GOOD MORNING folks. I didn't really know how to write this, at first I was planning to make a whole "little reac'" about D23 because I was actually highly anticipating it. Not as a Marvel fan but rather as a Disneyland Paris enjoyer and I honestly wasn't expecting anything new about Brave New World considering SDCC happened two weeks ago and certainly not anything Sam. But we (they) got a 5 minutes trailer and with that we got 1 sec of Sam (litteraly 1 sec, I checked). And surprisingly this one second was enough for me to talk about what our MCU gamma boy might be up to so let's dive in, it's big brain time !
Alright, alright. I'm not going to share the full trailer, it's a poor quality leak and I'm not fond of the 5min length teaser. I now it was a trailer + some scenes but still too long for me.
It's one of my biggest problem with Marvel these past few years in fact, you have the whole project through trailers before it even comes out.
Deadpool and Wolverine came out, what, two weeks ago ? And the whole movie is already online published by Marvel themself, every single cameos and surprise. Do they have so little faith in their own projects that they need to spoil everything ?
And y'know, I feel deeply conflicted because there's a part of me who wants, who NEEDS to know everything about MCU Sam already. But as the same time I love how they're trying (at least for now) to keep him very secret.
A few months ago an insider we all know leaked a poor quality pic of both Sam and Red Hulk and after that Marvel went really upset and started pressuring instagram to find them and we all assumed that it was because Marvel wanted to keep Red Hulk a secret. But McDonald's happened (long story short the movie was meant to came out in May 2024 so McDonald's April/May 2024 Happy Meal toys were Cap 4 and they had a Red Hulk plush) and trailers happened and leaked logo were real so we all realized that Marvel was planning to show Red Hulk very early in the promo. So I'm thinking that the character they're trying to keep secret is Sam rather than Red Hulk and I honestly didn't think about it because I'm just so used of Sam being a comic relief cameo rather than the deep real threat he can be (and was a few time).
Sure he was announced quite early by both Kevin Feige and Tim Blake Nelson themself at D23 2022 but we don't know shit about Sam. They said very early that Ross would be the President, they showed him very early in test foutages as well, they told us about his role (even his they didn't mention the Red Hulk part to hit hard with the first trailer) but Sam ? We don't know a single thing about him except that he's here. People assumed that he would be the big baddy and such but really nobody said that, they just assume things (as always). We don't know what he's up too.
Now considering his comics History we can guess that he's the one who will turn Ross into Red Hulk 'cause that's what happened in comics as well but that's it. We don't know what he's doing, we don't know what he looks like. All we got so far is two shots of Sam's back, hidding his head, a shot of his hand and his voice "global power is shifting, you're just a pawn" in the first trailer and "global power is shifting and you're another empty symbol" in the D23 trailer. And I'm gonna say it again but fuck how I LOVE the way Tim Blake Nelson talks in these two sentences.
Also apparently Julius Onah is a big fan of Tim Blake Nelson (AS HE SHOULD) so maybe he gave him a bigger role than I thought (I'm a pessimist alright so I rather have little to no expectation and feel positivly surprised when something is better than I imagined so to me Sam is merely a cameo until I see otherwise) and they're keeping it secret idk.
So why am I talking about it, making long rants about it already ? Well you know me and you know that I know everything there is to know about Sam and because of that there's a lot to say through this one second badass Sam shot.
Alright, first of all here're the one second (I didn't lie, it's one sec) I would suggest to not put sound on, it's a stolen video so it's just very noisy
We don't know who that shadow figure is but it's most likely Sam because he has the exact same black long coat as the person who seems to be Sam in the first trailer.
And I just noticed while writing this that in that pic he's holding a phone there's a swimming pool outside so maybe that joke I drew right after Endgame when someone asked "what do you think Sam was up to during all these years, when aliens invade New York, when Ultron happened, when Thanos snapped" and I said "chilling" was real (no it's not).
It was my longest obsession with Sam (and I still absolutly love Diablo, you'll often see me mentionning it and the aesthetic of my arts with Sam as a fallen angel and Bruce as a demon is HIGHLY inspired by it, I even wrote a whole dark fantasy Alternative Universe with Sam and Bruce inspired by Diablo and my most powerful necro is named Samuel) BUT I'LL TALK ABOUT DIABLO ANOTHER DAY, I'm just mentionning it to explain the sudden fixation I have for that moment, it brings A LOT of nostalgia into me and somehow mix my two biggest obsessions ever in a one second moment haha because my fav part of all the Diablo 2 cutscenes was that Baal reveal when he then leaves while everything is on fire with his hood on. That's what it reminds me of (of course that's not the inspiration of that shot, I'm just talking about why I love it so much).
