Most of the time, Marvel Studios leaks only serve to make folks more excited for upcoming MCU movies. We’ve seen it just recently with Captain America: Brave New World. As the movie was supposed to be coming out this spring, McDonalds has been unfolding its Happy Meal promotion early, meaning we’ve got an early taste of various new and returning characters.
Then again, sometimes a Marvel leak has the opposite effect, and unfortunately Captain America 4 has suffered from this too. For the longest time, concept art and set pics have made it clear that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson would get a new suit in his inaugural cinematic outing as the second Sentinel of Liberty… Even though he only just got his first suit in the series finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
This fact is now 100% official thanks to Marvel unveiling Sam’s new look in a fresh promo image. As you can see, Sam’s revamped uniform junks the shining white and light blue palette of his Falcon suit in favor of dark blues and grays.
So now we’ve got our first proper look at Sam Suit Mk 2, the vast majority of the fandom is voicing the same response: thanks, but no thanks. If you ask most folks, Marvel could have saved themselves a lot of money in the costuming department by simply reusing the fresh-off-the-rack costume used in Falcon, which was a flawless recreation of Sam’s Captain America design in the comics.
Yes, sadly Sam’s original suit died on its way back to its home planet.
Let the hate flow through you.
Does this Cap 4 change bode bad things for Spider-Man 4? Some think that Tom Holland’s brilliant new suit debuted at the end of No Way Home is destined to suffer the same fate.
The revamped suit isn’t winning the popularity contest.
X user capital spidey expertly summed up why this is such a bad look, from both a literal and figurative sense. “remember [sic] when miles got his iconic black and red suit at the end of his show and then they put him in peter’s suit for the movie after?” they wrote, ironically.
The above post draws a neat parallel between Miles Morales and Sam Wilson, both characters of color who took on the mantles of Caucasian heroes in Marvel movies. The big difference is that when Miles gets his own suit in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse he continued wearing that in sequel Across the Spider-Verse. Meanwhile, Sam got to don his own distinct suit for five minutes before being given one that’s clearly modeled after Steve Rogers’ togs.
Of course, there are many positive reactions to this costume out there as well, with some praising it for reminding them of Steve’s Winter Soldier suit — which is no doubt the point, as Marvel has been obsessively trying to recreate that Phase Two favorite for a full decade now. What with all the Hulk crossovers and Avengers plate-spinning Cap 4 has to do, we’re definitely starting to worry if Brave New World is going to successfully honor Sam’s character. Less of the emphasis on “New” and more on the “Brave,” please, Marvel.