Big Brain Time : It's the little things... (MCU Sam Sterns analyzis)

I felt for MCU Sam so hard I'm not sure I fully comprehend it myself. There's a lot of reasons to that, some I already talked about, some I'll talk about later. Of course the easy answer is "it's Sam and it's Tim", after all there's nothing more important to me than Fiction and Art and Sam is my favorite fictional character and Tim my favorite artist. But no, that's not the reason. While I always had a lot of affection for MCU Sam, I didn't really care that much about him, not enough to even draw him at least, which usually says a lot. And it often surprises people. How can you be so into a character with a 5min screentime ? How can you make him interesting enough to care ?

I wrote this post long ago and it was very, very incomplet, so even if you feel like you read this already I'd suggest to read it again if you're into MCU Sam, or at least curious enough for that long long post. You'll learn a few things that, I hope, will give you the little sparkle of affection I'm trying to spread !

There's a lot of problems with MCU Sam's writing indeed. It's not the writing itself, but rather the lack of it. His screentime and writing were both very and painfully obviously reduced. But it's still here, if you pay a good attention you can see all the care they initially gave to this character. Making it even more frustrating honestly, to think about "what should have been". But also enjoyable. And today that's what we're gonna do, today we're going to dig up Sam's potential and the very fascinating and deep care the whole team was initially bringing to him. The depth I am now trying to bring back, let it be through this blog, through my fanarts or the one I commission.

(beware for obvious heavy spoilers, torture mention and abusive relationship)

There's a lot of things to talk about, so take some tea it's gonna take a while !

I - The light

The light has an heavy presence and importance during all the movie, so this is the first thing we need to introduce for a smoother understanding of what's next.

Of course the first thing you'll think about is how Sam controls people through light. Sounds too, but he first "mind" them through light before the music can trigger them. But it's not it's only purpose, light is also use to represent a character : Red for Ross, Blue for Sam Sterns and Gold for Sam Wilson (who we'll only call Cap in this post for a better understanding, Sam will only refer to Sam Sterns).

Of course it's deeper than that, you don't have red only when Ross shows up but specifically when it's about something that will lead to Red Hulk and so usually his own anger or a bad decision. The main exemple for that is how Sam's prison is mostly in red, not just to hint at Red Hulk he's creating here but also at Ross' influence over his life. Because in anything he does, Sam's decision and goal are directly impacted by Ross, he cannot free himself from that hold. His pursue of justice and so vengeance is driven by what Ross did to him and had him do, his anger and pain were created by Ross, everything he is is born of Ross.

The blue is here when Sam is "here", let it be physically or through his influence or even metaphorically.

The gold is when someone is doing something rightful, courageous, heroic. But let's dive in a few exemple, because it's always easier to understand this way :

Let's start with the very start. During the opening scene, during Ross' President speech everything is blue behind him and everything is blue when we first see him take a pill. Ross became a President thanks to Sam, it was Sam's plan at play that led him here, the same way the pills are part of Sam's plan. It's not Red Hulk, which you would assume would have been what these pills were teasing. Though he's still slightly hinted by the very shy red shade on his tie, drown under all that blue and you'll see that Red and Blue will often flirt in this movie, because there's no Sam without Ross and there's no Red Hulk without Sam.

But the opening scene is here to set up the threat Sam is, that's why it ends directly on him and why the main title is about his mind controlling light.

But before that, you can see the threatening blue light in the background as the tv tease "challenges ahead" and how Cap and Ross will have to put their conflict aside to face it. And there's already a very interesting difference here between Cap and Ross.

We said Ross was drowing in the blue, let it be how he's directly under a blue light, or how he's dressing mostly in blue, but Cap is standing out under a warm golden light, wearing a shirt of the same color and it's a way to establish their position, in a way, to show how Cap will stand out of that conflict through his heart and heroism while Ross will mostly suffer it.

Another scene playing with lights that I enjoy is when we first see Isaiah :

Don't worry, I won't do the full movie, just a few moments that are relevant to properly explain how the light plays work. So in this scene, you mostly have golden light from above, putting our trio in its warming light, presenting them as heroic in a moment that starts as heartwarming too as they're bouding. But there's this little blue light sneaking in the back, shy enough to not be noticed but visible enough to still invade the place, to show how Sam's nefarious plan is already at play and already influencing the whole conversation. Leading Isaiah to that reception is a key part of his plan after all.

Then of course you have this whole part being blue because it's when Sam first directly strike, he's directly watching, yada yada, you get it, it's a Sam moment.

The same trick as the Isaiah part here, with a very shy shade of blue, mostly directly behind Ross.

Sometime the blue is very subtle, it's more like a cold light shade than a blue per say, like this moment when the Serpent Society get killed by a guy Sam mind controlled and the back is of a very slightly blue-ish cold light.

Now let's talk about the Red and Blue flirting and fighting each other. It's a play you'll mostly see at Camp Echo One (and in the flight attack as well), you have both lights most of the time. I'll go back to that deeper later when I'll talk about Sam's prison specifically, but you have a lot of exemple of the Red and Blue working together or against together. Like I said above, because of how both Ross and Sam influence each others' decision, how they both impact and build each others and also how they both try to leave that influence.

A good exemple of that are these two moments :

When Sam calls Ross and he's in total control of the situation, you can see the red light of his prison behind, hinting at Red Hulk of course and Ross' role in Sam's demise. But as strong as the red light is, the blue one is above, more powerful. Sam is hiddin in the shadow and only the blue light hit on him, he's standing out of the red, crushing it. But later you have the opposite :

While he was first in a blue light when he revealed himself, he'll then stay only in the red. And yes, the main reason to that is to tease Red Hulk and shit but given the subtle play we got until then, especially with Ross often drowning in blue, I do believe it's to parallel that and Sam's total inability to leave his influence. I mean, the whole point of Sam is how he cannot go back to his life, he's forever tainted by Ross, he is forever molded by Ross and so in this moment when his ressent visibly invades his calm it does make sense to have him drown in red.

Like I said, the other moment when you have the two colors flirting together is during the flight attack. Both red and blue are just impossible to ignore, we dropped the subtlility here.

You have plain blue moments and it makes sense because everything happening here is because of Sam, he has already invaded everything, he's watching.

But you also have plain red moments because that's the first we'll see a glimpse at Red Hulk and understand what's going on, also because Ross is about to make yet another dumbass decision that will lead to his own gamma demise by refusing to talk about Sam to the Japanese minister.

And then I'd like to give one last exemple that I find interesting about the meaning of these lights :

Ross and Sam both ends up in the Raft and no, we're not gonna talk about their blue shirt because it's a simple coincidence, being the Raft outfit for a few movies already. However what you'll notice is how while they're both in a similar cell in the same place, Ross is under a golden light as he did the right choice and get forgiven while Sam stay in gloomy shadow-ish cold blue light.

Though I wanna go deeper and add that it's the first and only scene where Sam isn't under any red lights at all, except for these two irrelevant moments outside with day light (which was I assume a rushed decision that ended up being very boring, ugly and somewhat irrelevant, but I don't blame the team for that given the circumstances of these reshot) and I like to think that these final shots are also a way, for both Ross and Sam, to finally free themself from each others and become their own "person", if that make sense. Like how we can get a Ross maybe embracing Red Hulk and controlling it, like in comics. Or how Sam will become a Leader.

Have you noticed how the movie never named drop the Leader ? Never, not even once. Yet there were a lot of occasions to do that. Instead of calling him the buyer, even later on, he stayed Samuel Sterns. And it's odd because on the opposite, the first scrapped version of his character was ONLY named the Leader. In every merch, in every descriptions.

The movie doesn't introduce the Leader, it teases him. It shows how Sam will become the Leader later on. The reason to that is most likely because they had projects for him later on, lots of things hint to that, even a few things Tim Blake Nelson said. Though I assume it got cancelled because of the poor reception of the movie so I wouldn't expect shit at this point. I'm jinxed and everything I love is meant to be doomed to failure an oblivion anyway. But Sam not being a Leader yet is also a good way to introduce the next part :

II - Sam's safe space

Camp Echo One is more than just a prison, it's a physical metaphor for Sam's mind, from his history, to his feelings, to his humanity and how he's losing what's left of it. So let's dive in his twisted gamma head :

The first interesting detail is the heavy door they use to keep him caged. It's not like any other cell, this one has a very heavy lock, for obvious reasons (you can also spot a little biohazard symbole and so basically the gamma logo on the left of the screenshot).

