MARVEL STUDIOS' PROBLEM WITH SAM WILSON - CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD

By SARJ

MARVEL STUDIOS’ NEW FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER

After the last five years of stumbles and travails with Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s not surprising to hear about the horrendously tumultuous production of 2025’s “Captain America: Brave New World”. CA:BNW exemplifies the MCU's struggle to create compelling narratives for its newer heroes, with Sam Wilson suffering most from this rudderless, creative drift.

The movie vaguely positions itself as a political thriller in the vein of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, one of the best entries in the multi-phase series. The protagonist, Sam Wilson—a newly-minted Captain America and bearer of the vibranium shield—is living in troubled times, with suspicions that the newly-elected President Thaddeus Ross(now played by Harrison Ford after the late William Hurt) is the target of some kind of conspiracy involving sleeper agents. Sam must prevent the attempts on President Ross’s life as well as contend with the strong possibility that Ross is not entirely what he seems.

Watching the recent release of the trailer for Captain America: Brave New World, clearly reveals a Frankenstein-esque patchwork of a film under pressure with an ever-evolving narrative that seems to be shifting based on changing sociopolitical trends.

GOING EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE

News for the last few years regarding CA:BNW has revealed a deeply troubled production mired by the malaise of a creatively exhausted upper management as well as public relations woes on numerous fronts.

Recently, Disney has had massive hits with “Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2”, but several notable potential failures loom on the horizon, from the much bally-hooed and maligned Snow White to the aforementioned CA: BNW whose production budget is rumored to be spiraling north of $350-375m, not accounting for a significant, additive marketing budget.

The MCU in particular has taken a beating both critically and financially ever since the ominously titled “Avengers: Endgame” concluded the massive Infinity Gauntlet-inspired saga. So much so that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool openly mocked and derided Marvel Studios’ post-Endgame output in his 2024 “Deadpool and Wolverine” that busted a billion at the box office. It’s impossible to deny that there’s validity to the roasting.

A sequence of films with a tidal wave of momentum behind them based on the quality of their predecessors proceeded to stumble out of the gate. A Black Panther sequel(with the titular character of T’Challa being absent in light of the untimely passing of actor Chadwick Boseman) led to “Wakanda Forever” generating $500m less than its predecessor and failing to get near the vaunted goal of the billion-dollar mark. “Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness” was a confusing, muddled mess that shifted the story away from the Master of the Mystic Arts, relegating him to second fiddle in his own film and elevating what would be a subplot in any other film to priority status with the Scarlet Witch trying to capture and utilize the reality-bending powers of another new character, America Chavez, for her own ends. Misleading cameos by random characters like the Fox X-Men’s Professor X, Captain Carter played by Hayley Atwell and an alternate universe version of Reed Richards played by John Krasinsky further alienated audiences expecting more. It ended up generating $950m which is nothing to scoff at, however, rough estimates indicate that the production budget alone may have been in the $350m range, so it’s difficult to ascertain exactly how the bean counters at Marvel may have scraped out even a measly profit from this.

Conversely, “Spiderman: No Way Home” did hit a home-run to nearly two billion dollars in box office ticket grosses, but this was likely fueled by the nostalgia bait of three generations of Spider-Men meme-ing it up. However, aside from that, a slate of Marvel streaming shows mostly underwhelmed and disappointed and further amplified the desire of fans to keep the cinematic universe’s mind-boggling timeline exclusive to the big screen.

The Disney+ streaming show “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” showed promise, introducing a new Captain America in the form of John Walker, an embattled war hero and inheritor of the Super Soldier Serum, but it also drew ire for strange narrative choices like painting murderous terrorists as misunderstood martyrs and laughable meme-material with Wilson screaming “You’ve gotta do better, Senator!” in an attempt to essentially finger-wag at the phantom audience to adhere to Sam’s demands.

“You’ve gotta do better, audience!”

The show also attempted to vilify John Walker for the apparent irredeemable act of wanting justice for his slain friend and partner and attempting to achieve that justice by killing his friend’s murderer. It was yet another example of using careful editing, ominous music accents, suggestive camera angles and intentful directing to lead the audience to a disingenuous conclusion. Instead, they divided audiences that saw through the politically-charged haze with an ordered logic and common sense.

This is all a lead-in to the release of Captain America: Brave New World, slated for release in early 2025, although this is also now in doubt as yet another round of re-shoots are reportedly in-progress. Initial test screenings were disastrous with rumors of the plot being centered on the real-world political landmine of January 6, 2021 and senselessly seeking to vilify at least half the country as the co-antagonists of the story. Marvel went back to the drawing board and reassessed the story, seemingly unaware of the influence that their insular political bubble was having on their releases.

At the core of this controversy is the man to whom Steve Rogers handed the shield to: Sam Wilson.

SAM WILSON: A MAN WITH NO PURPOSE

Since his introduction in 2014’s Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson has served as a fine support character: he has a particular worldview clearly shaped by his life experience; he has a unique morality, personality, charm, humility and strength. The main and exclusive problem with Sam Wilson is this: he has no story of his own. More specifically, Sam has no exclusive, relatable character motivation.

Every major MCU protagonist has some kind of unique factor that drives them based on their history, their insecurities, their past choices—both good and bad—all weighed against their most current personal values.

What were the original Avengers’ motivations?

Captain America is a man out of time who was born of slight build and meek stature but of strong will and a fervent, fearless patriotism. He grew into adulthood in the 1930s in a world tilting towards global conflagration and felt compelled to fight the incoming socialist/fascist onslaught from the Nazi menace. His selflessness drove him to strive for a peaceful world where he could act as a shield for freedom and liberty. In a word: peace.

