‘More brains than brawn’: will the new Captain America be hamstrung by his lack of superpowers?

Marvel has decided to take Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson right back to the superhero stone age with its latest iteration, in which he will basically have no power at all

There’s a weird thing about superheroes. They tend to be a little bit more intriguing when they actually have superpowers. Yes, there is the odd exception: Batman has managed to navigate a Gotham City filled with supervillains who vacillate between the distinctly non-magical (Penguin, Carmine Falcone) and the utterly bonkers (Poison Ivy, Clayface), without having any powers of his own – unless you count his uncanny ability to weaponise extreme wealth and a voice like he has been gargling gravel. Iron Man may not be filled with radioactive spider venom or gamma rays, but he does develop technology that would make Elon Musk sweat as if he’s just realised his latest rocket is running on Windows Vista.

Then there’s just about everyone else in the Marvel universe – and they all seem to have some kind of deal going on, whether it be Doctor Strange’s mystical, extra-dimensional shenanigans or Captain Marvel’s cosmic power-ups. Which is why it’s downright weird that the studio has decided to take the new Captain America, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, right back to the superhero stone age with its latest iteration.

The forthcoming Captain America: Brave New World will see Wilson attempting to discover the truth behind an international conspiracy after Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross is elected as US president. It’s a return to the espionage-themed era of earlier Captain America films such as 2014’s The Winter Soldier, and to a lesser extent, 2016’s Civil War. Asked to explain how he is going to manage fighting the good fight without access to the super serum that Wilson decided not to take during the events of Disney+ spin-off The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Mackie suggested he would use his intellect to make up for any shortfall in firepower.

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