Camp Echo One reminds me of the Shadow Base he's locked in in Hulkverine. In the first page they explain how no objects are allowed because he could just break free and hurt with everything and he will break free and kill guards with a single piece of paper so y'know.

Hulkverine 1 (2019) writing by Greg Pak, pencil by Ario Anindito

That's how dangerous Sam is through his intelligence and that's what this lock represents, of course, the threat he is. (And yes, the post credit scene was an homage to this very specific and famous comics panel above).

But let's take a look at its shape. It's an eye. The easy to guess meaning of this shape is the Eye of Providence, representing how Sam sees everything to the point of clairvoyance through his intelligence and statistics, because it's a symbol of truth and knowledge. It's also largely used in pop culture to represent conspiracy, which is how Brave New World was sold, as a conspiracy movie (even if I think they terribly failed that part and I'll blame an obvious heavy and rough last minute cut for that).

But let's go deeper because I like that and talk about the eye of Horus, which is often connected to the Eye of Providence even if they're different things.

Long story short Horus lost his left eye to Seth, it was restored, giving this very famous eye that is meant to protect from curses. And I do believe it's part of the meaning, a protection against Sam, framing him as a devil entity, which I think was the initial idea. Having him as a metaphor of Death spreading, because of one shot that got ultimately CUT OFF AND IT PISSES ME OFF BECAUSE IT WAS SO COOL AND SEXY !

Everything is so Death coded in this scene, from Sam dressing up all in black with a long coat and a hood, looking like a literal Grim Reaper, from the inconscious or dead bodies on the ground, the way the room is large, empty and fully white. Everything in this 1sec moment scream DEATH ALLEGORY and I do believe it was the point. It does make sense to his comics history as well, to have him be an angel of death. Let if be from who inspired him (Victor Frankenstein, Erik the Phantom, Mister Hyde) from his writing (especially Thunderbolts and Immortal Hulk).

It's a not so well known part of his history and writing but Sam is a Lucifer-ious figure, though it's not something I'll develop here because I'm writing a little post about it that I'll probably post right after this one.

That being said, with that in mind let's remember MCU Sam's eyes. His left eye is white, so most likely blind. Of course it's an homage to McFarlane's design in which both his eyes are white but to me it's also a physical representation of the price he paid for knowledge. Like Horus, his eye was teared away. But the difference is it wasn't return and in exchange he got knowledge and through that knowledge the ability to "see" what can't be seen. After all, it's one of the first thing he says to Joaquin "my mind sees it all".

The eye is an obvious symbolic for Sam in the MCU for all these reasons.

Camp Echo One is shown being empty. You have a quick glimpse at an empty cell which is only meant to show that, it's not more important than showing how "confidencial" and "important" Sam is and to add a very creepy horror aura to that whole scene. it's a very small cell with nothing but a shitty mattress on a bench.

I often wonder if that's where Sam first ended up, in that small-ass cell, until Ross gave him a lab but other than that it's not an important detail.

When I first wrote this post, I theorized that Camp Echo One was meant to be a longer sequence given the care over little details they brought into it, which was later confirmed by the artbook. So if anything, it's the proof that all these details do have a meaning and that, yes, it's often deeper than that.

Sam's cell has 3 "rooms" :

So you have the lab, the "computer room" and the "bedroom".

The lab is visually very hostile, the red lights representing both danger and everything we said above, the lack of natural light, the tools hanging everywhere, the cold iron on the walls and floors and of course the torture beds and chair.

Especially the chair, in fact, in most shot it gets your attention. Let it be because it's under a blue light, clashing with the red, or because Joaquin stares right at it and of course when Sam sits on it, presenting it as the torture chair on which they injected him more gamma.

The chair is visibly painful, full of rust. There's a reason rust are always used in horror setting, not just because of the obvious "old and abandoned" things that will make everything creepier but also because you will unconsciously think about something cold, dirty, unsafe and violent, because rust looks like and smells like blood strain.

This chair alone is enough to guess and understand the kind of pain and torture Sam went through, you have these visible metal handcuff to hold Sam still but also this kind of buckle (on this right, near Sam's left shoulder) probably used to add a strap and to tie him in harder. Given the way they had to hold Sam still, you can only imagine how painful it was and how violently he reacted to this, let it be to fight back or by pure reflexe.

But let's make it worst. Remember in Incredible Hulk when Sam kind of "awaken" the gamma in Bruce ? He uses an electric choc. This chair was clearly designed after electric chairs, if anything the metal claw thing near his head is enough to have you do the connexion without even having to think about it. It's a modern electric chair.

And so what if in order to make the gamma "more efficient" in Sam's blood to enhance his mutation they gave him electric chocs ? It's just a speculation of course.

There's also these torture beds that I assumed were for his own victims but now that we know he mind controlled people through light and at a distance it's hard to tell if he really needed physical test subjects. But then again, we don't know what Ross had him do all these years. It could either be for his victims or for himself. After all Ross' goal was to create more gamma irradiated, he has one he can study, so maybe the torture didn't stop to these gamma injections and the isolation. That's why I like drawing him with big disgusting scars in his body, my headcanon is that they opened him a few time to either study him or preventing him from dying of these clearly lethal injections. But that's just my own headcanon, there's nothing actually hinting at this in the movie.

But the fact there's two have me think that it was probably for Sam's experiments, in a way or another. And you know, it's something I would have loved to see in the movie. We are kinda aware of what Sam went through, through his look and through his cell, it's easy to guess the physical torture he went through, having painful injections and mutations, probably being beaten up, but also the psychological ones like isolation and darkness with little to no comfort can induce. But we don't know how actually working for Ross impacted Sam. We know he built weapons and helped conspiring but I would have loved to see the impact it had on him, to hurt for the first time (indirectly but still through his creations), to kill even, maybe. Sam's stance on science in Incredible Hulk was pretty clear : breaking limits and rules are ok if the mean is to help. So how much did it hurt him when he had to use what he loved the most to hurt and corrupt ?

It's also a cruel reality he had to face which directly impacted him and turn him into the monster he now is and part of the torture he had to go through, it would have been nice to explore that, the first time he had to hurt, the first time he had to let go of his humanity.

Anyway, you then have two rooms. A room with computers and shit, the "tech" part of his lab kinda, the place where he works and study his little preys and stalk their ass. I don't have much to say 'cause it's just a bunch of computer shit and what seems to be Ross' pills, there's nothing very relevant to say anymore because it was kind of cut off but initially you had this "RESET AMERICA RESET ROSS" message also, so I guess it was supposed to be a more important room with more details and Cap and Joaquin breaking it up and shit but we can only speculate at this point...

Lights are red, the screen is blue, still following the color code of the movie.

The most interesting part of his cell is the second room. It's a "bedroom", his very personal space.

It's the only room with no red light, only blue And it's the only one with a warmer shade, gold. From the desk lamps but also the celling.

Now according to what we said above about the light color code, we can see it as Sam's last remain of humanity still very weakly shining in his heart and that's what this whole room represent, Sam losing what remains of his humanity he tried to protect and preserve and how in this moment, he wasn't the Leader yet.

There's A LOT to say about this shot alone so let me break this down for you

In this shot wee see what seems to be anthuriums growing under a blue light on the left, along with landscape paintings, a toilet and a poster of the eye anatomy.

In this one you have a better look at Sam's desk, lots of files around, his degrees certificate (and while it zoom on only one we can see at least 5 of them), his computer with the obvious Grayburn College background, which is where he was working in Incredible Hulk and where he apparently got his degree, a set of tea and a lot of books.

And then a larger shot at the whole space, with the anthurium, the lights, the book shelf, the desk, a little uncomfortable bed with a lot of blankets and cushions, food and a mug along with a fan near it, a big rug. So basically you have Sam trying to turn his prison into a cozy little space.

Now before I overly analyze this and find meaning in everything let's just repost pictures from Incredible Hulk of Sam's work space, also divided in 3 part. The first part you see is his very messy desk, it's a mess of things he loves. Science, books, plants, with a very specific kinda academia aesthetic. It's the reflect of his mind, a metaphor for his overly cluttered and very messy, quick and "loud" mind (he's ADHD and yes it will be important). Basically you're inside his head. But as messy as it is, it's also full of light, natural light mostly and as you go on in the movie there will be less and less natural light in his spaces because of the night falling, which is a metaphor of how he gets more and more attracted by the dark perspectives that will lead to his own demise and his Leaderish future.

