How Sam Wilson Represents as Captain America

Source: Marvel Comics

In the new movie Captain America: Brave New World, we see Sam Wilson in his first cinematic outing as the title hero.¹ Sam was given the famous shield by Steve Rogers at the end of the film Avengers: Endgame and, after some hesitation, took up the title of Captain America in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series. In his latest adventure, Sam and his young sidekick, the new Falcon, fight a mysterious villain while also contending with President “Thunderbolt” Ross, who has been ambivalent about superheroes since his days chasing the Hulk around and shutting down the Avengers.

In a pivotal scene from the current movie—no plot spoilers!—Sam stands in the hospital visiting an injured friend, for whom he feels responsible. He tells another friend standing nearby that he wishes he had taken the super-soldier serum when he had the chance, so he could have shared Steve Rogers’ enhanced physical abilities and be a more effective hero. His friend tells him that having the serum wouldn’t have changed anything about his other friend’s injuries, and that he doesn’t need the serum anyway, because not having it makes him more relatable.

“Steve gave the people someone to believe in,” he tells Sam. “You give them someone to aspire to.”

This points out an important and under-recognized way that Sam Wilson provides valuable representation as Captain America. Much has been written about how Sam, as a Black man wearing a costume based on the American flag, makes an essential point about race and equality. Less noted, however, is that he serves as Captain America with no special physical “enhancement.” Instead, he relies on his military background and training, plus his mechanical wings (courtesy of Wakanda) and his robotic “bird” Redwing.

Not everyone has Wakanda on speed dial, of course. But they can still look at Sam Wilson and see a "regular guy" standing up for what’s right with no mighty hammer, no magic spells, and no super-soldier serum. In Sam, they see a role model or moral exemplar that they can emulate in action as well as spirit. In this respect, he joins the one Hawkeye and the other Hawkeye as the “normie” superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—but neither Hawkeye is responsible for representing what America stands for at its best.

The fact that Sam Wilson protects liberty, justice, and equality as Captain America without the benefit of the super-soldier serum confirms what the comics version of Steve Rogers once said, “that everyone has it in them to be a hero… that they can all be Captain America.”² Being a hero means putting others’ needs before your own and acting on this when you can. It relies on the cultivation of virtues like courage, resolve, and integrity, and having a keen awareness of right and wrong. It does not require special equipment, physical enhancements, or a tight-fitting costume (much less a cape). Sometimes all it takes is to say no.

As a man in the comics replied when someone said that anyone could do what Captain America does, “If we cared as much. And tried as hard.”³ And no one needs the super-soldier serum to do that, as made very clear by Sam Wilson every time he puts on the stars and stripes and shows those who would take advantage of others what America ideally stands for. This is the most important thing that any Captain America can do—that any of us can do.