Let's Talk : MCU Sam and comics accuracy
- lirhyapetitpain
- 10 juil.
- 53 min de lecture
Dernière mise à jour : 13 août
I wrote this post under another name on my old blog, that's why it will look familair. But I totally rewrote it, adding new stuff, making it more complet. So feel to re-read!
I've been a fan of the Leader for so long I can't even remember when it started. But unfortunatly for me, while he was popular in the 90s, he became quite unknown and unpopular, even if he's the main antagonist of one of the main Avengers. And yet, ever since Captain America Brave New World came out, suddenly there's so many "fans" who are upset at his MCU design because it's "not comics accurate". I honestly couldn't care less about a bunch of loser yelling after the wind but I thought it would be interesting to talk about this notion of "comics accuracy" but also to talk about design.
This MCU Sam Sterns has the potential to go down as one of the greatest MCU villain given the proper care and what he suffers isn't a lack "comics accuracy" but a lack of writing, chemestry with the protagonist and screentime.
So today let's talk about comics accuracy and let's redesign MCU Sam together.
Little disclaimer : I design as a fan who do little fanarts in their freetime for fun and who share what I would expect to see as such while trying to stay objective because it's a super fun and interesting exercice to re-imagine something like Sam, respecting his comics self, what was done in the MCU already, market, people's expectations and the story you want to tell yourself.
I - Comics Accuracy
The first thing we need talk about is the notion of "comics accuracy". Does it really have a meaning?
Take a look at all the most popular MCU characters, none of them are comics accurate. If they are in design then not in writing and vice versa. Remember how comics Loki's whole design and writing changed to match the MCU because it was so popular comics reader felt deceived by their comics self. How Thanos' writing was changed from trying to impress Death to trying to save the World. Where are Tony's alcohol issues? It's a key part of his writing. What about the design and writing of the guardians, M'Baku, even Namor, no matter his green pants? "Comics accuracy" is a meaningless expression people throw to feel more legitimate and relevant than you in their personal tastes.
Let's take an obvious and recent exemple. Take Kang. Look at He Who Remains. Now look at Kang in Ant-Man 3, guess which one is praised and which one is "butchered" and which one is physically "comics accurate" and which one isn't.
"Comics accuracy" is a nasty notion preventing characters from evolving and putting creatives on a leash.
And frankly, given the importance of the multiverse and different interpretations/variants are in the Marvel universe, I don't understand why "comics accuracy" should matter. The multiverse was created for the sole purpose of allowing every versions of every characters from every imaginations to coexist, comics accuracy doesn't exist in something like Marvel. MCU He who remains is nothing like his comics self. Let it be in his design, in his attitude. Nobody even know who the fuck he was before Loki came out. It's not about Comics accuracy, it's a bit popularity and personal taste.
Ironically, Sam's fianl design was way more comics accurate than the first one they took.
Of course I don't need to remind you, since you're all Leader expert now, but Sam had a dozen design. Everytime he shows up he's different in a way or another. He was a mustache, he was bald, he was a floating brain, he had a small head, he was a lovecraftian freak. Hell, he wasn't even always green. That's what a good Sam design should be about, total freedom.
Here's a little game for you, without using Google name every comics these Sam are from. If you can't then you don't get to call him "my boy" to complain about his design as if you ever gave a single fuck about him or knew his name before you decided to hate on Captain America Brave New World.
I love what they did with his final design. It's in the vibe of his most popular era (McFarlane), the blind white eye and creepy smile in that final scene was a nice homage to that. Is it perfect? No. Is it ugly? Yes, but it was always the point, we're talking about the Leader folks, THE LEADER, why would he be anything but gross and ugly.
He is grotesque, that's the point, that's why he's incredibly hard to adapt on a live action, because something that looks good on a comics doesn't necessarly look good on screen. That's why everytime you have concept arts it always look better than what we got, because no matter how "realistic" the artstyle is, it's still a drawing, with controlled unreal colors, textures, poses, light, proportion and physical traits even. You can't reproduce that with a moving live action figure. It's not "better", it's "different". And you see, that's the funny thing with that smile. I saw SO MANY PEOPLE using this Captain America Brave New World screenshot to complain about how it wasn't "comics accurate" and how it was ugly. And it's not like it was an obscur reference, I mean, his bald McFarlane era is the MOST POPULAR LEADER ERA, the most represented in medias and merch. You CANNOT not know it if you know the character, it's impossible. And yet. People complain about the most comics accurate Leader shot we got to explain how it's not comics accurate. That's how meaningless this expression is.
And yes, the makeup team did an absolute good Job with this first design, but it's nothing like comics Sam. Sam is a gentleman, a dandy through the way he talks, the way he moves, the way he stands, the way he stands and the way he presents himself. That's why he has a perfect thin mustache and on point slicked back haircut. All you have here is a wreck of a guy. And sure, given his writing it would make sense and I'm sure I would have loved him no matter what, but it's not comics accurate. The only comics accurate thing here is the size of his forehead (not even necessarly true, as shown above), the green skin and the use of orange (and we don't even know if they keep that orange 'cause his shirt is white in that makeup picture of Tim Blake Nelson and early artworks).
I'm saying this as a French person, Le Samurai and Alain Delon are part of my culture alright. How the fuck do you watch this movie and think "mmmh, yeah... Typical Leader", how the fuck do you find inspiration for him in it? And I'm not saying this to say it would have been shit, I don't know, I didn't see it. I'm saying this to explain this first design was NEVER comics accurate and that's ok. I was DYING Sam on screen not because I wanted to see what I already know, I wanted to see it to see what they would cook with his design. I wanted a MCU Sam to see where they total freedom would lead them.
I'll be 100% honest with you folks, I love Sam's elongated head with hair design, it's my fav Sam design. In fact I think it's hot, I even draw NSFW of him (I'm not a freak just because you're a coward!) and I'm an incredibly big fan of Tim Blake Nelson's work. If someone should love that first design it's me. And yet when the first artwork came out I felt worried, because I knew people would hate it and mock it but mostly I wasn't sure I would like it myself (but I can't tell without watching how it looked on screen).
And if you take the time to find these old posts sharing that leaked first design before the movie came out, you'll see people complaining about how "fucking awful" it looks. That's the reason Marvel changed it, with every chaos it implies (because posters, merch and shit were ready, because you can't reshot a full movie in one week, unlike what internet is saying). I need you to understand something here. Tim Blake Nelson shot the movie TWICE because of this change. That's why you never see him interact with Harrison Ford, that's why he's hooded or with a hat, because they didn't have the budget nor time to reshot ALL of his scenes with a new design (they reshot it during the basic reshot session in June 2024, unlike what internet said). All his merch (and there were a lot, just browse Hot Topic and look at the amount of official shirts on sale), all the posters, all the money Disney lost with this change. You really THINK they did that because "they're dumb" or because "they hate Hulk" (why even bring him back if they do lol), you really think you're smarter than all the expert Disney pay? (Unfortunatly yes, people think they are, that's why they use "comics accuracy", to look smart). They did because IT DIDN'T WORK, period.
During my second watch, someone in the theater yelled "AH" in disgust and horror during his face reveal, but not in a negative way, rather in the same way Joaquin says "damn" in this moment and I thought to myself "you see? Now that's the kind of reaction his design should inspire". What Sam went through during 16 years need to be visible on his face to be properly understood. He needs to look "ugly" and gross. The whole point of his plot is he went through 16 of physical an mental TORTURES, he was ripped off of all of his humanity, turned into a machine. That's the point of his face reveal, that's why he's sitting on a torture chair and that's why the movie never mention nor shown what he went through. Because you don't need to, his design is enough for that. The white blind eye isn't just an homage, it makes him physically hurt and in pain. The first design is too boring for that. Too Simple. Sam needs to look like a monster, because that's what Hulk is about, it's a monster story.
