Y'know, I went from being the only one who ever cared about Sam to suddenly having to deal with a bunch of annoying people crying about how "Marvel destroyed their boy" from losers who never even opened his wikipedia page. So today I want to talk about that, about why it's wrong and what's their real problem.
As much as I love MCU Sam he's far from perfect, even if they took the right decision and path. So today I wanted to talk about that, about what they did, why they did it and ultimatly how to make it insanely good.
Because whether you like him or not, this MCU Sam has the potential to go down as one of the greatest MCU villain given the proper care.
So today let's talk about Sam's future.
Little disclaimer, I'm only sharing my pov. I'm not a comics writer and certanly not in the cinema industry. I talk as a fan who do little fanarts in their freetime for fun and what I would expect to see as such while trying to stay objective. I just think it's a super fun and interesting exercice to re-imagine something like Sam, respecting his comics self, what was done in the MCU already, market, people's expectations and the story you want to tell yourself.
I - Comics Accuracy
The first thing we gotta talk about is this notion of "comics accuracy". Does it really have a meaning other than making people feel legitimate and somewhat superior when they like or dislike something?
Take a look at all the most popular MCU characters, none of them are really comics accurate and if they are in design then not in writing and vice versa. Remember how Loki's whole design and writing changed to match the MCU. How Thanos writing was absolutly not the same as his comics self. And what about Tony and his alcohol issues. The guardians, M'Baku, even Namor, no matter his green pants.
Take Kang. Look at He Who Remains. Now look at Kang in Ant-Man 3, guess which one is praised and which one is hated and which one is physically "comics accurate" and which one isn't.
Comics accuracy is a nasty notion that prevent characters from evolving and creatives from working and frankly, given the importance of the multiverse and different interpretations/variants are in Marvel I don't even understand why "comics accuracy" is even a thing. The multiverse was created to allow every versions of every characters from every imaginations to coexist, comics accuracy shouldn't even exist. People don't want comics accuracy, they want a good story.
And ironically Sam's second design was way more comics accurate than the first one they took. First of all, you have to remember that Sam had a dozen design, everytime he shows up he's different in a way or another so really WHO THE FUCK CARES if we take some freedom with him? He's the best for that. I love what they did with his second design. It's in the vibe of his most popular era (Bald McFarlane one) and the blind white eye and creepy smile was a nice hommage to that. Is it perfect? No. Is it bad? No. Is it ugly? Yes, but it was always the point, we're talking about the Leader folks, THE LEADER, why would he be anything but gross and ugly.
He is grotesque, it's the point, that's why he's incredibly hard to adapt on a live action because something that looks good on a comics doesn't necessarly look good on screen.
And yes, the makeup team did an absolute good Job with this first design, but Sam is a gentleman, a dandy through the way he talks, the way he moves, the way he stands and the way he presents himself. All you have here is a wreck of a guy that is nothing like his comics self. And sure, given his writing it would make sense and I'm sure I would have loved him no matter what, but it's not more comics accurate than what we got.
And I'll tell you this as someone who draw NSFW of Sam's elongated head with hair design because I think it's hot (and a lot of people enjoy these alright!) and as an incredibly big fan of Tim Blake Nelson's work (so someone who is made to love this first look, basically) : it looks awful and when the first artwork came out I felt worried even, because I knew people would hate it and mock it and I wasn't sure I would like it either (but I can't tell without watching how it looked on screen). And if you take the time to find these old leak post, you'll see people complaining about how awful it looks. So yes, if anything Marvel did listen and changed that.
What Sam went through during 16 years need to be visible on his face to be properly understood.
During my second watch, someone in the theater yelled "AH" in disgust and horror during his face reveal, but not in a negative way, rather in the same way Joaquin says "damn" in this moment and I thought to myself "you see? Now that's the kind of reaction a good design should inspire".
During my second watch, someone in the theater yelled "AH" in disgust and horror during his face reveal, but not in a negative way, rather in the same way Joaquin says "damn" in this moment and I thought to myself "you see? Now that's the kind of reaction a good design should inspire".
Look at these two design of Tim as Sam and tell me which one is closer to comics
Everybody use that MCU Sam grin to explain how it's "ugly and not comics accurate" and it's super funny because this was an hommage to his very unfamous creepy-ass grin in the design that ultimatly inspired this version, the McFarlane version. Same for the white blind eye. And in fact the bald McFarlane version is way more popular than his hairy elongated head design among comics reader and merch and any other Marvel medias so if you see someone crying over how they "massacred their boy" and how he's ugly and not like his comics self and blablabla you now have the proof they don't fucking read any of the comics they're talking about, they don't give a shit about "their boy", they want a reason to hate on shit they don't care about and make numbers through it and look relevant when they do because they have no hobbies or passion. Don't even waste your time proving them wrong, they do that very well by themself the moment they talked.
