The Identity of The Power Broker Is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's First Big Mystery
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The following story contains spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 3.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier hinted about "The Power Broker" throughout the series, and revealed the identity in the show's finale.
The Power Broker is a character who has a decent bit of background in the Marvel Comics, and seems to play a big role in the series which has largely yet to be explored.
Here's what we know about The Power Broker and what we expect to happen in the future.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier teased a mysterious and unseen character named "The Power Broker" for the duration of its series, and by the show's finale made it clear that the identity of The Power Broker was someone we had already met. But along the way, there was quite a few hints and a whole lot of speculation.
Episode 3 brought the show's action to Madripoor, a lawless former pirate sanctuary where we learn that The Power Broker—whom resident villain-turned-kinda-friend-I-Guess? Zemo only knows by reputation—is "judge, jury, and executioner," as Zemo proclaims in the Brass Monkey Tavern. But we've also begun to know more about what the power broker has been up to: developing super soldier serums.
There, Sam, Bucky, and Zemo learn that The Power Broker had taken on a project that the CIA was too scared to continue with after The Blip. A scientist named Dr. Wilfred Nagel was apparently the first since Abraham Erskine to crack the super soldier serum, working for the Power Broker. But then Karli Morgenthau and the Flag-Smashers stole them, and the rest we've seen play out on screen.
Our heroes get a little bit of information out of Nagel, but he's quickly shot dead (by Zemo, womp womp.) But if there's anything we know about super soldier serum attempts, it's that there's always some sort of side effect. And it's never just a little arm soreness.
So, let's just get this out of the way up front—who is the Power Broker?
We're going to spoil this right away, so, if you've accidentally read this far, uh, time to stop.
Stop now if you don't want to be spoiled, seriously.
Yeah, so...Sharon Carter was The Power Broker. We kind of saw that one coming from Episode 3 on, but it was so obvious that we expected it to be a red herring. Nope—she's The Power Broker. She had super soldier serums made, she threatened Karli and company when they were stolen. It was all her. We saw Sharon as an "art dealer" in Madripoor, so, like, it tracks. But Sharon has also never been a villain in her entire Marvel canon, which began all the way back in 1966. So it's a significant turn, and one we're interested to see where it goes.
The finale makes decent use of Sharon following the revelation, showing her bargaining to get Karli to join her, before eventually saving Sam and being the one to shoot Karli dead. Sam comes through and gets Sharon a full pardon, which also includes her job back. And this also means that Sharon—not giving up on her new hobby of brokering power—is about to start selling off some secrets and information, Wikileaks style.
Were there hints along the way?
Yeah, it's fair to say yes. On top of the whole Madripoor art dealing situation, Sharon also took on a clearly disillusioned attitude since we last saw her in Captain America: Civil War. She's taken on a newfound cynical nature in her time since being declared an Enemy of the U.S State (after stealing the Captain America shield to give to an on-the-run Steve Rogers) and being dusted off the earth during The Blip. She's living a luxurious life trading goods in the Hightown area of Madripoor.
Zemo knew of The Power Broker, but wasn't lying when he said he had never met them—only knows of them by reputation. So when he met Sharon and visited her apartment, he wasn't holding anything back from Sam and Bucky. "We've got a big problem. Actually, a couple of them," Sharon tells a personal driver as soon as she parts ways with Bucky, Sam, and Zemo. "I'll tell you in the car. Let's go." Sharon's in a rush, and it so obviously seemed like she was up to no good that it really felt like misdirection. But I guess not.
Episode 4 finds Sharon only briefly in it, telling Sam and Bucky to track down who else? Karli. Again, it almost feels telegraphed. As does Episode 5, when she was seen on the phone with Batroc, who later said his goal was to kill the Falcon. Feels like a red herring, but was just obvious foreshadowing instead.
It would make sense that Sharon would feel the urge to turn after being cast astray for doing the right thing. But after being one of the only ones to stick on the right side following what happened in The Winter Soldier? It doesn't feel quite right, but hey—clearly Marvel had big hopes for this story, so we'll see how it all plays out.
We also haven't really seen Sharon doing anything explicitly duplicitous. Perhaps she was running the super soldier serum situation in coordination with Nick Fury and whatever form SHIELD has taken these days? It's possible the person she was on the phone with in the Falcon and Winter Soldier's credits scene was Fury, and they're running some underground operation. Who's to say?
Or maybe she's just evil now and wants to kill Sam and Bucky for some reason. Would be really out there and wild, but more outrageous things have happened!
When was The Power Broker first introduced to the MCU?
Audiences were technically introduced to the idea of someone called "The Power Broker" during the credits of the series' first episode (some sort of torn/redacted headline said something like "The Power Broker Is Watching"), but Episode 2 brought the still-unseen character into the fold through the actions of people working for him.
Our first official mention of "The Power Broker" comes near the end of the episode, as Karli Morgenthau—the leader of the still pretty confusing villainous Flag Maskers facton—escapes the people who've tracked her team down. "How much time do we have?" Karli asks, before being told that they have none—it's The Power Broker's men who've come to settle the score.
Upon this, it becomes fairly clear that the person texting Karli earlier in the episode very well could have been the Power Broker himself. "You took what was mine," a message to her phone read. "I'm going to find you and kill you," said another.
But what did she take? We saw her team stealing some sort of vaccines from a truck earlier in the episode, but upon further examination realize it could have actually been super soldier serum, as Karli and her allies have increased strength as they faught (and basically defeated) Bucky, Sam, John Walker, and Battlestar, Walker's sidekick.
The Power Broker's men are shown to be somewhat ruthless; when one of Karli's fellow Flag Smashers ("One world. One people.") volunteers to hold the men off as she and others escape, he storms their blockade and is shot to death as Karli's plane escapes.
What is Power Broker's role in the Marvel Comics?
The Power Broker in Marvel Comics is typically someone named Curtiss Jackson (no, not 50 Cent), a criminal who trades securities and assets of all sorts to, yes, give himself more and more power. At one point he begins "Power Broker Inc." and hires a mad scientist named Dr. Karl Malus, who creates the "Power Broker Process," which gives paying customers super-strength, essentially. He used this process, initially at least, to give super strength to wrestlers in order to fix bets.
He also used this process to create a number of heroes in the Marvel canon as well. One of these was Sharon Ventura, a version of Ms. Marvel (the MCU's version, which will debut in late 2021 in a Disney+ series, will instead be the Kamala Khan version, played by Iman Vellani).
But perhaps the most important thing to know about the Power Broker in the Marvel Comics is that he was also responsible for the creation of a few characters who The Falcon and the Winter Soldier viewers will now be familiar with: John Walker/U.S. Agent and Lemar Hoskins/Battlestar.
It's worth remembering too that while Power Broker has a history for creating supervillains and giving people super strength, those creations don't always stay evil. John Walker, for instance, is an antagonist for the most part, but eventually settles in as more of an anti-hero. When Power Broker incapacitates himself at one point trying to gain powers, he kidnaps some of those who underwent the Power Broker process, using them to run tests in order to try to figure out how to reverse what he did to himself. U.S. Agent and Battlestar, however, eventually swoop in and stop him.
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