I think Rogers was right to pass the shield to Wilson. I also think the writers failed -- both in Endgame and in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier -- to show why it was the right move.

In Captain America: The First Avenger, we are present for Steve Rogers’ defining moments long before he ever receives the serum. We watch a physically weak Rogers throw himself onto what he believes is a live grenade to save his team. We see him stand his ground against a bully, fully aware that he will lose. We watch him repeatedly attempt to enlist, knowing how likely it is that he will die if accepted. By the time he is chosen, we already know who he is: profoundly selfless, deeply patriotic, and unwilling to back down from a fight even when defeat is certain. When he finally steps out of the transformation chamber, the audience feels that something good has happened to a good man -- that power to stop evil has at last been entrusted to someone worthy of it.

The writers failed to do this work for Wilson. They failed to show why he deserved the shield when countless other capable men did not.

And the missteps didn’t end there. Knowing full well that they would ask the audience to believe Wilson could hold his own against a Hulk, survive a headfirst crash into the ocean without injury, and perform other extraordinary physical feats, the writers nevertheless chose not to give him the super-soldier serum. They feared it would “cheapen” his humanity -- a concern that clearly did not apply to Rogers. Instead, they placed Wilson in a quasi-Iron Man suit that often didn’t even protect his head.

Wilson’s lack of resonance with the audience was not his fault, nor Anthony Mackie’s. The responsibility lies entirely with the writers.

In The First Avenger, we are told that the super-soldier serum amplifies what is already present in a person. In that sense, the writers of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may have been right to hesitate: the serum would only have magnified the absence of a fully realized character -- an absence created by their own failure to give Mackie sufficient material to work with.

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