And the second I saw Tim with that first makeup on a few days ago, I understood exactly why they changed it. In fact it made sense way before they even showed anything. I don't even get why someone at Marvel thought it could possibly work other than to please these dumbass "comics accuracy" squad losers online and that's the perfect illustration as to why Marvel needs to fucking STOP trying to please people online, they don't know what they're talking about nor what they want and they're a GODDAMN MINORITY "but 10K people liked a post saying the final design is ugly" OUT OF HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO FUCKING SAW THE MOVIE, that's less than 0,01%! That's the thing I HATE about social media, it gives you the impression that a bunch of fucking morons are relevant because they're loud on plateforms with an algorithm made to push negativity and hate because it creates engagement. Big studios should know best than to bend to their will.
Again, I don't hate on the makeup team and you shouldn't either because what they did is genuinely impressive, it's not their fault if that design cannot work on screen. But it should have been obvious it wouldn't work. I called it months ago.
And if you still think Marvel "butchered him on purpose" or whatever bullshit I saw, think about the amount of money they lost over this last minute change. The merch ready they won't use. The promotional posters they had to redo. Sam's screentime and writing being sacrificed. You really think fucking Disney would allow such a big waste to please 40 people during a screen test? They did because it DIDN'T WORK AT ALL no matter how cool his writing was. Because a good character needs not only a good writing and attitude, they need a good design as well. It's a trifoce.
II - Design
Now it doesn't mean this final design was perfect and I think it can totally be improved to turn him into a fascinating villain.
I disagree with every complains I've been reading about him but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be taken into consideration. After all, this version wasn't written for me but for the general audience and so, as a designer, it would be my duty to try to find a middle ground between what was done, what need to be done and what people would love to see (and I'm talking about people who made genuine criticisms, not haters. Just because a bunch of loud morons are saying bullshit doesn't mean we shouldn't listen to anyone at all).
So the first thing we gotta do is identify everything that worked well :
Glowing eyes, we keep. Blind white eye, we keep. Difformations, we keep. Skin, we keep, it's the right shade (same as Hulk) but we pay a deeper attention to the light because while his skin looked very green when he was in his cell thanks to the cold blue-ish light, it was way too "yellow" under the Sun, having people think he wasn't green at all. I know his McFarlane skin is also less green but still, we need to be way more cautious with that.
People want a bigger head, we work on that, we keep it this way but we make it bigger, not too big to avoid having a ridiculous design either. So slightly bigger.
I made an exemple with a 10sec photoshop retouch below.
It's far from perfect but you get the idea. You don't need to make it too much bigger. Of course unlike my very lazy touch up you gotta add all these "bubbles" on his brain as well, we need to keep that "exploding and damaged" very gross look his head has already. We need to make the green veins more visible also. Make them visible on his body, let it invade his neck, his hands.
It would be easy to justify, either make him enhancing his gamma himself or explain that his mutation wasn't final and he still evolves (that's how it works in comics, in fact, he lost his gamma because it wasn't "still", if that make sense). I mean, Brave New World isn't about the Leader, it's about Samuel Sterns losing what is left of his humanity and embrassing his future Leader faith, "it's too late for that now" is clear enough but I also explained more visible metaphors in the movie here. Like I often say, unlike his first scrapped version and its scrapped merch, not even once was he presented as "the Leader", he was the buyer and those choices may be related to his future, who knows. People are complaining about him but they're not saying they don't want to see him ever again, they say they want to see a better version when he's back, with Hulk preferably. He's not the Leader yet in this movie, it's inspired by Tales to Astonish so his very introduction as a gamma irradiated. And it would make that even more relevant if his design "evolve"
What I would add also is a damaged body. Either give me the shirtless Sam shot I deserve or find a way to make his body visibly painful through the way he moves, or what he says, whatever. It could even explain why he would keep feeding himself gamma even if he hates his new body, because it would be the only way to calm the awful pain he feels. Kind of when he was feeding himself gamma in Warbound because of his body breaking.
Now let's talk facial hair. I really think he doesn't need to have any but it seems to be a common issue for people so I guess we'll have to add some.
Technically, Sam had a lot of style for that (and a few mustache-less even). Goatee, thin mustache, your racist uncle's mustache, beard. The scrapped design went for a beard and it makes me think that it wouldn't be a good idea because I saw a lot of people saying it gave him a kind of "hobo" look, which is kinda true and isn't what you want for a character that is supposed to be sophistocated. So if you really want to keep the beard because it's more modern, then make it way thinner. It need to be close to his famous mustache.
Then we give him a Super Villain outfit.