Then you have the room where he injects Bruce with the antidode, Blonsky with Bruce's blood and where he gets gamma poisoned too :

You can see that the place they were talking is right behind Bruce and Betty because of the two lamps.

And then the place where he stores Bruce's blood.

That's what you need to understand. His prison is build like his favorite place.

It's the same aesthetic, the same construct and the same purpose and in both case it's meant to have a physical representation of his mind. In Brave New World, his prison is basically a way darker, threatening and gloomy version of what we saw in Incredible Hulk.

It means Sam tried to rebuilt his comfort zone in his prison (tried is the important part of this sentence lol). Which is only natural, of course, he tried to make his space as "acceptable" as possible for his own mental sake (which is obviously impossible). It's meant to show how Sam lived in bad conditions but more importantly to show how Sam clings to his past life and to himself. Trying to bring everything he loves to keep them near him, to keep his humanity near him, to keep his sanity and most importantly to keep his HOPE.

Look at all the details in his bedroom. A rug so the ground is less cold. A fan near his bed which is covered with a few blankets and a few pillows to be more comfortable when he sleeps. There's also a mug near the bed. You have the tea set of course (which pleases me a lot 'cause you know how I always headcanon Sam as a tea person), a shit tons of books, busts (I assume from philosophes), all his certificates, calm landscape paintings, plants.

The lamps and furnitures with the exact same aesthethic as his Incredible Hulk place. The chair is even the same.

All these details are just Sam, Sam's mind, I mean the Sam he used to be, trying to stay the bright positive and passionate man he was.

But more than that, it's all very relaxing and comforting. Relaxing painting, books, tea. He just wanted to try to feel at home in hope he would one day return to his. And all these details become instantly incredibly sad in this context. Specifically the remains of his career, which is what he loved the most and what led him here. His passion for science is what led him here.

One of the most heartbreaking part for me is the flowers he's cultivating. If you look very closely at the very specific shape and bright red color you will recognize anthuriums.

Anthuriums are known for being a very good natural air purifier but also and mostly because of how they symbolize hospitality. They are supposedly able to bring happiness, that's why they're very often used in work space and living room, to brighten the place and make it comfortable and welcoming. So basically it's a plant you put in a room to make it comfy, joyful and "yours".

Sam being Sam he probably cultivated them for their very pragmatic purpose (I'm pretty sure the quality of air isn't TOP given the huge somewhat worn out fans everywhere) but also their symbols, because it's also very like him to do that. And again, you have this sad little proof of how Sam tried to find comfort and clung to hope and to his joyful personality. Of course having a big red flower growing under a blue light in a slightly visible corner of his cell is also a metaphor of Sam creating Red Hulk. Which is the moment to mention anthuriums are also a blessing in relationship and a protection. I'll go back to Sam and Ross' relationship later, but it's an interesting enough symbol that you need to keep in mind.

Sam seems to be into plants, from these anthurium to the one on his desk, the tea set, this whole plant space in his previous life behind Betty and Bruce :

And also, of course, how the first time you "see" (or rather read) him in the MCU is when Bruce experiment with a flower that Sam told him to get. In a deleted scene you even have Bruce getting a book from Sam about rare exotic flowers, with notes he left for him, that's how Bruce was able to hunt that flower (very cute small interaction between them with Bruce laughing with Sam, showing their friendship better than what remain in Incredible Hulk lol). Seems like plants are one of Sam's speciality and I would love if it's used again if they bring him back. It matches him, I can see him creating poisons and nefarious shit through them (it's even more relevant given they apparently can have an impact on gamma mutations). But also as a mean to comfort himself. Turning these plants he loves so much and used to help people as a mean to hurt is also a nice symbolic of him letting go of his humanity. It makes so much sense to the Leader that I always had this headcanon of Sam loving flowers and using them in both his work but also personal aspect of his life. That's how I developed my habit to sneak flowers in most of my big composition of him lol.

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Another obvious detail is his "personal" computer background, the Grayburn College logo we mentioned already :

His personal computer is full of video of his classes.

That's what Sam misses the most, like I said, his passion for science. His burning need for learning and teaching. When you think about it, it's the rawest form of passion, the desire for more but also the desire to share about it. And what's the best way to learn about something while sharing than teaching ? That's why I wanted to be a teacher when I was younger. Unfortunately my health prevented me from ever reaching that dream so I understand the pain and sadness Sam went through because of all the shit I've been through, all the pain, all the traumas, having to let go of my dream of a teaching career was the most hurtful shit I had to go through and it still hurt to this day. So I understand his pain.

And it's very comics accurate, Sam's obsession for knowledge.

But unlike his comics self who'd rather spend his time in very modern places full of technology, MCU Sam is more "old-fashioned" in that matter, surrounded by spaces and objects with an history and a life rather than cold emotionless pragmatic shit and I like to see it as a part of his humanity as well.

We never saw comics Sam as a human (I mean, we did, but de-powered, we haven't seen him until the day of his mutation) but I do think his taste for modernity is related to his Leader self. So if he ever comes back in the MCU as a full Leader, it would be interesting to have him go full modern and technology as well to properly mark this final step in his monster path, the final proof that he's no longer human, him totally letting go of these artefacts of his past and these comforting symbols and drastically changing his own tastes to matches and embraces what he is now. While still keeping a discret thing or two, because that's the thing with the Leader. No matter how hard he tries to pretend he let go of his humanity, he's still very human and very attached to it.

Incredible Hulk vol.2 31 (2001) writting by Paul Jenkins & Sean McKeever

This prison "bedroom" is a metaphor of his mind the same way Sam's lab in Incredible Hulk was a metaphor of his mind evolving into the Leader. The room itself represent all the pain and abuses and tortures he go through, he covers this prison and so his pain with everything he likes from his past life, as a way to cling to himself, to his life, to his hope and as I said to his humanity, but also his regrets.

Now the last detail I didn't mention nor pointed at in these screenshots on purpose are the pictures of his victims. He could have put them in his computer room or the lab, it's where he works after all, where he studied them. But it's in the room.

Well, of course to have Sam Wilson looks at it, but also as a way to show Sam losing his humanity. He covered his prison with everything he loved, everything comfortable to him, everything important to him. It's kind of the physical representation of his mind trying to bury the pain with everything he loves and now he's covering this hope and humanity, this comfortable place that he made to his image, his coping mechanism, with his victims. His nefarious pursue of vengeance is invading his mind, erasing his humanity. The same way he slapped comforting painting on these cold walls as a way to protect his own mind from that pain, he's now slapping pictures of his victims, tools of his vengeance, over his walls, over himself. Covering everthing he loves, everything he tried to preserve. He doesn't care anymore, he embraced the darkness where everything he loves now remains lifeless.

See this place as an "inner place" rather than his living place. It's a cold dark prison not just because it's a prison but because that's what Sam is now, a cold dark shell with remaining of a humanity he doesn't cherish anymore standing in the shadow. Trapped in his own mind, trapped in his traumas, trapped in the pain. Sam can leave his prison, you see it even before his physical confrontation with Cap. He was able to leave months ago but he stays. Because it's not just the prison that imprisons him, it's his broken mind. His ressent and rage prevent him from leaving and reaching freedom, he's psychologically trapped here, that's what it means. His rage is his prison. He is his own prisoner.

But his humanity is still visible, the gold light still slightly glow. The pictures of his victims don't invade all the place yet. He's not the Leader yet, he's at the very beginning of his final transformation into it. A part of Sam still lives in this place and will probably keep living, like his comics self.

III - Sam's design

Of course this humanity loss is also very visible through his design. That's why changing it was the right call, no matter the "Gngngn it's not comics accurate" to WHAT ? To that one picture you saw on Google ? Sam has a lot of designs, each more grotesque and gruesome than the others, there's no such a thing as comics accuracy for his design.

Their only mistake was to make Sam's head a bit too small and even that can make sense according to his future. His Leader name was removed and never dropped, his orange color was removed, his head is smaller, his blood is still visibly red and you have this whole room existing to show Sam's unfinished transformation.

