The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 1
By Mike McNulty
The Captain America Exhibit
In a callback to Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), we revisit the “Captain America” wing of the Smithsonian Museum. Some of the exhibits we’ve seen before, such as Steve Rogers’ original uniform, triangular shield, and motorcycle from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). There’s also things we haven’t seen before like newspapers with headlines about Hydra, and a list of those who vanished after Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
Yet there’s another exhibit we see Sam Wilson and James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) stand in front of. It’s a collage of various Cap related World War II memorabilia that includes the cover for Captain America Comics #1, a classic and monumental comic art by Jack Kirby that shows Cap punching Adolf Hitler.
Considering that the cover is also accompanied by the famous Uncle Sam army recruitment poster, and images from Cap’s war bonds tour from First Avenger, it’s rather appropriate. After all, American comics published during World War II were used as wartime and anti-fascist propaganda. What’s unique about Timely Comics’ Captain America #1 is that it came out in March 1941, several months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Which, in the context of the MCU, raises a number of questions. Does this mean the MCU version of Captain America #1 hit newsstands after the United States entered into World War II? Was there MCU versions of Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Timely Comics as there was Stan Lee? Are the stories featured in Captain America Comics #1 the same as they are in the real world? If so, did the MCU version give away classified government secrets, or was it considered similar to the dime novels about fictional adventures of real-life Western gunfighters? Yes, these questions are silly. But still makes you wonder.