Anthony Mackie is providing an incredible performance in the new show The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but the treatment of race both inside of and adjacent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is...interesting.

In the spirit of full disclosure, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of my favorite movies of all time. So, I sat down to watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with a keen sense of excitement and as of this week, the first two episodes (out of six total) have been released and I have some Thoughts.

First and foremost, it’s helpful to have a broad knowledge of the MCU going into The Falcon... but not completely necessary. Essentially, The Falcon... provides a counterpoint to its sibling show Wandavision: where Wandavision goes deep, The Falcon goes broad. The main characters are Sam Wilson, a former pararescueman, and Bucky Barnes, a 106-year-old former assassin. The show follows these two superheroes/free agents as they run around the world trying to make sure shit doesn’t go completely sideways after Infinity War. Not to mention they have their own emotional traumas to deal with.

Hands down, the best part of The Falcon... so far has been Anthony Mackie’s incredible performance. His characterization has been rock solid in its consistency and Mackie is also a highly skilled physical actor. This show allows him to flex his range: Mackie is fully comfortable switching genres from grim, dark political intrigue, to buddy cop humor, and to epic superhero maneuvers. Marvel, however, has not been making matters easy for Mackie.

Charles Pullman-Moore published an excellent article on the discussion of race in The Falcon... in the first two episodes. We go from a scene in Episode 1 that alludes to housing inequality, redlining, and racial discrimination in financing to … I don’t know, Marvel trying to be cute? By subverting expectations in Episode 2 when Sam Wilson gets racially profiled by the police but Bucky Barnes is the one who gets arrested? It was painful to watch.

The spectrum of Wandavision comes to mind here: while that show was interesting, we can safely argue that no one actually...wanted it. No one wanted it in the same way that people wanted Black Panther or are looking forward to the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder when it (hopefully?) confirms the first openly bisexual superhero in the MCU so far.

It’s been so frustrating to watch Marvel’s inconsistencies with casting and actors: how some actors (most often men and women of color, quell your surprise) are sidelined and how others are flogged to death over others. Sorry, Iron Man-stans, we love RDJ too, but my God the man has had more screen time than Christian Marclay’s clock. The opportunities to highlight the actors of color in the MCU have been consistently ignored, and the involvement of white actors has been disproportionate to the point of leaving blatant, screaming plot holes. But, the fanboys howl, the next phase of the MCU will tell the stories of more characters cast with actors of color -- Baron Mordo, Valkyrie, Moon Knight!

It is painfully overdue. We can only hope that Marvel continues to diversify by hiring more actors, directors, writers, and production crews of color; hiring more women; telling the stories of LGBTQIA+ characters, and harnessing the significance of their role in pop culture to promote real social change. We will continue to watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in a spirit of hope, looking forward to the moments that Anthony Mackie is allowed to shine.

In Praise of Anthony Mackie