Ok…. So has everyone seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier yet? If not, stop reading as we are going to discuss where the film leaves the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Still here? So there goes S.H.I.E.L.D. Reports indicate that Marvel Studios haunch Kevin Feige wanted the organization to go away as a storytelling device. What does that mean? S.H.I.E.L.D. going away is not just a result of Captain America: The Winter Soldier but will play a role in Marvel movies in the future.
What does this mean for The Avengers? Now that there is no S.H.I.E.L.D. who do they work for when there comes a day when earth’s mightiest heroes have to reassemble to face a threat? There is a hint in Cap 2, I believe. We get a brief view of Stark Tower and there is still that big A on it. Perhaps the Avengers will govern themselves. In fact, in early set photos of Avengers: Age of Ultron Captain America is wearing an Avengers patch on his costume. Perhaps by disassembling S.H.I.E.L.D. Marvel is assembling the Avengers into a more official team that self-governs. As the Black Widow says, the world needs them.
While S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone, Hydra is still very much in play. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker can be seen in the tag that introduces Quciksilver and the Scarlet Witch. This tag also includes Loki’s scepter, which may have one of the Infinity Stones as its power source. This implies that Hydra will play a role in the next Avengers film. This does raise questions. Does Hydra create Ultron? Do the Avengers create Ultron to defeat Hydra and something goes terribly wrong? What side will Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch fall on?
I do like having Hydra around. It gives the universe a truly comic book villain. It gives the Avengers someone that can realistically pose a threat to them. Without S.H.I.E.L.D. around, only the Avengers can really combat Hydra’s evildoings. I just can’t help but wonder… what is the Red Skull up to now? They didn’t kill him for a reason.
Keep this in mind. Before Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired its first episode, they creative team new there would be no S.H.I.E.L.D. before the May sweeps. Every script, every plot element, every twist was created knowing that S.H.I.E.L.D. would not exist. They also had to create a world where they were battling Hydra, but not spoiling the movie as we now believe that the Clairvoyant is within S.H.I.E.L.D. This implies that the Centipede organization has actually been Hydra all along, but they couldn’t reveal it. (I would hope that S.H.I.E.L.D. was not infiltrated by two different evil organizations). I wonder if more viewers would have been satisfied with the show if they could have said it is Coulson vs. Hydra. If that was the case, no one could have said that the show lacked comic book connections. But what does this mean for the future of the show? Perhaps they will go off to Europe and help Nick Fury track down Hydra operations as the last remnant of S.H.I.E.L.D. Samuel L. Jackson already revealed that he will be appearing in the season finale, so expect Nick Fury to play a role of some sort in setting the course of the show’s future. Episode 20 is called “Nothing Personal.” This is what “Crossbones” tells Cap in the elevator while he is attacking the Super Soldier. Do you think he may make an appearance?
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will have no choice to somehow be the connective tissue that connects Captain America: The Winter Soldier to Avengers: Age of Ultron. It will be interesting to see how connected the show ends up being.
The third Captain America film will follow the next Avengers release. While I have no idea what kind of havoc Age of Ultron will wreak on the Marvel Universe, it will be interesting to see what happens to Bucky. Now that he is aware of his past life, will he turn good? Captain America: The Winter Soldier has been acknowledged as part one of a two part Winter Soldier story. I look forward to seeing how that is resolved.
And for those wondering when a Doctor Strange film was happening, that fact that Sitwell mentioned him does imply that it shouldn’t be too far off.