So if you see someone crying "they massacred my boy" and how he's not like his comics self and blablabla you now know they don't read any of the comics they're talking about, they don't know a single thing about "their boy". All they want is a reason to hate on shit they don't care about and make numbers through it and look better than everyone else when they do because they have no hobbies or passion and lack of self estime and confidence.
Don't even waste your time proving them wrong, they do that very well by themself the moment they talked. Time is the most precious thing in the world folks, the only thing you will never be able to get back or pay for, so don't waste it.
That's why I never answer to these brainless morons, let them sink in the ignorance they're so proud of. I share about him for those who do care, out of passion. And if you look at comments under people complaining about the final look, you'll see that a shit tons of people actually love it. That's the thing, people who are ok with that design (and are just, like, normal people) don't need to cry online so you don't hear them.
And if you still don't understand why they last minute changed him, just look at the amount of popular meme people made on the final design (zero) and how many memes you have mocking the one they changed. I saw 3 in less than 24h making almost 100K likes, people didn't even know who he was and from what, that's just how absurd this design was.
And the second I saw Tim with that first makeup on a few days ago, I understood exactly why they changed it. It made sense way before they even showed anything, actually. I don't even get why Marvel thought it could possibly work other than to please the bunch of "comics accuracy" losers online and that's the perfect exemple as to why Marvel needs to fucking STOP trying to please people online, they don't know what they're talking about nor what they want and they're a GODDAMN MINORITY "but 100K people liked a post saying the final design is ugly" OUT OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO FUCKING SAW THE MOVIE, that's less than 0,01%! That's the thing I HATE about social media, it gives you the impression that a bunch of hateful fucking morons are relevant because they're loud on plateforms with an algorithm made to push negativity and hate because it creates engagement. Big studios should know best than to take that for granted.
Again, I don't hate on the makeup team and you shouldn't either because what they did is genuinely impressive, it's not their fault if that design cannot work on screen. But it should have been obvious it wouldn't work. I even called it months ago.
And given how limited they were with that second Sam, they did an insane work. It would have been SO SO GOOD if they went for this one right away instead of wasting time and money to stick to a "comics accuracy" they didn't get. You want "comics accuracy"? Here is it. In his manners, in his goal, in these shots. Comics Accuracy is more of an homage and a general energy. It's not about reproducing exactly what people know (fortunatly 'cause if I prove anything here is how people don't know shit).
You really think Disney would allow such a big waste to please 40 people during a screen test? They did because it DIDN'T WORK AT ALL, no matter how big their effort was, no matter how cool his writing was. It just didn't work. Because a good character needs not only a good writing and attitude, they need a good design as well. It's a trifoce.
II - Design
It doesn't mean this final design was perfect and I think we can totally improve it and turn Sam into a fascinating villain.
I disagree with every complains I've been reading about him, in the way that in my opinion the main problem with him isn't the size of his head of the lack of facial hair but rather his outfit. A good artist do what people like, a great artist make people like what they do and it applies to the MCU, as we shown through He Who Remains and every single of Marvel's most popular characters. But we're also here to sell so we can't totally ignore everything people said either. Our job, as designers, is to find a middle ground.
So the first thing we need to do is identify everything we want to keep, everything we love about that design :
Glowing eyes, we keep. Blind white eye, we keep. Difformations, we keep. Skin color, we keep, it's the right shade (same as Hulk) but we pay a deeper attention to the light because while his skin looked very green when he was in his cell thanks to the cold blue-ish light, it was way too "yellow" under the Sun, having people think he wasn't green at all. I know his McFarlane skin is also less green but still, we need to be way more cautious with that.
I love Sam's attitude in that second shot. The look in his eye, the position of his head and camera angle, he just looks so smug. That's the perfect Sam attitude. But we'll go back to that later. Notice the difference of skin color between these two, in the second shot it's harder to see the green of his skin because it's just a natural outside light. And it doesn't work well. You need to keep Sam inside or you need to cover him up when he's outside, but you can't get him wandering like that. That's why I like the hoodie, but again, I'll go back to that. Let's first talk about his look, then we'll talk outfit. People want a bigger head, we work on that. We keep this head, it works perfectly, but we make it bigger, slightly bigger. If it's too big it will look ridiculous and we don't that, so we barely grow it.
I made an exemple with a 10sec photoshop retouch. It's very ugly because the quick touch up had his "brain bumps" being "stretched", givin his brain a weird ugly texture so don't pay attention to that, just pay attention to the size.
You don't need to make it any bigger than that.
Of course unlike my very lazy touch up you need to add all these "bubbles" on his brain as well, we need to keep that "exploding and damaged" very gross look his head has already.
I would make the green veins more visible also. Make them visible on his body, let it invade his neck, his hands.
In fact, cover his body with scars. Like I said above, his pain needs to be visible through him, his body needs to be enough to tell his story and to justify his rage.
What I would add also is a damaged body. Either give me the shirtless Sam shot I deserve or find a way to make his body visibly painful through the way he moves, or what he says, whatever. It could even explain why he would keep feeding himself gamma even if he hates his new body, because it would be the only way to calm the awful pain he feels. Kind of when he was feeding himself gamma in Warbound because of his body breaking. It would explain why his head changed in size. Because he has to feed himself gamma to ease the pain (even maybe to stay alive).
I personally enjoy giving him burn scars on his right arm and some parts of his body (also on the right) because I like to think Ross injected him Gamma through his arm and it eventually burnt his skin, because his brain bumps on his head and the way it invades his neck reminds me of a burn scar.
I also added him more random scars from chirurgy and experiments. After all, if I was Ross I would "study" my little think tank in every possible way in order to reproduce that if something goes wrong. Also because it's the closest thing to Hulk I would have.
That's why I give him a giant scars on the chest, because I like the horrifying idea of army scientists opening Sam while he screams in pain (I promess I'm fine and normal!).
And more importantly, it gives him a very 'Frankenstein's monster' vibe. If you're used to use my posts, you know how Sam's writing was impacted by Frankenstein so it only makes sense to push that aesthetic.
I gave him scars on the wrist because I don't think you can survive 16 years of torture without seeing the Sun or talking to a human without trying to end it all. I wouldn't make it obvious though, I would make it visible through one or two shot but not the "main focus", it would be up to people to notice it or not.
I would give him nose bleed also, like he had in Thunderbolts.
Here's how I enjoy drawing his body and what I mean by scars and visible veins :
Brave New World isn't about the Leader, it's about Samuel Sterns losing what is left of his humanity and embrassing his future Leader faith, "it's too late for that now" is clear enough but I also explained more visible metaphors in the movie here. Like I often say, unlike his first scrapped version and its scrapped merch, not even once was he presented as "the Leader", he was the buyer and those choices may be related to his future, who knows. He's not the Leader yet in this movie, it's inspired by Tales to Astonish, his very introduction as a gamma irradiated. So it would make that even more relevant if his design "evolve". Now let's talk facial hair. I really think he doesn't need to have any and I would leave him this way honestly. Now people are used to it, you don't it anymore (I can't believe I'm actually defending a mustache-less version of Sam but what can I say, that's how good he looks).
But if you REALLY want to go for it, here's a thing or two. Technically, Sam had a lot of style for that. Goatee, thin mustache, your racist uncle's mustache, beard, no facial hair at all. The scrapped design went for a beard and it makes me think tit wouldn't be a good idea because I saw a lot of people saying it gave him a "hobo" look, and to be fair I agree, it makes him look like a mess and that's not what you want for a character that is supposed to be sophistocated. We're not designing Samuel Sterns, we're designing the Leader.
