Wilson to adopt a persona to inspire the natives in their rebellion. The two create the costumed persona the Falcon and train together extensively before attacking and defeating the Exiles and the Red Skull. The Falcon becomes Captain America's regular partner in crime-fighting, and briefly even takes on the Captain America costume and identity when Rogers is believed to have been killed. Later, again as the Falcon, Wilson receives help from the Black Panther, who creates a harness for Wilson, allowing him to fly. When Rogers briefly abandons his Captain America identity, others attempt to take up the mantle, including a young man named Roscoe whom the Falcon mentors. When the Red Skull eventually kills Roscoe, Rogers again becomes Captain America. Soon afterwards, the Red Skull tricks Sam into believing that he had a secret past as Snap Wilson, a professional Los Angeles criminal and gang member persona created out of grief and "angry at the world" following the death of Sam's parents. Red Skull makes the untruthful claim that the Cosmic Cube was used to erase the memories of this Snap Wilson past so that Sam could be used as a mole for Red Skull. Red Skull then unsuccessfully attempts to use the Cosmic Cube to make the Falcon kill Captain America. Believing in the existence of this fake criminal past but deciding to continue as a hero, the Falcon is eventually named head of the Super Agents at the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. US government superhero liaison Henry Peter Gyrich then recruits Wilson, one of the few active black superheroes, to fill a mandated racial quota for the venerable team the Avengers. Resentful of being a "token", the Falcon quits at the first opportunity. He debuts a new costume when he fights the supervillain Taskmaster. 2000s Falcon becomes a member of the new team of Avengers assembled to fight the international menace Scorpio as a United Nations peacekeeping agency. By this point, Falcon had discovered that he could extend his telepathic bond with Redwing, allowing him to control other birds and "see" through their eyes. He uses this ability to spy on Henry Gyrich (now the Avengers' liaison with the United Nations) and discovers that the United States' Secretary of Defense, Dell Rusk, has been pressuring Gyrich to spy on the Avengers and turn over their secrets. Although initially hostile to one another, Falcon convinces Gyrich to help the