Marvel Cinematic Universe: Part 5

Happy Comic Con Week! Only a few more days until Comic Con! In the meantime, I’ve got another installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Next one after this is Guardians of the Galaxy and some more Agents of SHIELD.

Steve and Natasha found themselves on the run from their
"friends" in the fall of SHIELD during "The Winter Soldier".

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Two years after The Battle of New York, Steve Rogers meets Sam Wilson, before leaving with Black Widow for a mission. They rescue a bunch of SHIELD agents from a hijacked boat, including Agent Sitwell. Back in DC, Fury shows Rogers three helicarriers, Project Insight, that will take out SHIELD’s enemies preemptively. Rogers visits Peggy Carter. Meanwhile, Fury runs into some problems, leading him to delay Project Insight. Later, on his way to meet Agent Hill, Fury gets attacked on the road and a mysterious masked man attempts to kill him. He escapes to Cap’s apartment and inconspicuously tells him that SHIELD has been compromised and hands off a mysterious USB drive. Fury gets shot and Cap’s neighbor bursts in, revealing herself to be Agent 13 (Sharon Carter).

Later, Pierce questions Rogers about Fury’s death. On his way from the interview, Cap is attacked by an elevator full of SHIELD agents, including Rumlow, but he’s able to take them all down and escape the building. Cap reluctantly teams up with Black Widow, who tells him about the masked man, known as the Winter Soldier. They discover that they need to take Fury’s USB drive to Cap’s old military training ground, where a digitized Zola tells them that Hydra is inside of SHIELD. They barely survive an explosion and look to Sam for help.

The three get information about Project Insight out of Agent Sitwell, who the Winter Soldier kills. Cap rips off Winter Soldier’s mask, discovering that it’s a brainwashed Bucky. The trio escapes Hydra with the help of Agent Hill, who takes them to a secret facility where they discover that Fury is alive. Captain America and Sam Wilson (The Falcon) break into SHIELD agents that Hydra exists in their ranks. A fight ensues as the Hydra agents (including Rumlow) launch the helicarriers. Black Widow, who snuck into the World Security Council, dumps SHIELD and Hydra’s secrets to the public, while Cap and Falcon disable the helicarriers. Amidst it all, Cap fights the Winter Soldier, trying to save his friend. After the fighting is over, Steve and Sam go looking for Bucky. Meanwhile, Strucker of Hydra continues experiments on two teenagers.

Random Trivia/Connections:

• In “End of the Beginning”, Agent Sitwell leaves for another mission, which leads him to the hijacked boat at the beginning of this movie.
• Bucky’s supposed death occurred in “The First Avenger”.
• Sitwell mentions “Bruce Banner” and “Stephen Strange” as potential targets of Project Insight.
• Zola previously appeared in “The First Avenger”.
• Loki’s staff, from “The Avengers”, appears in the mid-credits scene.

Thoughts:

Action packed and character building. This is what I like about Marvel movies. This episode has a wonderful lead in to Cap’s search for Bucky, which leads us into Civil War. It also changes the setting for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making these super heroes and Avengers the authority instead of an agency like SHIELD. I also really like how it showcased Captain America’s humanity, as he is willing to do whatever it takes, even dying, to save his friend from the brainwashing.

It was impossible to know who to trust in "Turn, Turn, Turn".

Agents of SHIELD: Season 1 (Episodes 17-22)

The SHIELD team continues their mission, starting with the fall of SHIELD and leading into the aftermath of the organization falling in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and how it would rebuild itself from the ground up.

