Anthony Bergamini
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has now produced thirty-five films, with its latest release Captain America: Brave New World furthering the almost twenty-year long storyline that began with Iron Man (2008). For a majority of its lifespan, the MCU has been considered a universal success; however, after the release of Avengers: Endgame, general audience and critical response started to fluctuate. Some of the films since then have taken significant leaps in the kinds of stories told, with The Eternals being drastically different from anything in the MCU before, despite it only receiving mediocre responses from audiences and critics. Likewise, other films like Thor: Love and Thunder and Antman & The Wasp: Quantumania attempted to lean into different aspects of the genre with already established characters, leading to definitive fan backlash and poor reviews. On the flip side, other films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 were well received almost universally across the board, following up on their predecessors through mature storytelling. Without a doubt, the MCU has seen a lot of pitfalls and successes over the last five-seven years, but how does Captain America: Brave New World showcase a response to all of that?
In a lot of ways, discussing how Captain America: Brave New World responds to the MCU’s recent failures and success cannot be done without first talking about Deadpool & Wolverine. Both of these films take drastically different approaches in their storytelling and view of the MCU. Captain America: Brave New World looks to build upon the already established lore, with the events of the film acting as direct sequels to The Incredible Hulk and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, while also cashing in on the world building from The Eternals. Deadpool & Wolverine uses elements established in the MCU; however, it more so heavily focuses on the characters that have been exempt from the MCU due to behind-the-scenes dealings and contracts with other studios. One of these films looks to celebrate and continue the threads from the MCU’s past, whereas the other attempts to see what the MCU could look like when expanded. Because of this, the MCU feels like it is in a trial-and-error phase, seeing how audiences respond to different approaches, although doing with films that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a fan of the comics who has been watching these films since the get-go, a lot can be said about the successes and errors of these new approaches. Because Captain America: Brave New World is the newest entry, focusing on that approach here seems the most appropriate, although it is impossible to do that without comparing it to Deadpool & Wolverine. They are just so different; however, they fall into the same trappings.
One of the most bizarre parts of Captain America: Brave New World is how it utilizes these characters who have been sidelined for most of the MCU’s history. It is clear that the studio is looking to utilize its already established characters to define its future instead of recasting the same roles over and over again. This is where Sam Wilson’s Captain America should come into play. A film centered around him should feel like a genre defining new take on the character, differentiating him from his predecessor. Despite this obvious approach, the MCU plays it safe by never truly getting into the meat and bones of what it means for a Sam to take on the role. As much as this film tries to present itself as a legacy to the Captain America trilogy that came before, mirroring much of its plot around Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it never allows itself to give Sam the spotlight outside of him being the ride along character for the story.
As to how this pertains to the future of the MCU, it is a little scary. By relegating Sam to this world as the new Captain America, but not diving into what that truly means for the character, he never really feels like someone who could lead major plot threads. Additionally, by placing him in a narrative that is so similar to the Steve Rogers era of Captain America, it almost feels like the MCU is more interested in making him feel like his predecessor than defining him as his own character. This is a dangerous direction for the future of the MCU because it takes the idea of a legacy character and says that they can only be interesting when placed in scenarios like their predecessors. This is also sad to see after The Falcon and The Winter Soldier did so much to establish that narrative of a Captain America for a new generation. Oddly enough, the film does mention that a lot; however, it also keeps it at arm’s length.
Weirdly enough, Deadpool & Wolverine does a very similar thing with the Wolverine character. The film goes to great lengths to explain why Wolverine is so important, only to provide audiences with a different version of the character who has his own issues. Much like Captain America: Brave New World, Deadpool & Wolverine plays it incredibly safe by never delving into what makes this version of Wolverine different or new, outside of plot relevance. As for the future of the MCU, both of these films are indicative of the studio’s insistence on playing it way too safe with these characters, indicating that there is not much bravery in this brave new world of the MCU.
When it comes to the world building from Captain America: Brave New World, the studio makes great strides in tying up loose ends from film’s past. For The Eternals, the payoff is simply how the world responds to the Celestial Island. Once again, the studio plays it incredibly safe by doing nothing substantial outside of what is shown in the trailers, utilizing the island as a plot point only. The big reveal is that the island produces Adamantium, which President Ross hopes to use a as a baseline for a treaty to align world powers together. Comic book fans will know the other reaches that come from the establishment of Adamantium; however, the film never does anything with it. There is so much opportunity for greater world building that never really takes off because the studio chooses to use it as an easter egg rather than a firm plot point.
The big loose end of the MCU that Captain America: Brave New World picks up is all of the events from The Incredible Hulk. This is where the most worrisome aspect of the film and the future of the MCU comes to light. Instead of featuring Sam Wilson’s Captain America in a character defining film that showcases the uniqueness of this new iteration of the hero, it chooses to shove him into an Incredible Hulk sequel that maybe should have been made over a decade ago. It is hard to determine if this was the studio’s plan for making the best movie they could, or if it is a result of the studio’s insistence on cameos and shock value becoming a full-fledged film. Either way, this film could have been a great Incredible Hulk sequel but instead chooses to place Captain America as the main character. Placing the wrong characters in the wrong movies is a very dangerous direction to take the MCU, as it implies that the studio finds importance in these stories but doesn’t trust them to exist in the mediums they should. In many ways, this is the same problem that came up with Antman & The Wasp: Quantumania which was a Fantastic Four/Avengers story that was somehow placed only in Antman’s world. This is indicative of the studio not really understanding where they went wrong, despite fan outcry and general consensus pointing them in that direction.
If it was not apparent, all of these issues described paint a picture of a studio that is afraid to change. Maybe this is because The Eternals, the studio’s biggest shot in the dark since Guardians of the Galaxy was not overly successful. The studio puts on this façade that they are willing to be brave and go in whole new directions, but then fall into trappings of rinsing and repeating, and refusal to bring anything new to the conversation. Overall, the future of the MCU, if Captain America: Brave New World and Deadpool & Wolverine are any indication is failed to repeat the failures of the MCU post Avengers: Endgame. There is some hope with Fantastic Four: First Steps, which appears to be a whole new approach all together when compared to the others. Hopefully the studio learns that a reliance on cameos and placing characters in the wrong settings is not a good way to move forward with establishing these new characters and making them as timeless as the original MCU pictures.
