There is a growing fatigue with superhero movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to rake in billions, but enthusiasm is not as strong as it was a decade ago. This fatigue is evident in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), directed by Julius Onah. That’s not to say it’s bad—but it’s not exactly good either.
While watching Harrison Ford “Hulk out” is worth the ticket price, the film feels like an interregnum, a filler, a mere hyphen between bigger MCU installments. It serves as a transition into a more robust MCU following the hype surrounding Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), directed by Shawn Levy.
To be clear, the special effects are impressive. Anthony Mackie, as the new Captain America, delivers airborne sequences that resemble a fusion of ballet and a drone strike. Danny Ramirez, stepping into the role of Falcon, is sleek and likable. Shira Haas, playing the U.S. president’s chief of staff, stands out—small in stature but delivering the film’s strongest, steadiest performance.
The film’s biggest flaw is that it plays it too safe, a byproduct of being part of a franchise. No risks were taken, no narratives were pushed—it’s just another popcorn flick, which is a shame given its solid cast. Some action sequences feel tepid, but the big fight amid pink cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., is a standout moment.
However, I offer a case for Captain America: Brand New World as a look into the current symbolic and cultural battlegrounds in the United States of America, which are reverberating through the entire geopolitical landscape. It should be mentioned that this is the first MCU movie of 2025, a year promising much-anticipated superhero movie reboots (Superman and Fantastic 4: The First Steps). It is also being released during Black History Month, which the current Trump administration has erased from the government’s official calendar (along with June’s Pride Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander, or AAPI, Month).
This erasure of marginalized groups takes a more poignant turn when the film itself is still centered on the adequacy of a Black Captain America and a Latino Falcon. In the current American MAGAscape, where Black people and Latinos are being targeted and maligned, it is a bit of a tickle that these two superheroes of color are the ones keeping America safe.
The suitability of men of color in superhero suits took a firm grip when they were invited to a White House function. You see a group of men of color in dapper suits enjoying themselves. The new winged suit of Captain America is enhanced by Wakanda. This is a powerful, technologically advanced Black nation dressing up the suit of the one who is supposed to protect America.
Furthermore, America here is not just the U.S. but hemispheric America, as the initial scenes take place in Mexico, technically impinging on the sovereignty of others—a very American exceptionalist manifest destiny reality. The act of dressing up here is an act of power, not just donning a super suit but embodying an ideal. Black men have long been dressing up to signal to the dominant culture that they have stature, that they are men.
There’s one scene where Anthony Mackie is angry at being called “son.” The diminishing of Black men as juvenile (i.e., “boy” or “son”) has been a weapon of choice, particularly in the American South. Being dapper—or dressing up as a dandy, which pushes past decent and boring into the realm of bombast, demanding to be seen—is the basic thread of this movie.
Also, a cool fact: this year’s MET Gala theme is Black dandyism, highlighting how Black fashion operates as a declaration of urbanity and cosmopolitanism rather than being reduced to field laborers. The super suit in this movie gains even more significance when you realize that the villains are white men with grievances, dressed shabbily. The warmongering military man turned president who becomes a Red Hulk is so prescient in the current political ideologies of the U.S., where anger and hate motivate voters to choose a president who promises to make them great again.
Funny—if you mean “again,” that means you are not open to a brave new world but instead rely on nostalgia and ignorance. After all, what is a brave new world but a place where belligerent people dared not to be cowed and submit? Yes, belligerence can be a superpower. The heroes in this film know that all too well.
You may reach Chong Ardivilla at kartunistatonto@gmail.com or chonggo.bsky.social