Sam is known for his flashy orange jumpsuit, we give him that. I have two ideas for this, either something very tight 'cause he tends to wear that and in that case I would advise to take diving suits as your main inspo to make it comfortable for Tim. Here's an exemple I did :
There's a few things you can play with to make it similar to comics. In this doodle I made, I kept the black "collar" he tends to get and I made him closer to his more modern looks in Fall of the Hulks/World War Hulks rather than going for the yellow one in the 60/70s because it would look better on screen, the yellow is kind of kitschy. But I still made little callback, for exemple the black line on the biceps, or the silver bracelets and ankle things (gotta rework the boots, like I said). I gave him black nails like his 90s McFarlane self also and these little "bump" or whatever it's called (I'm French forgive me) on his shoulders as a callback to these shoulder pieces he had, not too big though. And that kind of strap going from his arm pits to his neck.
Or you can also go for something a bit more large.
If you make it larger, you can take "contamination" suits or whatever it's called as our inspiration. Makes sense to Sam's lore, also. Though I wouldn't make it as large as I did in my 2min sketch above, it needs to stay somewhat tight (I'll make a proper design when I have the time, I'm incredibly BUSY atm).
I didn't draw it but you can also add his "breastplate". I would make it silver for the reason above. Here're a few exemples o what I mean :
I didn't draw it but you can also add his "breastplate". I would make it silver for the reason above. Here're a few exemples o what I mean :
Now something I really loved about his MCU self is the hood, especially in that deleted scene. Without going too deep in that 'cause that post is already AWFULLY LONG and I already mentionned that a few time, I just love the death allegory of that deleted moment. A black hooded figure in a long coat walking in an immaculate white room with corpses on the ground, it's a very obvious death metaphor. And it suits him well because if Sam is known for his brain, he's also known for being a very Lucifer-ious figure. Tim Blake Nelson compared him to Icarus and he was right about that too.
Sam is a fallen angel allegory, he pays the price of his transgressions, so both works. Immortal Hulk made that even more obvious but that's why the Death metaphor works so well for him.
Inspired by techwear and cyberpunk (same if you go for a larger outfit btw, make it inspired by these style), because it matches his energy but also because their form add a lot of movement and life and details without having to really move.
I would left the coat fully black, with some details on it to make it less casual, but all black. To keep that shadow/death/fallen angel image.
As a designer, you need to make your design good looking and physically "obvious", like, people gotta understand what kind of person they're seeing just by looking at them. Are they physically powerful? Are they smart? But you also need to make it practical for your character (especially in a live action), the actor portraying them and in the amount of work and money it would require. That's why designing is so fucking hard.
But the death metaphor isn't the only reason you would like to give him a hood, it's also very conveniant, on a pragmatic point of view, in the way that having him hooded spares you and Tim a shit tons of makeup and so time and CGI fixes and so more importantly you save money, that's why in Brave New World you see him with a hat and with a hood, because the details of his head are CGI so you're saving money and time ('cause friendly reminder the whole CGI team had less than 8 months to rework all that).
As a designer, you need to make your design good looking and physically "obvious", like, people gotta understand what kind of person they're seeing just by looking at them. Are they physically powerful? Are they smart? But you also need to make it practical for your character (especially in a live action), the actor portraying them and in the amount of work and money it would require. That's why designing is so fucking hard.
That being said, I would even give him a mask but only on the "beginning of the movie", until he gotta face the hero. That's the little freedom I would take. Again, hidding his face avoid expense and time it's also a way to keep him "hidden" (that's what worked best on him in Brave New World for a reason) even if we know his face it would still be impactful if you also change how he looks like (like the size of his brain) and because he's a character of the shadow, masking him is a good way to keep that, also because he's a character who's about masking his emotions. You could also have him change his voice through it so he's not recognizible. There's a reason masterminds are often represented with a mask, any kind of mask. It just works well in this context.
Just imagine him doing his nefarious shit, having a first physical clash with Bruce as Smart Hulk (so with his Bruce personality), getting punched and while he slowly stand up again from it in anger and panting, broken part of his mask falling and Bruce recognizing his face and just gasping in horror because of his old overly happy old friend for who he probably feels a shit tons of guilt standing in front of him with that murderous and cold look through his visible glowing green eye and Sam taking this little moment of Bruce's confusion to escape, probably with a cool sentence. (Yes Code Geass heavily influenced me leave me alone!!)
I would take a full mask that can turn into an half-face mask. Again, cyberpunk/techwear. Take inspiration from Daft Punk and stuff like that. I think it adds to his personality in the way that Sam hidding himself to either hide whatever is left of his humanity or the look that disgusts him so much would be a very nice touch to his character and a nice callback to his own internal struggles in comics (that is way too much ignored by writers LOL).