When Sam Wilson is here, he cut off the lights. Sure it was a way to give an horror vibe to this whole scene, but remember he hates his appearence. I mentionned this a few months ago and to me that's the road they took.

He does reminds me of the phantom of the opera. The way he mind controls, using someone else to express himself. That's what he does in comics tool, sending LMD or mind controlled people or people he manipulated to consently do his stuff to avoid showing himself the way Erik uses Christine's voice to express himself.

He put the light back to show himself only when he started mentioning what he went through to Captain America and so, through Cap, to us. That's when he becomes more than a monster, that's when you see he's a human and most importantly a victim and not just that inhuman shadow threat hidding in the dark. Though I think they should have kept playing with Sam hiding in the dark, he was less interesting once he was fully showing himself. I'm sure there was a way to keep him in the dark in that final confrontation with Cap in front of the hospital, he could have been talking from a shadowed corner instead of that ugly shot, which was an incredibly lazy moment given what they did first, visible in the trailers, of Sam passing through the crowd and most likely revealing himself during Ross' speech. Sure the reason is the lack of time and ressources, it was impossible to reshot all his scenes with so little. That's also why you have no merch at all of him, not even a single Funko POP of his final design but you have a shit tons of his first design. Because it's a decision they took way too late. That's why I also like these moment when he has a hat and a hood. It's a way to avoid CGI on his head but it also adds a lot to his need to hide himself from people and to stay in the dark. It's a good exemple of a good design, it makes sense storywise but it also serves a pragmatic purpose.

Since we're at it, let's talk outfit. This picture was posted from one of the person who worked on designs (I don't have their name, someone send me these pic and I couldn't find the source).

It's the coat and shoes that were visible in some of the trailers scenes we never got so apparently they filmed a whole movie with this design (ok but as a French who's OBSESS with Sam Sterns having an Alain Delon Sam is way too funny, sorry, I can't just not laugh at this idea, it's so wtf and random to me).

What's interesting in that first look is that it was kind of similar to Bruce in Avengers (having their signature color on their shirt). It has me wonder if it's a coincidence or if they already wanted to slowly introduce a parallel between them.

I'm personally not into this first design. It was too casual and too simple to match the horror he went through and unlike what people think, less Leader-ish of him, it was too casual to matches the abuses he personalizes. It was important to have him look "dehumanized", because that's what his tortures were about. Dehumanizing him, turning him into an emotionless thinking tank. And that first design was just some guy with a goofy-ass big head and a slightly green skin. It doesn't serve any purpose other than to please the "comics accurate" crowd who can't read and certainly not understand comics. It's BORING.

"They should have kept the orange!!" I get why you would say that, my fan heart also wished to see orange and while I understand why they didn't use it in the cell (because it's TOO FUCKING FLASHY he needed to stay in the shadow and so wearing dark, because he represents a shadow) yes I guess he could have worn it afterward, when he killed Sam Wilson's friend or when he gave himself in, yes.

But I think having him wear black (or very dark blue) is better to avoid clashing with the blue used to represent him, it's wayyyy too close to red and can easily be confused. It also clashes with the whole "shadow of a man he's no longer" and Death allegory he was meant to be. In a design pov this is the right call. Of course I'm still bitter, in the way that the MCU tends to pull insanely cool outfits and I really wanted to see his famous orange jumpsuit in a MCU version, or even a black one, but a Leader suit. We wouldn't have it either way so I'd rather have the emo we got but it's gonna be my little regret, even if it made sense, to never see a Leader design outfit MCU-ified. Because I know way too well I'm never seeing him ever again. At least not this version. I'll still hope, like I did for 16 years, but I know it's not happening.

His design is still very similar to a few horror freaky ones we got in his comics. The lack of facial hair isn't a problem, especially if he's still inspired by Jones' run like the first Incredible Hulk movie was. This is where the name Mister Blue comes from, after all.

In this run, Sam lost his body and all his face, except for the lower part. So he's just a floating brain with eyes, a nose and lips. Before Bruce and co found out it was Sam, they would call him "lips" because that's the only thing he was showing.

I'm mentionning it because this specific shot reminds me a lot of how we saw him during the whole run before it was revealed to be this Mother Brain nightmare shit, same color code (blue-ish) even :

• 

• 

• 

Jones' run also impacted his MCU design. Not just David/McFarlane's. Camp Echo One is as gruesome as the place Sam's floating head is in, they have very similar aesthetic and energy and I do believe, given the name M. Blue is straight from that run, that it was intentional.

Let's keep going.

Sam standing in the dark with a part of his face or the whole face hidden and his eyes visibly glowing is also a thing used in comics that I love A LOT, I'm so happy they did that in the MCU, it's honestly the only thing I would care about but the only thing I didn't think they would ever do 'cause Hulk's eyes doesn't glow that much anymore and it's not thaaaat common in comics either, so I wasn't expecting to have them do this but fuck how it healed me (almost literally, at least enough to go out again LOL).

But that's the thing with this movie, it's an homage to the Incredible Hulk movie (for the best and the worst given it's a Captain America movie). There's a lot of stuff from the IH movie, when Cap tries to attack Sam, he stops him with the sound attack Ross used on Hulk in Incredible Hulk before he beat the shit out of Blonsky for exemple. And that's an interesting detail because this and the samples of Bruce's blood visible in the cell (and of course how he turned Ross into a Hulk specifically) hins how Sam probably spent a lot of time studying Bruce. And if they ever plan to have them FINALLY confronting each others it could be useful to already establish that (they're not planing to do that).

He's also very puny and it was also very visible in the movie, he had kinda large clothes, making him look so thin and small. It makes Sam looks very fragile and weak. Which is the purpose, big brain, no muscles, y'know. The wildest comment I saw about MCU Sam design is how he's supposed to be "a giant" and I'll be of good faith and believe it's because they only know him through his McFarlane era or the weirdass transformation he goes through in Immortal Hulk but you gotta understand Sam is very small, like 90% of the time. This is the whole point. That's why he needs Hulk, to compensate for his small and weak d- I mean body. And I think this feeling translated well in the movie. Comics Sam and MCU Sam are different in their origin and motivations, basically comics Sam had nothing so he saw his mutation as a salvation. MCU Sam had everything so he sees it as a curse and it's a very interesting new approach, it's nice having a version of Sam exploring his desire for normalcy and giving us a Leader who actually shows how he hates being one. But ultimatly they're both about the same thing : hate and the ressent that is born of it. A need for vengeance, a need to make, a need to prove himself. If he can't fit in that World, then he'll make the World bend to him.

I kept wondering how they would make him interesting and respectful but also tragic without Hulk/Bruce or his abused path and it was my biggest fear and concern. Sam is a character full of ressent and bitterness, a rage born of abuses in comics so it was the direction to take. And he's surprisingly incredibly respectful to what Sam is about (hate) and to what he craves the most (love and acceptance). Like I explained above, he was a passionate and respected teacher and biologist. That's what he misses the most, teaching, for all these reasons. Because as a teacher he's able to share his passions but also because as a teacher he can be loved and respected. I often talk about MCU Sam's very bright heartwarming personality in Incredible Hulk, but he still craves recognition. In Bruce and Hulk he saw a chance to make history and that's how he burnt himself, out of ambition and pride he ignored his own limits and like Tim said, he burnt his wings.

MCU Sam is ambitious, like his comics self. He's about revenge against the world, like him. He's driven by hate, like him.

I like how comics Sam's insecurities and self-hatred translated through the way he hates his appearance in the MCU. My biggest issue is the lack of egocentrism. I don't mind the lack of immaturity because some Leader itterations can be very mature, though I did like the little tantrum he threw, but to me the big failure of MCU Sam is the lack of ego, which is born of a lack of screentime.

