cm_kayla's review
4.0
Haven’t ever really been a fan of the marvel art style in their comics tbh. A bit too gritty and honestly hard to decipher for me and this continues. I liked this much better than Not My Captain America. Less over-exposition with the text which I was thankful for. Haven’t met a lot of these characters but loved Shaun, Misty, and Doctor Voodoo was a pretty cool character. First time I’ve ever read about Blade which I’m excited for. Felt like the characters played well with each other and the plot felt well connected, coming from someone who never reads these in order.
Interesting this had to follow the story after Cap has been revealed as a Hydra agent so interesting how they have to have Falcon contend with that and I think they did a nice job. Overall, good!
Interesting this had to follow the story after Cap has been revealed as a Hydra agent so interesting how they have to have Falcon contend with that and I think they did a nice job. Overall, good!
trike's review
1.0
Some things go great together. Bacon and eggs, peanut butter and jelly. Captain America and The Falcon. This book goes the opposite way.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
: : : You have been warned. : : :
A promising start about gang violence in Chicago that is completely undercut by adding demons to the mix. Street-level heroes without superpowers like Falcon are some of my favorite characters, and I’ve been a fan of his since the 1970s. As soon as you add demons and supernatural goings-on to these stories they tend to fall apart unless you do it right. Just dropping them in out the blue like kersplunking a big rock in a puddle wrecks it. That disintegration is aided by some truly clunky dialogue and uneven pacing.
Such a great opportunity to discuss the causes and cures of gang violence, but the problems in Chicago — which are real and have their roots in generations of racism — are treated so cavalierly here that it should anger anyone involved with the real-world effects. How is this book using that situation as a mere backdrop any different from how conservative politicians use it to promote their racist agenda? When you reduce the complexity of an entire generation destroying itself and the neighborhoods they live in to “the devil made me do it”, you’re absolving everyone of responsibility.
Of course, this is just a comic book, so one can argue it shouldn’t have that sort of responsibility thrust upon it, but the flipside of that coin is why even go there in the first place? If you’re just going to do such a disservice to real people with real suffering, you’re part of the problem. Set the tale somewhere else. Find another venue to talk about Sam Wilson’s crisis of confidence. Don’t make light of real shit.
The Satan of the Marvel universe is Mephisto, and one of his demonic offspring is Blackheart, who’s the dude behind all the gang violence. Blackheart has always been a weak-ass character, and here he’s basically just a lesser version of Hate-Monger. John Byrne did this exact same story with Hate-Monger stirring up trouble for the Fantastic Four back in the day, which led directly to Sue Storm demanding people stop calling her the Invisible Girl and start treating her with some damn respect. That’s when she became the Invisible Woman and everyone realized that, holy shit, she’s actually the strongest member of the FF, yes, in terms of superpowers but also in emotional resilience.
We don’t get that same arc here. Sam goes to actual hell and over a page decides that, by golly, he is worthy. So yay, epiphany and bad guys get beaten up. It feels cheap. The Marvel universe is flexible and forgiving, allowing hell-demons and intergalactic star warriors to coexist with gun-toting vigilantes, and lots of writers have managed to blend these extremely disparate elements well without resorting to dumb deus ex machina tricks, so it’s disappointing and aggravating to see lackluster rationales used here to justify a teenage kid with a flying shield beating up a lord of the underworld without breaking a sweat.
Other problems I had with the story include the misuse of existing characters. Why is Two-Gun Kid in hell? That’s kinda rude. Of all the Western heroes in the stable, he’s the least likely to end up there. I mean, Phantom Rider is basically the template for Moon Knight, an ambiguous antihero who — get this — regularly possesses his own descendants to enact vengeance. THERE’S a guy who would be in hell. Two-Gun is about as squeaky clean as they get. Dumb.
I wasn’t cool with how pathetic Brother Voodoo was here, either. He’s the damn Sorcerer Supreme! The equal to Doctor Strange! And he regularly gets his butt whooped by third-string demons. Sad.
It feels like they just decided to cram as many black characters as possible into the story, regardless of whether they might fit together. It’s a form of stunt casting that’s annoying.
