Captain America: Brave New World’s President Ross Continues A Weird MCU Flaw

Several recurring flaws have gripped the majority of Marvel Cinematic Universe productions released after Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Exceedingly crummy visual effects have become commonplace as these projects rush to make release dates in the middle of larger external events like COVID-19 and industry strikes. Various Marvel Cinematic Universe TV shows, meanwhile, have suffered from writing clearly reflecting Marvel Studios’ inexperience running small-screen programming. Then there’s a shortcoming related to the saga’s newest run of villains that Captain America: Brave New World’s President Ross exemplifies.

Any hopes that casting a legend like Harrison Ford and Brave New World continuing the terrific creative track record of solo Captain America movies could ensure this title avoid this particular foible never panned out. Once again, Brave New World sees the Marvel Cinematic Universe trying too hard to make its villains sympathetic, leaving its stories devoid of dramatic tension in the process.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Captain America: Brave New World

The Origins of the Phases Four and Five MCU Villain Problem

Tragically, Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) may have been one of the worst things to happen to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther’s primary villain was an extraordinary creation aided by Ryan Coogler’s sharp writing and Jordan’s endlessly charismatic performance. Killmonger was a baddie that pained you to see defeated, a malicious figure who never lost track of the hurt “kid from Oakland” fueling all his actions. Unfortunately, Killmonger proved so popular that the MCU has filled Phases Four and Five with endless attempts to make the Killmonger lighting strike twice again.

Karli Morgenthau, Arthur Harrow, Gravik, Dar-Benn, Gorr the God Butcher … the last four years of MCU media have been packed with antagonists clearly molded after Killmonger. Joining that long line of characters is President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Throughout his previous Marvel Cinematic Universe appearances (where he was played by the late William Hurt), Ross has constantly been a cruel, brash figure dismissive of the humanity of characters like Wanda Maximoff that audiences are supposed to like. In Brave New World, he’s revealed to have pinned the Hulk and Abomination’s Incredible Hulk fight on Samuel Sterns/The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) and then tossed this man into prison with no trial.

Those flagrantly unconstitutional acts combined with Ross always being a devious adversary in past MCU properties should make him a detestable force in Brave New World. Instead, the whole movie bends over backward to use Ross as the centerpiece of a theme about how “a person’s past shouldn’t define them.” So much screen time is dedicated to Ross flatly talking about (rather than showing viewers) how much he misses walking with his estranged daughter Betty (Liv Tyler) through the cherry blossoms. Meanwhile, the climactic duel between Captain America and Ross’ Red Hulk form involves the former character simply saying, “I know you’re trying to be a better person.”

Compare that to the more visually striking and deeply specific ways Black Panther got audiences to sympathize with Killmonger, like the character’s visit to his father in the Ancestral Realm. Ross, like Morgenthau, Harrow, Gorr, and other recent MCU baddies, is just a flatly-realized creation that the MCU keeps telling audiences is “nuanced” rather than demonstrating it. In the process, these characters don’t work on any level. Someone like Ross fails to function as a sympathetic, darkly tragic character. Meanwhile, Ross also stumbles as just a straightforward enjoyably hammy baddie. These ham-fisted attempts at “complexity” just deprive MCU productions like Brave New World of a core villain to keep dramatic tension going.

[RELATED – Here’s the One Major Thing Captain America: Brave New World Gets Wrong]

Ross Isn’t The Best Fit to be The Next Killmonger

President Ross is an especially miscalculated example of this modern MCU villain trope, though, thanks to how much power he wields. Killmonger’s tragedy in Black Panther was rooted in how he wanted to deal with his pain by inflicting misery and trauma on other working-class kids around the world. His class and socioeconomic status were critical to this figure. Meanwhile, Brave New World’s insistence that Ross is actually a chill guy comes after the audience learns he explicitly committed human rights violations against Sterns. There’s also the unresolved moment where he calls Sam Wilson/Captain America “boy” in a heated moment, a racially uncomfortable moment Brave New World doesn’t contend with.

Masterpieces like Killers of the Flower Moon and Nickel Boys deftly explore how externally “nice” people can be actively complicit and active in perpetuating violations against other human beings. Brave New World, though, doesn’t have that level of nuance or thoughtfulness on its side. The everyman quality of Killmonger is absent in President Ross, whose abuse of power is utterly terrifying. Brave New World tries lathering simplistic platitudes about how Ross is nice deep down that just doesn’t work with the brutally dark actions he’s enacted. A Paw Patrol approach to morality doesn’t work when Ross is committing crimes akin to the material seen in Taxi to the Dark Side.

There’s also the big Red Hulk in the room that further aligns Ross with other poor Phase Four and Five villains. Much like Gravik turning into the Super-Skrull or Harrow working with a massive CG entity named Ammit, everything with Ross in Brave New World eventually boils down to a big CG villain-boss fight. This time, it manifests into Ross (the ultimate hunter of Hulk) transforming into Red Hulk at the White House. These Phase Four and Five attempts to make “thoughtful” villains really crumble once these kinds of climaxes arrive. All the thoughtfulness and attempts at humanity go out the window in favor of yet another fully digital adversary fully removed from the foe audiences have been watching for two hours.

These issues with MCU villains (many of them stemming from misguided attempts to make the Killmonger lighting strike twice) have been prevalent in various other Phase Four and Five projects. Captain America: Brave New World’s President Ross, though, really exemplifies this underwhelming phenomenon. The attempts to tell audiences Ross is actually a nice guy are so hollow. Meanwhile, there’s a staggering dissonance between those comments and his tremendous level of power used to commit hideous human rights violations.

Capping off this “complicated” character with a lot of Red Hulk shenanigans just cements President Ross as the poster child of the MCU’s constant problems with executing “sympathetic” villains. The MCU desperately needs a few more unabashedly wicked foes like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s the High Evolutionary and fewer misguided attempts to make audiences weep for villains like Brave New World’s President Ross/Red Hulk.

Captain America: Brave New World is now playing in theaters.