CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR: Notes to self…

Okay! Screening the second, complete! Now for another brain dump! This is gonna be rambling on whatever comes to mind, to help me remember details of the film, maybe try and connect some dots and guess at some future connections, and express great great satisfaction with most every part of the film. =)

This won't be much of a REVIEW—there won’t be a lot of analysis of character and conflict or cinematography or style—but it will be very SPOILER-ful. So! If you haven't seen CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR yet, get thee to the theater and watch the heck out of it! And once you have, return and read and compare notes.

Here’s my earlier ramble, post-first-screening. I’m gonna try not to cover any of the same ground, but may refer to it.

Please note that my MCU-memory is a bit faded. I haven't watched WINTER SOLDIER or AGE OF ULTRON since they were in theaters (hope to change that soon-ish). I mention that because I'll try to connect events from CIVIL WAR to other MCU happenings, but may be a bit off in details.

YOUNG TONY…

Thought for a couple of minutes that young Tony, from the NARF sim at his MIT address, was played by a Culkin. Didn't see a credit for a Mr. Softee tee'd Stark at the end, tho, so I'm gonna assume that it's some (quite good) makeup + CG magic. And, bonus—always great to see John Slattery!

VIBRANIUM…

Is vibranium magnetic? Maybe? If so, seems like it would be an exploitable vulnerability that so far hasn't been, right? I'm gonna say NO, not magnetic.

However, is Cap's SHIELD magnetic? Some part of it is SOMETHING, that's for sure. In FIRST AVENGER we learn that the shield that Steve chooses, from the bottom of the pile of items Howard Stark offers him, is pure vibranium, and made of all the vibranium that's available at that time (outside of Wakanda, we have to assume).

STARK: Stronger than steel, and a third the weight… The rarest metal on earth, what you're holding there, that's all we've got.

In the CIVIL WAR opening fracas in Lagos, Crossbones uses some kind of attractive force to get his sticky bomb attached to his shield (a damn good move). An electromagnet seems like the most likely force, right?

So, maybe steel or some alloy that includes iron, nickel, or cobalt is used for the straps. And there's the added hardware that makes the shield retrievable from a distance. I can't remember when the modification was made, in an AVENGERS movie or WINTER SOLDIER, but the shield now clicks into place on Cap's back instead of being worn via straps, and he's "recalled" the shield to his arm/gauntlet, too, right? Why didn't we see that used in CIVIL WAR? Maybe in the cases where he could/should have used it the shield was legit too far?

One thing I was pleased to see in CIVIL WAR that I missed in WINTER SOLDIER was Cap using the shield to cushion his landing from a huge leap or fall. I kind of remember a missed opp in WINTER SOLDIER, when I fully expected Cap to thread his feet into the shield's straps and land on the ground standing up. In CIVIL WAR we saw him take the landing while holding the shield, but then rolling right into a run. Vibranium doing its thing!

MORE VIBRANIUM?

Bucky's mechanical arm reacts to Black Panther. I THINK we see the weirdness, something that looks like motor malfunction, both when the Panther confronts him in and out of costume. This makes me think that the reaction is between tech in T'challa's ring, not just his armor. Perhaps they are one in the same, tho.

The ring. did it change once T'Challa put it on his finger? It seemed a smooth square torus when he held it in his hand, presumably remove from his father's. But once on his finger, it seemed to hug his hand, and the design appeared different, similar somehow to the way Stark's tech unfolds itself. Did some of it embed itself in T'Challa's hand? Spread throughout his body?

I don't think we've had any official analysis of the tech/material in Buck's arm. It's stood up to Cap's shield, it's bulletproof, it's protected him from Panther's claws, it's had that weird reaction. I THINK it's safe to say that at least part of his arm is vibranium. And whose science is capable of working w/vibranium to create actual tech except Wakanda's and maybe Stark's (but only as far as creating a shield, right?). Remember, Wakanda is very protective of their vibranium and their tech (see AGE OF ULTRON). Maybe T'challa's got an ulterior motive for helping Steve out by keeping Bucky on ice in Wakanda. He's hoping to draw out whomever's responsible for creating Winter Soldier and stealing their tech and vibranium. It may involve someone or group still operating within Wakanda. Should be a good time.

But… Tony DOES managed to destroy Bucky's arm. It appears to be disintegrated by Iron Man's uni-beam, not just blown off, the hand and forearm lying somewhere on the concrete floor of the Siberian base. Blown off would make sense if it was vibranium allow, right? Disintegrated? I'm not sure. Maybe a high enough setting of repulsor + laser/heat would work. Vibranium IS smeltable at some temperature, right?

