Yes, We’re Talking About this Film Again

I know, I know. I talked about Captain America: Brave New World for most of last week and that was supposed to be that. I did four days of coverage, picking at that film, the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe., and Marvel in all the ways I could and that was supposed to be the end of it. We had our fun, we razzed Disney over a mediocre movie, and then we were all supposed to move on. Except, do we ever move on in Internet land? Commentators are still talking about the movie, many of them railing about the fact that Marvel failed to give The HulkOnce the brilliant Dr. Bruce Banner had dreams of making the world a better place by building super soldiers to act as a shield for all mankind. Then an accident at his lab bathed him in gamma radiation. Now he has a living nightmare, as a big green guy lives within, just waiting for the rage to take over so he can be free. the movie he deserves.

And that’s a fair point. The Hulk hasn’t had his own movie since The Incredible Hulk, the second work in the now 50-plus-strong franchise. He deserves to have a film custom made for him to take on his villains, one where he can face off against The Leader and the Red Hulk. Maybe one where he redeems himself on a national, nay international stage. You know… like Captain America: Brave New World. Just without Captain AmericaCreated by Simon and Kirby in 1941, Captain America was a super soldier created to fight Germany and the evil HYDRA. Then he was lost in the ice, only to be found and reborn decades later as the great symbol of the USA. standing in for the Hulk.

No, seriously, why the hell was Captain America in a The Incredible Hulk sequel? This is a question that is going to haunt my articles about the MCU for many, many months to come.

But no, here’s the thing that stuck out to me about the commentary online about Marvel and their latest MCU product: most of them aren’t really talking about what the film needed to be. It’s tragic that the film wasn’t really about Captain America, that it didn’t build up Sam Wilson’s character more, that it didn’t, in some way, be about his emotional growth and where he’s going in the future. A couple of lines, and one scene with Bucky notwithstanding, Captain America: Brave New World wasn’t really about the new Captain America at all, and I don’t think that’s because Disney just didn’t know what to do so they slapped two different film ideas together. I mean, yes, that’s literally what we saw on screen but that’s not really what the issue is. I think the bigger problem is that Disney is so risk averse at this point that they don’t even want to address the fact that they have a Black Captain America.

Look, I’m a dumb white guy so I’m not going to try and engage with the material in the same way that a Black person would. Their experiences and their lives are different from mine and I’m not even going to try and say I can somehow put myself in their shoes. But even as a dumb white guy I can see that the latest film for Captain America fails to utilize Captain America in the ways that, I’m sure, a Black person would like to see. Beyond him being Black and on screen (which is great and I’m not saying anything against representation) what did the film really do with Sam Wilson?

It’s about inspiration, something, for some reason, Sam’s white friend Bucky had to remind him of. By the way, Marvel, that’s also a bad look. As a writer, I’m gonna point out that Sam should already know what he represents and who he’s representing it to. He doesn’t need Bucky to white-splain it to him.

But yes, Inspiration. If this were any other hero we’d have them out among the people doing publicity (like Spidey did in Spider-man: Far From Home) or going out to aid in communities that need him (like we’re seeing SupermanThe first big superhero from DC Comics, Superman has survived any number of pretenders to the throne, besting not only other comic titans but even Wolrd War II to remain one of only three comics to continue publishing since the 1940s. do in James Gunn’s new movie). A speech, or a presentation, or going to a community center, or something. Some action that shows he’s connecting with people beyond being a pair of wings up in the sky, flying around. Superheroes need to connect and engage with people, especially when they have the burden or being the first Black person to hold the role.

I’m not saying Sam has to go into some slum and go face to face with gangsters or whatever. But it’s telling that even Black Panther had its characters, who live in Wakanda mind you, engage more with the Black community in the U.S. than Captain America does in his own movie. Yes, Sam isn’t the first Black hero to lead his own movie in the MCU, thanks to Black Panther, but even that film only did a passing bit of engagement with applicable content and, one would think, Captain America: Brave New World would do at least a little more. It talks about how Sam is an inspiration and a role model, it has him chat with Isaiah Bradley about what it was like back in the day to be Black and a super-soldier, but that’s not the same as having Sam actually engage with the material himself.

