Speaking of black superheroes…

You may recall that last August (2011), Chris Markus and Stephen McFeely, screenwriters of Captain America: The First Avenger, revealed what their hopes were for the sequel to that movie, stating that they were intrigued by the chance to explore some of the latter-day additions to the Captain America mythos, like his sidekick The Falcon, one of comics’ first black superheroes.

“I want both of them… Falcon is awesome. We can't play with time so much to have Cap go back to Harlem in the '70's and clean up the streets, but it would be awesome to go straight up, like, 'Shaft' with Cap and the Falcon.”

So said Markus in an interview with  with NBC Miami's Popcorn Biz program.

Comic book enthusiasts will have to chime in with their thoughts on this; Wikipedia says Stan Lee introduced Falcon in Captain America #117 (September 1969),calling him "the first African American superhero."

The character, Sam Wilson, is Harlem-based and had many street adventures with Cap in the 1970s comics, when he served as his partner. In current comics, Falcon is a key player in many of Cap's espionage adventures.

His superhero abilities include: an empathic link with his pet falcon, has the ability to see through the eyes of nearby birds, can fly, is skilled in martial artist, and is a gymnast.

Fast-forward to today, announced this afternoon, Anthony Mackie is said to be in negotiations to star as Falcon, alongside Chris Evans in the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger, which is being directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. (recall that F. Gary Gray was once in the mix to helm the film, but dropped out of contention to focus on the NWA biopic).

No plot details yet, but, as revealed at Comic-Con over the weekend, Marvel already has a title for the sequel (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and has set a release date of April 4, 2014. 

So, yeah… he's Captain America's sidekick. Back to your Black Panther and Luke Cage dreams…