I would either use the very thin mustache or the combo thin mustache + goatee. Something very clean.
Then we give him a Super Villain outfit! That's my personal issue with MCU Sam and the reason I want him to be back again, I didn't get to see him with a Leader design. And for that, folks, you need that flashy orange jumpsuit.
I would make it very tight 'cause he tends to wear that, it adds to his confidence but also to the contrast between Hulk's body and his.
I would advise to take diving suits as your main inspo to make it comfortable for Tim.
Here's an unfinished design I started, we'll break it down together and see how it could work and why :
First of all let's talk about that orange and black suit. There's a few things you can play with to make little callbacks to comics. In this doodle I made, I kept the black "collar" he tends to get and I made him closer to his more modern looks in Fall of the Hulks/World War Hulks rather than going for the yellow one in the 60/70s because I think it would look better on screen than yellow. The black line on the biceps is directly inspired by his McFarlane design, he had this black line on his arm too, the long pointy black nails are also from that era. These little "bump" or whatever it's called (I'm French forgive me) on his shoulders are designed after these shoulder pieces he had, I'm not making them too big though. And that kind of strap going under his arm pits to his neck.
I didn't personally added it, but you can also add his "breastplate". I would make it silver for the reason above but it could look super good (the reason I haven't given him one is because my design isn't final and I have yet to test how it would look like lol)
Basically the "comics accurate" orange suit is how he's dressed when he's in his lab, but Marvel Studios made him somewhat of a field guy and because Sam (both MCU and comics) tends to recruit mercenaries and gang, I thought it would be nice to have a special outfit for that, so let's talk about the full long coat. Now something I really loved about his MCU self is the hood, especially in the deleted scene (most likely from the first version of Sam given the shape of the hood) we got during D23. This shot goes INSANELY hard, I WANT, I NEED to keep that energy.
Without going too deep in that 'cause that post is already AWFULLY LONG and I already mentionned that a few time, I just love the death allegory of that deleted moment. A black hooded figure in a long coat walking in an immaculate white room with corpses on the ground, it's a very obvious death metaphor. And it suits him well because if Sam is known for his brain, he's also known for being a very Lucifer-ious figure. Tim Blake Nelson compared him to Icarus and he was right about that too. Sam is a fallen angel allegory, he pays the price of his transgressions and arrogance, so both works. Immortal Hulk made that even more obvious but that's why the Death metaphor works so well for him. But I'm so in love with that shot, the way the coat moves, the way he walks, how mysterious and threatening it makes him look like to not see him at all.
So I give him a long coat, inspired by techwear and cyberpunk, because it's a very grounded way to add his "tech expert" energy but also because their form add a lot of movement and life and details without having to really move.
I would left the coat fully black, with some details on it to make it less casual, but all black. To keep that shadow/death/fallen angel image.
But the death metaphor isn't the only reason you would like to give him a hood, it's also very conveniant, on a pragmatic point of view, in the way that having him hooded spares you and Tim a shit tons of makeup and so time and CGI fixes and so more importantly you save money, that's why in Brave New World you see him with a hat and with a hood, because the details of his head are CGI so you're saving money and time.
And on a more story wise pov, Sam hidding himself is interesting. It gives him a very "Phantom of the Opera" vibe.
That's what I meant above when I said he shouldn't be wandering outside uncovered, I would hide him through that teachwear long big coat and pants. With a lot of belts and shit to carry his guns and techs stuff.
Here're some inspo :
As a designer, you need to make your design good looking and physically "obvious", like, people gotta understand what kind of person they're seeing just by looking at them. Are they physically powerful? Are they smart?
But you also need to make it practical for your character (especially in a live action), the actor portraying them and in the amount of work and money it would require. That's why designing is so fucking hard. and that's why Sam in a hoodie was a good design choice, it's comfy.
That's also why I go for techwear, because it's casual and comfortable without looking too simple and casual and because it matches the idea of Sam "fighting" through technologies he can carry with him in the many pockets and shit.
That being said, I would give him a mask but only on the "beginning of the movie", until he gotta face the hero. That's the little freedom I would take. Again, hidding his face avoid expense and time it's also a way to keep him "hidden" (that's what worked best on him in Brave New World for a reason), keep his techwear design a mystery. That's what worked best in Brave New World, when we couldn't see him. Now, however, we know him. So use that design and don't tell the public it's him, keep that secret so once he's without his mask you're surprised.
He's a character of the shadow, masking him is a good way to keep that idea, also because he's a character who's about masking his emotions. You could also have him change his voice through it so he's not recognizible.
There's a reason masterminds are often represented with a mask, any kind of mask. Because not being able to see a character's emotion is disturbing and threatening.
Just imagine him doing his nefarious shit, having a first physical clash with Bruce as Smart Hulk (so with his Bruce personality), getting punched and while he slowly stand up again from it in anger and panting, broken part of his mask falling and Bruce recognizing his face and just gasping in horror because of his old overly happy old friend for who he probably feels a shit tons of guilt standing in front of him with that murderous and cold look through his visible glowing green eye and Sam taking this little moment of Bruce's confusion to escape, probably with a cool sentence. I also don't think you can go through 16 years of torture and a total change of personality without some traumas and PTSD so I headcanon he has a touch PTSD (skin touch, he can't stand having his body or face touched but he doesn't mind when people touch his clothes, not as much at least, he probably still hates it). So the heavy gear wouldn't be here just to protect his identity, or to protect himself physically on the battlefield but also to protect himself psychologically. For his mask I would use nanotech. YES, I KNOW, I'm usually the first one to complain about nanotech, but Sam is THE nanotech expert in comics. Not Tony, him. If someone needs to use him it's him. However I DO NOT MAKE IT FULL CGI, because the act of the character removing their mask/helmet himself is INSANELY cooler than this boring-ass "nanotech" shit we've been getting since Stark got a nanotech suit.
I would keep it as a mask. Sam put the mask on his face and then the nanotech deploys to form the whole helmet around his head. Similar to this :
(Yes Code Geass is a big inspiration for how we'll design MCU Sam but I'll go back to it later). The way Lelouch put on or remove his mask is very cool and way more impacting than a shitty nanotech deploying all over the face. That's why we keep the mask "physical" and not fully nanotech powered.
I'm not done with that helmet design either, I don't know if I should keep the mask part "full" or half face.
Here're some of my inspiration for that :
I like the idea of having smileys showing up on the face.
I don't know if I would use it, nor when and how yet. But I would go for that blue little smiley he used to talk with Bruce in Incredible Hulk. It's a nice callback and it adds to his sass.
It can easily be justified by Sam using gas or stuff like that (gamma poisoning people is kind of his thing so it makes sense). It's also a way to protect his head 'cause doesn't it bother you to have his raw brain right under his skin, unprotected by his skull anymore? Well it bothers me. Even Mojo Jojo thought about it after all.
Having a mask is also a good way to sell merch because that's the whole point, that's why everyone keep changing their design from a movie to another. Merch is Marvel's main income, it's important to keep that in mind and with that not only do you have two toys instead of one, but a masked one will probably be WAY MORE appealing to kids than Sam, let's be real, his design is not very appealing for kids.
That's why, like I said, I would advertise this masked figure as someone else and let people finding out by watching the movie. This way you avoid manchild discourse we get every single time an unmasked hero get a mask or nanotech is used and you create mystery around the character and who says mystery says hype. It would boost his popularity. He doesn't have a mask in comics but WHO CAAAAARES, if it looks cool and add to his writing, people won't give a shit. They'll complain first (thus the reason we're not showing it before the movie) and then they like.
