Brave New World and why it felt so strange to me. It was meant to be an espionage thriller (spoilers follow) in the vein of The Winter Soldier, and yet there was no real conspiracy (no traitors, just a guy randomly mind-controlling people) and a twist that was given away in the first trailer (Ross turning into Red Hulk in the Rose Garden).

Marvel’s choice to make a Black man the face of American exceptionalism raises questions the film never answers, despite Mackie embodying the duality of Black patriotism.

The following contains spoilers from the Marvel Studios film Captain America: Brave New World, now in theaters. The Winter Soldier’s career has taken quite a turn since the events of TV’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.