Just in time for the release of Thor: The Dark World and in the thick of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s first season, Marvel has released the first trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier to remind us, "Oh, yeah, there's a Captain America movie happening!"
Look, it's not that anyone's forgotten about him, but there's a lot happening in the Marvel Universe and it's hard to keep track. Cap – despite being the first Avenger – often gets overshadowed by the flowing locks of Thor (and Loki), and the swagger of Tony Stark/Iron Man. He, or at least his movie, even got overshadowed by his superhero teammates at Comic-Con International this year – where some of the footage from this trailer screened – thanks to the Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser.
So maybe that's why he seems so at odds with everyone in his next installment. It seems Steve Rogers isn't all that happy with how S.H.I.E.L.D. has been running things, telling Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) "I thought the punishment usually came after the crime" when Fury describes S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plan to stop threats before they happen (you know, like a fusion center). Cap notes that "this isn't freedom – it's fear." This is Captain America in a post-Battle of New York world.
"Captain, to build a better world, sometimes means tearing the old one down," Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) tells him. "And that makes enemies."
And Winter Soldier – sort of like the current themes on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with its should-they-trust-Skye? and should-Skye-trust-them storylines – seems focused on figuring out who the real enemy is: the people working against S.H.I.E.L.D. or S.H.I.E.L.D. itself? Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have promised this Cap tale – based on Ed Brubaker's run on the comic – will be something of a political thriller, but we'll get to see for ourselves when the movie hits theaters in April 2014.