He wears it once or twice to protect himself or his identity given the context you pick, he should reveal himself soon enough. Around half the movie, like they did for Cap 4.
However, I would keep the hood longer. I think it was Cap 4's biggest mistake, just casually showing Sam because "who cares, they revealed him already anyway", they should have kept him partially hidden even after the full reveal. In that final scene when he talks to Sam Wilson it would have look WAY COOLER if he was hidding in a dark corner with his glowing green eyes visible on his dark shadowed face. It would also have made his "he turns me into a monster" line more impactful if he was hidding in the shadow like a monster, especially now that we know what he looks like. So drop the mask but keep the hood and make him struggle to hide himself in the shadow. It needs to look pitiful even, the same way the Phantom was full of rage and then absolutly pitiful when Christine removed his mask. (Oh, you'll see the Phantom a lot in this post). The mask is a metaphor, a way to hide feelings and emotions. Once it's not here anymore it shows Sam's weakness and vulnerability, it would make him more empathic and interesting to have him still trying to hide himself with his hood even if he can't properly do that anymore. So keep the hood for a few more shots, not all of them 'cause you wanna see his head and his Leader jumpsuit. And in the shots he doesn't have it, keep playing with light to make his head visible enough but still somewhat in the shadow (also this way you can make his eye glow harder and dehumanize him even more). Moments of full light when his eyes can't glow because he's fully exposés should be moments of vulnerability, when he's defeated, when he's human and stuff like that.
III - Let him fight
Every good villains can fight, even when they don't.
"Though I seem weaponless-- I am far from helpless"- Sam Sterns in Incredible Hulk 116
That's the idea we're going to follow. Sam is the kind of character who doesn't directly fight but rather use people and tech. We saw him use people and we will keep that, he's named the Leader, gives him people to lead. But I would also give him tech. That's why I gave him so many belts and pockets and holsters. A force-field shield or whatever it's called that triggers itself when someone tries to hit him without having to move, giving some cool moment of Sam standing still all calm while someone tries to hurt him and the person just hiting/shooting the shield instead and later, once it's established how resistant it is, Hulk breaking through it and Sam having a small moment of panic (Sam often has these moment of pure terror when he looses control of the situation).
A shield creating itself from a distance, kind of like a "wall", only activating itself when something is about to hit Sam.
His "death by sound" remote control was kinda cool but it was far from enough. He's the freakin' LEADER, he should be using a shit tons of tech, similar to M. Terrific in James Gunn's Superman, that's the kind of "fight style" I expect from Sam. That's the kind of action entrance I expect from Sam, him sitting on a floatting chair surrounded by his tech.
Magic could be fun, I love when he uses it in Thunderbolts or Immortal Hulk, but I would mix it with tech. I would rework his gloves to add tech (mixed with magic or not I don't know), also. I don't want it to be too big though, so I need to think that.
That's the thing here. When I re-design characters, it's for my own and it's to re-use that. If I come up with a nice MCU Sam design, I'll use it and draw it on my fanarts the same way I use my own design to draw his comics self.
So when I design something, I keep it simple with that idea in mind : I will have to redraw it. Meaning, I avoid annoying small details. That's why comics book characters were often drew with a cape and "body painted"-like outfit, because it was simpler and so faster, which is important when you have to draw the same character over and over again on several panels.
But here we're designing a MCU design. It's the kind of design you're supposed to draw once, then you make it (same with 3D models) and that's it, so you can add details. That's why MCU outfits are way more cluttered than comics outfit and why comparing both is stupid, because they don't answer the same needs.
So I'm thorn with that mindset "I will have to redraw it at some point" and "we're doing a MCU design so you supposedly draw it once and then someone wear the costume so you don't have to worry about details".
Adding his humanoids would also be very nice. We would have to redesign them to make them less kitschy, of course, but I think it would be nice.
You see when I talked about nanotech? Well, these pink guys are nanotech. It's a pill Sam throws and it turns into an humanoid. I think it could look great, Sam being cornered and when the hero thinks they defeated him, he throws his pills with his usual sass and confidence. You take your time to make them rise to add some tension and change the situation.
Sam carries a gun. It's my main concern with his comics designs, he always has a gun but where the fuck does it come from? I think he was drawn with a holster like twice in 60 years. So you're giving him the damn holster. Obviously his gun needs to look futuristic, preferably gamma powered. I would for something however, like this one :
I love, love, love the way Sam kills people in Brave New World. All cold, all very mecanical. He doesn't do it for fun or rage, he does it emotionless without batting an eye and it add to the brutality of these moments (would be more impacting if we actually saw people taking the bullet but it's a MCU movie so y'know). It's not something usual in comics, Sam barely kills by himself so directly and it made it way more stronger to me. I want that again, I want Sam to coldly kill his own henchmen when they're useless or whatever.
But I also love when he draws his gun out of emotion. So I would make a moment like this as well. That picture of Sam with this gun above is a comics panel where Sam is losing his shit out of fear, so he takes his gun to defend himself because he's scared af. That's when you need him to use his gun. You need him to loose his shit and draw his gun out of emotion, shaking while he does. I would make him do it out of rage rather than fear though. Kinda like this :
I would make him play with his gun even when he's not going to shot someone, as a way to threaten them.
Sam is a cold character but he's also very playful, in a very twisted way. He enjoys playing with his preys, like a little cat. Not because he enjoys hurting, but rather because he enjoys seeing his plan going as planned. And he enjoys inspiring fear and respect. When a character plays with a gun, it immediatly gives them this cold but cool aura. It makes them kind of detached from life, in the way that it makes them look like they have absolutly no regard for life or death, not even theirs. A good exemple of that is Jinx in Arcane.
You know the very cool thing with MCU Sam? He's postrayed by Tim Blake Nelson. And you know what Tim Blake Nelson can do? He can plays with a gun, because he learnt to do that for the Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Let's push him to his full potential. Make him swirl his gun out of boredome when he talks to people.
Here he draws his gun to shoot at people, but I like the swirling and I like that it's a thing Tim can do. Sam did it in Marvel Future Fight and it was cool, I want that lol :
MCU Sam's hands are restless. That's a feature he has in common with his comics self, he gets easily bored, he needs to manipulate stuff. He needs stimulation. It makes sense because he's canonically ADHD and clearly (but not confirmed) autistic too. And his gamma brain makes it worst, in the way that he thinks too much. It added a lot to his characterization in Incredible Hulk and Brave New World, we're going to keep that and mix it with his now murderous personality.
Sam saying "please don't be boring" was one of his best line in this movie, play with that.
Folks this shot gives me so many unholy thoughts... I need help
Having him plays with his gun because he needs stimulation while someone talks to him would be a very cool way to add to his nonchalance and disregard for people. It immediatly poses him as the villain and a threat. Manipulating a gun the way you would toy with a pencil because you're bored by whatever the person is saying automatically boost your charisma.
Which is the perfect introduction for the next point : III - The attitude
A good design is nothing without the writing and attitude.
We've been blessed with the insanely good Tim Blake Nelson so, like I said, we're gonna push him to his full potential.
What he did in Brave New World was great already so he doesn't need to change or remove anything, we will add to it, however.
The way he went from no emotion and talking so low to him losing his shit the second after was perfection. I always wondered if he took inspiration from Matt Frewer in the Incredible Hulk cartoon from 96. But anyway, he NEEDS keep that, Sam is someone who pretends to be incredibly cold but who is full of emotions. We needs to see him pretending to be cold and losing his shit.
Sam is also a kind of seductive character. He's ugly af but he has enough charisma through his confidence and his sass alone to make anyone follow him, even people like Ross or Bruce who know best than to trust him and it gotta be seen through the way he talks and move.
