Captain America: Winter Soldier Questions

There are roughly a million reviews of Captain America: Winter Soldier already on the internet and so it seems pointless to write a straight review. The movie was good, the action was a bit hard to see at points, but unless you hated the first Captain America you’re going to like this one.  That said it did leave open a few questions that I think are interesting.

The most interesting question to me is where this leaves the Marvel’s Agent’s of Shield show. (spoilers ahead)I knew even before seeing the movie that there would be ramifications for the show, but it wasn’t clear how big they would be. But with what appears to be the complete disassembling of SHIELD you have more issues than just the name of the TV show.  That said, I think that almost any answer, short of largely ignoring the changes, could be very positive for Agents of SHIELD. Imagine a similar show, but they’re on their own with almost no resources and forced to deal with far less reputable groups in order to keep flying.

The second question is what to do with the major new characters introduced in this movie. The Winter Soldier is clearly going to be in more movies (I heard rumors he was signed for something like 9 movies) but I actually found The Falcon a more interesting character in this movie. Of course he had considerably more to do in the movie, but beyond that I just like the character and really loved the way that Cap and him interacted because it really reminded you that above almost anything Captain America is a soldier and he relates to soldiers. That said, I sort of wish that Captain America would have spoken to the people at the VFW even if it was just to say that he understands because it really is an important point that having difficulty returning to civilian life isn’t about whether you are strong or not. Often the strongest people have the most trouble because good people should be affected by the things that happen in war.

The final question is one that Marvel is beginning to work through which is magic. For those of you don’t know Stephen Strange is the sorcerer supreme (or will be) and while the Scarlet Witch isn’t actually a witch in most stories her powers are nebulous enough that they could be and I’m ready for marvel to branch out because if Captain America the Winter Soldier convinced me of anything it is that Marvel studios don’t have to do traditional superhero stories to be interesting.