You can take the enhanced individual out of the MCU, but you still need to find a hero.

In theatres tonight, Captain America: Brave New World manages to take baby steps into the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has to build itself back up with some slightly more grounded roots.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has officially taken up the mantle of Captain America. After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford), Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.

There’s nothing about Captain America: Brave New World that has the flash and the bombast of other offerings in the MCU, but it earns every moment it shows us as it takes more of the framework of a Cold War potboiler thriller then an over the top superhero movie.

Having director Julius Onah sit in the big chair was an interesting one because this film is very character driven as we see Sam Wilson struggle with navigating the realities of being Captain America while trying to uphold the honor that his old friend Steve Rogers.

We can’t lie, having a movie that still managed some spectacle while allowing us to appreciate the psychology of the moment was a nice shift in the standard playbook for Marvel, only part of the White House got flattened rather than the Eastern seaboard as a call for less isolationism and more world building in the modern landscape is called on as the way to a prosperous future.

The bombast is always fun, but seeing a cultural hint hint from these stories allows us to get back to the core of so many Marvel stories that have delighted audiences for decades with the simple yet genuine premise that we are stronger together then we are apart.  Onah does a solid job with this, establishing characters that will ultimately build something stronger then we can see now.

Anthony Mackie has found the core of what makes a flawed superhero so damn interesting to see.  He can still drop a quick line when he flattens the bad guy, but this film reminds us that Sam has never taken the “Super Solider Serum” and compared to the heroes that came before him, he’s just a regular guy with a lot of legacy being carried on his shoulders.

He’s not without help, as Danny Ramirez joins the team as Joaquin Torres who wants to slide into the mantel of ‘The Falcon’ to Sam’s Cap.  Harrison Ford takes over the role of General (Now President) Thaddeus Ross who straddles the line between right and wrong while Carl Lumbly comes in as a legacy character, Tim Blake Nelson revisits the mantle of Samuel Sterns, Giancarlo Esposito is a classic mercenary baddie as the Sidewinder and Shira Hass arrives on the scene as the mysterious Ruth Bat-Seraph, right hand to “Thunderbolt” Ross and veteran of the Widow program that gives us plenty to raise our eyebrows about.

Ultimately what Captain America: Brave New World does is lay a lot of new ground work to remind us that this isn’t our parents MCU from back in 2008 and Iron Man.  It’s a little less super, but potentially a lot more perilous as we begin to get into the mindset of the next layer of heroes who will stand for humanity, especially when things start to get dark again.