We knew Captain America: Brave New World would feature at least two superheroes. It’s titular star, Sam Wilson was always going to get help from the new Falcon, Joaquin Torres. But the nature of the story, and the threat the world faced in the film, raises a pretty big question about the current state of the MCU: who’s even left to defend Earth?
Not every MCU superhero on Earth can respond to every threat. Especially not when some of them are also dealing with threats on other planets, like Carol Danvers. Meanwhile, heroes like Doctor Strange are busy trying to stop inter-dimensional incursions, which pose a far bigger threat than anything a single world faces. But when a team of assassins try to simultaneously kill every major world leader during a vital peace summit at the White House, a situation that brought the world to the edge of all-out war, at least a couple leftover Avengers or “enhanced individuals” should show up within a day, right?
That’s how long it took President Thaddeus Ross to leave his bunker after the “failed” assassination attempt. And yet, during that entire time, only Sam Wilson and Joaquin Torres arrived on the scene to help or try and solve the case. Even with Ross’s low approval rating with super people, how is that even possible? Someone tried to kill the leaders of the free world. That definitely qualifies as a massive call to action moment. So why didn’t any MCU heroes beyond Sam and Joaquin answer it and come to help defend the earth?
Maybe it’s because there really aren’t that many heroes left for the MCU’s United States to actually call on.
Putting aside the inherent silliness of Bucky Barnes not trying to save the President’s life because he’s on the campaign trail, there aren’t even that many heroes President Ross could have expected to help. Bruce Banner and Colonel James Rhodes would have made sense, as they’re both Americans and former Avengers. Same for Clint Barton, though he might still be semi or even entirely retired. But the list of active heroes who don’t make sense is far, far longer. And for a myriad of reasons.
The members of the MCU’s next film, Thunderbolts*, are either disgraced or foreign agents the U.S wouldn’t trust. The Asgardians living on MCU’s Earth have their own fledgling nation and problems to deal with. Ross himself showed the world has animosity to the Wakandans for not sharing vibranium and their technological advancements, so they’re out. Same for the isolationist living under the ocean in Talokan. The Eternals might as well not exist (both in-world and in Marvel Studios’ plans).
Meanwhile, nobody on Earth remembers the MCU’s Peter Parker. Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, America Chavez, and Riri Williams are still kids. She-Hulk and Matt Murdock have never worked served in that kind of capacity. Vision is an undead machine trying to figure out if he’s a ship. Wanda Maximoff is dead and the government doesn’t exactly call on witches to help with global politics anyway. Blade is still just a voice asking if anyone has written him a decent script. Wong and his sorcerers (and his friend escaped convict friend Abomination) are busy rebuilding their strength at Kamar-Taj. Monica Rambeau is in another dimension hanging out with the X-Men. And Scott Lang and his cohorts are not exactly favorites of the United States government.
Also, Shang-Chi apparently vanished from the franchise entirely into a puff of smoke, never to be heard from again.
When you look at the current state of the MCU and its superheroes, it makes more sense only Captain America and Falcon responded rather than an entire superhero squad. If just a couple of other enhanced individuals like Hulk, the Winter Soldier, and Hawkeye are dealing with other issues or retired in the MCU’s world, there’s not much of a heroic roster left to call into action to defend the Earth.
This raises another obvious question: Who the hell is going to join Sam’s New Avengers team? Thunderbolts* will probably answer some of those questions. The Fantastic Four: First Steps also might clarify things. But it’s clear that after Earth lost its two greatest defenders, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, it also lost many other heroes to different planets and the MCU’s multiverse.
It better find some new ones quickly, though. Because as the Leader told Sam Wilson, others are coming, and Captain America and the Falcon won’t be able to stop them alone.