Maybe the Panther armor manipulates vibranium dust somehow, together with a forcefield (a la the comic book Iron Man once did, using EM/energy to turn flexible mail into bullet and energy proof armor) or nanites?

IF ONLY…

Zemo offered to let that Russian Hydra colonel live if he gave up the December 1991 mission report. Instead, "Hail Hydra," drowned in a basement sink. That decision gives us the first half of the movie, right? The only reason he frames Bucky is to get him into the Joint Terrorism Task Force's custody so that he can recite the Winter Soldier trigger code and get the intel on the Siberian base. The bombing of the UN conference to sign the Sokovia Accords did not have to happen—its sole purpose was to flush Bucky out of hiding—but it definitely tips the Avengers into disassembling. Kinda nuts, but not part of Zemo's original plan.

VISION & SCARLET WITCH…

I rambled a bit about Wanda’s perplexing abilities in my earlier post. Is it TK? Is it chaos magic? Is it reality-warping? All that I can say given what we’ve seen of her powers at work is that it’s inconsistent w/TK unless she has some kind of preternatural sense of reality as well. This post, I’m gonna speculate on what Vision’s sympathetic words to Wanda could mean for their powers.

When Vision talks to Scarlet Witch, he tells her that he doesn't know what the gem in his forehead is. He knows it came from Loki's staff, he knows that it's responsible for his own creation, and the Witch's powers, but he doesn't UNDERSTAND it, but someday he will, someday he'll master it. This is to explain and express sympathy for Wanda's misgivings about herself, her own powers, and the threat they can pose to anyone around her.

I forget, which Infinity Stone do we think it is?

Is the Witch's power still connected to it? Or did it change her and her brother for good? Zola and Hydra siphoned power from the Tesseract and stored it. Is similar tech what transferred Vision's/Loki's gem energy into the Maximoffs?

If she does still have some kind of connection to the gem, that may help explain how she sends Vision underground. Wanda somehow "reaches into" the gem to manipulate and overpower Vision's density control.

What was up w/Wanda when imprisoned in the Raft? She seemed to be not just imprisoned, but sick, suffering, somehow. Is proximity to the gem important? She and Pietro were probably never too far from it when Hydra created and handled them, right?

What's happened to Extremis? We've seen it out in the wild in AOS. Couldn't, wouldn't, Stark revisit it to help Rhodey recover?

ZEMO IS A MASTERMIND, BUT…

His manipulations are remarkable, and make this unenhanced human being the most effective foe the Avengers have so far faced. However, on paper, he's a bit confusing. He was part of some Sokovian secret police, but easily acknowleding that Sokovia was already a failed state, in my mind kind of reveals himself to be an opportunistic soldier of fortune. The last voicemails from his wife, and the story about finding the body of his father, wife, and child after days of searching, are meant to paint him as somewhat sympathetic. Altogether, that should have been presented to us in a complex and, I'd hope, dynamic character package. What we got… Well, not so much. His abilities (and patience and experience): formidable. His presence: not so much.

Perhaps that's the point? A point?

Helmut Zemo, of Sokovia's Echo Scorpion program, really does his homework. Puts together some dates and locations and deduces that Winter Soldier is responsible for the Starks' deaths. He also gets that the target of that mission, Howard Stark's cargo, is some form of super-soldier serum (blue, like Erskine's original formula, also like Kree blood =). He also gets that this stolen serum was used to create Winter Super Soldiers from Hydra's most elite bastards. Were they ever deployed? Given their volatility, it seems unlikely, but perhaps their existence was whispered of, a ghost story in the covert intel community? And Zemo found enough clues in the Hydra data to connect real dots.

But hey—how the heck does Cap know that Bucky killed the Starks? Bucky remembers every assignment, true, but when would he have had a chance to share that with Cap? Or was this something that Fury kept to himself, and passed on to Steve, but not Tony, for y'know, reasons. I'll go with that for now.

At the end of the film, REALLY felt like the stage was set for Zemo getting a deal/offer of some kind from Martin Freeman's Ross (is he related to Thunderbolt?). I immediately thought/hoped that Freeman was Hydra, looking to recruit, but then thought that perhaps it might be a "legit" offer from the Joint Terrorism Task Force or whatever the entity is called. The way the gov recruits black hats to be white hats in hacker-dom. Zemo has proven himself able to take apart a team of enhanced so-called heroes. He could be valuable asset when it comes to checking supers in the future. Of course, one has to wonder what kind of motivation he would need to participate in such a program.

