Captain America: The First Avenger got a little shout out during the lastest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The “Star Spangled Man” gets rolling with an extended look at John Walker as the “new” Captain America. Sam Wilson decided to donate the shield to The Smithsonian and the government wasted little time in getting a new body into the suit and holding that shield as a signal of hope. For his big unveiling on Good Morning America, the government wants to make a splash, and they pull up the playbook from Cap’s first go around. In the episode, they remix “The Star Spangled Man” from the first movie as a marching band number. Some MCU fans might balk at the idea of taking Alan Menken’s song and applying it to someone who did not inherit the mantle in an organic way. But, it’s a clever way to draw a through-line between the two characters. The inclusion of the song also helps highlight that before he was a true hero, Steve Rogers was a marketing initiative.
