The latest entry in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Brave New World has its share of thrills. There’s a city street standoff with a hired killer called Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). There’s an aerial battle between our high-flying heroes, Japanese fighter jets and a U.S. aircraft carrier below. There’s the climactic clash in which U.S. President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford) transforms into the rampaging Red Hulk.
But the most gripping moment in Brave New World might be its quietest. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the latest person to carry the mantle of Captain America, goes to visit his friend and mentor Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who is temporarily being held in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Dramatic under-lighting highlights the smoothness of Sam’s face, young and hopeful and still confident that justice will be done. It has the opposite effect on Isaiah, deepening the creases formed by years of abuse at the hands of both his own country and enemy nations.
Bradley gained superpowers through unethical experiments the U.S. government conducted on Black soldiers, an attempt to create the next Captain America. When the experiments worked on Bradley, the military sent him on secret missions during the Korean War, which continued until he became a prisoner of war. As his captors tortured him, the government disavowed all knowledge of him, abandoning Bradley until long after the conflict had ceased and he had made his way home.
So when Bradley finds himself brainwashed and turned into a would-be assassin for some mysterious cabal, terror and anger consume him. Not so much at what he did—he knows that a malevolent force took control of his mind and used his body to fire a gun at President Ross. Rather, he’s angry that, once again, he’s been made an unwilling weapon of war. And once again, the American government will punish him for it.
“I’m not going to prison again, Sam,” Bradley tells his younger friend. Sam assures Bradley that everything will be OK, that he’ll figure it out and restore justice. After all, Sam’s a superhero. He’s Captain America.
Despite its grandiose title and gestures toward political intrigue, Captain America: Brave New World offers a lot of derring-do and little engagement with social issues. Bradley’s attack and imprisonment send Sam and his partner, Joaquin Torres, aka Falcon (Danny Ramirez), to track down a conspiracy that leads to Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson). Sterns is a scientist whose work with gamma radiation left him with increased brain size, a ghastly appearance and a thirst for revenge against President Ross.
Christ’s church pursues a dream richer than anything invoked by a government—a dream of true justice and reconciliation.
Director Julius Onah and his team of screenwriters create thrilling action sequences and move the plot along fast enough to prevent anyone from thinking too deeply about its many contrivances. But Lumbly’s rich performance at the outset of the film prevents even the most inattentive viewer from ignoring the call for justice within all the superhero spectacle.
Justice, of course, has always been a contested concept among humans, long before there was anything called the United States, let alone Captain America. “No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth,” laments Isaiah 59:4 (NKJV), one of manifold Scripture passages that affirm God’s concern for the oppressed.
Demands for justice intensify today in the United States, as a flurry of government orders and regulations have been issued by a new presidential administration. Amid these rapid and impactful changes, members across the church strive to live out God’s baptismal call to act for justice.
The ELCA affirms God’s call through the 1991 social statement “The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective.” “Along with all citizens, Christians have the responsibility to defend human rights and to work for freedom, justice, peace, environmental well-being and good order in public life,” the statement reads.
In a Jan. 24 pastoral message, Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, addressed the church’s response to recent executive orders: “I am concerned about the ways that many of the executive actions have created uncertainty and fear in our communities among neighbors struggling to survive, neighbors struggling to provide for their children, and neighbors struggling to be seen. … Let us be bold in our witness to the gospel, steadfast in our prayers for those in authority and tireless in our efforts to seek justice for all.”
Such a call can sometimes feel as formidable as Captain America assuring his friend that good will prevail. But that’s exactly what happens in Brave New World. Sam uncovers the truth and Isaiah goes free, the world once again set to right.
Our work in the real world, in the real United States, will be much longer and harder, and it will be ongoing. But in uncertain and anxious times, even a superhero story can offer hope, as Christ’s church pursues a dream richer than anything invoked by a government—a dream of true justice and reconciliation.