Unfortunatly, Sam didn't get a lot of lines (or rather a lot of lines were removed/censored) but he got a few very Leader-ish ones. Near the end when he meets Sam Wilson one last time and tells him "you ruined my grand final so now I'm forced to turn myself in" and he sounds incredibly annoyed but in a very childish way. It really reminded me of that moment in Incredible Hulk 345 :

Incredible Hulk 345 (1988) writing by Peter David, pencil by Todd McFarlane

It's not the only moment I went "typical Sam", in fact I had this smile everytime he showed up to say something. It even destabilized me a few time because they mentioned things that aren't that obvious in comics (to my own displeasure), which have me think they understood him so well. Tim too, through his interviews, had a very good understanding of him. It makes me sad to think it's probably over forever now because he has so much potential that I want them to explore, but it is what it is. Actors aren't as immortal as their characters and Tim doesn't owe me more of Sam if he doesn't want to either. Which I would understand given he got fucked twice over this character (though he does implied he would love to explore him more a few time and Tim loving Sam is a thought that gives me a lot of joy for some reasons). Let's talk about his face :

As I said already it's visibly PAINFUL. His brainish head looks like a mix of brain matter and these blisters you get when you have a very bad burn and the main reason is very basic : it's a radiation poisoning. Gamma, specifically, which is the most known form of radiation poisoning through the consequences of A-bombs in Japan and Chernobyl, thus the hair loss and very pale kind of green. Thus the burn and these "bubbles" on his head. I'm not gonna share pictures of what a gamma radiation does to the body for obvious reasons but it burns. It burns and in some case your skin turns pale.

The point of MCU Sam is that he was overdosed after all. Which has me think Sam probably has a lot of painful health issues and constantly physically suffers his mutation.

Source : Wikipedia

Gamma poisoning can also induce blood leak (and in a lot of shot it seems like his nose bled a few times), loss of hair (thuns the baldness) and blindness, what he seemingly suffer in his left eye, as it can induces neurotrophic keratopathy and cataracts, which is why the eye turned white but still glows green. And dry eyes, which would explain why it's more bloody than his green eye.

Gamma ray can also induce hearing loss and while it's mostly internal, given how his right ear looks like I do think he's probably deaf from that ear.

His mutation is mostly present in the right side of his face, in fact, destroying his ear, invading his neck and if you now how brain works, you know in most case numeration is made through the right lobe, probably a coindence but I like that it matches his obsession with pourcents.

So it has me think (but it's pure headcanon and speculation here, not a fact) that he was injected through the right arm thus the "burn" and brain invasion being more present here. Tim Blake Nelson compared Sam to Icarus, saying that he flew too close to the Sun (understand by this his passion for science and his need to push the limits as far as possible) and burnt himself. He was talking about his mutation and how he kinda did it to himself, as a metaphor, but I'll go deeper and say his mutation does look like he was burnt.

And of course you can wonder what else it impacted inside his body, because given he has all the physical "outside" symptoms like burnt and hair loss and vision loss and hearing loss and brain damaged (well, in his case mutation). We know gamma poisoning kills the thyroid and the gastrointestinal tract and damages the heart and reproductive system so what you can dedice from that is how his existence is most likely very, very painful and most likely deadly. So why is he alive ? Well, I have my theory on that. First all all you gotta understand gamma poisoning in the MCU doesn't work like comics, it has its own rules and She-Hulk established than the most important rule is DNA. Basically neither Bruce nor Jen died of the gamma poisoning because of something specific to their DNA. And sure, technically Sam should share that DNA, at least in comics, but Immortal Hulk giving him, Bruce (and so Jen) the same bloodline was something added a bit too late to truly impact She-Hulk (and they probably didn't care looking that deep either honestly). It's not something that can be applied to MCU Sam. So that means Sam wasn't meant to survive and in a way he didn't. He's an ant walker.

Ant walkers is how Charles R. Pellegrino names Hiroshima survivors who were wandering in the ruins in lines like ants with their body burnt and a very specific posture, which is very similar to MCU Sam's, in The Last Train From Hiroshima. It's a very controversial topic, however, The Last Train From Hiroshima being full of sensational historically inaccurate informations and so the existence of ant walkers is very doubtful, but it still exists in our imaginary and that's enough to think it might have inspired MCU Sam's behaviors, that ghost wandering with slow and heavy movments.

So yes, in a way Sam is dead, metaphorically of course, but also his body. And it's probably why unlike everyone else he can't just revert back to who he was. Because even if he could do that, he would still suffer the irreversible damages he's dealing with. The only reason he stayed alive even through a clearly lethal dose of gamma is probably thanks to his gamma brain, he found ways to stay alive. It's a theory I had since day one, but recently Ioan Joyner (who worked on MCU Sam's design) shared an early concept art of Sam in a tube with this description :

"An idea for how we could possibly reveal The Leader in Captain America : Brave New World. The thought was that his body was in constant pain, the brain and cranium always growing with massive weight, his mind always racing, so he would submerge himself in an isolation tank, literally taking a load off, yet still aware and manipulating behind the scenes." - Ioan Joyner

And so it's not really a stretch to think this idea stayed. Sam is alive because his brain allowed to keep him alive, otherwise he would be dead. And I know what you're thinking, you're thinking about Blonsky. But before Blonsky got irradiated through Bruce's blood, he was injected an incomplet Super Soldier Serum and we saw it being strong enough to regenate him from severe wounds that should have left him disabled forever so that explain how he survived and why he's ok once he reverts back to himself.

Why would Sam stay alive given everything is another question though but I assume out of ressent, like his comics self. It's kinda hinted, through Sam's fear for Mercy, that he's suicidal in comics too (and he did try to let himself die after Bruce was launched to space because he lost he only purpose)

Tales to Astonish 63 (1963) writing by Stan Lee, art by Carl Burgos

A lil' touch that I like a lot also are his very blue-ish dark circles, it reminds of his Trimpe/Buscema era (though his dark circles were more yellow, not blue/purple) it also reminds me of Tales to Astonish and to me his MCU design is a mix of both McFarlane and Tales to Astonish.

There's a lot of still very reddish part on his head, as if it was still bleeding under the skin and so is either recent or still "moving/evolving".

He has a lot of blue and red around the eyes and the nose, ear and nose (especially left part of his face) that kinda looks like he has blood leaks from here, like I mentioned above. Which highly reminds me of his Thunderbolts era.

His nose often bled when he was thinking too much. But it also have him look like he was beaten up, which probably happened a few time, or as if he was sick (blood loss is also a symptom of radiation poisoning).

That's why his grotesque design is amazing. "he looks awful", yes ! Exactly, that's the point. It's not only in character to both his MCU self and comics self, it also serves the plot. Is it perfect ? Far from it. But way better than the initial one. Even without him talking about his torture, you understand it, because he's painful to look at, because you can only imagine the pain he went through by looking at his revulsive face. And I'm glad Marvel didn't pull a dumbass joke during his reveal, just a surprise on people's face and a "damn". Marvel treated his mutation as a real curse and not as a funny haha joke like M.O.D.O.K. I liked that a lot, they were respectful to him and it was important for the empathy and horror we would feel for him to keep it serious and to not joke about it to lighten the mood.

When Captain is looking for information about Sam, you have Giancarlo's character saying "what a gruesome lad" or something like that and Cap going "I saw worst" and I liked that. In that moment I was hopping maybe Cap would try to understand him like he did with Ross and everyone else but y'know. And it's something that pisses me off SO MUCH, how they turned Cap into Ross' dog, serving the Gov he represents until the end and never trying to show empathy to Sam while he did for Ross.

But I'll go back to that later, trust me I will throw some salt here. Let's keep doing with Sam's design.

Ok before we keep going, quick reminder for people who haven't seen Incredible Hulk, that's Sam when he was normal :

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7cbe1b_da81974e17ba4da5a2c2c875ab0ac328/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

He tends to move a lot, to talk a lot, to have quick movements and gestures, he can't just stay still. It makes sense because like I said earlier, MCU Sam is ADHD, thus the messy lab, thus the obsessive behaviors etc...

The Incredible Hulk novel by Peter David

And yeah, hummingbird (on crack) is a good way to describe him. His movements are so quick and kind of "lightweighted" so you picture this very small bird and his wings flapping incredibly fucking fast. You imagine this lad floating around quickly with such ease.

In Incredible Hulk that's how he looks like. Overly excited, overly expressive (through his face, his words and his movements), full of energy. That's why I often call him a sunshine, because that's his energy. He's as warm as the Sun.

But in Brave New World ? He's TIRED. Zero energy. No expression, no movement, as cold as the darkest void and night. Everytime he moves his body seems so slow, so heavy, as if every movement was a burden. Just like it was physically visible that he had a great time doing science, feeling alive, it's physically visible that he doesn't live anymore now. He's broken, not only mentally but also physically.

