The Little Pakeha

You have to appreciate their differing reactions to a bunch of bad guys jumping into the road in front of them.

Steve: *swerves to avoid them*
Sam: *probably gunning the motor*

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Look, I’m not even going to talk about how homoerotic this is. Because even if you view it as completely platonic, it’s really, really sweet. That bottom left panel! “…Which is when Steve Rogers’ breathing steadies, too.” These guys have been total bros ever since they met. And yeah, they fight a lot, Sam goes back and forth on being his partner a metric ton, he calls Steve the hell out when he’s being a dick – but ten issues later when Steve’s been kicked out of his place Sharon goes straight to Sam’s because she knows that’s where he’ll be. He’s an Avenger, he could stay at their freaking mansion, but no. He’s on a cot in Sam’s office. They need each other. They’re Cap and Falcon, as much as Cap and Bucky were Cap and Bucky.

(Also note that they’re calling each other by name here. They usually don’t when they’re in costume, even when they’re alone, especially in Sam’s case because his identity is still very secret. He calls Steve a lot of things – the generic words he uses for anyone like brother, man, etc, the obvious Cap, once even baby. Steve calls him Falcon, Falc, or sometimes imitates Sam’s slang, and guys there is seriously nothing whiter than this damn white kid saying “I dig” like he grew up in the hood. But when Steve’s desperately trying to save him he forgets all about that. They might not be saying it, but they can’t just shake that off so easily.)

Save

Or, the first time Sam Wilson was Captain America. While this was published in the late 90s, the story actually takes place in Sam’s early days as the Falcon – no wings, still wearing the green costume from Exile Island. This would seem to put it somewhere between Captain America vol 1 #134 to #143, in the period where the comic is titled Captain America and the Falcon but before the cover art switches to the new white and red design for him. But really it could be set at practically any time in the last 50 years. This is an issue that isn’t going anywhere fast, and that’s one of the things that sadly helps the weird Marvel stretch time work. Comics that were published in the 60s become “a few years ago” in the 80s; at the moment I’m saying that Sam and Steve have been working together for about 15 years.

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Origins! More origins!

This arc showed a few scenes from Steve’s life pre-serum, including him listening to Roosevelt on the radio before wrapping up with this. Little Stevie Rogers, learning that the president of the United States is disabled, just as he was. It’s pretty adorable.

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Just like in the MCU, 616!Steve will do pretty much anything for Sam. I love their relationship. It’s basically been 50 years of Guy Love. Here’s Steve’s reaction when Sam’s feeling down because he doesn’t have super powers like Cap (this was before they retconned in his psychic link to birds):

“Sam, you’re perfect how you are, but lemme talk to T’Challa. Back in two hours!” Bless him. (Let’s just not comment on the homoeroticism of the middle image there…. Then again, maybe we should!) And speaking of homoeroticism, note that Steve is currently sleeping in Sam’s office.

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