One of my favorite stories of this century is [b:Young Avengers, Volume 1: Sidekicks|331205|Young Avengers, Volume 1 Sidekicks|Allan Heinberg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442465479l/331205._SY75_.jpg|321774], and Elijah Bradley as Patriot was able to do more effective commentary on race relations in America in 3 pages than this entire 170-page collection. I have no idea when this new Patriot, Shaun Lucas, showed up, but he feels more like a shadow of Miles Morales than a fully-fledged character in his own right, despite all of his page time.
And these new outfits... yeesh. They’re just fugly. I can kinda see what they were going for with Patriot, with a sort of red-and-white version of Captain America’s stealth outfit, but it doesn’t work. It’s so busy and unfocused, it comes across as a motorcycle racer outfit with five sponsors. The less said about Falcon the better. The original green 70s suit was pretty bad with the follow-up red and white one not much better, and they clearly took the new look from that yet somehow made it worse. I guess it’s also bulletproof now, too? Cool upgrade, but maybe mention that.
By the time we get back to NYC and vampires and Blade, even the ultra-cool Misty Knight can’t save the story. It’s just a hot mess from start to finish, to be honest. Take out all the horror elements and the basic idea of Sam doing some soul-searching is a solid continuation of his arc over the past decade. But all of this busy-ness with demons and vampires and lame-o versions of Mephisto and Deacon Frost just completely detracts from the core concept.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
: : : You have been warned. : : :
A promising start about gang violence in Chicago that is completely undercut by adding demons to the mix. Street-level heroes without superpowers like Falcon are some of my favorite characters, and I’ve been a fan of his since the 1970s. As soon as you add demons and supernatural goings-on to these stories they tend to fall apart unless you do it right. Just dropping them in out the blue like kersplunking a big rock in a puddle wrecks it. That disintegration is aided by some truly clunky dialogue and uneven pacing.
Such a great opportunity to discuss the causes and cures of gang violence, but the problems in Chicago — which are real and have their roots in generations of racism — are treated so cavalierly here that it should anger anyone involved with the real-world effects. How is this book using that situation as a mere backdrop any different from how conservative politicians use it to promote their racist agenda? When you reduce the complexity of an entire generation destroying itself and the neighborhoods they live in to “the devil made me do it”, you’re absolving everyone of responsibility.
Of course, this is just a comic book, so one can argue it shouldn’t have that sort of responsibility thrust upon it, but the flipside of that coin is why even go there in the first place? If you’re just going to do such a disservice to real people with real suffering, you’re part of the problem. Set the tale somewhere else. Find another venue to talk about Sam Wilson’s crisis of confidence. Don’t make light of real shit.
The Satan of the Marvel universe is Mephisto, and one of his demonic offspring is Blackheart, who’s the dude behind all the gang violence. Blackheart has always been a weak-ass character, and here he’s basically just a lesser version of Hate-Monger. John Byrne did this exact same story with Hate-Monger stirring up trouble for the Fantastic Four back in the day, which led directly to Sue Storm demanding people stop calling her the Invisible Girl and start treating her with some damn respect. That’s when she became the Invisible Woman and everyone realized that, holy shit, she’s actually the strongest member of the FF, yes, in terms of superpowers but also in emotional resilience.
We don’t get that same arc here. Sam goes to actual hell and over a page decides that, by golly, he is worthy. So yay, epiphany and bad guys get beaten up. It feels cheap. The Marvel universe is flexible and forgiving, allowing hell-demons and intergalactic star warriors to coexist with gun-toting vigilantes, and lots of writers have managed to blend these extremely disparate elements well without resorting to dumb deus ex machina tricks, so it’s disappointing and aggravating to see lackluster rationales used here to justify a teenage kid with a flying shield beating up a lord of the underworld without breaking a sweat.
Other problems I had with the story include the misuse of existing characters. Why is Two-Gun Kid in hell? That’s kinda rude. Of all the Western heroes in the stable, he’s the least likely to end up there. I mean, Phantom Rider is basically the template for Moon Knight, an ambiguous antihero who — get this — regularly possesses his own descendants to enact vengeance. THERE’S a guy who would be in hell. Two-Gun is about as squeaky clean as they get. Dumb.
I wasn’t cool with how pathetic Brother Voodoo was here, either. He’s the damn Sorcerer Supreme! The equal to Doctor Strange! And he regularly gets his butt whooped by third-string demons. Sad.
