‘Captain America: Brave New World’: Every Marvel supervillain imprisoned in the Raft

Captain America: Brave New World got into trouble over its title early in its life (originally it was called New World Order — a phrase with troubling antisemitic connotations), but honestly I’m not sure Marvel settled on the most applicable name for it. Really, it should be called Marvel Reddit: The Movie given how obsessed it is with filling in random parts of half-forgotten MCU continuity.

With Thaddeus Ross and Samuel Sterns playing central roles, Brave New World is oft-called a better Incredible Hulk 2 than it is a Captain America 4. And then there’s the Eternals connection and the introduction of Adamantium (previewing the coming of the X-Men). Less discussed is the fact that the film also brings back a location that really should be a bigger deal than it is: supervillain prison the Raft, aka Where Marvel Puts The Characters It Can’t Be Bothered To Use Again.

Introduced way back in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, the underwater hoosegow looked set to become the MCU’s answer to Arkham Asylum, but Marvel promptly forgot it existed for the next eight years. Well, with the odd exception here and there. By the end of Brave New World, there are now a total of five inmates in the massive multi-million dollar facility (money well spent, Ross!).

Baron Zemo

For those that didn’t bother revisiting The Falcon and the Winter Soldier before Brave New World, Baron Zemo ended that Disney Plus show back behind bars. After his jaunt around the world with Sam and Bucky, he was once again apprehended by the Dora Milaje and incarcerated in the Raft — a punishment of poetic justice proportions considering he’s the one responsible for its original inmates, Steve Roger’s rogue Avengers, being put in there in the first place.

Diamondback

The whole Blade drama isn’t the first time Marvel dishonored Mahershala Ali. Way back in 2016, Ali’s Cottonmouth promised to be another top-tier Netflix Marvel villain… Until he was suddenly killed off halfway through and replaced with Willis Stryker/Diamondback, Luke Cage’s wildly OTT evil half-brother. Viewers were relieved when he was sent to the Raft in the season 1 finale. Interestingly, a female Diamondback almost made it into Brave New World until she was cut.

Trish Walker

Spoilers for those who never watched the last season of Jessica Jones: In one of the Defenders Saga’s strangest twists, Jess’ bubbly adoptive sister, Trish Walker, broke bad in its third season after growing jealous of her sibling’s superpowers and undergoing a procedure to get them herself. She went off the deep-end and ended up becoming a killer. Jessica was heartbroken to have to send her sister to the Raft in the show’s last ever episode.

President Ross

Harrison Ford’s President Ross has a surprisingly sympathetic arc in Brave New World. After Sam Wilson manages to stop the Red Hulk’s rampage across the White House’s Rose Garden, the film skips ahead to Ross looking cozy in a Raft cell. We discover that he’s willingly resigned from office and is allowing himself to be imprisoned in order to atone for his sins. A U.S. president accepting their own culpability and criminality? Only in a Marvel movie!

The Leader

Although the reveal of Ross’ fate would’ve been a stronger way to end the film, Brave New World just had to make us wait for a wholly underwhelming post-credits sequence. Clearly a product of the reshoots, complete with eye-watering green screen, the tag scene confirms that Samuel Sterns is locked up in the Raft, too. And now he has… Watcher-like multiversal vision or something? “You think this is the only world?” he warns, in an extremely tardy tease for a multiverse storyline that kicked off *looks at watch* four years ago. Have fun in the raft, Sterns. See you in another 17 years!