Tim's nonchalant way to move and his low emotionless voice as Sam were very great, so we keep that. I love the moment he first shows up in front of Sam Wilson a lot 'cause the way he moves his head and just let his arm fall on his body after pushing the button in a kind of annoyed but also lifeless way or when he raises his hand in annoyance while saying "yet here you stand", that's what I'm talking about. That's what we needs to keep. This very "I don't give a shit but I do" kind of very cold annoyed attitude. Now that was very very "comics accurate", since you love that expression.
His confidence is already slightly visible through the way he talks, for exemple "then stop taking the pills but we both know you won't" had this confident je-ne-sais-quoi. His sass also was audible in the trailer when he said "who's playing who" or in the movie when he says "that's a way if putting it", the playful intonation on his voice made it sassy. That's why Tim was great as Sam, he made Sam's emotionless voice so full of emotion. But it wasn't enough, we need to push that overly confidence, it's not visible enough. And we can do that through the way he talks but also the way he behaves.
Sam is someone who tends to invade people's personal space and I'd play with that, his disdain for people's privacy, by making him physically close to his victim, through posing and touches.
Make him crouch when he talks to people, make him touch them in a very patronizing way. It's a good way to make him looks "superior", which is kind of the whole point of Sam. He's a Devil, he tends to touch people when he wants to get their trust, it's a typical way to make people feel safe around you.
Sam's power isn't just his brain and his calculations, it's his manipulative personality and I think Brave New World sadly failed to show us that side of Sam, even you could kind of taste it through his conversations with Ross, it was still too shy.
I like to picture him crouching because it makes him look antipathic. The contrast between this kind of very chill pose and his cold emotionless attitude make his unability to behave like a human even more obvious and it makes him more in control of the whole situation and more threatening.
I recently dreamt about MCU Sam, he was in his hoodie + sunglasses outfit and he was unleashing a bunch of gamma monsters on some kind of fair and as everybody was running in panic and chaos, screaming, he was walking very slowly in the opposite direction, kind of spliting that chaotic mass of people like Moses walking in the Red Sea.
He sat at a random pizza stall and starts eating one someone left in panic with his feet on the table (typical comics Sam pose, btw) and the contrast between that very casual, common and calm behaviorand the panic around him made him look incredibly fucking cool, as ridiculous as it sounds written this way (don't judge me, I barely dream about Sam usually). Sam doesn't know how to behave as human. That's why you had this whole speech in Immortal Hulk :
Here Sam is impersonating a goofy joyful loud character (Rick) and he has a hard time doing it because, well, he's the Leader, he doesn't remember how to behave with other people. So he's odd in a very creepy way and when Jackie rightfully yell at him for that he apologies and explains he doesn't know how to behave. In this moment, it was Sam being very honest. Thus the orange sky, it was here to make his "presence" obvious, the same way Captain America Brave New World use blue lights for that. MCU Sam is a machine, like I said he was ripped off of his humanity. Having him doing very normal things but in contexts he shouldn't to make him feel very odd and creepy. Because Sam is a machine, I need to play with the "uncanny valley", basically. I would make him do atrocious shit and sing when he does (Tim Blake Nelson is known for singing in a shit tons of movies, let him do that too lol). Like he did in Immortal Hulk when he was singing a kid song while dissecting shit.
He also needs to have this very confident "gentleman" Leader aura that he has yet to demonstrate. Let him show his God complex. I will use Silco from Arcane for that because his personality and goal are very, very close to what MCU Sam. Angry at injustice, angry at a treason (I'll go back to that in the writing part).
I need him to sit like this when a goon reports to him, again, because the chill of the pose add to the powerful superior controlling aura of the character :
The way Sam sits is always very decontracted. Crossed legs, feet on a table etc... I don't have exemple but I also think he would look great spreading his legs and slightly crouching.
But anyway, the point here is pure aura. It looks super badass.
Silco is a fan favorite and yet he doesn't match any beauty standard, he's not Thor looking, Steve Rogers looking. People thirst over him because of his attitude and the way he presents himself. It makes him super sexy and if he's sexy, he's popular. This is how it works.
Look at him in this moment :
How threatening he is through his whole attitude and speech. Confident, slow, cold. Not losing his shit once. That's how Sam should be and what make the Silco exemple even more relevant, other than that, is how he physically looks a lot like Tim Blake Nelson. His heigh, body shape and face are very alike so if Silco can look hot af through his personality while having a wounded eye and face, so can Sam.
But what makes Silco so loved is also his humanity. He has feelings, visible feelings. Annoyance, fear, anger. And love. Most importantly love.
Look at how he's losing his shit here, screaming and shit.
We need that too. 'Cause as I said, Sam is a very emotive character who created this whole Leader personality to protect himself and hide his insecurities. It would make even more sense, given his previous very joyful nature, to have him struggling with emotions. It's a way to show him losing control, to make him vulnerable but also relatable and empathic and if someone is empathic then people will like them more and if they like them more your character get popular and if you're character get popular- you get what I mean. I liked that one moment when Sam is talking with Ross during the flight attack and his voice is at first super low and emotionless but it goes up and faster as he gets visibly excited over the perspective of getting control, to the point of screaming with his natural voice "YOU CAN CRUSH THEM ALL!!" and then shaking violently before screaming in rage when he lost it.
I want that again, but in an angstier way and please avoid the low-angle shot 'cause it kind of broke the serious of that moment by making him way too grotesque and ridiculous. He needs to scream in pain with his whole lunges, to have the kinda crooked pose you have when you do. His rage is important and it needs to be visible and raw and violent. That's the different between the word "anger" and "rage". Rage is uncontrollable and brutal.
That's one of the main reason Arcane got so popular, because every emotions were intense.
Every tears, every screams. It was so strong you could feel it in your guts.
That's why Angela Bassett's performance in Black Panther 2 got everybody impressed. Because it was as brutal and powerful (and it's even more impacting when it's a woman because women aren't really allowed to express so much emotions on screen)
The best way to make Sam popular (and so to have people appreciate him and your movie) is to give him this violence and brutality. So makes him scream with his green eyes flashing even more, add him visible tears even. Make him break things. In that one moment he screamed we should have seen him throw his phone out of anger and break it.
And give him a moment to catch his breath, make him pant. It's important seeing him struggling to put his mask back for a short moment before going back to his calm and emotionless Leader self. The most common way to do that is to give your villain messy hair and then have them put it back while taking a deep breath and going back to their usual attitude. MCU Sam doesn't have hair but you can still do that by having him closing his eyes, taking a breath and standing up, or rubbing his hand(s) on his neck or through his face like you do when you put water on it.
I'll quickly go back to these eyes and their importance in a second but keep in mind Sam is similar to Bruce Banner, in the way that he highly suffers this inner conflict between his need to be the emotionless Leader to keep himself safe and avoid suffering and his very emotive human side. He, like Bruce, is full of interiorized feelings.
And It's easy to play with that duality through his eyes, it's a super common and easy thing to do. You have it through Silco, if he's doing something evil then even if we see all his face, the focus will still be on his wounded left eye and face. If he's being human, the focus will be on the right face.
