The latest MCU entry, Captain America: Brave New World was anticipated as an exciting, cinematic debut of a familiar face taking on a new role. Anthony Mackie returns as Sam Wilson, taking on the Captain America mantle for the first time in a Marvel movie. Unfortunately, what could have been a triumphant return to form for Marvel, and a great way to kick off a new stretch of Avengers stories, is instead a messy, stitched-together dud that forgets to pay enough time to the most important aspect of the narrative: Captain America himself.

Sam Wilson’s Character Development is Stagnant in His Cinematic Debut as Captain America

The Disney+ series that precluded Brave New World, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, had problems of its own, but the highlight of the show was that it finally gave us access to Wilson as more than a supporting character. The series showed aspects of his family life, including personal and financial struggles that had never been an issue in his past appearances. Through Wilson’s character arc, and the inclusion of Isaiah Bradley (a standout thanks to Carl Lumbly‘s performance), The Falcon and The Winter Soldier also explored the societal implications of what it means for a Black man to carry the shield, to lead a team of heroes in a country that has historically abused his community.

Disney’s Marvel may not be incredibly well-equipped to handle the political and social misdeeds of the American empire, but Brave New World begs us to take it seriously as a political thriller, a la The Parallax View, despite never making a coherent political or social statement of any kind. Not only does the film fall short of engaging with any of these themes that lend Falcon and the Winter Soldier its dramatic weight, but it also neglects to care about our new Captain America as a character.

Wilson’s cinematic debut in this role could have been a number of things: a victory lap for Mackie, who has become a larger part of this franchise gradually over the last decade, a continuation of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s thematic approach to his character, or a new vision for the future of the Avengers. Instead, it is a half-baked series of Incredible Hulk leftovers that Cap is thrown in the midst of. He plays a passive role in the film as the conflict is completely driven by the relationship between the two antagonists. Cap could have been replaced with any generic hero figure to fulfill the same function, which leaves Wilson feeling like an incidental inclusion in what is supposed to be his own movie.

The Future of The Avengers Needed to Be Made Clear In ‘Captain America: Brave New World’

During the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original run, leading up to Avengers: Endgame, we had four Avengers movies across seven years. The teams were built organically, with characters often crossing over in small but meaningful ways in each other’s solo films. Marvel is now 12 feature films (and a handful of television series) into what they have dubbed the “Multiverse Saga,” and they still lack a clear vision of what the Avengers are going to look like. There has been no meaningful overlap between characters like Wilson’s Cap, Shuri, Spider-Man, or Captain Marvel. Shang-Chi was introduced to the franchise four years ago, and still has not shared the screen with any other Avenger aside from one post-credits scene which has yet to be followed up.

Brave New World was an easy lay-up for a return to the Phase One roots of establishing characters who we would anticipate working together in future installments, but the film doesn’t give audiences anything to grab onto and be excited about for the next movie, especially with the completely unnecessary post-credits scene that merely restated the vague threats already understood to be posed by the multiverse in films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Captain America: Brave New World was ill-suited as a Cap story, sorely let down Sam Wilson as a character that audiences need to be able to connect with, and failed to clarify any long-pending questions about how these last two phases are going to eventually bring all our disparate heroes under the same roof. Wilson, Mackie, and the audience all deserve more than a movie that exists simply to tie up forgotten loose ends, and pass time until the next one, with nothing particularly brave or new to say.

Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters.