The origin of the Falcon!

[flint_marko]

At the end of Captain America and the Falcon #185, the heroes take on the Red Skull.






In #186, the Red Skull recounts the events from the Falcon's original storyline, where he had used the cosmic cube to switch bodies with Cap.















The Red Skull orders Falcon to fight Captain America to the death.






Instead of killing the Falcon, Cap goes after the Skull. After the Skull escapes, the Falcon collapses into a coma.

Comments

[randyripoff]

I would like to nominate this for the worst piece of crap Steve Englehart ever wrote.

[drtechnobabel]

I'll second that. I curious as to how fast it took for them to retcon this.

[silverhammerman]

Surprisingly, from looking at the wikis it doesn't look like they ever actually did. Which is weird since really all they'd need to do is say that the Red Skull lied and Falcon was actually a travelling spoon salesman or whatever.

My guess is that as soon as this was established everyone else deemed it toxic and didn't want to touch it.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, they didn't. I'm going to put this with "Sins Past" as something that didn't happen, but they just haven't explained why people think it did yet.

[starwolf_oakley]

I personally file Sins Past under "Mysterio did it." Which Mysterio and how that Mysterio knew Peter Parker is Spider-Man... Well, who knows?

[freezer]

They didn't recon it: They shoved it in the "THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. NOTHING TO SEE HERE" file.

[halloweenjack]

Let's hope so. Thing is, at the time, he probably thought that this was a more gritty, "realistic" approach to the character... if by "realistic" you mean "based on blaxploitation movies of the time."

[drtechnobabel]

Is it just me, or do Falcon's eyes look like he's been hypnotized even in the parts of the story when he shouldn't be?

[randyripoff]

I think that's a side-effect of Frank Robbins' art.

[drtechnobabel]

Yeah, I figured it had more to do with the art style than anything else. Just find it hilarious that 'Snap' Wilson looks stoned out of his mind no matter where he is.

[silverhammerman]

Wow, I first learned about this story from a Cracked article years ago, and they really weren't exaggerating. Just kind of baffling, and more than a little unfortunate.

[starwolf_oakley]

J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck did a three-part Falcon backup story in CAPTAIN AMERICA #276-278 called "Snapping" about the "real" Sam Wilson.

http://benjaminherman.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/captain-america-278-pg-19.jpg?w=800

IIRC, there was some kind of "The Red Skull didn't create Sam Wilson, he set him free" stuff, which DeMatteis could overdo from time to time.

[zero_elec]

"Hey, I have a great idea! Let's take the first black superhero^{[citation needed]} and retcon his backstory from just being a dude with a falcon to being a criminal that was mind controlled to be a good guy."
Yeaaah...