Captain America: Brave New World - Our Biggest WTF Questions

Marvel Studios has kicked off its 2025 slate of movies with the release of Captain America: Brave New World. And if this sequel is any indication, we’re looking at a bumpy year for the MCU. It’s not the strong outing we were hoping for from the first movie to star Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Captain America (see IGN's Captain America: Brave New World review for more).

At times, Brave New World left us scratching our heads and struggling with some of the film’s unresolved questions and underdeveloped characters. What’s the deal with new characters like Ruth Bat-Seraph and Sidewinder? Why does The Leader seem like something less than a brilliant mastermind? Where’s the Hulk? Heck, where are the Avengers? Let’s break down our biggest WTF questions after seeing Captain America: Brave New World.

Where Was Banner This Whole Time?

It only took 17 years, but Marvel finally gave us a sequel to The Incredible Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World. This movie picked up a lot of the loose ends from Hulk’s first (and so far only) solo MCU adventure. We finally learned what became of Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns after his gamma exposure. Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross is finally paying the piper for all his crimes. It’s even the first time since The Incredible Hulk that Liv Tyler has reprised the role of Betty Ross.

In all of that, there’s only one fundamental ingredient that’s missing. Where is the Hulk himself? Why did Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner have no part to play in a story that builds so directly on the foundation of The Incredible Hulk?

Surely Bruce Banner of all people would have a response to the revelation that his old Ahab-like nemesis has suddenly become President of the United States. Surely Banner would be keen to know that his old friend “Mr. Blue” is now a gamma-irradiated super-genius plotting the downfall of multiple governments. And surely Banner would want to lend a hand when the news starts broadcasting footage of a crimson Hulk smashing up the White House.

It’s not as if Brave New World would have had to work hard to justify Banner’s inclusion. 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings established that Banner, alongside Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, is keeping a watchful eye on the world now that the Avengers have disbanded. We know from the She-Hulk series that he’s still keeping plenty busy with his research and raising his son, Skaar. So why was Banner totally MIA during this latest Hulk-related crisis?

No doubt Marvel will have an explanation for Banner’s absence, revealing that he was off-world with Skaar or something along those lines. But that doesn’t change the fact that there’s a Banner-shaped hole in Brave New World’s plot. Brave New World is a movie about Sam Wilson accepting the idea that the world needs Avengers again, yet it can’t muster up more than a quick cameo from Sebastian Stan’s Bucky (we’ll get to him in a bit). Surely there would have been room to include Banner in some capacity.

Why Does The Leader Think So Small?

Again, Brave New World marks the return of Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, a character who has radically transformed since last we saw him in The Incredible Hulk. These days, Sterns is sporting a giant green noggin and a major grudge against President Ross. Thanks to the power of gamma, Sterns has become as superhumanly intelligent as the Hulk is strong.

That’s the idea, anyway. In practice, we’re not convinced Brave New World does such a great job of showcasing Sterns’ tactical brilliance. He’s a man who can calculate probabilities and plan for anything, yet he routinely seems to leave Captain America out of his equations. We’re meant to believe that Sterns orchestrated a war between the US and Japan, yet didn’t factor in the possibility that Cap might successfully intervene?

We’re also confused as to why Sterns willingly turns himself in during the climax of the film. Why did he have to give up his freedom in order to carry out his final masterstroke against Ross, when said masterstroke was nothing more than playing a recording of their phone call to the press? Why didn’t he stay on the lam and leave himself open to hatching new schemes in the future?

Story-wise, Brave New World is a strangely unambitious film in many ways, and nowhere is that more true than with Sterns. In the comics, Sterns is known as The Leader. He’s a brilliant supervillain mastermind who can and has threatened the world many times. Here, he’s just a guy who really, really hates Harrison Ford. Sterns seemingly has no motivation beyond wanting to humiliate Ross. That’s such a small motivation for such a major Marvel villain. Especially one who can see the coming doomsday for Earth. If Sterns has calculated the collapse of the multiverse, you’d think he’d be more concerned with that and less worried about ruining Ross’ reputation.

Why Is Red Hulk So Much Like Green Hulk?

Brave New World culminates in an epic battle between Cap and a transformed President Ross, as Ross Hulks out in front of the entire world and becomes the very thing he always hated most. This plot twist, like so much else in the MCU, has its roots in Marvel’s comic book source material. The problem is that the MCU’s Red Hulk is a far cry from the one fans know from the comics.

In the comics, Red Hulk offers a very different alternative to the traditional Hulk archetype. Ross retains all of his intelligence as Red Hulk, making him a smarter, more ruthless, and more tactically experienced monster. But in the movie, none of that holds true. Ross is every bit as mindless and uncontrollable as Banner was in his early years as Hulk. He’s even subdued the same way Hulk often was, pacified by thoughts of Betty.

We can certainly appreciate the irony in how Ross has become so much like the thing he always hated, but it’s still disappointing that Brave New World doesn’t give us a more comic book-accurate take on Red Hulk. We’ve seen Hulk as a chaotic rage monster, and Hulk as a mentally unified scientist superhero. This was a chance to do a completely different take on Hulk - a battle-tested soldier with the power of limitless strength. Assuming we ever see Red Hulk in the MCU again (and based on how this movie ends, it could go either way), we can only hope the character veers in a different direction.

Why Is Bucky a Politician Now?

As mentioned earlier, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes is one of the few characters from the wider MCU to drop in for a cameo appearance. During Sam and Bucky’s brief reunion, we learn that Bucky is moving up in the world. He’s an aspiring politician currently on the campaign trail. Our only question is… huh?