I would also play with his eyes. It's the most recognizable feature on him and the one that gave him so much strength in Brave New World. You need to play with that glowing green eye and the blind one (remember that the blind left eye doesn't glow like the right one, it reflects light like a wild animal in the night), having a half-mask with a hood allow all the focus on that. His blind eye is emotionless, his green eye is full of life, it's PERFECT to represent Sam's struggle between the humanity and emotions he tries to reject and that cold mask he created, you need to keep that in mind and play with it. It can easily be justify by Sam using gas or whatever (gamma poisoning people is kind of his thing anyway). Having a mask is also a good way to sell merch because that's the whole point, that's why everyone keep changing their design from a movie to another. Merch is Marvel's main income, it's important to keep that in mind and with that you have two toys instead of one and a masked one will probably be WAY MORE appealing to kids than Sam who has a design that isn't really interesting for kids. However, I would maybe advertise this masked figure as someone else to avoid manchild discourse we get every single time an unmasked hero get a mask or nanotech is used (btw friendly reminder that Sam is THE nanotech master in comics, like his humanoids are nanotech, if someone can get nanotech it's HIM). It shouldn't be something he "needs" but rather an accessory he wears once or twice to protect himself or his identity given the context you pick, he shouldn't keep it too long. One or two scenes would be enough. Give him tech also. A force-field shield or whatever it's called that triggers itself when someone tries to hit him without having to move, giving some cool moment of Sam standing still all calm while someone tries to hurt him and the person just hiting/shooting the shield instead and later, once it's established how resistant it is, Hulk breaking through it and Sam having a small moment of panic (Sam often has these moment of pure terror when he looses control of the situation). Not like the Black Panther armor or the Iron Man suit tho, rather a shield creating itself from a distance, kind of like a "wall", if that make sense (he has one in Avengers Assemble). Humanoids would be cool, though I understand it's hard to reproduce in a live action, but I'm sure with the proper design we could do something out of this. You can also use magic for a callback to Immortal Hulk but that's not what I would focus on. It happened 60 years after the beginning of his writing, people aren't that aware he's into magic, it's better to focus on tech. Or tech with magic, but not magic alone.
III - The attitude
That's it for the design, but a design is nothing without the writing and attitude.
Fortunatly for us, Tim Blake Nelson is a very good actor and can easily pull whatever we throw at him. I think Marvel was a bit cowardly with him, in the way that both his design felt very "Tim", just trust him and give him the freedom to unleash his potential, jeez.
What he did in Brave New World was great already so he doesn't need to change anything, he would have to add to it, however. The way he went from no emotion and talking so low to him losing his shit the second after was perfection. I always wondered if he took inspiration from Matt Frewer in the Incredible Hulk cartoon from 96. But anyway, he gotta keep that, Sam is someone who pretends to be incredibly cold but who is full of emotions.
Sam is also a character full of sass and very seducing. He's ugly af but he has enough charisma through his confidence and his sass to make anyone following him, even people like Ross or Bruce who would know best than to trust him and it gotta be seen through the way he talks and move. Tim's nonchalant way to move and his low emotionless voice as Sam were very great, so we keep that. I love the moment he first shows up in front of Sam Wilson a lot 'cause the way he moves his head and just let his arm fall on his body after pushing the button in a kind of annoyed but also lifeless way or when he raises his hand in annoyance while saying "yet here you stand" (it's barely visible but if you look closely you'll see his fingers visible near his hand, gesturing like when you point at something with your whole hand when you're annoyed in a "whatever" or "jeez" way, if that makes sense), well that's what I'm talking about. That's what we needs to keep. This very "I don't give a shit but I do" kind of very cold annoyed attitude.
His confidence is already quite visible through the way he talks, for exemple "then stop taking the pills but we both know you won't" had this je ne sais quoi that made us understand he was. His sass also was audible it the trailer when he said "who's playing who" or when he says "that's a way if putting it", the intonation on his voice made it sassy. That's why Tim was great as Sam, he made Sam's emotionless voice so full of emotion. But it wasn't enough, we need to push that overly confidence.
Sam is also someone who tends to invade people's personal space and I'd play with that, his disdain for people's privacy by making him physically close to his victim, through posing and touches.
Make him crouch when he talks to people, make him touch them in a very patronizing way. It's a good way to make him looks "superior", which is kind of the key part of Sam.
I don't know how to properly explain that in English but the reason to crouching is because it adds to his nonchalance and antipathic personality. The contrast between this kind of very chill pose and his cold emotionless attitude make his unability to feel empathy even more obvious and it makes him colder, more in control of the whole situation and more threatening.
I recently dreamt about MCU Sam, he was in his hoodie + sunglasses outfit and he was unleashing a bunch of gamma monsters on some kind of fair and as everybody was running in panic and chaos, screaming, he was walking very slowly in the opposite direction, kind of spliting that chaotic mass of people, he sat at a random pizza stall and starts eating one and the contrast between that very casual, common and calm behavior with the panic around him made him look incredibly fucking cool and threatening, as ridiculous as it sounds written this way (don't judge me, I barely dream about Sam honestly).
He also needs to have this very confident "gentleman" Leader aura that he has yet to demonstrate. Let him show his God complex. I will use Silco from Arcane for that because his personality and goal are very, very close to what MCU Sam would be. Angry at injustice, angry at a treason (I'll go back to that in the writing part).
