relives being frozen in ice and being discovered by the Avengers in the present day. When he starts gasping for air and the Wasp suggests they do CPR, the dream bleeds away to reality as the Scarlet Witch begins giving him mouth-to-mouth. This soon turns into another round of kissing. That’s when Steve is woken up by the sound of someone hammering on his front door. When he wakes up he discovers his bed is soaking wet with water. Answering the door, he finds his neighbor who has come to complain that water is leaking into his apartment. Steve apologizes and promises to pay for the damage, saying he fell asleep in the bathtub.[8]

He then quickly closes the door because he noticed the Falcon sneaking into his apartment through the window and doesn’t want to blow his cover. Sam notices that Steve keeps looking at the couch and asks him to spill whatever he’s keeping secret. Steve thinks that he is under attack and tells Wilson about the strange hallucinations he has been having recently about Bucky. Sam tells Steve that it must be Jimmy Westbrook — the Anti-Cap’s handler — messing with him with a psyop. Falcon also gets real with Cap, telling him that he should not fool himself into thinking Anti-Cap is anything like Bucky, and make peace with the fact that following through on his principals over this who affair is going to get people hurt. He then asks if it would take Leila getting arrested, hurt, or killed, in order to give up Anti-Cap. Steve admits that he wouldn’t and both men agree that it is the bug that Westbrook wants back that they need to focus on. Cap tells Sam that it is actually the DNA of someone they know.[9] It’s also here that Steve mentions that he and Wanda had a moment of passion on the couch. This is a huge deal with Falcon because this can complicate things. When he asks if Steve has feelings for her, he admits that he hopes so, but isn’t so sure.[10]

Later, Captain America goes to the United Nations where Iron Man (Tony Stark) is preparing to give a speech on behalf of the Avengers.[11] This gives him an opportunity to talk to the Scarlet Witch about their love affair. However, Wanda acts like nothing happened between them the day before. When he implies what happened, Wanda takes offense. Realizing that what happened might have been part of the hallucinations he has been having recently, Steve apologizes to her. Wanda then walks off, saying that there is nothing for him to forgive. When Yellowjacket (Hank Pym) asks what Steve has decided to do with the DNA sample he took from Westbrook, he says he’ll deal with it later and walks out of the room.

Meanwhile, at the Rivas Compound in New Jersey, Damoclese Rivas wakes up to see all the TV in his room are displaying the same message: “Designed only for killing.” He gets up and dresses in the uniforms worn by members of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) and heads down to the basement of the mansion. There, he finds AIM’s leader MODOK waiting for him!

… Avengers Disassembled continues in Captain America (vol. 3) #29.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Falcon, Anti-Cap, AIM, MODOK, Avengers (Iron Man, Yellowjacket, Scarlet Witch), Leila Taylor, Damocles Rivas

Continuity Notes

Anti-Cap was created by the Navy to be their answer to Captain America, which they believed would be more agreeable to the current political climate. However, Anti-Cap went rogue, as seen in Captain America and Falcon #1-4. He has been held in secret at the Wakandan Embassy while Cap and Falcon try to figure out what to do this him.
Cap and Wanda have given into to the throes of passion last issue. This is all an early sign of Wanda’s growing mental instability, which she will use to lash out against the Avengers. This happens in Avengers #500-503 and has a reverberation through many titles. A detailed list of Avengers Disassembled cross-over issues is listed below.
Wanda states that she is 50 years younger than Steve. Per the Captain America profile in Avengers Roll Call #1, Steve Rogers was born in 1922, making him about 23 when he went into suspended animation. Per the Sliding Timescale, that would make him physically around age 33 at the time of this story. Cap’s chronological age however is subject to change and this 50 year age gap is topical. See below for more details.
Wanda mentions how the High Evolutionary gave her and her brother to be raised by Django Maximoff. This was first revealed in Avengers #186.
Here, Wanda also mentions two of her past relationships:
- First, she mentions the Vision, whom she had began a long standing romance with in Avengers #108. The pair got married in Giant-Size Avengers #4. As years of marriage, the pair became estranged when the Vision’s capacity for emotion was wiped out in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #44. Although, this was eventually restored in Avengers Spotlight #40. Despite this, the couple were still estranged for some time. While they were never officially divorced, the Vision considered their marriage was over after his physical body was destroyed by Morgan le Fay in Avengers (vol. 3) #1-3.
- The Vision’s attraction to Wanada was partially because his mind was based on Wonder Man’s brain engrams that were collected in Avengers #9 and used by Ultron in Avengers #57-58.
- Wonder Man (Simon Williams) pined over Wanda for years because he too was attracted to her. However, he keep this attraction to himself for years because Wanda was married to the Vision. After the Vision’s capacity for emotion was wiped out this gave Simon his chance. He and wander briefly dated from Avengers West Coast #65-69, when Wanda decided she did not want to be in another relationship. After the Vision considered their marriage dead, Wanda and Simon gave it another shot starting in Avengers (vol. 3) #23. This romance came to an end relatively recently in Avengers (vol. 3) #51 when they came to realize they loved each other like family rather than lovers.
Sam and Leila first met in Captain America #139. Although she started off antagonistic toward the Falcon, the two eventually got into a relationship that ended sometime after her appearances between Captain America #278 and Captain America and the Falcon #1.
Sam’s violent shift in personality is actually quite complicated. Let me explain:
- In Captain America #186 it was revealed that Sam was once a street hustler named “Snap” Wilson and that the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to alter Sam’s mind to make him the ideal partner to Captain America when they first met in Captain America #117.
- Darlene Wilson was shot by a mugger when Sam was still a teenager, as told in Captain America #277. Leila was told that this death was a catalyst for Sam becoming Snap.
- However, years after that story and this one, in All-New Captain America #3, it was revealed that “Snap” Wilson was a fabrication the entire time as part of a bit of racist gaslighting on the part of the Red Skull. As of this writing (March, 2024) it’s unclear why other people remember the life of “Snap” Wilson when he is a fabrication. I would assume that reality was altered to fit this false narrative.
- That said, Sam’s apparent “reversion” to his Snap persona is unclear. The Falcon profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 suggests that this could be one of the Scarlet Witch’s reality altering manipulations carried out during Avengers Disassembled storyline.
This is replaying the events of Avengers #4, which is the tale that explained how Captain America ended up in suspended animation for decades. This story presents these events as though Cap’s wartime partner Bucky had died. However, not long after this story it is revealed that Bucky survived the explosion and has been operating as a Russian assassin known as the Winter Soldier. See Captain America (vol. 5) #11. Cap has been reliving this tragic series of events over the last two issues.
Sam refers to the Scarlet Witch as the daughter of Magneto here. This is what everyone was led to believe in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. However, it is later revealed that this was all a deception created by the High Evolutionary to hide the fact that he experimented upon Wanda as a child. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5.
As we’ll learn next issue, the DNA sample belongs to MODOK.
This sequence of events happens during the events of Avengers #500.

Topical References

A number of depictions on this story should be considered topical for various reasons. They are:

Here, Wanda states that she is 50 years younger than Captain America. This assessment of time should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication. As the Sliding Timescale bumps the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward, the gulf of time between Captain America’s life before entering suspended animation will grow larger over time.