Art imitates life, as they say, and you better believe that this is truly the Captain America for these, uh, interesting times.
Yeah, John Walker (deservedly) did not make it long as Captain America in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but his appearance caused a pretty dramatic shake-up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will continue to be felts as we move through Phase 4 and beyond. By the end of the show, Sam Wilson became the new Captain America and Walker took up the mantle he is most closely associated with in the U.S. Agent, but again, his actions a Cap made the world view the title differently, and the noble Sam has some cleaning up to do right out of the gate.
Now, that aforementioned U.S. Agent version of Walker was released in the “Disney+” Marvel Legends assortment (the one that built Cap’s wings), but I am glad we have gotten this version, too, as most of the impactful pieces of Walker’s storyline in the show happened while he donned the Captain America togs. This figure is exclusive to Wal-Mart in the States, and the irony is not at all lost on me, as this is certainly the Wal-Mart Captain America. However, as you would expect being a Marvel Legends figure, it is a great offering in terms of quality and construction, and it fits in great with your overall MCU Legends collection.
The Walker Cap has a uniform that, aside from the colors, is a pretty dramatic departure from the Rogers Cap uniform. The star has been altered the most to incorporate the “A” and the overall design feels more like tradition military-issue get-up, with the obvious exception of the colors. I really like the articulation scheme here, and while it most certainly resembles what you would expect as the standard for joints in an ML figure, the range of movement in just about everything is great, and fluid to boot. The knees still have pretty rigid detents to keep the positions locked in, but the other spots have lighter “clicking” without sacrificing any strength as far as I can tell. Like all new Legends figures, I wish this figure had the butterfly shoulder joints (they make a world of difference), but again, for the most part, Walker moves quite well.
Aside from being a completely different person who could not be any more different from Steve Rogers in terms of personality, one of the biggest changes for Captain America as it transitioned to Walker is the presence of a firearm. The gun is kept in a leg holster and it is permanently affixed as one piece, so it cannot be removed. Walker DOES have a trigger finger on his right hand, but I guess it can be used to scratch his head as he looks for a pistol he can hold. Despair not though, there are plenty out that at this scale to choose from.
The highlight of MCU figures is usually the portrait, and they have consistently been able to capture actor likenesses with stunning accuracy. Walker has two heads to choose from, one masked and one not, and for the most part, the likeness is solid. Wyatt Russell (son of Ego) portrays Walker and the masked head captures his look in costume pretty perfectly. It is still jarring to me to see his likeness in figure or onscreen as Captain America, but that is kind of the point, and it is effective in this translation. The unmasked likeness is good, but maybe not as great as some of the other recent offerings like the Elizabeth Olsen Scarlet Witch. The expression is definitely there, but the details are specific traits are a little less effective by comparison. Sometimes, there are people who are just tough to capture in plastic (Harrison Ford and Viggo Mortensen come to mind), so that might be playing into it as well.
Hey, I can kid all day about Walker being the perfect discount store Captain America, but in the end, this is a really solid figure. I would imagine that, going forward, the U.S. Agent version will have more relevance in the display, but for the actual Falcon and Winter Soldier storyline, this is essential collecting. As noted, this is exclusive to Wal-Mart in the U.S., and we were recently told that it will be online ONLY, so go HERE for the goods.