I need him to sit like this when a goon reports to him, again, because the chill of the pose add to the powerful superior controlling aura of the character :
Silco is a fan favorite and yet he doesn't match any beauty standard, he's not Thor looking, Steve Rogers looking. People thirst over him because of his attitude and the way he presents himself.
Look at him in this moment, how threatening he is through his whole attitude and speech. Confident, slow, cold. Not losing his shit once. That's how Sam should be and what make the Silco exemple even more relevant, other than that, is how he physically is very similar to Tim Blake Nelson. His heigh, body shape and face are very alike so if Silco can look hot af through his personality, so can Sam.
But also look at Silco losing his shit here, screaming and shit. We need that too. 'Cause as I said, Sam is a very emotive character who created this whole Leader personality to protect himself and hide his insecurities. It would make even more sense, given his previous very joyful nature, to have him struggling with emotions. It's a way to show him losing control, to make him vulnerable but also relatable and empathic and if someone is empathic then people will like them more and if they like them more your character get popular and if you're character get popular- you get what I mean.
I liked that one moment when Sam is talking with Ross during the flight attack and his voice is at first super low and emotionless but it goes up and faster as he gets visibly excited over the perspective of getting control and then shake violently before screaming when he lost it. I want that again, but in an even angstier way and please avoid the low-angle shot 'cause it kind of broke the serious of that moment by making him a bit ridiculous, it was poorly exectued everytime they tried to do that. He needs to scream in pain with his whole lunges, to have the kinda crooked pose you have when you do.
His green eye flashing even more, add him visible tears even. Make him break things. In that one moment I talked about we should have seen him throw his phone out of anger and break shit, throwing furnitures, chairs, idk.
And give him a moment to catch his breath, make him pant. It's important seeing him struggling to put his mask back for a short moment before going back to his calm and emotionless Leader self.
I'll quickly go back to these eyes and their importance but like I said Sam is similar to Bruce in the way that he highly suffers this inner conflict between his need to be the emotionless Leader to keep himself safe and avoid suffering and his very emotive human side. It's easy to play with that, it's visible through Silco, having angle and light focusing on his right eye or left eye depending on what he's doing and what you want him to be. It's also something that is incredibly fucking obvious in the Phantom of the Opera with Butler. It's super easy and simple but very effecient :
And give him a moment to catch his breath, make him pant. It's important seeing him struggling to put his mask back for a short moment before going back to his calm and emotionless Leader self.
I'll quickly go back to these eyes and their importance but like I said Sam is similar to Bruce in the way that he highly suffers this inner conflict between his need to be the emotionless Leader to keep himself safe and avoid suffering and his very emotive human side. It's easy to play with that, it's visible through Silco, having angle and light focusing on his right eye or left eye depending on what he's doing and what you want him to be. It's also something that is incredibly fucking obvious in the Phantom of the Opera with Butler. It's super easy and simple but very effecient :
The beginning of the video, the difformed part of his face is in the shadow while he cries. The end of the video, the difformed part of his face is in the light while he looses his shit and threaten Christine. It's even more obvious through the reflect of this light in the water that give a good excuse to flash this part of his face.
It's a nice way to make him sympathic or threatening depending on the moment. That's why when I talked about giving Sam a mask and breaking it during his first encounter with Bruce and having the left green eye visible while everything else is hidden would be a cool thing to do.
This Sam has a huge Phantom vibe through the way he hides himself anyway (let it be through shadow, hat, hood). It's an interesting thing, let's play with that.
It's a nice way to make him sympathic or threatening depending on the moment. That's why when I talked about giving Sam a mask and breaking it during his first encounter with Bruce and having the left green eye visible while everything else is hidden would be a cool thing to do.
This Sam has a huge Phantom vibe through the way he hides himself anyway (let it be through shadow, hat, hood). It's an interesting thing, let's play with that.
Who are the most popular MCU villains? Loki (to the point of being a hero now), Killmonger, Thanos. What do they all have in common? They're powerful, very smart but more importantly they have emotions. Thanos fucking CRIED for Gamora. You see Loki screaming in pain or rage a few time That's what people want, they want feelings, they want their villains to cry, to scream in rage and pain, they want them as raw and chaotic as what they represent.
They want them strong and threatening but also dangerous through their pain and their rage.
Which is very in comics, in fact, Sam wants Bruce by his side. He wants Hulk's strength as a weapon but he wants Bruce BY HIS SIDE. And when Bruce refuses, he gets incredibly fucking upset.
