Brave New World Broke A Longstanding MCU Tradition With The Leader

While Captain America: Brave New World wasn’t able to achieve the level of critical renown that Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe needed to kick off the year, the film’s villain did manage to subvert one negative MCU tradition, albeit not in the best way.

Captain America: Brave New World went all in on the idea of being a superhero film with a political thriller at its core, blending a plotline featuring international conflict and a compromised government with a character list featuring more than one Gamma-enhanced being. While it was leaked pretty early on that Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross would be going up against Sam Wilson’s new Captain America, it was also confirmed early on that Tim Blake Nelson would return as The Leader in the then-named Captain America: New World Order. More additions and subtractions would be made to the cast, and the film would take on a less egregious name before finally hitting theaters this month.

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While Captain America: Brave New World didn’t quite hit the mark with critics on release, the film has seen some success that indicates it might be a reversal on the 2023 trend of box office bombs from the MCU, at least commercially. One thing that the film has managed to inarguably overcome is the MCU’s trend of spoilers via merchandising. While Captain America: Brave New World saw its fair share of leaks and unauthorized first looks in the leadup to the film’s release, one part of the merchandising push from Marvel managed to fool fans. Despite multiple merch items displaying the character prominently, Marvel Studios was able to make it to the premiere of Captain America: Brave New World without any fans finding out what Nelson’s Samuel Stern looked like in his irradiated form as the Leader. This is the first time that a piece of merchandise has managed to hoodwink MCU fans in this way, as the items are usually pretty close to the on-screen portrayals. This new record, which many fans were quick to notice, would probably be more prestigious if the version of the Leader fans see in the film itself wasn’t absolutely terrible.

While fans would first see the Leader’s proposed MCU visage via an official Funko Pop (an avenue that’s given fans a lot of spoilers in the past), the Leader was also clearly portrayed in photorealistic Captain America: Brace New World promo art about a month prior to the film’s release. While the Funko Pop was hyper-stylized in the usual fashion, fans still got to see what was clearly a full crop of hair and an intact cranium, and the promotional art showed the same thing alongside the character’s trademark head proportions. However, the final version in the film looks nothing like either of these, with the character having a seemingly regular-sized head with a partly-exposed brain, a barely note-worthy tinge of green color to his skin with some purple swelling on the face, and a mismatched, gamma-green right eye.

For a film that many are calling a glorified sequel to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Brave New World made a really perplexing call with one of that film’s most important returning characters. Many fans will agree that the version in Captain America: Brave New World is less appealing and less comic-accurate than the one shown in the merch and promo images. This failure on screen makes the decision to go with that interpretation all the more perplexing for everyone. The one thing that could be said for Brave New World’s version of the leader would be that it’s an attempt at a more grounded look for the character, but even that doesn’t really work. While the swerve from switching between the look shown on merch to the final version is certainly an MCU first that will make fans less trusting of unofficial first looks, everyone would’ve preferred to get the first version in the film. It’s also likely that this wasn’t a purposeful swerve, but rather a product of an overly eager merchandising apparatus and the film’s BTS reworkings leading to a discrepancy.

While it is on track to earn a healthy box office by the end of its theatrical run, the negative critical reception from professional reviewers and more opinionated fans isn’t a great portent of good things to come for the new Captain America. Captain America: Brave New World’s negative reviews could spark a drastic decision from Marvel Studios, a fact made even more worrying by the stakes in the upcoming Avengers films. Fans will have to wait and see how the pendulum swings for Cap in upcoming projects and whether or not the mixed reception for his first solo act really does manage to be his undoing.

Captain America: Brave New World is currently available in theaters.

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Source: Marvel