It feels like they just decided to cram as many black characters as possible into the story, regardless of whether they might fit together. It’s a form of stunt casting that’s annoying.
One of my favorite stories of this century is [b:Young Avengers, Volume 1: Sidekicks|331205|Young Avengers, Volume 1 Sidekicks|Allan Heinberg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442465479l/331205._SY75_.jpg|321774], and Elijah Bradley as Patriot was able to do more effective commentary on race relations in America in 3 pages than this entire 170-page collection. I have no idea when this new Patriot, Shaun Lucas, showed up, but he feels more like a shadow of Miles Morales than a fully-fledged character in his own right, despite all of his page time.
And these new outfits... yeesh. They’re just fugly. I can kinda see what they were going for with Patriot, with a sort of red-and-white version of Captain America’s stealth outfit, but it doesn’t work. It’s so busy and unfocused, it comes across as a motorcycle racer outfit with five sponsors. The less said about Falcon the better. The original green 70s suit was pretty bad with the follow-up red and white one not much better, and they clearly took the new look from that yet somehow made it worse. I guess it’s also bulletproof now, too? Cool upgrade, but maybe mention that.
By the time we get back to NYC and vampires and Blade, even the ultra-cool Misty Knight can’t save the story. It’s just a hot mess from start to finish, to be honest. Take out all the horror elements and the basic idea of Sam doing some soul-searching is a solid continuation of his arc over the past decade. But all of this busy-ness with demons and vampires and lame-o versions of Mephisto and Deacon Frost just completely detracts from the core concept.
lewislikesbooks's review
4.0
Falcon: Take Flight is a great standalone volume that picks up with Sam Wilson having become the Falcon once more after his tenure as Captain America. Sam himself is such a wonderful character and he is joined by equally memorable and fun Patriot (Rayshaun Lucas) and Misty Knight. I do feel, however, that the writer wanted to write Blade and the more supernatural Marvel characters rather than Falcon as the volume steered more toward the former by the end of this.
life_of_karrot's review
2.0
Great premise, Falcon returning to his roots, passively stopping gang wars and healing racial tensions in urban America... then blam some mystic monsters come in. Honestly, for all the good stuff about who Sam Wilson is without the Captain America or even Falcon title, there was a whole lot of supernatural nonsense which didn't feel like it fit with this character or story. Doctor Voodoo was cool, Sam's sidekick Patriot was alright, Blade and Misty were great but felt contrived and their story served as a strange afterthought. The art as well varied from great to average, which didn't help.
fernlyqueer's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
captwinghead's review
4.0
3.5 stars.
I don't feel right rating this book for 2 reasons:
1) It's a well known fact that Marvel treats their creators of color and books about marginalized characters like shit. No promotion, no help, no real resources put in to making the books successful. They really love to give the appearance of having diverse characters but they don't put the work in when they're being written by creators of color.
2) This book could've easily been 5 stars if Marvel had put more resources into it.
This book is dark - literally. The colors and the art are rather rough with harsh lines and it's not always easy to discern what's going on. It's a style that I've seen in other books, but at times it wasn't that pleasant for me to look at. Which is a problem when you're reading a graphic novel. You have to want to look at the artwork.
I had a few issues with some of the more flowery writing. The part where Sam says he has to "bond with their hearts" when talking about getting through to the gang members or when he says he was "shaking like a fawn." Other than some of those issues, I didn't have any problems with the writing. Barnes had to contend with the huge garbage fire Nick Spencer set off in the Cap books. Barnes did a great job and I say that having repetitively said how much I will never forgive Marvel for letting Spencer write that shitty storyline.
Sam is full of doubt about everything he believed: about Steve, about what the shield means, about the work he did, about himself. He's having an existential crisis and it's affecting the way he trains his ward Shaun (who I love!) and how he does his job. Shaun is a ray of sunshine and I really love how he lifts Sam's spirit in this book. He was hilarious, and sweet and admires Sam so much. His one liners never got boring and, while he was used for exposition quite a few times, he felt like a real character and I can't wait to read more about him, to be honest.
