First linked to the Avengers through his long crime- fighting partnership with Captain America, the Falcon is a Harlem-based adventurer whose high-tech costume (a gift from the Black Panther) grants him the power of flight. 

     He is aided by his pet falcon Redwing, with whom he shares a unique mental link. 

     Over time and with practice, Wilson has developed the ability to mind-link with other birds in his vicinity, too. 

     His mind-linking ability was created by the villainous Red Skull, who had recruited racketeer Sam Wilson and groomed him to become Captain America's partner in hopes of turning him against Captain America someday; however, Falcon managed to overcome the Skull's influence and his own criminal past after the truth about his origins came out. 

  
     As one of relatively few prominent African-American adventurers, the Falcon was drafted into Avengers membership by the federal government to fill an equal opportunity quota. He served effectively, but felt awkward about the circumstances of his recruitment and soon quit the active roster.  He continued to associate with the group, though, sometimes serving as a reservist, and eventually rejoined the active roster. He feuded for a time with Avengers government liaison Gyrich, but the two men settled their differences after teaming to foil the Red Skull's Red Zone plot. 

     A longtime social worker whose costumed double identity is public knowledge, Sam Wilson has also dabbled in politics and, more recently, took on a new job as an urban planner participating in the post-9-11 rebuilding of New York City. When the Avengers disbanded and reorganized following their conflict with an insane Scarlet Witch, Falcon did not rejoin the group.