Normally what draws me to characters is their flaws- the ways they don’t work, the ways they fall short of their goals, the gaps they have that need to be filled in order to be fulfilled as people. The idea of a pure cinnamon roll generally doesn’t work for me, because I feel like I can’t get into a character like that at all.
And then there’s Sam goddamn Wilson, who upends my entire idea of why I like things.
For me, there is something really fascinating about the way that I think Sam is inclined toward lawful good but is hyperaware of the fact that the systems he wants to believe in are pretty irreparably flawed and that the question of how to do the most effective good within the constraints of existing systems is the one he struggles with. So when Steve cannonballs into his life, there’s a chance for him to use an existing system – the Avengers, and specifically the mythologized Captain America as idea of America at its best – and his own risk taking inclinations and to do good within that framework.
(I would also be super into Sam actually dealing with Steve-the-person as opposed to Steve-the-myth and the ways they do not agree. That moment when he’s all “the people shooting at you are usually shooting at me too” is maybe my favorite sam and steve moment for all the things it says about Sam’s awareness of how big a risk he’s taking. And like, I would also genuinely love Sam’s reconciliation between knowing how much of a propaganda piece Steve is and how susceptible Sam is to it and how much Steve buys into his own hype.)
Anyway. I love Sam a lot because the questions that he’s grappling with (for me) are specifically about his navigation of the world. And that he’s doing it all because he wants to help and this seems like the best way. (is it though? does the question of if he could be doing something more…worthwhile keep him up at night sometimes? is he justifying what he’s doing because he wants his wings and this is how he gets to keep them? does it matter if he’s being selfish if he’s also helping people? Does Steve’s intractability drive him up a fucking wall sometimes? Is he bothered by Steve’s bull in a china shop approach to things that maybe Steve lacks context/nuance for? or is that simplicity the appeal?)
tldr, I would absolutely be treasurer of the I Heart Sam Wilson Fan Club.
*gnaws gently on your brain*
You are my FAVORITE.
I think part of the problem in discussing Sam is that we’ve never really been granted his POV. The closest we get is Civil War, and that conversation between him and Rhodey is so important, because both of them are acknowledging the difference between the rose-colored world Steve and Tony inhabit (which is both very white, and very outside of jurisdiction), and the actual world they inhabit, as Black men who’ve served in the military. I know we’ve discussed this earlier, but Sam HAS to grapple with systems in ways that Steve doesn’t, because Steve, while ostensibly in the army, was never really subjected to oversight; the Howlies got military intel but operated on their own, and the Avengers do similarly. Sam’s objections to the Accords, for example, carry far more weight for me, because Sam is AWARE of how restrictions work, rather than Steve, who’s pretty much like “I thought I was going to be court-martialed for marching in single-handedly to rescue Bucky but it turns out they gave me my own unit?”
So maybe part of what’s interesting about Sam- and I’m sorry, because I feel like I’m recounting all these things we’ve already discussed- is that so many of the MCU characters are not just superheroes, but existing outside of normal human expectations; they’ve had abnormal upbringings that made them uniquely suited to be superheroes.
Sam is every inch a superhero, but he’s a real contemporary PERSON in a way that isn’t true of someone raised in the 40s, or as a billionaire prodigy, or as a space prince, or in the Red Room. He had a normal childhood, he went into the military where his job was very cool but still within the boundaries of the military; when he retired he got a normal job. Sam is a person who’s probably had to, in his life, work retail and reconcile a checkbook, and in general exist in the world as it is rather than just this four-color superworld, and yet is successful as a superhero anyway.
So in addition to negotiating the space between Steve-as-person and Steve-as-myth, which I agree with you is goddamn catnip, he’s also navigating the space between Avengers-as-real-organization and Avengers-as-myth. We know he’s been exposed to the propaganda as a civilian (when he first meets Steve he’s basically like “yeah, I kind of figured you were the guy with superpowers”), and now he’s part of it, in ways that are very different from just mastering the space between the military as organization and the mythology it’s created for itself, because the US military is still theoretically working with humans.
So while I get that much of the audience wants to see themselves as a Cap or an Iron Man or whatever, the questions Sam’s grappling with are a lot more of what we would actually be dealing with. He is, frankly, the only Avengers-adjacent character to have enough of a grasp on normality to even fully understand that an individual with extraordinary means (be that powers or money) may not always be the best way to handle a problem. Which allow Sam to explore, not a flaw in the way an individual reacts to these circumstances, but a flaw in the system they’ve created to deal with it.
Also those last questions you asked. Whether Sam feels like he’s just justifying doing something for keeping his wings. THANKS SATAN MY HEART WASN’T BROKEN ENOUGH ALREADY.
God, the Sam vs Rhodey argument in Civl War is SO GOOD. like, okay, even as normal black men who navigated the military, there’s the essential class difference between Rhodey the officer and Sam the NCO. There’s Rhodey’s official role as liaison to Stark Industries, there’s Rhodey as literal propaganda machine subject to PR conventions on his superhero identity, Sam as an employee of the VA, Sam as retiree, etc. Just. IDEK. The different levels of proximity to power – even as Sam occupies that space as Steve’s partner and an Avenger, we see it just as Steve is losing his institutional power and backing and it keeps taking Sam into a place that is inherently more dangerous to him than it is to Steve. And Sam keeps right on walking into it with his eyes open – very specifically that the movies call out that his eyes are open. It’s so fascinating, especially in contrast to Rhodey who has that proxmity and never really loses it or the institutional backing.
One thing that I think would have made Civil War so much stronger, as a narrative, would have been prioritizing Rhodey’s and Sam’s POVs over Steve and Tony’s. Because Tony and Steve have the theoretical understandings, but their lives are so ridiculously out-of-the-ordinary they don’t have perspective. Tony’s place in Rhodey’s life means that Rhodey has been able to navigate very different spaces than Sam, but he hasn’t been shielded by the privilege that keeps Tony from fully understanding the impact.
Rhodey wouldn’t have needed that photograph at the beginning of Civil War to prompt introspection. I think we’re lying to ourselves if we don’t think Rhodey’s been introspective about his role all along, albeit in a VASTLY different way than Sam has.
Rhodey’s proximity to power is all the more fascinating because we really know even less about him than about Sam, given how little the IM movies have given him his due. And how much does Rhodey doubt his own place, wondering if some of his accolades stem from being the only person who can rein in an asset the military would very much like to control? I believe Rhodey knows he’s exceptional (and I believe Tony sees Rhodey as exceptional; I don’t doubt their best friendship for a moment), but I think anyone in Rhodey’s position would have to do a lot of soul-searching about whether people would notice how exceptional he is if he weren’t Tony Stark’s friend.
Rhodey’s proximity to power via his relationship with Tony is a key thing that separates him from Sam‘s POV, because Rhodey’s functioned with that since they were at MIT, and I think that gave Rhodey both a lot of power and potentially, a lot of self-doubt.
All of this is SO GOOD. Man, I really want that version of Civil War now…
And all those questions about Sam? Those are the questions I LOVE and have already done more to give me the itch to write fic than anything else in the past few months.
I need all of these fics and these Sam plots and this Sam POV 😭😭 plz world