I loved the elements of magic in this book! Reminded me a tiny bit of what Walker did with Power Man & Iron Fist in that it's brought in seamlessly and fits perfectly. I loved Jericho Drumm having a big role and I really loved seeing the Son of Satan pop up. Kinda sad I won't get to see them work more together. Joaquin, the former Falcon, appears and I know nothing of this character. I couldn't make it through Remender's Sam book and I won't touch anything Spencer wrote, so he might have been introduced there? Either way, I enjoyed him here. I really love the little family between Shaun, Sam, Joaquin and Redwing! (Can't forget the "crazy chicken").
I didn't quite love Blade and Sam fighting over Misty as a love interest. I have no idea why Misty was ever paired with Sam, to be honest? I get that Sam never had a big love interest (I don't even remember his girlfriend's name from the 70s and 80s comics). I just don't get why we had to make it Misty in this book? But, it seems like that was done before this run, so that's not really Barnes' fault.
Anyway, I enjoyed this and I can tell Marvel didn't put much focus on it, which is a damn shame. Sam was given the shield in the films and I just hope that means he'll get another solo or something more than a 5 issue short series. This is the first book I read that gave us a lot of insight into his background, how he deals with problems and I loved seeing him as Shaun's mentor.
It's a recommend if you like Sam Wilson and want to learn more about him. I just wish this was still an ongoing because I think Barnes could've told way more stories with this cast.
I don't feel right rating this book for 2 reasons:
1) It's a well known fact that Marvel treats their creators of color and books about marginalized characters like shit. No promotion, no help, no real resources put in to making the books successful. They really love to give the appearance of having diverse characters but they don't put the work in when they're being written by creators of color.
2) This book could've easily been 5 stars if Marvel had put more resources into it.
This book is dark - literally. The colors and the art are rather rough with harsh lines and it's not always easy to discern what's going on. It's a style that I've seen in other books, but at times it wasn't that pleasant for me to look at. Which is a problem when you're reading a graphic novel. You have to want to look at the artwork.
I had a few issues with some of the more flowery writing. The part where Sam says he has to "bond with their hearts" when talking about getting through to the gang members or when he says he was "shaking like a fawn." Other than some of those issues, I didn't have any problems with the writing. Barnes had to contend with the huge garbage fire Nick Spencer set off in the Cap books. Barnes did a great job and I say that having repetitively said how much I will never forgive Marvel for letting Spencer write that shitty storyline.
Sam is full of doubt about everything he believed: about Steve, about what the shield means, about the work he did, about himself. He's having an existential crisis and it's affecting the way he trains his ward Shaun (who I love!) and how he does his job. Shaun is a ray of sunshine and I really love how he lifts Sam's spirit in this book. He was hilarious, and sweet and admires Sam so much. His one liners never got boring and, while he was used for exposition quite a few times, he felt like a real character and I can't wait to read more about him, to be honest.
I loved the elements of magic in this book! Reminded me a tiny bit of what Walker did with Power Man & Iron Fist in that it's brought in seamlessly and fits perfectly. I loved Jericho Drumm having a big role and I really loved seeing the Son of Satan pop up. Kinda sad I won't get to see them work more together. Joaquin, the former Falcon, appears and I know nothing of this character. I couldn't make it through Remender's Sam book and I won't touch anything Spencer wrote, so he might have been introduced there? Either way, I enjoyed him here. I really love the little family between Shaun, Sam, Joaquin and Redwing! (Can't forget the "crazy chicken").
I didn't quite love Blade and Sam fighting over Misty as a love interest. I have no idea why Misty was ever paired with Sam, to be honest? I get that Sam never had a big love interest (I don't even remember his girlfriend's name from the 70s and 80s comics). I just don't get why we had to make it Misty in this book? But, it seems like that was done before this run, so that's not really Barnes' fault.
Anyway, I enjoyed this and I can tell Marvel didn't put much focus on it, which is a damn shame. Sam was given the shield in the films and I just hope that means he'll get another solo or something more than a 5 issue short series. This is the first book I read that gave us a lot of insight into his background, how he deals with problems and I loved seeing him as Shaun's mentor.
It's a recommend if you like Sam Wilson and want to learn more about him. I just wish this was still an ongoing because I think Barnes could've told way more stories with this cast.
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