Sam WilsonCaptain America

Reach for the Sky

Sam Wilson first proved his mettle while serving in the Air Force’s 58th Rescue Squadron piloting the one-man EXO-7 Falcon flight suit. He served alongside his friend and wingman, fellow Airman Riley, until Riley was killed on a mission. After that, Wilson found it difficult to find a reason to fight. After finishing his tour of duty, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he dedicated himself to helping his fellow veterans readjust to life after war.

Wilson met Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America himself, on his morning run and the two veterans bonded over the difficulties in getting used to civilian life again. When Rogers returned from a mission, he visited Wilson at the Veterans Affairs building where Wilson was leading a meeting about dealing with Post Traumatic Stress; Sam told Steve about Riley’s death.

After the Winter Soldier appeared to kill Nick Fury, Captain America went on the run with Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow. Rogers knew he could trust Wilson and asked him for refuge after he and Romanoff were nearly killed. Sam agreed to help them on their mission against the hidden elements of HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D., saying that Captain America needing his help was basically the best reason to return to action.

Taking Flight

A highly trained member of the United States Air Force, Sam Wilson mastered the EXO-7 Falcon flight suit. Thanks to first his military training and then the Avengers program, Wilson has become an incredible fighter, using a combination of his suit, firearms, and fighting skills to best his enemies. The suit includes holsters on his arms that can be used to quickly provide Wilson with access to guns in combat. Later versions of the suit add increasingly high-tech features, including goggles that provide telescopic and microscopic vision. The suit’s wings also act as a protective shield when not in flight. Redwing, a weaponized drone that Wilson can use for both surveillance and combat, also comes as part of the package.

Battling the Bird

In addition to the targets of his various military missions, Sam Wilson also runs afoul of HYDRA during their attempt to use the newly launched Project Insight Helicarriers to kill their enemies. Falcon helps bring HYDRA and their weapons down, including their operative Brock Rumlow, who later becomes the masked mercenary Crossbones. Wilson faces Bucky Barnes while Barnes is acting as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, though the two later work together.

During his short time as a Super Hero, Sam also throws down with another eventual ally, Ant-Man. He takes on fellow Avenger Iron Man and those who side with Tony Stark during the Sokovia Accord conflict. Sam goes on to join the fight against Thanos and his minions, first battling Thanos’ followers Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, and then facing the Titan’s larger army.

Winged Avenger

Sam Wilson is a proud veteran who uses the Falcon suit to serve in the 58th Rescue Squadron. He became very close with his wingman Riley, who died during a bombing.

After meeting and becoming good friends with Captain America, he enters a world filled with other heroes he fights alongside, including Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Thor, Bruce Banner, War Machine, Black Panther, and even later Guardians Groot and Rocket. Two foes-turned-allies, Bucky Barnes and Ant-Man, are often on the receiving end of Wilson’s (mostly) good-natured barbs at their expense.

In the Air

After Sam Wilson offered to help them, Captain America and Black Widow assisted Wilson in stealing the Falcon flying suit he’d used in the Air Force from Camp Mead. It helped them get information out of Jasper Sitwell, a high ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. official who secretly served HYDRA. After some coercion that involved Widow knocking him off a building and Falcon catching him, Sitwell told them that the new Project Insight Helicarriers would be used to kill people who may prove a threat to HYDRA, as well as anyone in the vicinity.

During a confrontation with the Winter Soldier and other HYDRA agents, Rogers was stunned to learn he was fighting his old friend, Bucky Barnes. He gave up when S.H.I.E.L.D.’s STRIKE team showed up to arrest them, and Falcon and Black Widow followed suit. Working for HYDRA, the Strike Team intended to kill their captives, but they were freed by Maria Hill, who brought the three heroes to Nick Fury. Having faked his own death, Fury explained how they could gain control of the Insight Helicarriers and halt HYDRA’s murderous mission.