• 17. Turn, Turn, Turn: The confrontation between May, Skye, Coulsen, and Fitz resolves with May unconscious and Garrett joining them. The plane evades SHIELD while Skye discovers that Hydra is inside SHIELD. Hand confronts Simmons and Trip, confirming that they’re not Hydra agents. Coulsen pieces together that Garrett is the clairvoyant. Hand rescues Coulsen’s team from Garrett. They hear of Captain America taking down Hydra in DC. While escorting Garrett to containment, Ward betrays and kills Hand, releasing Garrett.
• 18. Providence: Ward and Garrett break Raina out of SHIELD prison. Coulsen and his remaining team follow a signal to an unknown location in the Arctic. Garrett and Ward raid the Fridge for 0-8-4s. Coulsen’s team uncovers the Providence SHIELD base and Agent Eric Koenig. Ward is sent to get access to Skye’s USB drive of SHIELD secrets.
• 19. The Only Light in the Darkness: Ward lies to the SHIELD team about what happened at the Fridge. Koenig interrogates each agent. Coulsen tracks down Marcus Daniels, who is stalking his former love interest. May leaves Providence. After finding Koenig killed, Skye pieces together that Ward is Hydra. After apprehending Daniels, Coulsen, Trip, Fitz, and Simmons head back to Providence, but not before Ward leaves with Skye. Meanwhile, May gets information on Hill from her mother.
• 20. Nothing Personal: May confronts Maria Hill. Coulsen, Fitz, Trip, and Simmons return to Providence to find Skye and Ward gone and they find Skye’s message that Ward is Hydra. General Talbot invades the base with Hill’s help. After convincing Hill of continued danger, she helps Coulsen’s team escape to rescue Skye. In Los Angeles, Skye stalls for time, but her plan is thwarted when Deathlok appears. Deathlok blackmails Skye into cooperating. Coulsen sneaks onto the plan as they take off and he rescues Skye in Lola, his flying car. 
• 21. Ragtag: In a flashback, Garrett recruits Ward to Hydra. In the present, Coulsen’s team infiltrates Cybertek to plant a Trojan Horse virus. Coulsen and May steal Cybertek’s hardcopy records, discovering that Garrett was the first Deathlok subject. Coulsen, May, Trip, and Skye infiltrate the Cuban Hydra base, while Ward hijacks the Bus with Fitz and Simmons on board. Ward dumps Fitz and Simmons off the Bus over the ocean. Meanwhile, Raina uses the GH-325 Serum to save Garrett.  
• 22. Beginning of the End: Garrett begins carving something into the wall. Fitz and Simmons awake at the bottom of the sea. May and Skye infiltrate Cybertek and try to blackmail Garrett and Ward. Fitz and Simmons break out of their underwater prison and are found by Fury. Ward confronts Skye and is taken down by May. Meanwhile, Coulsen and Fury take on Garrett. With Ward and Garrett taken care of, Fury gives Coulsen the tools to be the director of SHIELD, building it back up. Later, Raina meets a man who appears to be Skye’s father. Meanwhile, Coulsen begins carving on the wall.

In "Ragtag", Coulsen and May found it hard to hack
Cybertek for obvious reasons.

Random Trivia/Connections:

• “Turn, Turn, Turn” occurs simultaneously with “The Winter Soldier”, showing scenes of the Trikelion falling and mentioning Captain America’s success in DC.
• Nick Fury’s “death” from “The Winter Soldier” is mentioned in “Turn, Turn, Turn”.
• Items and people from previous SHIELD missions are seen at the Fridge, including the Berserker Staff from “The Well”.
• Trip states that he’s the grandson of one of the Howling Commandos, from “The First Avenger”.
• Simmons references Doctor Who, mentioning that she’d want the TARDIS on a desert island, while being interrogated by Koenig in “The Only Light in the Darkness”.
• Pepper Potts and Tony Stark are mentioned, as Maria Hill’s new employers.

Thoughts:

I know several people who have criticized Agents of SHIELD because it was hard to get into. Granted, I started watching Agents of SHIELD over a grave shift, so it only took me two weeks to get through seasons one and two, but this is the point when it really gets good. Instead of being an episode to episode, CSI type story, it becomes an overarching story that begins to draw in other parts of the Marvel Universe, including the Kree, Asgardians, and (in season 2) the Inhumans. Before this point it was like Agents of SHIELD was picking up the scraps of the Marvel movies with Extremis and Asgardian relics, but beginning here and moving on into season 2 the SHIELD team begins to delve into things of their own.