The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 3
By Mike McNulty
C-List Bad Guys in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Yes, you are correct that Smiling Tiger, the identity Sam used while in Madripoor, is an actual Marvel supervillain. And yes, Conrad Mack is as unintentionally goofy as he sounds in the comics. What makes him even goofier isn’t him drinking the glands from boa constrictors or dressing “like a pimp” (which he doesn’t do in the comics). It’s that, apparently, he’s tied to some wacky cult prophesy.
Apparently, Conrad’s dad and his army unit stumbled upon a group called the Dragon’s Breadth while in Cambodia. Their leader offered the unit wealth and power in exchange for their first born children. This is because the cult believed their kids would one day have control over “The Well of All Things,” an interdimensional portal which, naturally, grants super powers. So the soldiers, foretold as the “Men of the West,” needed to sire offspring with six of the cult’s handmaidens.
So… yeah, you can see why the show makes zero mention of what are pretty skeevy origins. In any case, Smiling Tiger, along with four others (one the soldiers refused the deal), became enemies of the New Warriors and called themselves The Folding Circle. They do have a link to Madripoor in that they ended up there after a plane crash. Also, believe or not, Smiling Tiger briefly joined Baron Zemo’s Thunderbolts. One more thing: Smiling Tiger doesn’t talk, only growls. Like a tiger.
As for the second obscure villain Sam, Bucky, and Zemo run across – one’s identity they didn’t have to steal – Dr. Wilfred Nagel (Olli Haaskivi) is, just like he is in this episode, linked with Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly). Only the character we see here couldn’t be any more different. For starters, he’s a whole lot older. Second, he took over the second stage of Project Rebirth after Dr. Erskine’s murder, having a direct hand in turning Isaiah Bradley into the next super soldier after Steve Rogers. That also means he was alive during World War II, and definitely not the middle-aged present-day scientist we see here.
Why didn’t Falcon and Winter Soldier opt for Dr. Karl Malus instead, considering, as previously discussed, the character’s ties with the Power Broker in the comics? Who knows. Perhaps my tying to a character from Truth: Red, White, and Black helps underscore the nefarious and conspiratorial origins of the new Super Soldier Serum.