But unlike what you might think, I'd turn Sam's green gamma eye into the monster side, not the blind one. First of all because that's the most difformed part of his head, with his brain mutation invading his ear, his neck. Second because it's the most expressive eye, the best to express rage and hate. And third because I like to see his blind eye as a metaphor of the humanity he lost in order to "see" beyond that (understand by that, he can't see with his left blind eye but he can see everything else, probabilities and shit). So it makes sense to me to have this "sacrificed" (or rather killed) eye being his humanity. Also because I like how his makeup and Tim's vein makes it look like he has a tear drowning off of his eye :
The best and most obvious exemple for that is the Phantom of the Opera. It's super simple but super efficient :
The beginning of the video, the difformed part of his face is in the shadow while he cries and has he gets more and more angry, the light and the focus on his face switch from his left face to the right difformed one. Notice when he says "the joy of the flesh", his gets human so the difformed part get shadowed, making the right face more visible. Then he gets angry, force the wedding crown on Christine and has he yells "an eternity of this" the right part of his face gets more visible than the left part. It gets more obvious when Raoul reaches him. The light that was kind of avoiding the right part until then is now hitting it and even if you have shots with his whole face visible, most of them still focus on the right part. At the very beginning the right part of his face wasn't visible and when you reach the end of it it's the left part that totaly disappeared in the shadow. There's also a very cool play with the reflexion of the light in the water to his face to emphasize it even more.
It's a great way to make him sympathic or threatening depending on the moment. That's why he's also a very popular character, because can feel empathy for him while feeling scared. It makes him fascinating and complex, unlike Raoul who's a boring-ass annoying bitch because he doesn't have as much nuances.
MCU Sam has a huge Phantom vibe through the way he hides himself (let it be through shadow, hat, hood) and it makes sense because it's one his inspiration for his comics writing, so let's use that. The difference between the Phantom and comics Sam (and so between MCU Sam and comics Sam) is that comics Sam uses a "mask" of egocentrism and confidence to hide the human in him. Both the Phantom and MCU Sam wants to hide the monster and the more they hide him beyind a mask or a hood or a hat, the most visible it gets. Who are the most popular MCU villains? Loki (to the point of being a hero now), Killmonger, Thanos. What do they all have in common? They're powerful, very smart but more importantly they have emotions, even a sense of Justice (except for Loki but the reason he does what he does still is obvious enough to understand he seeks "love" and so "a positive thing"). Thanos fucking CRIED for Gamora. You see Loki screaming in pain or rage a few time. That's what people want, they want feelings, they want their villains to cry, to scream in rage and pain, they want them as raw and chaotic as what they represent.
They want them strong, confident and threatening but also dangerous through their pain and their rage. There's nothing stronger and more scary than chaos, because you can't control it. That's what we want for our villains, a chaos of emotion they cannot control. It makes them human, it gives them nuance. Making a villain understandable will make you thorn between your moral and your empathy for them "they deserve to loose but do they". And this inner conflict in your own heart will automatically make you feel more interest in the character.
That's why the Phantom is more popular than Raoul. But in order to have them feel anything, you need to properly write them.
IV - Writing
Like I said, if characters like Silco are this popular that's because they're kind of relatable even through their awful crimes. Because they're understandable.
Silco did awful shit but he did it for the sake of Zaun. Sam was meant to be the same kind of "justice through anarchy" character who destroy to rebuild, like Tim said, but got eventually nerfed because of that last minute design change. Making us lost a huge part of his writing in the process.
So, if he comes back, you need to make that part of him fucking obvious, that what your main focus should be. He needs to be a monster with a good motive.
Sam doesn't really need to have a so good motive honestly, he's closer to what Lex Luthor is in Superman (James Gunn version) through his ego, but with time he got a way more interesting motive and personality through comics and Marvel Studios gave him a tragic side so let's work on that. And so, the second thing you need to do is giving him a heart. Broken and empty, yes, but a heart nonetheless. They did it in Brave New World through his past life, through the artifacts of his pasts in his cell to which he obviously clung to, to this video of him when he was teaching.
But in comics you know what his heart is? It's Bruce. So let's do that, because it's also an excuse to build a very strong and interesting dynamic between them both.
It's more obvious through that deleted scene but Sam and Bruce's relationship was deeper than just a random scientist helping a random guy. He was Bruce's only friend, the only person who made him smile. Like someone else said, he was his only light.
And I think Sam deeply appreciated Bruce. People assume Sam betrayed Bruce and didn't give a shit about him (and it's probably how Bruce felt about it) but look at how happy and excited he was to show Bruce his "betrayal". He really thought Bruce would enjoy his experiments, he was visibly confused (and hurt, even) when Bruce told him to burn anything because he was just so sure Bruce would understand (and maybe even work with him).
And you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of his comics self who embraced his "all consuming hate" and shit because Bruce rejected him instead of understanding him.
In comics he sees Bruce as (and wants him to be) his brother. So use that, you can make it even more tragic because unlike their comics selves, MCU Sam and Bruce have a past friendship. Play with it. Unlike his comics self, Sam has Bruce's blood in his own veins, you can make that twisted brotherly bound even better. Add to their past, give them flashback of heartwarming conversations of Sam comforting Bruce to make him more than just a pragmatic help but an emotional support as well. Have Bruce looking for him these past years.
Sam and Bruce meeting again is what everyone wants anyway. A good villain is only a good villain if he has an interesting chemistry with his protagonist and it's why nobody really care about MCU Sam so far, because his (also under exploited, btw) chemistry was with Ross and not Captain America and the movie focus on Captain America vs Red Hulk. Sam (Sterns) doesn't really feel like a relevant villain because he doesn't care that much about Cap and Cap doesn't care that much about him either so why should we, spectators, care that much about him?
I know the Mister Blue song in Brave New World is merely a callback to Incredible Hulk, but it's very conveniant that Sam used it to mind control people. It's the name he took to talk to Bruce so turn that into a warning for Bruce rather than Ross. Make it feels like everything he did in Cap 4 was to lead him to Bruce and Hulk. It makes his capacity of predicting shit better also because so far people are just "dude is smart af but ended up in another prison, what a loser" and yes, for someone like me who knows him well it makes sense, it's something he often does (and maybe they will never use him ever again so it will end up lame indeed), but for the big audience it's something stupid unless you show them it was part of a bigger plan and Ross was merely a tool rather than a target. Similar to how he punished the Serpent Society who were the soldiers who abducted him to reach his goal. They weren't his goal but he was able to avenge himself from them in the process.
Bruce got everything while Sam was losing everything. Let it be physically, mentally. In every aspect of his life. He lost his reputation and through it the people he loved. So it would make sense if Sam developped a lot of anger for Bruce, even more than he did for Ross. He would hate him for forsakening him while Bruce was living his best life. He would hate him because everything happened "because of him", in the way that it's his interactions with Bruce that led him to his sad destiny. He would hate him because he would be jealous of him. Like I said, Bruce got everthing Sam had while Sam lost it all, it's like they switched their place and Sam would probably feel a lot of ressent and jealousy over it. He would hate Bruce for not understanding him, even if they're walking the same path. So Sam confronting Bruce with a lot of rage and pain and sadness, even, would be powerful but would mostly MAKE SENSE.
And take into considering Bruce's empathy. How do you think he reacted to the news talking about Sam? We need to see that, to see Bruce standing in front of his tv with a slow zoom on his confused shocked face and on the picture of Sam on tv.
Of course he felt a deep guilt, like he did in She-Hulk. That's why Bruce seeing Sam for the first time need to be impactful, with Sam's rage directly clashing Bruce's guilt.
I like to think that Bruce would look away by reflex and Sam would yell "LOOK AT ME! Look at what you've done" or something like that. He's his creation.
I mentionned that here but Sam and Bruce also have a very Frankenstein relationship (I'm talking about the book), in the way that Bruce created Sam and Sam get upset at Bruce for his loneliness and tries to destroy his life over it and chase him and want to destroy his life the way Frankenstein's monster had a lot of ressent for his creator (and humanity's cruelty, like Sam). This ressent alone would be enough to justify Sam going after Bruce.