Why exactly is Bucky running for Congress? What in his previous MCU appearances suggested he ever had political aspirations? That’s to say nothing of the fact that he’s a 110-year-old man who spent much of the 20th Century being manipulated into assassinating politicians and businesspeople. There’s a lot of baggage there that we have to imagine would sink any political campaign before it got off the ground.

Granted, it’s nice to see the film include the character and nod toward Sam and Bucky’s enduring bromance. We’re just not sure what to make of the idea of the angsty, anti-social Bucky becoming a grandstanding politician. Whatever happens, we’ll surely learn more about his burgeoning political career in the upcoming Thunderbolts* movie.

Why Does Sidewinder Want to Kill Cap So Badly?

With Frank Grillo’s Crossbones having been killed off in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, the series was in need of a new secondary villain character. Brave New World finds one in Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder, leader of the terrorist cell known as Serpent. Sidewinder and his team are drawn into the fray when Sterns hires Serpent to steal the adamantium from the Japanese.

However, Sidewinder seems to have a very personal grudge against Captain America that’s never adequately explained. He admits as much when he reveals that he would have happily killed Sam for free. And even after Sidewinder is captured and bargains his way into a lighter sentence, he makes it plain that his first priority after escaping will be to finish the job and kill Cap.

What exactly is Sidewinder’s beef with Cap? The movie leaves us to wonder on that front. It’s entirely possible that an earlier version of the script delved deeper into their rivalry. We know that Brave New World was subject to significant reshoots, to the point that Seth Rollins’ mystery character (rumored to be another member of Serpent) was cut from the film entirely. Is there another version of Brave New World that makes Sidewinder’s motivations more clear? All we know is that, with Esposito teasing Sidewinder’s role in a future Disney+ series, this is a dangling thread that needs to be addressed at some point.

What Was the Point of Sabra, Exactly?

In the absence of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter, Brave New World gains a new butt-kicking government agent in the form of Shira Haas’ Ruth Bat-Seraph. Ruth is introduced as a former Red Room operative who now works as a de facto bodyguard and personal agent to President Ross. She butts heads with Sam and friends at first, but eventually becomes an ally when she comes to understand the depth of the conspiracy she’s investigating.

Ultimately, though, we’re not convinced Ruth serves much purpose in the greater narrative. At best, she presents another minor obstacle to Sam, before becoming an ally and fading to the background of the conflict. It’s as though Marvel felt obligated to include a Black Widow archetype in the film without having much of an idea about how to actually utilize her. Though, again, it’s anyone’s guess as to how much Ruth’s role in the film was impacted by the reshoots.

We also have to wonder why Marvel specifically adapted the Sabra character from the comics, given how different Ruth is in the MCU. She’s no longer an Israeli operative nor a mutant with superpowers. So why not just invent a new character at that point?

What’s the Deal With Adamantium Now?

Brave New World is significant for introducing adamantium to the MCU. It’s an entirely new super-metal that’s discovered in the race to harvest the bounty of riches from Tiamut, and one that promises to reshape the global balance of power.

But mostly, adamantium is the MacGuffin that greases the wheels of Brave New World’s plot. The metal itself is incidental. It’s a reason for various global powers to come to the brink of war. And so, in the end, we’re left to wonder what its introduction truly means and how it’ll change things going forward. Is this the last time major global powers squabble over control of adamantium, or is the Ross/Ozaki Accords a Band-Aid on a festering wound?

Yes, there’s obviously going to be a straight line between the introduction of adamantium and the debut of the MCU’s Wolverine, whenever that ultimately happens. But as for any other ramifications, who knows? Is it really going to be as big a deal for the world as vibranium, a substance that’s special less because of its hardness than the fact that it absorbs sound energy?

It took Marvel several years to acknowledge the ending of Eternals in another MCU project, and we suspect it’ll take at least as long before the loose end that is adamantium is picked up elsewhere. That’s just the timetable the MCU operates on nowadays.

Why Are We No Closer to the Avengers?

It’s been years since the MCU has had an Avengers team to call its own, whether you’re counting in the real world or within the MCU’s slightly wonky post-Endgame timeline. Marvel has introduced plenty of new heroes over the past several years, from Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova to Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi to Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk to Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight. But as far as bringing those new heroes together under the banner of the Avengers, we’re still left wanting.

At this point, we have to wonder what’s taking so long. By the end of the MCU’s Phase 2, we had already had two Avengers movies and were gearing up for more in Phase 3. But here we are at the tail-end of Phase 5, and the Avengers seem no closer to reforming now than they were at the beginning of the Multiverse Saga. We’re barely a year away from the release of Avengers: Doomsday, and the MCU has done almost nothing to lay the groundwork for a big Avengers reunion. Marvel is still so preoccupied with introducing new characters that it’s forgetting to weave them together in a larger tapestry.

Brave New World pays lip service to the idea of getting the gang back together, but it stops there. Ross broaches the idea, and Sam wrestles with it for a while before deciding that, yes, he can be the leader the Avengers needs. Six years after Endgame, that’s as far as the film gets in setting up a new team of Avengers.

Why not actually put the new Captain America to the test? The movie ends with a battle royale that could have sorely used a few more of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to level the playing field and make the conflict with Red Hulk more interesting. Just as Captain America: Civil War was basically The Avengers 2.5, Brave New World could and maybe should have been a bigger team-up movie. Instead, the new Avengers will basically be starting cold when Doomsday drops in 2026.

What do you think? What had you saying “WTF?!?” after watching Brave New World? And should we have gotten more Avengers in the latest Captain America movie? Vote in our poll and let us know what you think in the comments below:

For more on Captain America and the future of the MCU, check out our Brave New World ending explained breakdown and see every Marvel movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.