And it honestly feels like Disney is ashamed that they have a Black Captain America at all. Bear in mind that Sam has been struggling through two pieces of fiction about whether he can even measure up to Steve Rogers. Steve volunteered to become Captain America, took on the responsibility without even knowing what it truly meant at the time, and then embraced it as hard as he could. I get that Sam has at least a little bit of hero worship for Steve and feels like those are big shoes to fill, but Disney has gone out of their way to make his self-doubt the only defining character trait he has. He couldn’t just become Captain America the way Steve did, he had to shove it aside, ignore it, deny it, and then embrace the role only when there was absolutely no other choice. And even now, in his film where he has the name, he’s not sure he made the right decision.

Self-doubt is fine if it’s motivated by something more. If Sam went out to various communities and the weight of having to inspire kids, to be a symbol for them, made him start to question his actions and what Captain America stood for, that would be interesting, a good twist on his motivation for taking up the shield. But it’s always felt like his doubt comes from Disney’s doubt about what to do with him. Do they really have to have a Black Captain America? Couldn’t they just bring back Steve again somehow?

Chris Evans retiring from the role doesn’t help them, of course. If he had been willing to stay on then Falcon never would have gotten promoted and Sam Wilson wouldn’t be Captain America. Hell, when rumors were swirling that Evans was going to come back to Marvel, it felt like the studio was ramping up for some way to have two Captain Americas on the scene again. Of course, those rumors proved false as Evans doesn’t want to come back to the MCU (unlike Robert Downey, Jr.), no matter how much money they pony up to him. Whatever trial balloon Disney’s floated was shot down, and so they’re essentially stuck with Sam in the role.

Of course, in the comics Sam has taken on the mantle and they relinquished it before. He was Captain America for a time in the 2010s, but once Steve Rogers was restored to full health (after one of the many times where he’s aged and hasn’t been able to be Captain America anymore), Sam went back to being Falcon, passing the shield, and the title, back to Steve. Even in comics, Sam being the permanent Captain America felt like a bridge too far, apparently, and I have no doubt that if Disney could have gotten Chris Evans back to play Steve Rogers again, they would have happily swapped the role back in a heartbeat.

And the thought that a Black Captain America might be too much is in the (probably unintentional) subtext of the franchise. Sam didn’t get to just be Captain America once he got the shield. He had to earn it, again, in a six-part television series that first saw the title being passed off to a different white guy. John Walker got to be Captain America II, picking up the shield after the U.S. Government gave it to him, and the only reason he lost the role was because he killed someone maybe a little too effectively. He had a crisis of faith and put the shield down, letting Sam pick it up when the time was needed. But bear in mind that the series isn’t treating Walker as a villain, just someone that was misguided. He gets to be one of the anti-heroes-turned-heroes in Thunderbolts*, and the franchise seems to be working hard to revitalize his character. If Captain America: Brave New World turns out to be a bomb (by Hollywood math) and Thunderbolts* is a hit, might we see Disney forcing the John Walker character back into the role. A white guy for every season?

I’m not saying that’s going to happen, mind you, but it’s pretty telling that the film series is letting Walker off the hook and be a hero pretty quickly while Sam, who spent multiple adventures as Falcon in the franchise, and then spent a television series earning the shield for a second time, still hasn’t gotten a movie dedicated to his character specifically. He has a film with his name on it, Captain America: Brave New World, but not one that really engages with him as a person. And even if they didn’t want him going to “the streets” to, say, open a community center or something, we could have gotten time with him acting as group therapist for wounded soldiers, a job he’s held in the past. Counselor, soldier, hero. Those things needed to be more prominent in Sam’s own movie.

And that says nothing about the fact that the story and villains of the piece weren’t geared towards Sam. I’m not sure who his villains should have been, but /I know they needed to be connected to him as a character. The Leader is just a name, as far as Sam cares, with a face he can punch, and the same goes for Red Hulk. Someone from Sam’s past would have been a better choice, perhaps someone he served with who has turned traitor. Or it could have been men that he counseled who went rogue and have started their own vigilante “hero” firm. A squad of men to pick up where the Avengers left off. And their methods are too extreme, so Sam has to step in. That forces him to confront men he knows and engage with them on multiple fronts. That’s a story that makes sense for Sam. That’s what this film was missing.

So yeah, Disney seems to be averse at engaging with Sam as a character in ways they never were with Steve Rogers. The key difference between the two, of course, is that one is the iconic white guy and the other is a Black man. It’s a message they’re sending, whether they want to or not, and in this political age we live in now, it’s especially the wrong message to send. Disney needs to do better with this character and find a way to engage with him because they’re never getting Steve Rogers back. And if they replace Sam with John Walker then it shows they really don’t know how to read the room at all.