Captain America #117
Captain America #117 (September 1969) marks one of the most consequential character introductions in Marvel's Silver Age: the debut of Sam Wilson as the Falcon, who became the first African American superhero in mainstream monthly comic books — arriving a full three years after Black Panther, who was African royalty rather than a Black American. The issue arrived at the precise cultural flashpoint of the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests, making its representational statement inseparable from its moment in history. Over the following decades Sam Wilson's trajectory — from Cap's partner, to the titular co-star of the renamed Captain America and the Falcon series (1971–1978), to eventually inheriting the Captain America mantle in 2014 — confirmed this single issue as the origin point of one of Marvel's most enduring and politically meaningful characters. Its narrative hook, embedding a new hero inside an ongoing Red Skull body-swap thriller rather than a standalone origin issue, also demonstrated the maturing serialized storytelling craft of late-Silver-Age Marvel.
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Artist Gene Colan conceived the Falcon and brought the concept to editor/writer Stan Lee, driven by his observation that every Black character at Marvel was a supporting player to a white lead. Colan later recalled in the Marvel Masterworks backmatter that the turbulence of the late 1960s — ongoing civil rights demonstrations and Vietnam War coverage — inspired him and Lee to introduce a Black American hero into the Captain America title. Working under the 'Marvel Method,' Colan developed the visual and character concept, Lee scripted, and inker Joe Sinnott finished the interior art; notably, John Romita Sr. redrew Captain America's head on the cover before publication. The issue was published with a September 1969 cover date and has since been reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 4, the Captain America Epic Collection: The Coming of the Falcon, and received a Facsimile Edition in January 2021 and again in a new printing announced in 2024.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of the Falcon (Sam Wilson), the first African American superhero in mainstream monthly comic books.
- First appearance of Redwing, Sam Wilson's trained falcon companion and later recurring ally.
- Written by Stan Lee and penciled by Gene Colan, with inks by Joe Sinnott; John Romita Sr. redrew Captain America's head specifically for the cover.
- The story is part three of a multi-issue arc (beginning in #115) in which the Red Skull uses the Cosmic Cube to swap bodies with Captain America and strand him on Exile Island — where he meets Sam Wilson.
- MODOK and A.I.M. appear in the issue, monitoring the Red Skull's use of the Cosmic Cube; MODOK's survival is confirmed here as a subplot.
- The Exiles — a group of castoff Nazi collaborators including Angelo Baldini, Franz Cadavus, General Ching (misspelled 'Chang' in the story's text), Eric Gruning, Iron-Hand Hauptmann, and Ivan Krushki — serve as the primary antagonists on Exile Island.
- Sam Wilson debuts wearing a green-and-orange costume stitched together by island locals; his now-familiar red-and-white costume and mechanical wings would come later in the run.
- The issue has been collected in Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 4, the Captain America Epic Collection: The Coming of the Falcon, and was published as a Facsimile Edition (first in January 2021, with a new printing announced in 2024).
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
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With the Red Skull previously having switched bodies with Captain America, the Skull uses the Cosmic Cube to send Cap to the tropical island home of the Exiles. There Cap encounters a falconer from Harlem who had been hired by the Exiles but who is now attempting to help the island natives kick the Exiles from their home. Cap joins forces with the falconer who, with Cap's urging, dons a costume and takes the name the Falcon.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).