In a drawn art this translate through posing, expression, colors, composition (which includes light, angles etc etc). And you see, even for such a simple sketch it was easy for me to make him hot through his attitude alone. In cinema you have very similar codes. Posing, expression, colors, composition, but in a different way and more to play with, even, 'cause you have your actor's movment, voice etc... And remember, Sam is not just a super smart guy who can predict shit, he's also incredibly charismatique, he's a freakin' DEVIL, he seduces people by pretending to offer them what they want and then lying about it or making it twisted af to have them regret it. And it would make even more sense given that's what Ross did to him. Speaking of Ross, you can have Sam mind control him in a way or another so people can have their Hulk vs Red Hulk match they've been asking for. Make them fight quite early so Red Hulk can then join Hulk's side (reluctantly). And please add my boy into the promo, you would be surprised of the insane amount of people who want to see him as the Leader (again, he wasn't in Brave New World, it was an introduction). And also because I want my fun too, jeez. One of Brave New World's biggest mistake during the promo was to overly promote Red Hulk and not Sam Sterns even once (and I know why, last change design made it difficult to do promo stuff right on time). So make a movie about Hulk vs the Leader and not Hulk vs Red Hulk featuring the Leader. Use that fight to promote the movie too but don't make it your only selling point 'cause it pissed off people to have it last like 5min. Do like they did with Hulkbuster for Ultron. Don't show too much, please, for fuck sake, trust your project.
They want them strong and threatening but also dangerous through their pain and their rage.
IV - Writing
If characters like Silco are this popular that's because they're kind of relatable even through their awful crimes. Because they're understandable.
Silco did awful shit but he did it for the sake of Zaun. Sam was meant to be the same kind of "justice through anarchy" character, like Tim said, but got eventually nerfed because of last minute design change.
So, if he comes back, you need to make that part of him fucking obvious. He needs to be a monster with a good motive. Silco is also popular because of how he's depicted as a monster with a heart, so give Sam a heart through Bruce. It's more obvious through that deleted scene but Sam and Bruce's relationship was deeper than just a random scientist helping a random guy. He was Bruce's only friend, the only person who made him smile. Like someone else said, he was his only light.
Silco did awful shit but he did it for the sake of Zaun. Sam was meant to be the same kind of "justice through anarchy" character, like Tim said, but got eventually nerfed because of last minute design change.
So, if he comes back, you need to make that part of him fucking obvious. He needs to be a monster with a good motive. Silco is also popular because of how he's depicted as a monster with a heart, so give Sam a heart through Bruce. It's more obvious through that deleted scene but Sam and Bruce's relationship was deeper than just a random scientist helping a random guy. He was Bruce's only friend, the only person who made him smile. Like someone else said, he was his only light.
And I think Sam deeply appreciated Bruce. People all assume Sam betrayed Bruce and didn't give a shit about him (and it's probably how Bruce felt about it) but look at how happy and excited he was to show Bruce his "betrayal". He really thought Bruce would enjoy his further experiments, he was visibly confused (and hurt, even) when Bruce told him to burn anything because he was just so sure Bruce would understand (and maybe even work with him).
Which is very in comics, in fact, Sam wants Bruce by his side. He wants Hulk's strength as a weapon but he wants Bruce BY HIS SIDE. And when Bruce refuses, he gets incredibly fucking upset.
In comics he sees Bruce as (and wants him to be) his brother. So use that, make it even more tragic, play on his relationship with Bruce. He has Bruce's blood in his own viens, you can make that twisted brotherly bound even better. In comics Sam didn't know Bruce before they became enemies, but MCU Sam and Bruce have a small history prior to that, which could make their clash way more interesting if you properly use that bound.
Because Sam and Bruce meeting again is what everyone wants, but also when Sam's the more interesting (through his relation with Bruce). A good villain is only a good villain if he has an interesting chemistry with his protagonist and it's what MCU Sam lack of the most atm (his comics self too until Immortal Hulk added a way deeper parallel and relationship between Sam and Bruce), because his (under exploited, btw) chemistry was with Ross and not Captain America and the movie focus on Cap vs Red Hulk. Sam doesn't really feel like a relevant villain because he doesn't care that much about Cap and Cap doesn't care that much about him either so why should we, spectators, care about him?
I know the Mister Blue song in Brave New World is merely a callback to Incredible Hulk, but I like that Sam used it to mind control people (it was good way to have Sam's mindcontrol power in a modernish way also). But it's the name he took to talk to Bruce so my headcanon is he was thinking about Bruce rather than Ross when he pulled all this plan and that's the idea you need to exploit. That everything he did in Cap 4 was to lead him to Bruce and Hulk. It makes his capacity of predicting shit better also because so far people are just "dude is smart af but ended up in another prison, what a loser" and yes, for someone like me who knows him well it makes sense, it's something he often does (unless they never use it ever again, then it would be lame indeed), but for the big audience it will be something stupid unless you show it was part of a bigger plan and Ross was merely a tool rather than a target.
