Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Falcon, now Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Anyway, however you want to name this duo, it’s a pretty iconic one.

Which is one of the main reasons why he had such a hard time accepting the shield after it was given to him. In a lot of ways, he viewed it as a burden, and it was because he was mostly thinking of the present. As a Black man, he didn’t feel like the country represented him, so how could he, in turn, represent the country?

The following contains spoilers from the Marvel Studios film Captain America: Brave New World, now in theaters. The Winter Soldier’s career has taken quite a turn since the events of TV’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.