Falcon infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters, the Triskellion, along with Captain America and Maria Hill. After HYDRA loyalist Brock Rumlow launched the Insight Helicarriers, Cap and Falcon took off to replace the targeting system server blades. Falcon faced Winter Soldier, who ripped one of the wings off of the Falcon suit, though Sam used a parachute to save himself.

After ditching his damaged suit, Wilson fought Rumlow inside the Triskellion. Their confrontation ended when one of the Helicarriers crashed into the building forcing them to run as it fell down around them. With no other choice, Sam jumped out of a window, but was saved by Fury and Black Widow.

Rogers succeeded in his part of the mission and at least partially broke through to his old friend Barnes, who dragged him out of the water after the helicarrier they fought on crashed. When Cap woke up in a hospital, Wilson was sitting right by his side. Later, Sam turned down Nick Fury’s offer to help him track down HYDRA operatives, instead deciding to help Rogers track down Barnes.

Unfortunately, Barnes proved to be very difficult to find and the search was put on hold, with Falcon eventually becoming a member of the Avengers in a new incarnation of the team that included Captain America, Black Widow, Vision, James “Rhodey” Rhodes AKA War Machine, and Wanda Maximoff AKA Scarlet Witch.

Wilson was at the Avengers’ upstate New York facility when Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man, arrived to steal a Signal Decoy for Hank Pym. Though Falcon clearly had more training, Ant-Man managed to shrink down and do some damage to the inside of his suit, incapacitating him and allowing Lang to escape with the device. Though he initially was embarrassed by his loss, Wilson was also impressed by Ant-Man and began searching for Lang, who had revealed his first name during their encounter.

On an Avengers mission, Falcon accompanied Captain America, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow to track down Rumlow in Lagos. The mission turned tragic when civilians died in a situation inadvertently aided by Scarlet Witch. Back home, Wilson was among those who firmly stood with Rogers in his resistance against the ensuing Sokovia Accords, which would place the team under the control of the United Nations who would dictate what missions they would undertake. Tony Stark AKA Iron Man, in the meantime, strongly believed the Accords were necessary, with tensions rising between the Avengers.

Soon after, Rogers and Barnes realized that Bucky Barnes had been framed for a UN explosion that killed Wakanda’s King T’Chaka, among others. Though warned to stay out of it in the midst of the Sokovia Accords—which they pointedly had refused to sign—Steve and Sam tried to help Barnes escape in Germany, bringing them into conflict with T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa, the Black Panther. Cap and Falcon did their best to keep the enraged son from the man he thought killed his father, but ultimately, they all surrendered when War Machine arrived and ordered them to stand down.

Though their gear was confiscated, Wilson and Rogers did their best to stop Barnes when he broke out of custody after Helmut Zemo reactivated his Winter Soldier brainwashing. Captain America subdued his old partner and escaped, soon joined by Falcon.

With Bucky back to his normal self, and knowing they would need a team to get out of Germany to stop the next step of Zemo’s plan, Wilson suggested bringing Ant-Man in. While Clint Barton aKA Hawkeye recruited Wanda Maximoff and Scott Lang to help, CIA Agent Sharon Carter smuggled Rogers’ and Wilson’s gear back to them. Joining Cap and the other rogue heroes, Falcon faced off with Iron Man and his allies at a Berlin airport, with Falcon and Bucky teaming up in the battle against a new costumed hero helping Stark, who called himself Spider-Man.

Realizing there was no way for everyone to escape, Falcon and the others served as a distraction, while Captain America and Bucky were able to get away—though a blast from the Iron Man’s ally, Vision, meant to disable Falcon’s suit instead nearly killed War Machine. Rushing to War Machine’s side, Iron Man blasted an apologetic Sam with his repulsor rays, knocking him out.

Along with Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man, Falcon was locked up after the airport battle in the underwater prison called the Raft. After finding out that Bucky had been framed by Zemo, Stark visited them and insisting he would go as a friend, convinced Wilson to tell him where Cap and Bucky were headed.

