No one wants to admit that Steve Rogers is irreplaceable. Fifteen years ago, Chris Evans felt like an odd choice to play yet another superhero, let alone a hero as stalwart and true as Captain America. Against all odds, though, he managed to make the character his own — to the point where now, five years after Steve’s retirement in Avengers: Endgame, Cap fans within and outside of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe are still struggling to accept his departure.
It doesn’t help that Steve’s successor, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), has never truly gotten a fair shake. The hero formerly known as the Falcon was always a strong complement to Cap: a great leader in his own right, with a will and sense of humor all his own. It made total sense when Steve passed the shield on to him — though, if we’re being real, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) might have been a more logical choice. Sam’s appointment was intriguing, but it felt more like Marvel’s way of making A Statement™ about what it meant to be Black in America, rather than a natural progression for the character. And though The Falcon and the Winter Soldier made attempts to explore that paradox in a meaningful way, clumsy political storylines undermined Sam’s arc at every turn. The burden of being Captain America seemed to strip him of anything that made him interesting — and years later, it’s cast a pall over his first solo outing.
