What is the Traditionalist Position on Sam Wilson as Captain America?

There is a lot of discourse around the film debut of Sam Wilson’s Captain America. Currently, there are two sides to this issue:

“For” Sam as Cap:

1. Captain America is a mantle.
2. There needs to be more representation.
3. The “against” crowd is accused of being some kind of (insert name).

“Against” Sam as Cap:

1. Steve Rogers IS the proper Captain America.
2. Marvel race swapped Captain America.
3. This is “DEI or Woke.”

For transparency’s sake, I am in the “against” crowd, although not for the reasons you might think. More on that a bit later. I’d like to offer a different perspective on what I think is the real root of the problem; however, to be fair, both points of view have merit.

Defending the “For” Crowd

1. Technically, in the MCU, Steve Rogers passed the shield to Sam. This canonically transitioned the mantle of Captain America.
2. Representation is needed across modern media to reflect modern culture. What qualifies as too little or too much is subjective. I struggle to quantify this. For example, if you use the actual percentages of the US population, the LGBTQ community is likely overly represented in modern media. The counterargument to this is the historical dominance of white, male leads in Hollywood. This aligns with the philosophy of equity supporters. It becomes an unwinnable argument for either side.
3. When supporters feel critics don’t agree with them, the insults begin. Not always, but it is a popular retort. This pollutes the discussion as it puts the “against” crowd in a defensive position. How can someone defend being associated with a horrid character trait? Worse, they get aligned with a particular political party as some sort of guilt by association. Now you have chaos.

Is there precedence for this?

This part gets a little tricky. The “For” people will say, “they did it in the comics.” Well, that’s true. They did, but it’s not that simple.

After Secret Wars (2015), Marvel Comics, under then-Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Senior VP of Print Sales and Marketing David Gabriel, launched All-New, All-Different Marvel (ANADM). This was applauded by modern media and some fans for its ambitious efforts to modernize and diversify its lineup. The problem was, it sparked significant controversy. Long-time fans, retailers, and distributors criticized the initiative as they felt it stemmed from a perceived prioritization of diversity and sociopolitical themes over traditional storytelling and beloved characters. Accusations of a “SJW agenda” reflected broader cultural tensions, with fans, retailers, and critics debating whether the initiative struck the right balance between inclusion and honoring Marvel’s legacy.

In April 2017, during an interview with ICv2, Gabriel said:

“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity. They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not… We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.”

On the same day, Fortune released an article with Alonso that presented a conflicting but supportive statement about the company’s initiative. Quite the twist of fate.

Gabriel then clarified his statements:

“And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel Universe and pair them with our iconic heroes.”

Well, David, that was an unlucky turn of events.

Because of the flailing book sales, ANADM ended, as was Alonso’s tenure at Marvel soon after.

The Traditionalist Argument

1. Traditionalists have a compelling argument. Captain America (or any other comic book hero) has not traditionally been a mantle. A retort to that would cite Wally West, who was in his role as the Flash for a long time. That said, it isn’t inaccurate to see Steve Rogers as the true Captain America if you treat the role as a person and not a mantle.
2. Did Marvel race swap Captain America? Objectively, yes. Is that inherently a problem? If it is done poorly, it doesn’t matter what race or gender the swap is. As a traditionalist, I do not hold the events post-ANADM Marvel in high regard. This makes my opinion on MCU Sam even more complicated because traditionalists were never big fans of swaps.

Many MCU fans reference comics they haven’t read. Comics, way before ANADM, replaced legacy characters. There were certainly storyline reasons, but it was usually a marketing ploy to drum up sales. This is similar to how current Marvel Comics often kills off a hero before their movie’s release. The thing is, if you were a comic reader from the ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s, the reason it drew interest was that you knew the actual hero was always coming back. This gave you an incentive and an additional, if not new, reason to read that book. These stories were often advertised as “jumping on points” for new readers.

Some notable examples of temporary hero replacements in comics include John Walker as Captain America (1987–1989), James Rhodes as Iron Man (1983–1985), Ben Reilly and Otto Octavius as Spider-Man (1994 and 2012–2013), Azrael and Dick Grayson as Batman (1993–2010), and a group of replacements for Superman following his death (1992–1993). While sometimes gimmicky, these stories were generally well-written. (Ok, maybe not the Clone Saga, but you get the point.)

Why Didn’t This Work with ANADM?

Execution. That’s why.

Instead of assigning new characters to mantles through well-written narratives, like Rhodey taking over for Tony because he was drinking, characters were assigned mantles as if they were permanent offices. Second, it was done too quickly, with too many characters at once and without merit. In my Rhodey example, he suffered from headaches trying to fill Ironman's shoes. This eventually led him to stop emulating Tony and grow into his own hero, War Machine.

ANADM criticism was justified in my opinion. It also introduced toxicity that I do not feel was justified. The result is no one was truly right, virtue became a hill to die on, and the product suffered as a consequence. Book sales fell off. Manga sales began to outpace US comic book sales, and the fan base never recovered.

The Same Mistakes

This is why I am personally in the “against” column. Marvel Studios, coming out of Endgame, literally made the SAME mistakes the comic division made years earlier. Could ANADM have worked? Maybe, but they didn’t have the talent in-house to pull it off. This mirrors the problem with MCU Sam Wilson. Marvel’s over-reliance on branding (e.g., the Captain America or Thor mantles) rather than crafting stories that organically earned audience investment in new characters caused projects such as Eternals, Ant-Man 3, and The Marvels to underperform.

DEI or Woke?

3. Is Sam being thrust into the Captain America mantle based on DEI or Woke ideology? I’m not sure why this is a debate any longer. ANADM’s entire initiative, in their own words was rooted in DEI. Second, Disney has published their diversity requirements for hiring practices on their website. I don’t use the word woke any longer because it has too much baggage. I’d prefer traditionalists not be called names because they have a different opinion. In return, I don’t like to label someone or something woke. DEI isn’t an insult, it’s an initiative and since the MCU is following in ANADM’s footsteps, I would say Cap 4 does have DEI elements.

I like Falcon. I like Sam. I like Mackie as Sam. I still have Falcon’s original 4-issue limited series from 1983. That said, when I go to see a Batman, Captain America, Ironman, or Superman movie, I expect to see those characters—or, at the very least, know they are coming back.

Conclusion

Finally, there are writing issues with MCU Sam (that is a different article). It doesn’t help that he hasn’t been in a Marvel movie since 2019, and his Disney+ series wasn’t well done. That, in a nutshell, is the problem. I am cognizant of people who masquerade as traditionalists who do not support this for malicious reasons. I am merely presenting an alternative perspective.

Phase 4 could have built a foundation for a New Avengers team through interconnected projects like Secret Invasion or solo films for Fury, Strange, Falcon, Wanda, Hulk, Black Panther, Carol, and War Machine. This approach would have balanced familiar faces with fresh blood, and continued arcs for legacy characters following Endgame. The outcome would respect the audience’s investment in the world Marvel spent years building.

Marvel Comics and now Marvel Studios have failed to honor the storytelling traditions that built audience trust in their heroes, focusing instead on branding and rushed execution. Sadly, I fear that Sam is just the next casualty of bad writing and character development. This is real reason traditionalists do not see Sam as the true Captain America.