One of the thing that has me really excited about the Captain America sequel, more so than either 2013 Marvel movies, is Winter Soldier and Falcon. Sam Wilson, the Falcon, has a long history with Cap and the duo were crime-fighting parters for a long time in the 70s, and Ed Brubaker wisely brought Falcon into his amazing run on Captain America. So when they announced that Anthony Mackie would be playing the Falcon, I was glad that they were bringing him into the Cap movie lore, but I was wondering how they were going to handle his origin. Mackie spoke to Newsday about a new movie he has coming out, but they asked him about playing Falcon:

I’m playing the Falcon. He’s this guy in Harlem who moved to California and became a drug dealer. His plane crashed, and he was genetically altered, and he can fly, has telepathic powers. He’s the first African-American superhero. It makes me feel all the work I’ve done has been paying off. I have a son, nephews and nieces, and I love the idea that they can dress up as the Falcon on Halloween. They now have someone they can idolize. That’s a huge honor for me.

Now, Falcon is telepathic to birds in the comics, but he isn’t exactly genetically modified. Originally, Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to meld Wilson’s mind with his falcon. So the genetically altered bit seems to be new. As for his flight, the movie version of Falcon could be the perfect opportunity to introduce Wakanda and its king to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as in the comics Falcon’s current wing suit (with the hard-light wings) was given to him by Black Panther.