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When Captain America was originated in 1940 he was a symbol of the US commitment to stand against fascism. The cover of the very first issue of his comic book actually featured him punching Hitler in the face and the country hadn’t even joined the war yet. In the intervening decades, despite a number of things that could have challenged the reputation of America; Vietnam, Watergate, the Cuban Missile Crisis, a presidential assassination, racist violence, communist witch hunts, the war in Iraq and institutional sexism and abuse, still the country has maintained a strong association with a sense of justice and hope, and this hero, on the page and most recently on film, has been able to bear the nation’s name with pride. 

That’s kind of all gone to crap now though hasn’t it? 

With genuine respect to my friends there, and all of the other right thinking citizens who are wondering what the hell has happened to their country, I’m not sure any genuinely heroic person would want to be so boldly standing as an emblem of America right now. Any promise of fighting dangerous totalitarianism is certainly empty with Trump in the White House. 

This is the landscape that this new Captain America movie, with its new Captain America, is being released into. The US, due to the actions of its ruling government, does not feel like a brave new world anymore. Although, the 1930s Aldous Huxley book that coined this expression presented a dystopian land where the rulers stole any independent sense of ethics away from the populace and created a twisted social hierarchy in the name of progress, so maybe this is the perfect time for this movie. 

Surprisingly though, while I strongly felt I couldn’t talk about Captain America without  talking about America, all of this does leave your mind while you are sitting down with the film. Current circumstances are not totally erased as you watch it. It does feature a POTUS who has been elected despite concerns around his previous actions and who ultimately turns out to be an uncontrollable monster. There are also regular discussions about whether good people can work with THIS President, which is an interesting note to play right now. Largely though this is a conventional action thriller that avoids any politics and as such is quite refreshing, both in light of world events and the recent slate of Marvel movies.

Captain America: Brave New World is clearly meant to be a reset for the MCU and while some reviewers have criticised it for playing it too safe, this is definitely what was needed. Since Avengers: Endgame this series of films has involved too much mysticism, outlandishness and poorly judged humour, and for now at least they have stepped away from the convoluted concepts of the multiverse they have been heavily pushing as well. One of the interesting aspects of having Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson take over as Cap from Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers was examining how a black man fits into this role but they clearly think they explored this enough in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show because even this has been sidestepped moving forward. What we get is a story of a normal guy in a powered suit and another bloke who turns into a Hulk, which is perfect as this is precisely where we started with the first two Marvel Studios films over a decade and a half ago.

2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which came out a little over a month after the first Iron Man, has long been the forgotten MCU movie. Now though we have something that acts as a fairly direct sequel (and in current Hollywood a seventeen year gap for this seems like nothing). There are characters that have been seen along the way, both from that film and others, but there are also players that we’ve not seen since who return in a key way. Harrison Ford takes over the role of Thaddeus Ross from the late William Hurt, which is not so strange in precisely the world where Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner also became Mark Ruffalo. 

Captain America: Brave New World is not as good as Iron Man, or indeed as good as Captain America: The First Avenger that followed three years after. It easily matches The Incredible Hulk in its quality though and does mark a return to the principle of character over action that marked out those early Marvel Studios movies. Anthony Mackie is great in the lead and everything ticks over with sufficient intrigue. It is a bit of a shame that the marketing totally gave away Ross’ transformation into the Red Hulk as this is written to be a bit of a reveal, but it is one of the main selling points and after flawed films like Thor: Love & Thunder, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels they do need to sell it. 

It seems they have been successful in this as despite some mediocre reviews, the movie has enjoyed a strong opening weekend at the box office. It is hard to look at Marvel films in isolation and I think the baggage, good and bad, has skewed the critical view. Marvel needed to go back to basics a bit and the film has managed this. Taken on its own merits it is good and with two other MCU films following it this year, everything is at it should be with Captain America even if it isn’t with the country that gives him his name. It might have been a better film if it had aimed to analyse what it is to wear the flag in 2025 (to be fair the movie was shot in 2023) but actually, right now it is nice to have something with America written on it that shows the positive values the nation has long been famous for. 

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The Ripley Factor:

I’ve not looked at a movie’s Ripley Factor for some time as I’m glad to say it is becoming increasingly unnecessary. In this case though women are a little marginalised. Shira Haas appears as Ruth Bat-Seraph, a character with a bigger role in the comics, and she plays an important part in proceedings. She is a bit of a token female though and next to the women in the other Captain America films she is a little underwritten. Chris Evans’ first outing gave us Agent Carter, the second heavily featured Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and the third debuted Wakanda’s Dora Milaje in a brief but memorable way. This movie is a bit of a step backwards in this respect.