Bruce got everything while Sam was losing everything. Let it be physically, mentally. In every aspect of his life. He lost his reputation and through it the people he loved. So Sam would probably feel a lot of anger for Bruce, even more than he did for Ross. He would hate him for forsakening him while Bruce was living his best life (even if Bruce didn't abandon him, that's probably how Sam would feel about it). He would hate him because everything happened "because of Bruce", in the way that it's his interactions with Bruce that led to his sad destiny. He would hate him because he would be jealous of him. Like I said, Bruce got everthing Sam had while Sam lost it all, it's like they switched their place and Sam would probably feel a lot of ressent and jealousy over it. He would hates Bruce for not understanding even if they're walking the same path, also. So Sam confronting Bruce with a lot of rage and pain and sadness, even, would be powerful but would mostly MAKE SENSE.
And take into considering Bruce's empathy. How do you think he reacted to the news talking about Sam? Of course he felt a deep guilt, like he did in She-Hulk. That's why Bruce seeing Sam for the first time need to be impactful, with Sam's rage and Bruce's guilt.
I like to think that Bruce would look away by reflex and Sam would yell at him to look at him because that's what he has done, he's his creation (which is true in comics too, Sam is Bruce's accidental creation). I mentionned that but Sam and Bruce also have a very Frankenstein relationship (I'm talking about the book), in the way that Bruce created Sam and Sam get upset at Bruce for his loneliness and tries to destroy his life over it and chase him and want to destroy his life the way Frankenstein's monster had a lot of ressent for his creator (and humanity's cruelty, like Sam).
But like I said, he would also want to use Hulk. Remember his fascination when he first saw him in Incredible Hulk? Well we gotta keep that, Sam being fucking obsess with Bruce and Hulk is like the whole point. So I would give them this kind of dynamic.
Bruce trying to stop his monster by trying to reach his heart. Maybe I would give a short moment of hesitation to Sam, like Bruce maybe telling him that it's not too late to get his life back, that he could be a hero and shit like that (which he could now that heroes and aliens and monsters are a thing in their universe, honestly who cares about what Sam became at this point LOL) and Sam having a very short moment of hesitation, looking away (at the ground or whatever) before getting his shit together and rejecting Bruce (maybe because of one word he said or idk) and getting back to his very cold and sassy self. Or pretending to have this moment of hesitation, it could also be super cool.
And Sam trying to break Bruce the way he broke but also trying to convince him to join him. It would make sense to have Sam trying to turn Bruce into the monster he now is himself. Destroying Bruce's peace with Hulk, bringing back a rageful Hulk. And not necessarly Savage, you can use that excuse to bring Joe or Devil or the fucking World Breaker (very conveniant also because Marvel what happens when you make a Grey Hulk popular? You resell all the famous Hulk toys but grey, like they did with Red Hulk, though I'd go for either World Breaker or Devil), also introducing Bruce's DID while you're at it, you could introduce Bruce's past abuse, it would be easy for Sam to get to know about it and using it against Bruce to have him loose his shit and go full rampage. You could even bring back a nefarious Blonsky, Sam could very well experiment on him the way he got experimented on.
He went after the team that took him away (the Serpent Society) by killing them all (except for Sidewinder but he's in prison atm), he went after Ross, do you really think he wouldn't go after Blonsky and Bruce when they're the ones who destroyed fucking Harlem for which he was emprisonned for? Sam would totally start with Blonsky and make him the evil Abomination again just because of the way he treated him back then and then send him after Bruce. That's how I would build the movie. Making Blonsky a villain at the beginning of the movie, Bruce meeting Sam for the first time around 1/3 of the movie and starting to lose his peace with Hulk here and then totally losing his control in the big final. I would put a "mindscape" moment of Bruce talking with Hulk, the one that was removed from Infinity War. Having them work together to ultimatly win. Because that's the problem with Smart Hulk, it's not Smart Hulk it's how it happened off screen and so doesn't feel rewarding at all. I'm mostly talking about Sam because that's what the post is about, but Bruce needs that writing too. Like I said, a good antagonist needs a good hero. And Smart Hulk happening off screen was dumb. If Marvel themself don't care enough about Bruce and Hulk to have an on screen charadev, why should we?
It's kind of what made Bucky so interesting as the villain in Winter Soldier, how Steve felt guilt over him. Of course it would be different because Sam and Bruce weren't this close in their past, Sam would attack him willingly and Bruce would have to beat the shit out of him instead of yielding but you get what I mean. Make Bruce's internal struggle the main point of the movie and do this by making him feel conflicted between his guilt and empathy for Sam and his anger toward him and have it be the illustration of the rupture between him and Hulk (like Yu-Gi-Oh when Yami Yugi almost killed Kaiba and Yugi stopped him in their mindscape).
Like I said, a good villain needs a good antagonist, if you want to makes him a good villain you need to write a proper Bruce and a proper connexion between them, so focus on Bruce's struggles. You now why Avengers was loved? The Guardians of the Galaxy? Thunderbolts ? Because it's about a bunch of broken souls having to face their own internal human struggles. That's what Bruce need and if the MCU could show DID and abuse through Moon Knight and Sentry they can do that for Bruce. Break Bruce so you can build him back and on screen this time.
