WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 1, "New World Order," now streaming on Disney+.

Hot on the heels of WandaVision, Marvel Studios' second Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is off to a dramatic start. The first episode throws audiences right back into the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, picking up where Avengers: Endgame left off. After accepting Captain America's shield at the end of that film, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is seen handing the shield over to the United States government in Episode 1, to be exhibited in memory of Steve Rogers. The episode explores Sam's feeling that the shield truly belonged to Steve, who gave it meaning. Consequently, Sam felt he couldn't take up the Captain America mantle himself, which only makes it all the more devastating when a new Captain America is seen bearing the shield at the episode's end.

As well as disregarding Steve's chosen successor and Sam's wishes for the shield he was given, the Defense Department's appointment of a new Captain America flies in the face of the values that Steve Rogers championed. The news is sure to leave Sam reassessing his decision to pass on the shield and calling into question everything Captain America stands for.

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While he is yet to be named on screen and was only briefly shown in Episode 1's final moments, this new, state-sanctioned Cap is John Walker (Wyatt Russell), better known to most comic fans by his later moniker, U.S. Agent. In the comics, Walker was an army veteran granted superhuman strength, who took over the mantle of Captain America at a time when Steve Rogers had surrendered the identity. While Walker and Rogers clashed in the comics, his role in the series is a little different, as the MCU's Walker is taking over the Captain America role following Steve's supposed death. With Steve Rogers being remembered as a hero, Walker is sure to frame his role as a continuation of Steve's legacy and a way of honoring his memory. But that only makes the emotional gut punch of seeing him in Captain America's uniform hurt even more.

Over the course of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, Steve had been confronted with the harsh political realities of the twenty-first century. Having originally become Captain America during World War II, when the heroes and villains were more distinct, it was a struggle for Steve to operate in a world where moral lines were a little more blurred. This forced him to draw a distinction between the institutions and agendas he had been working for and the ideals in which he actually believed. The result was a Captain America who was willing to tear down S.H.I.E.L.D. to defeat Hydra and who defied the United Nations to stand up for his and the Avengers' freedom to operate as heroes. By the time of Avengers: Infinity War, Steve Rogers was a fugitive, having abandoned the stars and stripes to lead his own team of Secret Avengers.

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Steve's preparedness to defy authority, to put noble ideals and a sense of morality before allegiance to a government or an agenda, made him the hero he was. It was no mean feat for a super soldier dressed in the flag to become a non-partisan bastion of hope. Steve Rogers defined Captain America as a hero who represented not merely what America was, but all that the nation dreamed it could be. To then see that identity reclaimed by the government and reduced to a tool of that government is to see the legacy of Steve Rogers drowned out by nationalist propaganda.

Furthermore, Sam had surrendered the shield in good faith, believing he was helping preserve Steve's memory. To see the shield now passed to a Captain America who undermines that very memory is clearly a painful moment for Sam. But beyond this harsh ideological shift is the inescapable fact that Steve had chosen Sam to succeed him - a man alongside whom he had fought and struggled. The two were friends, allies, fellow Avengers who trusted in one another. To see the shield now handed to a man who never even knew Steve Rogers feels like the harshest betrayal of Steve's legacy - a point the series neatly parallels in Sam's reluctance to let his sister sell their old family home and fishing boat, which he describes as their family's legacy.

The reveal of Walker's Captain America is a chilling moment that deals a direct blow to the ideas of legacy with which the series is contending. In a universe replete with physical dangers, the introduction of this new Captain America represents an ideological threat that could bury all that Captain America once stood for. And that hurts more than any punch.

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