Falcon #1 (November 1983)

Hello, and welcome to Classic Comic Showcase, where I look at an old comic book and decide whether it should be considered a classic or not.

It's February, which means that it's Black History Month. As such, I thought it would be appropriate to review a comic centering on a black superhero. As such, I chose the Falcon. Why the Falcon? Well, a couple reasons. One, because Sam Wilson has taken the mantle of Captain America, and because of Anthony Mackie's reprising the role of Sam Wilson in the upcoming film Captain America: Civil War. And also, the Falcon is awesome, and you damn well better respect the Falcon!

I love Robot Chicken.

In the 1980s, the Big Two of comic books had really fallen in love with the mini-series, or limited series. They published lots of them, focusing on characters from teams so they could have a solo adventure of their own. Falcon was one of those characters, so let's look at his 1983-84 miniseries.

I don't have the actual comics...but I do have a trade. Yup. Took me a while to find it. The trade, The Avengers: Falcon, collects the miniseries, as well as some of Sam Wilson's early appearances. If you want to find it, it's a couple years old, and it's great way to see the early days of a character that has gone on to do some big things, including wielding the shield.

"Winners and Losers"
Writer: Jim Owsley
Artist: Paul Smith
Inks: Vince Colletta
Editor: Jim Shooter

The cover depicts Falcon in a "last stand" type of pose against a brick wall, his mouth bleeding, costume torn and wings broken. In a nice touch, the character's logo is done in the style of graffiti. The indicia "#1 in a four-issue miniseries" doesn't quite follow it. It is attempting to follow the style of the logo, but keep its traditional font. It would've been neat to see the letters altered to make it look like they were spray-painted on with stencils. I like stencils. It's not a bad cover, not a bad cover at all.

The issue begins with a group of drunken teenage boys being unpleasant to a young girl on a hot night in Harlem.

However, her savior reveals himself: The Falcon. He tells the boy, Miguel, that drinking makes him stupid. Miguel demonstrates this by taunting the Falcon and making his friends go beat him up.

"Hey guys, it's the Falcon! Let's give him a hug!"

Being a trained Avenger, Falcon kicks their butts, and tries to talk to Miguel. Evidently, Miguel is a pretty smart kid, and Falcon thinks he has potential to really do something great with his life. Miguel rants at him about his wanting to get out of the ghetto and saying his brain has no use because it can't make him money, and he needs to make money to get out of the ghetto.

"You don't understand, man! You just don't understand!"

At this point, I do want to point out something rather funny about the coloring of the comic. You see, Miguel is Latino, and the Latino characters in this comic seem to have skin that looks...kid of grayish to me, like they were living rocks. Weird.

We cut to another building, where a cop with a shotgun is getting ready to make a bust.

"Yeah, I'll cool him, alright...what am I saying?"

He cuffs and gags the kid with his own headband, and then takes his piece. The cop then wonders where Falcon is, as according to him, Falcon has never failed to help him with this before. Deciding he has no choice but to make the bust, he bursts in like the cavalry, but... there's no one there.

"Well, that was a bust."

We cut to a little later, with the NYPD carting away the boys Falcon beat up. Turns out Miguel and the boys had gotten drunk as their boss, a dope dealer, didn't show up due to his learning of the stakeout. Falcon remarks to the policeman, who's name is Sgt. Tork (Hey hey, we're the Monkees!), that his shotgun is illegal. And Tork remarks that so is spitting on the sidewalk, which he does. He then asks Falcon to take Lucia home for him.

Falcon does so, and the father is grateful she is unharmed. Falcon asks the father to be lenient to Miguel, and even though he is a proud man, he will consider it.

Yeah, this scene is a bit...weird. At least Falcon admits that Miguel's being drunk was no excuse. The next day, people are lining up in front of a building being built, wanting applications. Presumably it's for an apartment in the building when completed, and people are getting impatient. Sam Wilson meets the man behind the buildings, a Mr. Kane. Kane wishes to talk to Sam, saying that he's been hearing rumors that he is a slumlord, and since Sam is respected in the community, he could help dispel the rumors.

Back with the line, people are getting impatient, and the applications are running low.

"Goin' crazy...goin' crazy...from the heat!"

Plus, it's a hot day, and tempers are flaring, until...BANG!

Sgt. Tork stands on the table and fires his service pistol at the ceiling, posing like John Wayne about to load up them cattle, pilgrim! Having the line's attention, Sgt. Tork reminds everyone that the ladies are doing the best they can when it comes to applications, and while he does express sympathy for their plight, being a long wait and a hot day, but they have to be patient. He reminds them that the media is here, and they're not only making the neighborhood look bad, they're also setting a bad example for their kids. I like Sgt. Tork.

Kane remarks that Sgt. Tork is a lunatic, but Sam states that Tork may be a bit crazy, he's a good man. In a bit of awesomeness, Sam grabs a metal rod and bends it with his bare hands while explaining to Kane he will not help him dispel the rumors. He hands the bent bar back to Kane, who tries to straighten it, but can't do it. Sam calls him out for having poor worksmanship and shoddy materials in his buildings. As such, Sam can't give him support. He also reveals he started the rumors about Kane being a slumlord.

"Aw man, I can't even straighten a Slinky!"