When in IH he was mostly showing enthousiasm, passion and happiness, the only emotion you'll see on him in BNW is rage and annoyance, the only time he shows emotion it's when he violently shakes out of anger and screams, otherwise he's just so cold, so slow, totally opposing what he used to be.

Even when he walks it's still slow.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7cbe1b_7d02e418b6b0476f8062b201d3f29c8a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

And to me that's the most painful and scary part about him but also the best, that's why his ADHD is important. His change of attitude is the most obvious representation of the pain he went through. That's the tragedy, how the happiest most passionate person can break and turn into this vengeful cold shadow.

I know it's just a fiction but do you ever think of what 16 years cut off from humanity and the outside does to the mind ? Because I do. Imagine living it through a disgusting uncomfortable dark cell. With no notion of time, cut off of humanity, of natural light (maybe of light at all at first) with not a soul to talk to, nothing to do, alone with your own thought and nothing to take your attention away from that neverending silent pain.

His pain is very obvious through that change. He doesn't need to describe the tortures he went through (which, I think, was the idea earlier in this project, leaking footages of his tortures instead of having him leak his conversation with Ross and I do think it would have been cooler). Because it's just obvious through the way he talks and move (and look, of course).

Wherever there's a light, there is a shadow and Sam is now nothing but the shadow of the bright light his past projects.

After all, blue is the coldest color.

Before I'll go deeper I wanna go back to the post credit scene. It was bothering to me, but not for the reasons people claimed. First you gotta understand Sam feels no satisfaction in hurting unless it's very personal, his personal self tends to be like that too. He'll hurt out of pragmatism, because it's needed and will enjoy it when it's personal and someone who did him wrong, but otherwise he won't give a shit. He won't feel bad, but he won't enjoy either. It's just science to him. Well, MCU Sam is like that too.

When you think about it, he only killed US soldiers. He even said "I take no pleasure in your death" to one of them because that's not the point, the point isn't pleasure. It's pragmatism. He kills because he has to for his plan and if he has to kill he might as well kill people who represent and fight for the system he's trying to destroy.

And yes, I know you'll mention that couple he killed in that big white house.

A big white house with a pool and the US flag. It was the house of an admiral and your typical wealthy patriote family, the representation of the broken and corrupted "American Way" he's fighting. It's less obvious because they removed the whole "anti-US" part of Sam's writing but it makes sense when you remember that's what he's supposed to be, even after the reshots. Like Tim said, he's an anarchist with a sense of justice. They're not "innocents" to him, they're part of the problematic system, part of the problem, so it's an acceptable sacrifice, an useful one, even.

He sacrifices people who are guilty to him, guilty of supporting that system he's trying to destroy.

Lots of people assume Sam is about revenge, but it's wrong. He's about Justice.

When he turns Ross into a monster like him because "it's only fair" that's "justice". He's doing to him exactly what he went through, a balanced justice. And that's how he picks his target and people he sacrifices.

Killing Isaiah would probably have been more efficient to have Captain America staying away Camp Echo One long enough, but he didn't. He merely threatened him and killed the Serpents instead, the one who abducted him before becomig mercenaries. Because if he gotta kill people he might as well get justice while he's at it.

Even if they tried to remove that part of him, Sam is still that anarchist who tries to break an unfair system and the people profiting off of the weaks.

He reminds me of MCU Zemo in that way (and a lot of others). He was probably heavily inspired by him as well, which makes me even sadder given how well Zemo's sense of justice was written.

I'm sad and angry they removed all these cool anti US sentences from Sam we could hear in trailers.

And I'll tell you what my guess is. My guess is they changed Sam twice. First time because of the design change, second time because of the current US climat. Because Sam is, in a lot of ways, similar to Luigi Mangione. So really, I wouldn't be surprised if this second Sam got censored last minute because of that. That's why he throws a "I'm the hero" nonsense out of nowhere and why he looks so unfinished. Why all his lines from th trailers are removed. Because that's what he was trying to be, a hero saving people from the system the same way Luigi Mangione became one to a lot of people for killing a direct actor of that unfair system. I do think that's what Sam was trying to achieve in that finished version, becoming a symbol. And it would have made his clash with Cap way more interesting given that's what he's about. It would have give them a real duality, it would have been a perfect way to make him directly opposing Cap, by trying to be the same symbol in an opposed way. And that's one of the biggest issue with MCU Sam, his relationship with Captain America is inexistent and a good villain lives through the hero. He barely challenged him because Disney decided to protect their poor bigoted ultra rich investors who felt so threatened by the perspective of a symbol of justice and because Disney thought Red Hulk would be easier to sell. It's about cowardice. They were afraid to butthurt their investors, but they were also afraid it wouldn't appeal and rather than trusting their projects, they made it flat and boring by trying to remove every political plots in it. That's why Red Hulk doesn't "die" anymore either. Because they didn't want the braindead maga who boycotted the movie anyway to feel hurt and cry online about "wokism" (spoiler : OF COURSE THEY DID ANYWAY).

And I love this movie, alright, I love it more than you think, I wouldn't waste my time writing so much about it otherwise. But just because you love something doesn't mean you shouldn't point at its problems. It's this movie's biggest flaws, how fucking visible Disney's investors influence is. From Sabra (it's ridiculously obvious Israel paid Disney to have their own hero for propaganda purpose, the way it happened soon after we got a Palestinian hero makes it even more disgustingly obvious), to the very flat plot. It's all about capitalism and capitalism is controlled by supremacism, it's that simple. And that's what this movie suffers, capitalism. They removed a part of the plot, they removed anything that made this movie something more powerful to make it as fucking blend as possible to try to sell to a public who would never support a black Captain America to begin with. It was a movie about justice and corruption and what is it now ? Cap turned into a dog and Sam into a yet another boring "I need revenge" forgettable villain.

And as much as I love this movie and MCU Sam, FUCK, how FRUSTRATED I am at what could have been. This whole post is infuriating, seeing all the good ideas the team had, seeing Tim's work to give a life and personality to Sam and seeing how all that got removed. We all deserved better. Fans deserved better, the team deserved better, Anthony deserved better, Tim deserved better, Sam (both Sterns and Wilson) deserved better and for what ? Because in the end this movie was a failure to people (it's far from true but that's how they see it) and will go down as one of the worst MCU movie in their mind because of the annoying weak-ass "anti woke" crowd who would have loudly hate on it no matter what anyway, but also by the fans Marvel Studios let down the moment they bended the knee to please the trump administration rather than pleasing them. Of course it wasn't nearly as bad as people pretend it is, it was ok. Not great, not bad. Enjoyable. A lot of people absolutly loved it but when you love it as much as I do it's just upsetting. So I will blame Disney for every shitty decisions they took with this movie, it won't prevent me from loving everybody else's work, but I won't pretend it's ok to feel more comfortable.

I recently saw a comment of someone saying they hated lads like Sam who punish everyone over that one guy who hurt them and it was a fascinating comment because they perfectly pointed out the problem with Sam's final writing. Yes, that's kind of what he looks like now.

With everything I said about killing soldiers and pro US folks, we do understand it wasn't his point (at least for the insane obsessive nerd I am), we know he wasn't punishing everyone but only people who were guilty of supporting an unfair and murderous system that only profite the rich and powerful. But it's obvious to us, once you read this post and look at back at the movie. For everyone else who's normal and watch it once, it's not, because THEY REMOVED IT (which is kind of the point of the Leader, y'know, overthrowing the gov, GODDAMIT).

And it's odd to me that Cap will forgive and try to understand people like fucking Ross and even Zemo (not totally, but still) but not Sam. He went to him for what in that post credit scene ? To tell him to go fuck himself ? But that's my problem with their (inexistant) dynamic, Cap complying to everything Ross, the embodiment of the unfair corrupted US Gov, wanted him to do, understanding him, forgiving him, giving him a reason to be a war criminal while punishing the direct victim of this system, hating him, rejecting him. Cap had so much empathy for the fucker who had his own interests before justice and before people, for the guy WHO WAS FUCKING READY TO START WORLD WAR III INSTEAD OF SAYING "yeah I fucked up with Sam alright, my bad, now let's find him and stop that war", the guy who hurt his friends but, again, most importantly THE PHYSICAL EMBODIMENT OF THE GOVERNEMENT AND UNFAIR CAPITALIST SYSTEM (it's even more disgusting given it's to comform to a fucking trumpist era) and made him have so much hatred and disdain for the victim who tried to change that system. Not even once did he tried to understand Sam, to reasonate him like he does with everyone else and YET, the way Cap tries to argue with people and see the best in them before fighting them is mentionned and USED in the movie TWICE by SAM STERNS himself.