But like I said, he would also want to use Hulk. Remember his fascination when he first saw him in Incredible Hulk? We're keeping that, Sam being fucking obsess with Bruce and Hulk is, like, the whole point after all. Sam probably thought "if only I had Hulk's strength" rather than his brain, he would have easily been able to escape. Making him understand the hard way how important it is to have control of the strength he lacks of. Sam sees Hulk as a "God". Bruce got a "God" he rejected and tried to "cure" while he got "a monster", he can't revert back to humanity like Bruce. I think Sam would be upset at this too. We need to make this obsession a stronger thing in the MCU, this is his "main motive" (the most popular and relevant) as the Leader, making the Hulk his weapon So he would try to convince Bruce to join him and when it doesn't work, to break him to make him easier to get under his control.
And that would be the duality between them. Bruce trying to stop the monster he created by trying to reach his heart.
You know what? I would give Sam a short moment of hesitation even. Like Bruce telling him it's not too late to get his life back, that he could be a hero and shit like that (which he could when you think about it, aliens and monsters are becoming kind of very common after all so if Sam saves the world there's no way he can't go back to teaching and even get more success and fame than he ever dreamt of) and Sam having a very short moment of hesitation, looking away (at the ground or whatever) before getting his shit together and rejecting Bruce (maybe because of one triggering word Bruce would say) and getting back to his very cold and sassy self and pretending to have this moment of hesitation to play with Bruce. I would make it confusing enough to not be able to tell if he was pretending to hesitate or if he was genuine on purpose. There is something that is driving me crazy with comics Sam, you see. His pursue of redemption and his remorses are canon but never shown. NEVER. The first time ever we saw it was in Immortal Hulk 50 (in 2021) when he was crying on the ground, begging people to let him die to pay for his sin. Otherwise we NEVER see it. Let it happen in the MCU, let him feel hesitation, let him feel human and struggling with that feeling the way Bruce struggle to stay human.
Now wouldn't it be a beautiful duality? Having Sam struggling against his humanity because of Bruce while Bruce struggles against his monster because of Sam. I'll make a whole post about MCU Sam and Bruce relationship in the upcoming weeks, because unlike what you might think there's a lot to say.
It would make sense to have Sam trying to turn Bruce into the monster he now is himself, like he did to Ross. Destroying Bruce's peace with Hulk, bringing back a rageful Hulk. And not necessarly Savage, you can use that excuse to bring Joe or Devil or the fucking World Breaker (very conveniant also because what happens when you make a Grey Hulk popular? You re-sell all the famous Hulk toys but grey, like they did with Red Hulk), also introducing Bruce's DID while you're at it, you could introduce Bruce's past abuse, it would be easy for Sam to get to know about it and using it against Bruce to have him loose his shit and go full rampage. You could even bring back a nefarious Blonsky, Sam could very well experiment on him the way he got experimented on.
He went after the team that took him away (the Serpent Society) by killing them all (except for Sidewinder but he's in prison atm), he went after Ross, do you really think he wouldn't go after Blonsky and Bruce when they're the ones who destroyed fucking Harlem for which he was emprisonned for? Sam would totally start with Blonsky and make him the evil Abomination again just because of the way he treated him back then and then send him after Bruce.
That's how I would build the movie. Making Blonsky a villain at the beginning of the movie, Bruce meeting Sam for the first time around 1/3 of the movie and starting to lose his peace with Hulk here and then totally losing his control in the big final. I would put a "mindscape" moment of Bruce talking with Hulk, the one that was removed from Infinity War. Having them work together to ultimatly win. Because that's the problem with Smart Hulk, it's not Smart Hulk himself but rather how it happened off screen and so doesn't feel rewarding at all. I'm mostly talking about Sam because that's what the post is about, but Bruce needs that writing too. Like I said, a good antagonist needs a good hero. And Smart Hulk happening off screen was very frustrating. If Marvel themself don't care enough about Bruce and Hulk to have an on screen charadev, why should we?
It's kind of what made Bucky so interesting as the villain in Winter Soldier, how Steve felt guilt over him. Of course it would be different because Sam and Bruce weren't this close in their past, because Sam would attack him willingly and Bruce would have to beat the shit out of him instead of yielding but you get what I mean.
Make Bruce's internal struggle the main point of the movie and do this by making him feel conflicted between his guilt and empathy for Sam and his anger toward him and have it be the reason of the rupture between him and Hulk, like Yu-Gi-Oh when Yami Yugi almost killed Kaiba and Yugi stopped him in their mindscape, having Yugi losing his trust in Yami and preventing him from fronting.
Do something similar, have Sam getting defeated on purpose and physically beaten up. That's when you put the broken mask. And once it breaks, as Bruce is about to smash the shit out of him in anger, he freezes at the sight of the bright green eye of his ex-friend. Breaking his peace with Hulk as Bruce would lost his trust in him and Hulk would blame Bruce for letting Sam go and causing more destruction.
Like I said, a good villain needs a good antagonist, if you want to makes him a good villain you need to write a proper Bruce and a proper connexion between them, so focus on Bruce's struggles. You now why Avengers was loved? The Guardians of the Galaxy? Thunderbolts? Because it's about a bunch of broken souls having to face their own internal human struggles. That's what Bruce need and if the MCU could show DID and abuse through Moon Knight and Sentry, they can do that for Bruce. Break Bruce so you can build him back and on screen this time.
Sam strength is how easily he adapts. He can predict every income of anything, which includes failures. So he wouldn't turn himself in without a plan. He could either escape the Raft or stay in it, take total control of it, turn it into some kind of Freehold (the society he built in comics) and make it his HQ.
It's one of the most securised, if not the most securised, place on Earth. It would totally be a Sam thing to get send in it on purpose and turn it into his HQ so he doesn't have to go through the trouble of doing one himself, he's lazy LOL, in his debuts he was stealing people's creation and sell them, this way he could get money and knowledge for his own projects. Like what he did with the Cube in Earth Mightiest Heroes Avengers double episode about him.
"So many surprises left", let's apply that and turn the Raft into his playground.
This way you could reboot Hulk without rebooting it, you could make a "comics accurate" Leader, you could bring back a rampaging Hulk, you could bring back the interest in anything Hulk at all.
And please, I know Bruce is now known for being a comic relief now but don't turn the movie into a fucking joke, that's not what people want to see. They want to see Hulk's fury and they want to see a comics book story. Hulk is a goddamn tragedy and a monster story, playing with horror and psychological themes.
So do that, make it chill and light and fun at the beginning and make it more and more serious and sinister as the movie goes on. You don't have to make it too psychological or horrifying if you want to keep it kids friendly, you can add the kind of thriller codes used for Sam in Brave New World. Him standing in the dark when you turn around like a screamer was very cool, it reminded me of a lot of horror games (like, you open a file and BIM, a fucking monster behind you, that's exactly what happened to Captain America), use that effect of surprise to make him even more threatening. Or when Bruce transformed in Incredible Hulk and Avengers (for the first time in both case).
Don't. Make. Sam. A joke. I don't mind Sam being a comics relief at all usually, but you would create a MODOK situation. MODOK wasn't hated because of his look, but because the character was written to be a joke. If he had a serious writing and the same design it would have been different. If you joke about Sam, you break the aura he needs to shine. He was very serious in Brave New World and that's what saved him, keep that.
And remember, Sam is not just a super smart guy who can predict shit, he's also incredibly charismatique, he's a freakin' DEVIL, he seduces people by pretending to offer them what they want and then either lying about it or giving them a very twisted version of what they wanted to have them regret it. I would lean to the latest because MCU Sam doesn't lie, he's threateningly honest and it makes him way more creepy, like when he kills Dennis Dunph and proceed to explain to him what is going on, how he will die and how he doesn't feel any satisfaction in Dennis' death.