Iron Man is a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist who is ridden with guilt over the destructive power of the weapons he helped to create and opted to shift his efforts to instead build machines that would protect the world. His entire persona is built around his own insecurities embodied in a metal suit that literally shrouds his body and protects him in the same way he wants to defend the world. In a word: preservation.

Thor is a demigod on the verge of taking the throne but always struggles with his own inadequacies and shortcomings of potentially not being “worthy” for his status, with his gilded hammer, Mjölnir, acting as his silent moral judge which he perpetually seeks to placate through virtuous actions. In a word: worthiness.

Hulk is a beastly rage monster trapped in the body of a simple man who is constantly trying to command and pacify the anger stewing within him from an early life filled with trauma and emotional abuse. In a word: control.

Black Widow and Hawkeye are both government-trained assassins who’ve likely committed atrocities for which they desperately seek to absolve themselves. In a word: redemption.

They all have a narrative hook that drives them to pursue the best versions of themselves, which is the most relatable human virtue there is. Sam Wilson is missing this and it doesn’t motivate one to want to sit through a story where he’s the protagonist.

Highly doubful that this dynamic is ever replicated by Disney/Marvel.

A REDUNDANT SUPERHERO STORY

Upon watching the most recent CA:BNW trailer, I was actually quite pleased. It was an amazing trailer… up until around the halfway point. As someone who hasn’t religiously watched the MCU movies since Iron Man 3(which I thought was awful), the BNW trailer was entertaining and thought-provoking… until you get to the superhero-y Marvel bits.

A movie about sleeper agents infiltrating the President of the USA’s inner circle and potentially triggering a global conflict is something right out of Tom Clancy’s playbook. I want to see THAT movie. But then we cut to Sam Wilson in a ridiculous armored outfit with CGI-wings that shows him flying towards the Earth at Mach 2 and impacting the ground without being instantly liquefied, just as his CGI wings and helmet dissolve into a mist of pixels which concludes with Sam coolly whispering, “Wait for it.” as the delayed slipstream from his downward flight smacks the ground and lays waste to the nameless goons encircling him. He is surprisingly unaffected, though. And then the trailer concludes with Harrison Ford as the President, of all people, going Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at a press conference and morphing into a crimson-hued Hulk monster? I’m stunned. There’s… so many questions. But I couldn’t care less about the answers.

Bones are overrated, really.

At one point, Harrison Ford’s President Thaddeus Ross shoots verbal daggers at Sam, saying “You’re not Steve Rogers.” And that’s it right there. That’s Sam Wilson. That’s meant to be his motivation. Apparently, after being featured in MCU films for a decade, his only character motivation is supposedly languishing in the shadow of his friend, the original Captain America. But the problem is this: “You’re Not Steve Rogers” is not a character motivation. He never wanted to be Steve. Sam Wilson needs to be his own man with his own drive, his own history, his own tragedies and misgivings and his own need for… something.

How could this be fixed?

Perhaps he’s been quietly suffering from PTSD due to tragically losing a fellow soldier in battle due to some kind of modern military technological horror that continues to haunt him? This is similar to Steve Rogers’ origin with Bucky, but with the modern twist there’s a potential for satisfying irony there. Steve was fighting tanks and guys with flamethrowers; Sam’s threats might be in the wheelhouse of an AI-enhanced drone swarm or something similar. Sam would be scarred by something only a 21st century soldier would face: a fear and apprehension of dystopian technological warfare.

Or perhaps prior to joining the Avengers, he was a soldier assigned to Secret Service detail and that president was attacked or maybe even killed and now he’s guilt-ridden that he’s not up to the task of carrying out his patriotic duty? Well, you’d think that’d be something that would’ve been previously revealed in prior movies in the timeline, but so much for that.

Regardless, Marvel Studios has had a decade to define Sam Wilson as a man struggling with his own fears, desires and motivations and they never really bothered. He’s The Falcon, Steve Rogers’ pal. Well, THAT’S NOT ENOUGH.

WHAT NOW?

The failure of the new slate of MCU heroes post-Endgame echoes Sam Wilson’s issues: few of them are developed by their weaknesses, if any are clearly defined.

• Captain Marvel is held back by a universe that refuses to recognize her innate greatness.

• Ms. Marvel is a fan-girl of Captain Marvel that is conflicted with having superpowers.

• The new female Black Panther now has to deal with the responsibility of the mantle.

• Ironheart stole a design from Stark Industries and now wants recognition.

• She-Hulk is angry that the “dumb men” in her law firm don’t give her her due.

These just don’t have the same humanistic impact as the aforementioned core Avengers and their multi-faceted personality traits.

Where does Marvel Studios go from here? Well, one of their 2025 releases is “Thunderbolts”, about a collection of anti-heroes and villains who are assembled for a mysterious reason. In a strange irony, the trailer for Thunderbolts touches on the narrative hook that each member of the team is struggling with a lack of purpose and meaning in a modern world. I don’t know if the writing team at Marvel Studios planned this or if it’s a $150 million-dollar Freudian slip revealing their own despondence. Either option is amusing to consider.

A Marvel Studios Boardroom Meeting In-Progress

In any event, the haranguing within the fandom, should Marvel continue to fail, and the political and cultural fallout post-2025 for Disney is bound to be entertaining either way. And we’ll all be able to enjoy that for free.

SARJ