And I'm not saying this because I love Sam. I'm saying this because YOU MAKE A BLACK ICON FORGIVING A WHITE SYSTEM AND PUNISHING ITS ALIENATED VICTIMS INSTEAD OF SHOWING COMPASSION TO THEM GOD FUCKING DAMMIT ! Ross ended up in prison but still had compassion and forgiveness, it wasn't impossible to punish Sam while still showing compassion to him or to fucking question the established order through him the way T'Challah did through Killmonger and changed things. Killmonger FUCKING DIES as a villain, but T'Challah still listened and changed things because he understand the injustice of the system created Killmonger. But noooooooo, let's have fucking Captain America totally following and forgiving the fucking US President's will even after he's gone, now that's a great idea ! COME ON !! Even Steve Rogers questionned it in the Winter Soldier ! It was the point !!

ALRIGHT, alright, that's enough salt, let's go back to our initial matter.

It's easier to have empathy and pity for MCU Sam than his comics counterpart (and yet, he's also tragic in his own way, like, he was abused by his parents and bullied by pretty much everyone else, so) because his past life is VISIBLE, even if you haven't seen Incredible Hulk you can't miss it, who he was, because even if you don't analyze everything you saw like I'm doing here, you still saw it nonetheless. It's something even comics Sam lack of, this connexion between what he was and what he is, how he turned the way he is. This is kind of frustrating to me in fact, how comics Sam's past was never explored. I'm still praying it will happen while I'm alive but y'know, it's been 60 years and the best we got about it so far was Immortal Hulk 34 that started the night of his mutation and I probably reached half my life already so I'll most likely never see that LOL.

My other fav part of this MCU Sam, other than his whole cold attitude, is his eyes. How it glows, of course, but also how they gave him a white blind eye. Like I said, it's a cool homage to his McFarlane design :

I like to think the reason his white eye is the left one is because that's where he was wonded and got infected by Bruce's blood, so it could have destroyed his eye in the process. But again, it's merely an headcanon.

In comics this second bald mutation was also induced by a too high dosage of gamma, similar to how Ross kept feeding him gamma below his limits in the MCU.

But having it being the left eye is conveniant to us, for the symbolism.

Remember Horus? Now is time to talk about that.

While I don't think Sam is a metaphor for Horus, not on purpose at least, I do find some similarities between them. Horus lost his left eye to Seth who teared it away. It got fixed, creating the eye we talked about above. But in our case, his eye is lost and Sam now as infinite knowledge, like his comics self, to the point of clairvoyance. That's why I find this eye symbolic very interesting It's his sacrificed humanity and the clairvoyance he gained through it.

Horus left eye also symbolize the Moon and Sam being a very obvious metaphor of the dark and death I think night (and so Moon) suits him. In fact I've been connecting him to the Moon since my first watch, as you saw if you follow my fanarts WIP lol so obviously the Horus inspiration is something I like, it works very well. After all, Egytians Gods weren't manichean. No real Good or Evil.

Seth is a God of many things but among them you have violence and storms and his pursuit of the throne, which should remind you of a certain Red character. "Thunderbolt" Ross, his violence and his pursuit for the White House.

Seth and Horus had a huge rivalry and enemies relationship but it was also pretty damn ambiguous and fucked up, it's a SFW blog so I won't say more but it's also a good way for me to introduce the last part :

IV - Sam and Ross' relationship

Without going as far as what happened between Seth and Horus, there's a very ambiguous relationship between Sam and Ross.

It's your typical toxic relationship with a violent abuser. They will physically abuse you, mentally abuse you, cut you from everything you love and then proceed to kind of "comfort" you with little gifts or compliments but they're not real compliments, it's more of "you're a loser but I see your full potential" kind of compliments. A way to put you down. The goal is basically to break your self-estime and have you think nobody will ever care or accept you ever again, except for that one abusor who will present themself as a savior who see the potential nobody else can see, teaching you how to behave to "unleash your full potential" (of course the real reason is TOTAL CONTROL over you). They'll throw little "you're not good yet but you'll be"as a way to both put you down and lower your self-estime while having you think this person does see something in you that nobody else can see.

It's very easy to guess that's what happened between Sam and Ross because when Sam called him, Ross tells him angrily "I helped you more than anyone else" and Sam answers "only to get what you wanted". He could answered like "bitch you've been torturing me" but instead he aknowledge that Ross did help him, that's how he feels about it. Ross is the one who destroyed his life, put him here, physically and psychologically abused him but somehow Sam still feel like he did help him, it's the exact thing I just pointed out, destroying you in a way that make you think they're helping.

Sam's bedroom is also a proof of that, how did he got all these things from his past ? Who gave it to him ? It's Ross. He built this toxic relationship with him to get his full loyalty and to get total control over him. And it worked.

Sam probably didn't help Ross just out of fear or because he wanted the Presidential pardon. But also because Ross manipulated him through a toxic relationship to make Sam feels empathy and sympathy for him.

And so when the guilt trip doesn't work anymore, Ross tries to use this empathy (which is also part of the basic mental abuse schema) "you gotta understand my position" with a sad and threatened voice instead of the angry one he had seconds ago.

Sam answers him "oh but I do" (which is the Sam sass I crave btw) and then adds "you let me rote in that prison". He's upset because Ross abandoned him here. He will mention the torture he went through to Cap but never to Ross, he only mention that he forsook him. It's probably why Sam keeps telling Cap "he will never change" angrily, because he probably believed in that himself, because Ross certainly told him the same things he said to Cap and told him he would save him too because he changed. And Sam believed in that, believed in Ross. If they had to inject Sam with more and more gamma it means he wasn't as clairvoyant as he is now, even through the first irradiation, so he probably first believed in Ross before the weight of his knowledge crushed all his emotions and showed him how pointless hoping was.

"It was my curse to watch your betrayal written in probabilities". Curse and Betrayal are strong words. It feels like he wanted to believe in Ross. Not just out of pragmatism to get out of his cell, but because he had hope in Ross himself, it's the kind of thing you'd say when you get hurt by someone you used to appreciate, not your oppressor.

I often saw "If Sam is so smart and knew Ross would betray him, why did he help him until the end anyway ?" well, my first guess would be because it was part of his scheme to destroy his legacy once he's the President and have all the eyes on him, but it could be why too. Because that's what toxic relationship are about, it's about making sure that your emotions will take the best out of your logic so you stay and you suffer and normalize the abuse you go through and you even feel grateful to your oppressor because "at least they take care of me even if I'm the shit they told me I am" and once they leave you feel angry not just because they broke you, but because they were everything you had left and they abandoned you. Because you feel like you're not even good enough for a toxic relationship, because that's how broken and "mind controlled" you are. Sam is upset at Ross because he abandoned him so it's not far of a stretch to think he got attached to him. It makes sense, even.

Sam most likely suffers Stockholm Syndrome.

I mean, Ross was probably the only human being he saw in 16 years. He probably never talked to his warren or anyone else (I can see him trying though), only Ross. Ross probably had little talks with him to have his sympathy. I guess that's what Sam is refering to when he says "I miss our little visits". Sure, it's a very obvious sassy mockery and a way to have Sam explaining how Ross was personally responsible for his tortures and physically here when it happened. I don't think Ross' visits stopped to the torture, after all he needed to ask him questions as well and what to do, giving him orders and stuff so he probably had less physically painful visits.

Note how he says "OUR" visits and not "YOUR". It sound very personal. Intimate, even.

It sounds like it was their moment, in the way that you probably had Ross opening up to Sam (honestly or through lies, but to Sam it probably felt genuine) and Sam to Ross. Ross promising Sam his freedom and his life, giving him presents to make his torture somewhat "acceptable" in his mind. Talking about his own life to get his trust. It's probably the only moment of humanity Sam could get, the only moment he could feel like a person. Maybe he was even looking forward to it.

You see when Sam decorated his prison in a way to cover his pain by hope ? Well, that's also what Ross is to Sam. He's his hope too. Because he's the one who brought him all these physical artifacts of hope, because he's the one who promised him he would get out and because he was probably nice to him, from time to time, enough to have Sam trusting him.