Unfortunately, the following encounter between Iron Man, Captain America, and Bucky only made the Avengers rift worse. Still a fugitive himself, Rogers broke into the Raft and freed his friends, including Falcon.

Though Lang and Barton turned themselves back in, making deals for house arrest, Wilson, Rogers, and Maximoff remained on the run, joined by Romanoff, who had switched sides and helped Rogers by the end of the conflict with Stark. After two years on the run, the group publicly surfaced when a call for help from Bruce Banner brought Wilson, Rogers, and Romanoff to Scotland. There, they assisted Maximoff in stopping Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive from removing the Mind Stone from Vision’s head for their master, Thanos, who sought all six Infinity Stones.

Putting their differences aside, Wilson and his comrades returned to Avengers headquarters in upstate New York. Upon reuniting with James Rhodes and Bruce Banner, Falcon and the others flew to Wakanda to get help trying to remove the Stone from Vision without killing him, intending to destroy it to keep it from Thanos once it was separated.

When Thanos’ forces attacked Wakanda to get the Mind Stone—the last Stone their leader needed—Falcon and War Machine offered air support to their fellow heroes on the ground, including Black Panther and his Wakandan forces, as they strategically opened part of the protective dome to hold off the ravenous attackers.

However, when Thanos landed on Earth to take the Stone himself, no one could stop him, including Sam, who Thanos effortlessly sent crashing to the ground. After gaining the Mind Stone, and now wielding all six Infinity Stones, Thanos snapped his fingers, ending half of all life in the universe out of existence. As James Rhodes yelled out Sam’s name, looking for him in the aftermath of the chaotic battle, Wilson disintegrated from existence.

Five years after the Blip and Sam’s apparent disappearance, the Avengers traveled back in time to steal the Infinity Stones and reverse Thanos’ Snap. Their time heist worked and they restored half the universe’s population. Sam returned through a portal created by Doctor Strange. Sam contacted Cap immediately, notifying him of his return with Cap’s classic phrase from when they first met, “On your left.” 

Alongside the Avengers’ previously lost heroes and allies, Sam fought to keep the Stones from Thanos by battling his army from the air. When Hawkeye protected the Stones and faced an inescapable attack from a Chitauri Gorilla, Sam used his EXO-7 Falcon wings to slay the attacker. He continued to battle Thanos’ forces from the air while the others attempted to get the Stones back through the Quantum Tunnel in Ant-Man’s van across the battlefield. Thanos. They ordered an attack from the air, and Sam managed to avoid the missiles which were quickly diverted to something else high in the atmosphere — the arrival of Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, who destroyed Thanos’ ship. Unfortunately, Thanos then threw his sword through the time tunnel before the stones went through, nearly losing to Thanos again, Stark shocked him with a Snap of his own, wiping Thanos and his army from existence. Though, this Snap also resulted in Stark’s death. Sam later attended his funeral alongside all the Avengers and allies, paying his respects.

With Thanos defeated, the promise to return the Stones to their rightful place needed to be upheld. Sam offered to go with Captain America on this journey, but Cap declined the offer, but not before he called Sam a good man. When Cap missed his window to return to their time (which was supposed to be five seconds later), Sam became concerned and yelled at Bruce to get him back. Bucky noticed someone in the distance and called over to Sam. The pair approached the figure from behind, with Bucky encouraging Sam to go ahead without him. Sam came upon Cap who was much older. Cap confirmed that after he put the Stones back, he took Stark’s advice to “try some of that life.” Sam expressed his happiness for him but also sadness that he had to live in a world without Captain America. Steve then handed him a brand-new Captain America shield and told him to “try it on.” Sam looked to Bucky for approval, who nodded, and Sam picked it up, commenting that it felt like someone else’s. Steve reassured him that it wasn’t and Sam thanked him, reassuring Steve that he’d to do his best.