We then go to court, where Sam is speaking up for Miguel. He appears to be acting as Miguel's defense council...wait, Sam's a social worker. Does that job also require him to act as legal aid? The judge is understandably reluctant to his record and the severity of his charges, but Lucia and her father tell them they withdraw the complaint, so the judge dismisses the case.

"Yeah, my job is important, but I am HUNGRY!"

Sam and Miguel have a talk. Miguel feels that he can't stop screwing up, but Sam tells him that staying away from booze would help him. Miguel counters that drinking helps him forget, and his hard life gives him a lot to forget. Sam explains that being a drunken lout doesn't make his life or anything else better. He encourages Miguel to stay in school and keep out of trouble. The advice does seem a bit trite, but I get what they're going for, and I admit, it is a bit of a nice moment, Sam not giving up on a kid with potential.

The two are interrupted by an attack on one of Kane's unfinished buildings.

"Look out! Jim's drunk and thinks he's Donkey Kong again!"

The attacker is a costumed man named Nemesis. Sgt. Tork tries to shoot him, but it does no good. However, before Nemesis could turn Tork into dead Monkee, Falcon comes to the rescue.

"WINGS TO THE FACE!"

Falcon manages to knock Nemesis off the building, but Nemesis's armor and power is able to give him a big advantage over the Falcon, much to his frustration. Nemesis is able to catch Falcon and attempts to cook him with electricity.

"BAH GAWD ALMIGHTY, KING! NEMESIS IS BEATING FALCON LIKE A GOVERNMENT MULE!"

Falcon is saved by the arrival of the police. They treat Falcon...even though there should be EMTs to take care of that. Kane drives up and is furious at Falcon, saying Nemesis's rampage caused a lot of damage, and Falcon just let him get away with it. Sam just tells him he has a job to do and flies off.

Meanwhile, Miguel gets ready to start his job at a grocery store. The manager tells him he fond out about Miguel's arrest, and fires him, stating he does not hire gangsters. A girl named Yna approaches Miguel. Evidently she has a bit of a crush on him, and is angry that he drunkenly tried to assault Lucia...instead of her...yeah. Hey Yna, I think that you should be more angry that the boy you liked tried to ASSAULT A GIRL. Yna is a dope. Anyway, Miguel angrily tells her to buzz off, and she does. Miguel kicks a stack of boxes in frustration.

"Well...guess I gotta practice my box-kicking skills."

That night, after a scene with Falcon and Tork with Falcon looking out for Nemesis on Kane's building, Miguel wanders around, back on the bottle. He notices a door that is open a crack, and peeks in. He sees Nemesis inside, about to take off his helmet.

"Oh my God, it's Old Man Larson!"

Redwing alerts Falcon to something, and Nemesis is on the rampage. Falcon gets on the attack, and is able to damage Nemesis's suit, until he hears Miguel's cry for help. Nemesis tied Miguel to one of the buildings...with a load of dynamite, like in a Looney Toons cartoon. Miguel screams at Falcon to get out of there, because the building's going to go down. Falcon goes for the dynamite, despite Miguel pleading Falcon to let him die, as all he does is screw up. Sam manages to grab the dynamite and toss it at Nemesis, further damaging his armor. Man, Nemesis's armor must be able to take one heck of a beating.

Falcon frees Miguel, who laments that he can't stop screwing up despite everyone trying to help him. However, Falcon reassures him that he'll make it. His armor damaged, Nemesis flees, shoving his way through people to a subway.

"Out of my way! I have to fix my costume for the con!"

He jumps the turnstile, and makes the trin stop in the most insane way possible.

"I COMMAND YOU AS GOD OF DAMAGED SUPERVILLAIN COSTUMES!"

The conductor stops the train, and yells at Nemesis. Nemesis tosses him out and takes control of the train. He demands that the train be allowed to go to South Ferry. Falcon flies after him in an AWESOME full page spread, neing cheered on by the citizenry!

"Here I come to save the dayyyy..."

Nemesis wonders how Falcon could've found him, until he spots Redwing. He decides to get out of there, only to be shoulder-checked by Falcon. Same takes his mask off, revealing it was Kane, who was destroying his own buildings to collect the insurance money...how did he know that? Maybe Miguel told him.

In an epilogue, Tork remarks that Kane may be going to jail, but there are problems getting new buildings in the area, and the neighborhood is poorer for it. Tork asks Sam who really won. Falcon remarks Miguel did, and we see him sweeping the front of the grocery store, waving up at him. I'm guessing that's meant to hint that Miguel is finally on the straight-and-narrow and is going to go on to do some big things.

The trade also includes an editorial in a space called "Crib Notes". It talks about how the mini-series came to be. Fascinating stuff.

This comic is...okay. On one hand, the issue does a pretty good job establishing who Falcon is for new readers, what he's about, and his status quo at the time. However, the mystery of Nemesis's identity is simple, but also very weak. We don't see Falcon do any real detective work here, so his explaining of Kane/Nemesis's motive is out of nowhere. Also, this is a four-issue mini-series, and I saw no hints of the beginnings of an arc over it. Paul Smith is a fine artist, but his art story is a bit too clean for this, I think. I would've wanted someone with a more gritty style.

I would only get this if you're a Falcon fan, and can find it dirt-cheap. I still would recommend the trade, though. And I'm looking forward to reviewing issue two, as it features Falcon taking on...a Sentinel.