Mr. Blue is back in the latest trailer for Captain America: Brave New World, doing what he does best. What? You don’t remember Mr. Blue? One of the first antagonists in the MCU? You see him all over the Brave New World trailer, talking on the phone from a shadowy alleyway and chiding Anthony Mackie‘s Sam Wilson for simply following orders as the new Captain America.
Okay, maybe you recognize that guy as the great character actor Tim Blake Nelson, who plays Hulk villain the Leader in Brave New World. But you might also recall that Nelson first played Sterns in The Incredible Hulk, the second MCU movie ever. And in that film, Sterns communicates with Bruce Banner (then played by Edward Norton) via internet chat, using the pseudonym Mr. Blue to talk with Banner’s Mr. Green.
The Mr. Green/Mr. Blue conversations come directly from the comics. In the 2000 series Incredible Hulk written by Bruce Jones and penciled by John Romita Jr., the fugitive Bruce gets help from a secretive figure called Mr. Blue. The series leaves the identity of Mr. Blue secret for quite some time, leading some to suppose that it was Peter Parker or even Steve Rogers aiding their old pal. In the end, however, Mr. Blue was revealed to be Betty Ross, Bruce’s longtime love interest. Betty wanted to help Bruce without getting fully entrenched back in his life.
Incredible Hulk screenwriter Zak Penn does hint at times that Betty might be Mr. Blue. But by making the secret benefactor Samuel Sterns, Penn allows the Leader to be the schemer he is in the comics. By the end of the film, Sterns reveals his true plan to harness the power of Bruce’s gamma irradiation for himself, leading to a full on Hulk out. In his last scene, Sterns smiles at the camera while gamma irradiated blood leaks into the cut on his head.
Most consider The Incredible Hulk one of the worst entries in the MCU, in part because it clearly was retrofit from a mediocre sequel to Ang Lee‘s ambitious Hulk from 2003 to a continuation of the MCU story, as demonstrated by a tacked on scene of Tony Stark visiting Thunderbolt Ross. Many assumed that Marvel would sweep The Incredible Hulk under the rug, but elements from the movie have made their way back into later entries, including John Hurt and then Harrison Ford as Ross, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and now Nelson as Sterns.
That said, most assumed that Sterns would be in his full Leader mode, complete with the giant throbbing green head he has in the comics. So far, the Brave New World trailers have been reluctant to show Sterns in full, but hopefully the sneaky Mr. Blue antics are the only vestige of The Incredible Hulk to continue.
Captain America: Brave New World smashes into theaters on Feb. 14, 2025.
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