I litteraly have a "crush" on dark evil hooded character, if that make sense, because of Diablo so OF COURSE I'M BEING INSANE ABOUT THIS SAM SHOT. I can't help but obsess on it.
So I looked at this moment a lot these past 24 hours (INSANE I SAID) and I noticed a little detail. I have a terrible sight even with my glasses so it took me a moment to see that detail, yes when I draw your commission I don't see shit and I have to put my face on my tablet and destroy my back for Art but it is what it is :
WELL WELL IF IT ISN'T THE STARK INDUSTRIES LOGO.
Sure it could be nothing, after all Stark is pretty much everywhere in this world to the point it became a meme.
BUT let me reshare this
(I need to remember to edit that instagram post later btw 'cause the movie is no longer named New World Order as you know)
But anyway, the comics picture is from Tales to Astonish 63, Sam's origin story and the Tim pic from the set of Brave New World and the art by me because I'm a simp.
Sure Tim was talking about the "look" of the character rather than his story but I still think the look is gonna be McFarlane's Sam during the Peter David era (so bald, big brain) 'cause as I said easier to pull without CGI and on a "grounded" pov it just makes sense than he lost his hair to too much radiation (kinda what happened with that second mutation anyway), so to me he's talking about the storyline. I'm still 100% convinced that Tim did this on purpose because of the way he thinks his words, his body language and the GODDAMN USE OF ASTONISH, OF ALL WORDS HE USED THIS ONE BECAUSE OF COURSE IT WOULD TALK TO SAM SIMPS, HE IS A WRITER, HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING.
Before he was the Hulk antagonist and the evil genius we know, Sam was a spy. Shortly after his mutation, in order to learn faster, get the necessarly tech and to make money to work on his
That's how he first met Hulk in fact, he was planning to steal Bruce's inventions and sell it to the URSS again, but he was stopped by Hulk and developped his obsession for him and we all know what happened afterward.
Back then Sam was already planning to take over the USA (and then the world) way before he became an antagonist to Hulk.
And you're probably starting to understand what this theory is about now. I often say that I think Sam's writing will be inspired by 3 big axes of his history. Tales to Astonish (origin story), Peter David era (his most popular era) and Greg Pak era (because it's when he created Red Hulk), so maybe we're gonna see his "origin story" in Cap 4, maybe if he's wandering in a Stark Industries building that's because he's here to steal something, maybe that's what he has been up to these past few years while plotting in the shadow. Maybe he's the reason behind a few things that happened in a few movies because of that.
Sam is a puppet master after all.
And I love how they keep showing him as a shadow figure, all in black in that long coat, very menacing.
Y'know it's a very basic horror code, barely showing the threatening menace. It was used in the Incredible Hulk movie (2008) when Bruce first transformed, we didn't see Hulk, we see him later in the movie. You know the threat is here but you don't clearly see it, when you finally see Hulk that's because he's no longer a threat to you and you start feeling empathy for him.
And that's what they're doing with Sam here, you can see labs that you assume is his, you hear Cap talking about a threat but you don't directly see it. There's a kinda thriller vibe to all this that I love very much, that's why I don't mind if they don't show Sam until the movie comes out and hope they'll do that (they won't, it's the MCU, of course they'll show him at some point but I wish they don't).
Even in comics, Sam's writing is at its peak when he's written like that shadow figure pulling the strings in the backstage. That's what he did during the Peter David era, that's what he did in Immortal Hulk. When you re-read Immortal Hulk you see all the hints of his presence that was teased in issue 25 and revealed in issue 33 (so after 2 years lol) and Immortal Hulk went as far as putting him as the puppet master of a lot of things that happened previously in the Hulk history.
Maybe that's what the MCU is doing with him, maybe we'll be like "oh it was HIM", just like I'm pretty sure he was the real scientist who gave away super soldier serum in Falcon and the Winter Soldiers, it's such a Sam thing to do that back then I wrote a whole thread explaining how I was kinda expecting him to show up in that show, which I talk about here. Sam is a character who is here without being here, like, his shadow and influence is here but you don't see him (which can be very frustratring for a fan like me but also very cool).
And I think that's all I had to say about this one second trailer, so that's where I'm gonna stop haha it's already long enough. But what can I say. I'm just so happy.
This blog was supposed to be mostly about comics stuff but timing made me talk mostly about the MCU, but I still have a so much to say on a lot of others Sam related topics.
So until next time, enjoy~