Sam strength is how easily he adapts. He can predict every income of something, which includes failures. So he wouldn't turn himself in without a plan. So he could either escape the Raft or stay in it, take total control of it, turn it into some kind of Freehold like he did in comics and make it his HQ. It's one of the most securised, if not the most securised, place on Earth. It would totally be a Sam thing to get send in it on purpose to change it into his HQ so he doesn't have to go through the trouble of doing one himself, he's lazy LOL, also in his debuts he was stealing people's creation and sell them, this way he could get money and knowledge for his own projects.
Anyway, kind of like what he did with the Cube in Earth Mightiest Heroes Avengers double episode about him. "So many surprises left", let's apply that.
And voila, you have a reason to reboot the Hulk lore like everybody wanted while respecting what was done before and the comics spirit, and keeping the business part in mind. Here's the middle ground I was talking about earlier.
And please, I know Bruce is now known for being a comic relief but don't turn the movie into a fucking joke, that's not what people want to see. They want to see Hulk's fury and they want to see a comics book story and in his comics book Hulk is a goddamn tragedy, playing with horror and psychological themes. So do that, make it chill and light and fun at the beginning and make it more and more serious as the movie goes on. You don't have to make it too psychological or horrifying if you want to keep it kids friendly, but you can add the kind of thriller codes used for Sam in Brave New World (him standing in the dark when you turn around like a screamer was very cool, it reminded me of a lot of horror games, use that effect of surprise to make him even more threatening) or when Bruce transformed in Incredible Hulk and Avengers (for the first time in both case).
Don't. Make. Sam. A joke. I don't mind Sam being a comics relief at all usually, but you would create a MODOK situation. MODOK wasn't hated because of his goofy look, but because the character was meant to be a joke. If he had a serious writing and the same design it would have been different. If you joke about Sam, you break the aura he needs to make a successful movie. He was very serious in Brave New World and that's what saved him, keep that.
If drawing taught me something it's how the "presentation" (in my case composition) can make anything and anyone cool and hot af.
In a drawn art this translate through posing, expression, colors, composition (which includes light, angles etc etc). And you see, even for such a simple sketch it was easy for me to make him hot through his attitude alone. In cinema you have very similar codes. Posing, expression, colors, composition, but in a different way and more to play with, even, 'cause you have your actor's movment, voice etc... And remember, Sam is not just a super smart guy who can predict shit, he's also incredibly charismatique, he's a freakin' DEVIL, he seduces people by pretending to offer them what they want and then lying about it or making it twisted af to have them regret it. And it would make even more sense given that's what Ross did to him. Speaking of Ross, you can have Sam mind control him in a way or another so people can have their Hulk vs Red Hulk match they've been asking for. Make them fight quite early so Red Hulk can then join Hulk's side (reluctantly). And please add my boy into the promo, you would be surprised of the insane amount of people who want to see him as the Leader (again, he wasn't in Brave New World, it was an introduction). And also because I want my fun too, jeez. One of Brave New World's biggest mistake during the promo was to overly promote Red Hulk and not Sam Sterns even once (and I know why, last change design made it difficult to do promo stuff right on time). So make a movie about Hulk vs the Leader and not Hulk vs Red Hulk featuring the Leader. Use that fight to promote the movie too but don't make it your only selling point 'cause it pissed off people to have it last like 5min. Do like they did with Hulkbuster for Ultron. Don't show too much, please, for fuck sake, trust your project.
But these are just very random personal ideas for an evil Sam. Honestly you could also take the totally opposed road and turn Sam into some kind of antihero and have him teaming up with Bruce to protect his dimension or whatever 'cause that's what he wants, he wants to be the hero who is freeing the World so it would make sense to have him save his Earth.
You could even have him teaming up with Bruce for that, dramatically leaving once it's done with a warning to Bruce to have him setting up a Hulk movie with everything above and made their clash even more bitter.
Or you can make him team up with the villains and maybe trying to reboot his Earth to "eradicate" injustice, weakness and enhance people, would be very comics accurate too. I could have taken this road in this post but given the rumors about his future I wanna keep that for later, just in case. To have something to discuss about according to the way this rumor will grow (I don't believe in it but unless it's 0% chance I'll wait, it's only one year away, it's not that long).
The Leader is a character with an incredibly big potential for the MCU and who can very easily be improved to please people and to be a big character in the future. So all we can hope for now is that one day Marvel Studios will explore that. His past with Bruce, as short as it was, is also easily exploitable to give them the tension and drama they both need to grow as characters.
Now the Marvel spy in my closet please send this to Kevin Feige and tell him he's allowed to copy my homework, xoxo
Enjoy~
Enjoy~
