Captain America: New World Order will be the fourth solo outing for the super-soldier and the first with Anthony Mackie taking on the role officially. Unfortunately, the limited details about the film that have made it to the public eye have been very poorly received for some extremely unpleasant reasons.
Marvel has dealt with some controversy in the past, usually running afoul of some unfortunate implications for a screenwriting choice. Disney, as a company, has been unreasonably cruel to its employees and hired teams in the past. The cultural cache of the company has only gone downhill over the years, and things keep getting worse.
Captain America: New World Order borrows a somewhat common phrase for its subtitle. Some might identify it most with the classic WWE stable that ruled the 90s and early 2000s, but it has a much more unsavory history. The term "new world order" was first commonly used by world leaders like Woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill to refer to a shift in the balance of power after World War II. Ostensibly earnest efforts to do good through organizations like the League of Nations and eventually the UN were seen by some as tyranny. Sci-fi icon H. G. Wells went on to redefine the term as a dictatorial state of technocratic dominance, leading to a wide-reaching conspiracy movement.
Modern usage of the new world order exists almost exclusively in the mouths of right wing commentators like Alex Jones. Conspiracy theorists have long held that any effort of any government to provide aid to its citizens are tendrils in a larger plot to install a one-world government and destroy freedom for all humanity. This theory is almost always rabidly antisemitic, framing Jews as either duplicitous demons who secretly hold all the power or mischievous foot soldiers of the ultimate evil. It's a despicable series of beliefs that demonize a group of people for profit or political gain. It's highly tied in with other conspiracy theory greatest hits like black helicopters and FEMA camps, but it exists as a sort-of agreed-upon holy grail for most theorists. Tons of other works of fiction have borrowed the new world order idea, but it's always a dangerous specter to invoke. Marvel goes the extra mile by leaning into more dicey territory with the introduction of a new hero.
Not content to tie a hero best known for fighting Nazis to a famously antisemitic conspiracy theory, Marvel steps up and prepares to enter the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. New World Order will see the introduction of Shira Haas as Ruth Bat-Seraph, AKA Sabra. Sabra is essentially a Captain America for the Israeli Secret Service. Her name comes from an old nickname for Israeli people, but, two years after its introduction. The ongoing apartheid state in Israel has rendered the idea of a Mossad superhero culturally insensitive at best and actively in favor of violent genocide at worst. The name now recalls the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which the IDF ordered and facilitated the death of between 400 and 3,500 civilians. Sabra's introduction was met with immense backlash, which has led to a vicious online argument.
The best read of this scenario is that Disney and Marvel were somehow unaware of the minefield they've wandered into. The desire to include a Jewish character is a somewhat noble one, but there are loads of other options. Sabra is a poisonous character in the modern day, there's no way to bring her into the modern narrative without infuriating some percentage of the audience. In the worst-case scenario, Marvel can be seen to be in full-throated support of the apartheid state and all the cruelty that entails. A smart company might steer clear of this debate entirely, especially when making a movie about a man with wings and a shield who sometimes fights aliens and gods. Maybe the company believed that the perceived antisemitism of the film's subtitle could be countered with violent Zionism, but both have sparked a great deal of public backlash.
It's impossible to know how Marvel will handle the big political ideas it's chosen to deal with, but many fans are expecting the worst. This issue is so contentious that they will be receiving a flood of consistent hate regardless of the way they choose to use this material. They've stepped into a minefield and are already taking one blast after another. Given Marvel's longtime connection to the US military, taking sides in any global conflict runs a series of huge risks. Even beyond PR, if Marvel takes the wrong side or delivers its message in the wrong way, they run the risk of misleading or even radicalizing its young fanbase. For a company that focus tests and designs by committees the way Disney does, it's wild to see an unforced error like this one on the big screen. Marvel needs to be more careful than ever because they've already made some big missteps and there's more than comic books at stake here.