The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 2

Battlestar

Speaking of John Walker’s government-appointed sidekick, Lemar Hoskins becomes Walker’s first sidekick in the comics, too. In fact, when Walker becomes the new Cap in the comics, Hoskins becomes the new Bucky, complete with Bucky’s costume. That is until somebody at Marvel finally figured out that calling an African-American sidekick “Bucky” sounded more than a tad racist. Hence why Hoskins ends up getting a new codename, Battlestar, along with a costume change.

Thankfully, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier avoids this by having Hoskins be called Battlestar right from the jump. Also his uniform is more aesthetically similar to Walker’s than it is in the comics, emphasizing the point that Walker and Hoskins are part of the same unit.

Also, the episode implies that Hoskins grew up with Walker in Custer’s Grove. This, too, is different than the comics as Hoskins first met and befriended Walker when they served together at Fort Bragg. In addition, Hoskins also became a pro-wrestler in the same wrestling league as Walker. Also, Battlestar had his own version of Cap’s shield when Walker becomes Cap. Also, remember last time when I said Walker in the comics was given his own version of the super soldier serum? So was Hoskins, and by the same person. Well don’t worry, because we’ll definitely talking about…

The Power Broker

I named dropped the Power Broker in the previous article thinking this wouldn’t come into play in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Shows what I know, as he seems to be a much bigger deal than we thought. The question is which Power Broker this is. Yes, there’s more than one. Nor is it necessarily a single person, but an entire corporation.

The person who first went by the Power Broker moniker in the comics was one Curtiss Jackson. Working with mad scientist, Dr. Karl Malus, Jackson was also founder and CEO of a group with the oh-so creative name “The Corporation,” and later the even more oh-so creative name of “Power Broker, Inc.” What he really was was a drug dealer who sold people super powers. And while he wasn’t connected to Flag-Smasher (Erin Kellyman) and ULTIMATUM in the comics like he apparently is in the series, he most definitely has ties to John Walker and Lemar Hoskins. That’s because, as also mentioned last time, the Power Broker gave Walker his powers in the comics.

This suggests either one of two things: Either Walker actually has powers (which also means he lied about having them or doesn’t know he has them), or he’s going be getting them in an upcoming episode. Either way, this suggests there’s a governmental conspiracy at work involving the another recreation of the super soldier serum, and the Flag-Smashers are somehow mixed up in it. After all, the “medicine” the Flag-Smasher stole seems to have have been actual vials of the stuff.  It also wouldn’t surprise me if this new super soldier serum is a lot older than we realize, and may actually be connected to the second super solider after Steve Rogers.