by Captain America: Brave New World Ruined 1 of Marvel’s Most Underrated Villains
With Marvel Studios’ latest live-action outing, Captain America: Brave New World, being a bit underwhelming critically and commercially, many fans have found themselves let down by the adaptations of certain iconic characters in the film. After three excellent entries in the Captain America film franchise were released to great acclaim over the years, the first to feature Sam Wilson taking on the shield should have been another easy win for Marvel.
Unfortunately, combining aspects of Captain America’s comic book storylines and history with those of Bruce Banner, aka the Incredible Hulk, muddled the film’s narrative and confused fans. Brave New World practically operates as a sequel to The Incredible Hulk from 2008 as much as the previous Captain America films. It’s an odd choice, and it also meant that Hulk villains like Red Hulk and the Leader had to have their backgrounds, motivations, and storylines changed drastically to fit this new adaptation, a fact that, particularly with the Leader, left fans disappointed.
The Leader Is One of the Most Intelligent Minds on Earth
Hulk’s Archnemesis Counters His Brawns With Brains
Samuel Sterns, aka the Leader, was originally an everyday man with ordinary intelligence. He was not hyper-intelligent, he wasn’t plotting or scheming, and he had no interest in the Hulk or any other Gamma-related characters. Working as a laborer at a research facility, Sterns was accidentally belted by Gamma radiation, the same kind of radiation that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk. Instead of receiving super-strength like the Hulk, however, Sterns’ intelligence increased exponentially. He found himself flying through every book he could get his hand on, and his hunger for knowledge continued to grow.
After amassing enough intelligence and knowledge of the world, Sterns gave himself the name the Leader and began trying to form a spy network around the world, which he would use to manipulate global events to his ends. During his escapades, however, the Leader stumbles upon the Hulk, a creature he becomes utterly fixated with. Their connection through Gamma is enough to send the Leader spiraling down into obsession with the Jade Giant and thus bbeginstheir epic rivalry, a battle between brain and brawn centered around Sterns’ unquenchable thirst for knowledge and power.
The Leader’s abilities are rooted mostly in the power of his mind. He has perfect memory recall ever since his original accident, he can predict probabilities and outcomes nearly exactly, and he can learn and master any scientific technique in a fraction of the time it takes ordinary humans. Additionally, the Leader can control the minds of ordinary people, as well as produce low-level telekinetic blasts.
These abilities, as well as his incredible intellect, make him an engaging and interesting opponent for the Hulk, a character rarely associated with mental prowess. The wonderful connection between the Hulk and the Leader—Gamma radiation—makes their rivalry all the more interesting. In the same way that the Hulk’s strength is practically limitless, the Leader’s intelligence is ever-increasing.
The MCU’s Version of The Leader Missed the Mark
The Live-Action Leader Wasn’t As Threatening As His Comic Counterpart
Temporarily ignoring the fact that Captain America: Brave New World stole two different Hulk villains instead of focusing on a Captain America villain, the film also failed to even accurately or adequately capture the impact of a character like the Leader. Fans would probably have been able to accept the fact that a Captain America story used a Hulk character if the character was done justice, but the Leader was not, and that upset fans of the classic villain. Everything from his demeanor, character design, and abilities was off-base, and his looming presence over the events of the film felt jumbled, confusing, and non-threatening.
Tim Blake Nelson’s portrayal of Samuel Sterns goes back to his appearance in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, and while fans were happy to hear that he would finally be returning to reprise the role of Bruce Banner’s greatest enemy, it seemed like an awfully strange choice to plop the character into a Captain America story. The fears held by some fans about the character’s reappearance were unfortunately confirmed by Captain America: Brave New World. The Leader featured in the film was nothing like his comic counterpart, and he was completely and utterly wasted in the narrative. A film like Brave New World could have so easily utilized villains like Hydra or other Captain America-centric foes, but it made the fateful mistake of trying to combine two iconic characters’ mythos into one jumbled mess of a film.
Where the Leader of the comics is cunning, hyper-intelligent, and incredibly intimidating, Brave New World‘s version is confusing, embarrassing, and utterly devoid of any kind of intimidation factor. He simply stands around spouting probabilities or talking on cell phones to President Thaddeus Ross, another character who unfortunately got dragged into the over-wrought plot of Captain America: Brave New World.
In the comic books, the Leader is always one, two, or five steps ahead of the Hulk and his allies. His plots are constantly evolving and changing, forcing the heroes into all kinds of environments that they aren’t used to, and his connection to Gamma is often used as an integral part of his character. In live-action, the Leader feels as though he is perhaps smarter than a handful of characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the ease with which his plans are thwarted by Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson is an indicator of his apparent lack of hyper-intelligence.
The Leader Could Still Be Redeemed In Live-Action
There is Still Hope For The Hulk Villain’s Future In the MCU
There are so many avenues that could be taken with the Hulk and his supporting roster of characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it seems that the character is being forced to remain simply a supporting character in larger films like Avengers: Endgame. The Hulk, and by extension, the Leader and the Red Hulk, have so much to offer the future of the MCU. An actual sequel to The Incredible Hulk would satisfy fans, allow time and space for Mark Ruffalo’s adaptation of Bruce Banner to grow and change and evolve, and redeem the lackluster adaptations of characters like the Leader.
Samuel Sterns is one of the most important characters in Bruce Banner’s life, but fans have yet to see their alter-egos, the Leader and the Hulk, actually interact in live-action. That is the ultimate sin of the Leader’s appearance in Captain America: Brave New World, that it takes away the important connection between Hulk and his greatest enemy.
If the Marvel Cinematic Universe were to finally allow for the Hulk and his incredible stories to be told on the scale that they deserve, the Leader could certainly return alongside his giant jade enemy. Adapting a story like the utterly perfect The Immortal Hulk by writer Al Ewing and artist Joe Bennett would be the perfect way to build hype and excitement for the Hulk in live-action, and it would also set itself apart from the rest of the MCU.
The Hulk is one of the most underutilized characters in the entire MCU, and he deserves so much more. In the same way that the Leader featured in Captain America: Brave New World is vastly different from his comic counterpart, Bruce Banner’s MCU iteration is a far cry from the damaged, broken man that fans became so enraptured within the pages of his many iconic stories.
Giving Samuel Sterns his increased power levels, a real sense of foreboding and intensity, and pitting him against Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk would go a long way in fixing the damage done to the character in Captain America: Brave New World, and it would also help to fix the major villain problem that the MCU has suffered from for years. The Leader is one of the best villains in Marvel Comics history, and the lackluster response from new fans and casual viewers to his adaptation on the big screen is incredibly disappointing for fans of the character’s form in his home medium.
The differences between the film version of the character and the comic version are so much more than a different power set, a different motivation, or a different design; the major difference is the apparent lack of respect for the character in general. Sam Wilson’s Captain America deserved a film that wasn’t trying to combine fifty plotlines and wrap up previously established events from the MCU, and the Leader didn’t deserve a half-baked introduction in a film not even centered around his archenemy. The MCU has handled their characters far better in the past, and they need to return to that.
Marvel