You could also bring back Ross, you can have Sam mind controlling him in a way or another so people can have their Hulk vs Red Hulk match before he joins Bruce's side (reluctantly). Though I would avoid putting too much characters. The more characters you have, the less dev you get.
And please, add my boy into the promo, because I want my fun too, jeez.
One of Brave New World's biggest mistake during the promo was to overly promote Red Hulk and not Sam Sterns even once (and I know why, last change design made it difficult to do promo stuff right on time). So make a movie about Hulk vs the Leader and not Hulk vs Red Hulk featuring the Leader. Use that fight to promote the movie if you want but don't make it your only selling point nor the whole damn point of the movie. It pissed off people to have it last like 5min (rightfully, given Marvel literally spoiled the ending to try to get people to see the movie). Do like they did with Hulkbuster for Ultron. Don't show too much, please, for fuck sake, trust your project.
These are just my very random personal ideas for an evil Sam. But honestly you could also take the totally opposed road and turn Sam into some kind of antihero and have him teaming up with Bruce to protect his dimension or whatever 'cause that's what he wants, he wants to be the hero who is freeing the World so it would make sense to have him save his Earth too.
You could even have him teaming up with Bruce for that, dramatically leaving once it's done with a warning to Bruce to have him setting up a Hulk movie with everything above and made their clash even more bitter.
Or you can make him team up with Doom in the upcoming Avengers and maybe trying to reboot his Earth to "eradicate" injustice, weakness and enhance people, I'd rather have a Hulk movie focusing on him but y'know.
The Leader is a character with an incredibly big potential for the MCU and who can very easily be improved to be a big character in the future. So all we can hope for now is that one day Marvel Studios will explore that. But before we live, I want to mention one last point :
V - Inspiration
Our first MCU Sam was based on Jef Costello for some reasons. Would it work or not, we'll never know. Inspiration is a very important part of the creating process, however. So allow me to share the inspirations I would use for MCU Sam, we mentionned a few already but we're gonna make a quick summary of the character you would need to study and take from to make an astonishing Sam here and what I like about these pictures specifically :
Erik (The Phantom of the Opera)
For all the reason I explained above. Because he's one of Sam's OG inspiration, because his personality and energy matches Sam. I went for the Gerard Butler version but really, get inspiration from all of them. The book, the Lon Chaney, the screenplay etc etc... Pic 1 : I like Erik's attitude in here, slowly threatening someone with a sword (you replace that with a gun or whatever) while looking down at them because he's higher through the stairs. That's this very specific compo of Erik standing higher that I like a lot. Pic 2 : Erik loosing his shit and destroying a mirror out of self-hatred. I want to see Sam losing his shit at himself like this.
Silco (Arcane)
In his attitude, in his writing, in his presence, his motives. Silco would be my main inspiration to write MCU Sam's personality.
Pic 1 : The kinda "annoyed/angry" look he has here
Pic 2 : The way he invades someone's space by being this close with a shot on his "monster side" and glowing eye. I need Sam to do that, to get close to people's face with his bright glowing eye. Pic 3 : Just the whole attitude of Silco coming out the fog with his glowing eye, it's super cool. I want Sam to have such an entrance (he did in Cap 4 but y'know)
Pic 4 : We talked about this above, it's just about losing his calm
Something I didn't mention, but I would also highly take inspiration from his relationship with his ex-friend Vander. Look at their confrontation here, Vander's anger for Silco, Silco's ressent for the friend who betrayed him, this painful duel is absolute cinema (also Vander shares a lot of similarities with Bruce, like becoming a monster and struggling to keep his humanity) :
Rumplestiltskin (Once Upon a Time)
Rumple is similar to comics Sam in a lot of way. He was a cowardly and weak but kind hearted lad who got gifted with an insane amount of power and who turned evil because of it and his desire of revenge and recognition. Like Sam, he clings so hard to this power he lost his son to it. They're both driven by love (differently, but still) but also hate. They're both very smart and manipulative and just like Sam, people will follow Rumple and deal with him even when they know best. Not out of trust but out despair, that's also what Sam does. I haven't watched Once Upon a Time after season 3, I don't remember season 3 at all in fact (it was when I was very sick and basically I'd watch it when I couldn't leave my bed so), I mostly remember season 1 and a part of season 2 and ever since Rumple has been a huge inspiration to me in the way I write Sam and draw him. There's a lot of things in his attitude, from the way he plays with preys to his sass, that are very Sam. I would say he's one of the closest thing we got to Sam on screen with Silco.
Lelouch (Code Geass)
Lelouch is kind of your typical manipulative supersmart villain with cold moments and moments he totally looses it. He's driven by justice and he's willing to day for his ideal. But he also had an army of people following him through the power of his charisma only. That would be a very great inspiration for Sam. Pic 1 : It's the whole cold and way too calm attitude while things are blowing up around him. I want Sam to do that too Pic 2 : Just the way he talks while smirking and moving his fingers, it's a typical Sam thing to do. Pic 3 : Another exemple of someone losing his shit but instead of throwing a tanthrum, he burst to laugh and I really like this idea too, of Sam getting destabilized and laughing loudly. Pic 4 : it was just to show HOW COOL IT IS TO REMOVE A MASK BY YOURSELF, JEEZ MARVEL...
In-Ho / The Front Man (Squid Game)
Ironically it's the only one I didn't mention so far and yet, of all the inspirations I'm showing here this is the closest thing we got to what Sam should be. Let it be physically, through his writing, through his relationship with Seong Gi-hun (that's exactly what you need for a perfect Sam vs Bruce writing), his fascination and curiosity for him, the way he wants him to see the world like he does. His motive (kind man who turned into an heartless monster). His attitude, the way he moves, the way he talks. The way he leads. The Mask, the hood, the long coat. He's the perfect representation of what Sam needs to be.
Pic 1 : I like the way he reveals his face Pic 2 : it's just the way he moves very slowly. Sam already does that in Cap 4 but he needs to keep it and mix it with class and elegance, like In-Ho
Pic 3 : I already shared this pose above through Silco but you get the idea. If Sam doesn't sit like this then what's the point? Pic 4 : I enjoyed seeing Sam with a gun and murdering people, I want to see more of that, it's that simple. Just change his name "Front Man" into the Leader and see how perfect it is.
These 4 are enough to get the general idea of what our Sam needs to be. I chose each gifs/screenshot carefully because that's the attitude, energy, pose and movements MCU Sam should do.
But I would also add Mr. Terrific from Superman 2025 :
Even if he's a hero, his "cold emitionless but somewhat always annoyed" personality is very similar to MCU Sam's energy, his insane confidence in his genius (which wasn't pushed enough for Sam) but most importantly the way he fights through tech, +1000 aura. That's the kind of stuff I'd expect from Sam (but in a more evilish way, obviously). I could have put this movie's Lex Luthor as well but he's more of a comics Sam energy than a MCU Sam, though I would still keep a few moments (his tanthrums, the way his overly confience makes him fearless, giving us that very cool shot in the fortress and his hatred for Superman). I'm probably forgetting a shit tons of stuff, but that's the thing with design. It takes a lot of times because you go back and forth, you add, you remove etc... You don't make it through a simple post. What I wanted to do here was mostly to explain why comics accuracy doesn't mean shit and sharing my own personal design ideas and explain why it matches Sam and stay comics accurate even if I allow myself a shit tons of freedom. Design is hard, just because you don't like something doesn't mean you know best. You're allow to dislike a design, there's a few Sam design or writing I don't like, but that's a me problem, you don't get to decide, you're a nobody among nobodies, remember that.
Now the Marvel spy in my closet please send this to Kevin Feige and tell him he's allowed to copy my homework, xoxo
Enjoy~
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