The new "Captain America" squanders Bad Guy Harrison Ford

Can't Marvel just let villains be villains?

I wrote a piece for Vulture about Captain America: Brave New World. It examines the comics history of Ruth Bat-Seraph, better known for 45 years of Marvel continuity as the Israeli superhero Sabra. The character’s inclusion has been a source of controversy. As played by Shira Haas, she’s a curious non-entity, always around yet never crucial, like when a Bravo reality show tries cutting around the castmate who turned problematic after filming. I hope you enjoy the essay more than I enjoyed the film!

I was legitimately hopeful about Brave New World for one big reason: Harrison Ford. He takes over a role previously played by William Hurt. Hurt was a wonderful actor, but his General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross was decade-plus snooze of a character. In The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War, and Black Widow, he was the ice-cold government functionary hunting the wrong people for the Cause of National Security. In the comics I grew up on, the man was an absolute maniac. He was obsessed with capturing the Hulk, like hotblooded raving mad about it. An overreaching military asshole, a shitty dad — a great bad guy for anyone who liked their superhero stories punk-ish or anti-authoritarian.

I thought Ford would get a better showcase. Brave New World begins with his Ross celebrating his election as the President of the United States. His campaign motto is “Together.” He wants to unify his country and seek diplomatic solutions abroad. But a brief clip shows Ross (Ford a flashback mustache) flipping out years ago on national TV. It sets his stakes, this tense possibility that his newfound pacifism is a mask to slip off. Then an assassination attempt leaves him at odds with the Sam Wilson, the new Captain America (played by Anthony Mackie). You’re waiting for one hell of a showdown.

And then — it barely happens. Oh, Ross does wind up fighting the hero. That’s not a spoiler; the whole desperate marketing campaign has been built around Harrison Ford Hulk. But the film leading up to that moment keeps Ross far from Sam. There are two other villains (one played by Giancarlo Esposito apparently added in reshoots.) There are many scenes where Ross talks about his estranged daughter. He remembers taking her to see the cherry blossoms when she was young, and those cherry blossoms become such a damned motif that my audience laughed every time a cherry blossom appeared.

Forget the flowers, man, we came here for Evil Jack Ryan!!! Ford’s played a villain barely ever, but the occasional results have been magnetic. He was American Graffiti’s jerky driver and The Conversation’s eerie assistant. The latter’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, clearly saw something untrustworthy in Ford’s face, reusing him in Apocalypse Now as a chilly army bureaucrat. He comes unglued memorably in The Mosquito Coast, a rare flop in his ‘80s golden run. What Lies Beneath was a big hit, though, and you have to watch it twice to fully get the nastiness of Ford’s secretive husband. Someday, over drinks, I’d explain why he’s the bad guy in Blade Runner, and how that classic’s peculiar magic depends on you caring more about the androids he’s hunting.

Now, in the sixth decade of his screen career, he joins the biggest of all megafranchises to play a Rage-Monster Commander-in-Chief? How do you mess that up? It’s possible reshoots and rewrites toned Ross down, with Disney unwilling to suggest any comparisons to certain real-life Presidents. (Donald Trump’s motto was definitely not “Together.”) But Ross’ arc approximates the typical Marvel muddle. He does bad things for Good Reasons. He sincerely wants everyone To Just Get Along. He becomes Red Hulk, but doesn’t want to, another villain forces him to.

Marvel’s Big Bads trend blah: Sorrowful, talky, driven by boring noble urges. You feel the corporation protecting their option, always hoping to turn bad guys into good guys (so they can never be that evil). Black Widow should be a movie about two prodigl sisters rebelling against the fake parents who gaslit their childhoods; instead, those two sisters reconcile with Mom and Dad (soon to be reformed heroes) so they can stop a boring dude with a big computer. Loki was never really mean, Marvel always had their eye on a spin-off. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier set a murderous propaganda fake Captain America, then decided, whoops, he’s really just a troubled good guy. Kurt Russell and Michael B. Jordan had fun with their Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther antagonists, but more recent villains are either boring sads (see: Thor 4, Black Panther 2, The Marvels) or unmemorable tyrants (see: Deadpool & Wolverine and Ant-Man 3).

Ross is somehow a boring sad and an unmemorable tyrant, despondent over his daughter when he isn’t conducting complex extrajudicial military activity. The movie doesn’t recognize the obvious: He’s just a straightforward monster. He creates a new bad guy to keep himself alive — and used that villain’s superpowers to get elected President. Cool! Fun! Bad! The simplest version of this story would be the best: Captain America vs. The President. Instead, poor Anthony Mackie gets stuck — in his own movie! — with the elaborate chore of Old White Dude reputation management, climactically pleading with Ross to show the world he can be his best self. Imagine, by comparison, if Air Force One ended with President Harrison Ford resolving his differences with Evil Russian Gary Oldman using the power of thoughtful communication. In real life, we ought to strive to seek the good in others. In movies, sometimes a Red Hulk is just a Red Hulk.