(This review may contain spoilers).
I liked Sam Wilson as a character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so it was cool to have the opportunity to see him in his original incarnation.
Although I did enjoy reading the first three comics, I did find that they were a bit… samey. When the superheroes meet others, they form alliances pretty quickly. Although it’s good to read about the heroes doing heroic stuff, it would be nice to see more conflict between them. Both Sam and Steve seemed to trust each other fairly quickly and I felt there would be a good opportunity for Steve to be a bit more suspicious. I think conflict at first can be quite interesting.
I did like seeing Steve and Sam work together, with Steve training Sam and the two of them battling Red Skull side by side. It was also good to see Sam’s bond with his falcon. That was a rather nice touch, I felt.
What I did like about Sam’s storyline was the fact that his past was manufactured by Red Skull. It was nice to be able to see a kind of redemptive arc… a hero who did do some bad things in his past, but was working to try and help the people who he could identify with. It was interesting to see him trying to work with the gangs and try to get them to stop being violent. In some ways, I did feel quite sorry for the Legion… not that the way they responded was right, but I could understand why they felt betrayed.
The first set of comics did seem to focus more on Captain America, but it was good to see Sam’s origin story. There wasn’t a great deal of difference in the artwork for the two sets of comics, but both were really good pieces and I was able to follow the storylines really easily.
I liked seeing Sam’s friendship with Tork in the second set of comics, even if I wasn’t sure if he knew Sam’s identity at first or not. It was also good to see Steve show up. Although there were problems with supervillains, I also really liked the fact that Sam was dealing with normal, human issues at the same time.
I think Sam Wilson is a character I like both in his original incarnation and in the movie version of him. I hope the movies explore his link with his falcon a bit more.
Ink of Blood 