Ross leaving Sam to rote was Sam losing his last connexion to hope and to humanity, through Ross. And maybe even affection, a twisted one but affection nonetheless.

Because remember, Sam was framed like some kind of evil terrorist. He didn't just lose his freedom, he lost the love of every single person he ever cared about. His students, his colleagues, his friends, his family (if he had one at least because comics Sam's thirst for knowledge was born of a need to be loved by the family who alienated him so who knows, maybe MCU Sam's ambitions were born of that too, we can't tell). He's alone physically and psychologically, nobody to turn to and to love anymore. So it's not really a stretch to think he would develop and crave affection from his oppressor, that's a natural human mecanism even.

He doesn't want to kill Ross, he wants him to feel what he felt because of him. That's why he turned him into a monster, physically but also in his inability to control himself and his emotions, like Sam, and that's why he wanted to "destroy his legacy" and have him being hated by Betty forever. Just like Sam lost his loved ones' respect and affection.

After all, Betty is Ross' hope, it's the reason he changed.

In the same way, he was the reason Sam changed and became who he is now, even if it's in a negative way. There's this huge parallel between Ross and Sam, very similar to Bruce and Sam in comics and it's a pity they couldn't properly explore that, to the point you never see Sam and Ross in the same room (which I assume is because of Tim/Harrison schedule conflicts during reshot 'cause according to trailers Sam was supposed to be physically present during Ross' last speech and his Red Hulk transformation).

And I'll go as far as saying that mind control is also a metaphor for that. I mean, yes, it's obviously because Sam do mind control people in Peter David's run (I miss this power and the humanoids... They barely use or mention that nowaday...) but it's also because Ross "mind controlled" Sam through his fake hope and empathy, through this toxic relationship. Everything Sam does is about "doing the same". Making Ross suffers every single things he suffered, not more but not less, as a form of justice and balance.

Ross had a very obvious and strong hold on Sam, but Sam also has one on Ross. Sam is very special to him. He became dependent of Sam, he listened to everything Sam would told him to do, having him save his life even. He needed him, to survive and for his ambition. Sam has this form of power over Ross and Sam is now very aware of that.

Ross always feared him for a reason, that's why he was so secured but he doesn't just fear Sam's wrath and his capacity to totally fuck up his life, he feared to loose him, he said it himself, he thought about letting him free or at least having him move in a more pleasant place but he feared losing him and so dying. He needs him to stay alive, obviously (which is a big Cap 4 plot hole when you think of it 'cause then how does he survives when they're both in the Raft ?) but he also needed him to think for him. When you think about it, it's a good (most likely accidental) allegory for generative AI, how relying on a machine (which is what he turned Sam into) to think for you can lead to a form of dependance.

During the flight fight when Sam was trying to Hulk him out, you could see his very visible hold on Ross' emotions. It was mostly fear, of course, Sam has now the power to destroy Ross' life (and worst). Anger also, Ross seems incredibly upset at Sam, even before he knew it was him for the White House he called him a bastard angrily. They probably argued over Ross' betrayal during his last visit, or maybe he was just pissed off at Sam's growing sass and self-estime as he was becoming smarter.

But there's more than that, because sure during that flight call Sam uses Ross' fear and anger at first, but after that he praised Ross' strength and power and it's visible through Ross' eyes turning red that this idea sounds very seductive to him and how hard it is to resist that temptation (which I like a lot, because comics Sam is the embodiment of temptation, like, people know they can't trust him but they'll follow anyway because of the promesses he gives and shit like that). Calling to Ross' egocentrism and need of praising.

For a very brief moment, when he talks with Cap about his heart condition, Ross shows remorse for Sam when he talks about how he considered moving him, right before calling him a colateral damage, he just looks at the ground with guilt. He does feel bad for Sam.

I guess because he changed, because he spent time to get close to him to have his trust, Ross got attached to Sam.

When you think about it Sam does (did) the same job as his daughter, he's around the same age. Deeper than that, Sam is also the Bruce he never got, in the way that he was a concilient scientist who would somewhat "understand" him.

Sam was a way for Ross to get everything he wanted. From his ambitions, to his health. To a way to get the concilient little nerd he wanted. But also, maybe, as a way to be paternal to someone when Betty wasn't here anymore.

CONCLUSION (at last) :

This Sam isn't the Leader.

I think the initial idea was to have him as the Leader. It's visible through all the merch we got of the first scraped design where THE LEADER is slapped everywhere. Meaning there's a reason they didn't use this name in the final version.

In a recent interview, Julius Onah explained that the post credit scene was different at first, but they changed it because they had a "better and bigger view" of the future of the MCU. One of the reason, of course, is to avoid a Kang fiasco again and to be vague enough to be able to change a few things if needed.

But they changed it during reshot to match the future of the MCU. And Sam was also changed during these reshot, to change his design mostly but it has me wonder. Is it the reason he's not the Leader yet ? We didn't even get a namedrop and give how Marvel LOVE namedropping, missing one is ALWAYS intentional.

Is it because Marvel is planning to bring him back later in a more Leader-ish version? (kinda like Zemo getting a more comics outfit later in the D+ show).

I mean, why bringing back every gamma folks ? Why recasting Ross for ONE single movie instead of putting someone else and make him die in the MCU like they did with T'Challah ? Why taking such an expensive actor ? Why wouldn't Sam go after Bruce when he's the reason he's what he is now (and honestly Ross probably had him hate Bruce more than himself) ? In fact having Bruce's blood make his weird "brotherly" gay obsession for him in comics even more relevant, now they really are "brothers in blood", in an absolutly twisted way. There's a lot to say, in fact, about the potential relationship between Sam and Bruce and how interesting it could be but I'll keep that for another post.

Given all the money they lost through that decision and the inevitable controversy that would ensure, why changing his design last minute instead of just sacrificing him like MODOK if it was for a one time ride ?

This Sam have a lot to tell and I do believe it was Marvel's intention back then. But things changed, lots of projects got cancelled, anything related to Brave New World became unpopular so whatever they were planning to do probably belongs to the oblivion now, we'll never get to know what it was about. Like I said, it truly pains me to think Tim's Sam is over. Just like that. After 16 years of waiting and hoping, all I got was 5min of screentime and 3-4 interviews during SDCC because he wasn't even part of the very shy promo BNW got. It was my hope for 16 years, then it was my life for 3 year and then it was gone. Just like that.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7cbe1b_a529f448d9a64500a0a61c3954ad3a7e/480p/mp4/file.mp4

This is a great Sam interpretation. His origin story and motivations are different and yet so in character. MCU Sam is the perfect balance between free interpretation and respectful adaptation. He's a totally different Sam, giving us a very refreshing version and making me feel like discovering him all over again, while being incredibly respectful to who he is. He is cold but full of emotions. He's smart and blinded by it. He is sassy and kinda playful as well. The way he bets with Cap, the way he tells him "don't be boring", when Cap tells him he has a different kind of humor. The way he talks to people "President Ross, I miss your little visits", the way he manipulates Ross to have him Hulk out. It's just Sam. And it's so frustrating in a way because all of these points I'm mentioning are barely exploited and shown. That's what I mean when I say "the problem with MCU Sam isn't his writing but the lack of it".

They introduced everything needed to have a good Leader, it's like every ingredients to make a very good cake are here on the table and you just don't use them, you let them rote on that table. That's how this MCU Sam feels like. He's very and painfully incomplet.

But he has so much potential I can't help but love him so deeply.

I couldn't feel more grateful for Tim Blake Nelson for putting all his heart in this role anyway and for taking him so seriously. It's the role that kept me alive and he was up to the job. He has all this potential to go down as one of the best Sam writing ever made.

And I don't want to say good bye. Not like this. Not with all this wasted potential.

It's how it feels to me, I had this thought that kept me alive for so many years "I want to see MCU Sam again, I want to see Tim Blake Nelson in the MCU again" so as silly as it sounds, it feels like saying good bye to a part of my life. The worst part yes, but a part nonetheless. Tim isn't going anywhere, Sam isn't going anywhere, I can appreciate both of their journey. But I don't want to say good bye just yet.

And so, until I am ready to let him go, I'll just keep writing and drawing, to give MCU Sam the life and the love he deserved. Because that's what passion is about.

So until next time, enjoy~