Captain America: Brave New World
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier wasn’t my favorite MCU show, but at least it was willing to reckon with what it meant for a Black man to wield the Captain America shield and represent a country that has done nothing but bring Black people down. Captain America: Brave New World finally gives Sam Wilson the suit, but it’s so preoccupied with maintaining the status quo that it doesn’t so much as touch anything controversial. Rather than advocate for people suffering under a broken system, it fence-sits and suggests we just need to see the good in people. The people who are wielding their power to strangle the life out of the marginalized? No thanks. A more radical version of this story, or even one that was consistent with the one The Falcon and Winter Soldier started, would burn it all down. — Kenneth Shepard
