Back Issues: Could Marvel's World Party Be Coming to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has arrived, diving into the characters of [...]

By Adam Barnhardt

The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has arrived, diving into the characters of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) on a level we've yet to see before. The first episode of the series set up plenty of plot points the show could navigate throughout the next five episodes, including a potential new big bad deep from within the Captain America mythos.

Enter, The World Party.

A New World Order

The World Party burst onto the fray in a mid-1990s Captain America run by two of comics' most prominent names — Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld. In the story, Captain America is programmed to forget who he is — even the fact that he's a legendary Avenger — and is forced by SHIELD into living a mundane life with a family of LMDs — Life Model Decoys.

The World Party serves as the overarching antagonist in this series as they fight a fresh new Captain America with newly regenerated memories and the Nick Fury-led SHIELD. The group of radical terrorists also happen to be run by a familiar face to those who watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the former HYDRA head, Red Skull.

What's Next?

The first episode stopped short of confirming the World Party is on the way — but it did lay the necessary groundwork for the group. The episode name is even "New World Order," for Pete's sake.

It's no secret that Marvel Studios likes its mirror villain trope as we've seen it time and time again. Heck, we just saw it in WandaVision, so imagine this.

We know the US Agent (Wyatt Russell) acts on behalf of the government — but just imagine if a new group was able to infiltrate the government in the five years people were snapped, just like HYDRA did earlier in the MCU. This would lead to almost the same exact plot as the Winter Soldier (Stan) went through.

HYDRA infiltrated the government and used Bucky Barnes as its lean, mean killing machine. Now, saw the World Party has been able to do something similar, but with US Agent instead. Maybe the World Party and Flag-Smashers are even on in the same, to an extent.

Lazy? Maybe, but there's no denying it totally fits into Marvel's mirror villain trope to a T. Plus it'd even set US Agent up for a redemption arc via the Thunderbolts.

The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is now streaming on Disney+.

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