I covered this in my earlier ramble, but will say it again—I wish that the name Zemo had been reserved for a more comic book Zemo-like nemesis of Captain America. Perhaps, tho, that is what he will become…?

IRON MAN vs. CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Spidey tells Cap, "Tony told me to go for your legs." I wonder if Tony/Friday's got files on all of the Avengers, a la Bruce Wayne vs. the JL. Given his extended battle w/Cap and Bucky, tho, it seems like maybe not. Kind of a huge oversight on the part of the futurist who developed Hulkbuster armor, tho, donchathink?

When engaged vs. Cap in the Winter Soldier complex, FRIDAY tells Tony that you can't possibly beat him in hand-to-hand (comics fans have got to be loving that =). Tony then orders FRIDAY to analyze Cap's attacks and after a few seconds of taking hits, she loads up a countermeasure program that unshields Cap and gets him on the ground. Does FRIDAY take over the suit when he orders countermeasures?

LOVE the callback to FIRST AVENGER when Tony gets the upper hand and gives Steve an ultimatum, and Steve rises to the occasion…

TONY: Stay down. Final warning.
STEVE: I can do this all day.

In FIRST AVENGER…

BULLY: You just don't know when to give up, do you?
STEVE: I can do this all day.

If you really take that as an echo, that puts Tony in the position of the bully. A simplistic reduction of his character and motivation… Is it fair?

It's hard to defend Tony's petulance in the writing of this film. It's not inconsistent (it’s maybe all too consistent), but it seems unfair, doesn’t it? We almost only get to see him at his weakest and worst. Can you imagine a counterpart film, IRON MAN: CIVIL WAR, that covers most of these same events, but from Tony's POV? Could it be written and made in such a way that we're sympathetic to Tony and less so to Steve? Are we missing more of what's at stake on Tony's side?

DOES ANYONE IN THE AUDIENCE CHOOSE TEAM IRON MAN?

Something I would have loved to have had spelled out in the film—Cap has the luxury of always doing the right thing because Stark and Fury and SHIELD exist.

I'd love to see the acrobatics needed to get us to see Cap as in the wrong. What is the straw that could break his camel's back? WW2? Peggy? The future loss of Sharon? The future loss of millions in some disaster he failed to prevent? If I could shape it, I think the best place would be in INFINITY WAR, when the gauntlet is full assembled and powered and anyone who touches or wears it has a glimpse of how they could reshape reality. Maybe everyone actually agrees it should be up to Cap to fix whatever damage Thanos has done, and Cap is tempted to save/restore losses that are personal, perhaps wipe out evils done and evil doers, but it takes Tony to stay his gauntleted hand, because those people had and made their choices, killed, cared, sacrificed, suffered, and in the end, led to the present/future that they're protecting to begin with. Changing/rewriting that undoes the good as well as the bad. Or something… Something left in the hands of better writers. =)

How much of Tony's stated resentment of Steve is real? He loves to mention how Howard never shut up about knowing/meeting Steve when he was growing up, but honestly, we've never seen that in AGENT CARTER. But then, we've never really seen Howard interacting w/young Tony except in the NARF. Still, I like to think that it's a snarky cover story, fabricated static to jokily cover his real I-can't-believe-you're-such-a-boy-scout disbelief at Steve's purity of heart. An impossible bar to set, an impossible standard to try and live up to, and impossible ideal to stand beside.

CAPTAIN AMERICA + ?

In my second screening, someone in the audience actually voiced a, "Whhhaaaa?" when Steve kissed Sharon. Heh. I'm totally okay w/Steven putting the moves on his friend's niece, but chemistry-wise and time-wise, it all seemed a bit fast. All that we know of their close interaction that hints at real attraction happens in the events we see in this film. The broproval from Falcon and Bucky made it worth buying into, tho. And Sharon certainly proves herself "worthy" if I might be so judgy, in martial skills, tactics, duty, and loyalty.

I kinda felt at least as much, if not more, real chemistry between Steve and Wanda. Thing is, Steve thinks of her as a "teenager" while I in the audience think of her as an adult and legit peer of the rest of the team. And, of course, the chemistry between Vizh and Wanda is dialed up quite a bit higher, and, I'm into pursuing that.

It's interesting that in the MCU they are somehow energetically/origin-ally connected, via the an Infinity Gem. What if that's manipulating them into feeling an attraction? Parts of a whole seeking reunification? Having an intelligence and personality connected to a gem will certainly be an interesting facet of Gauntlet control. Will Vizh (or Vizh and Wanda in a FIFTH ELEMENTal combo) sub for Adam Warlock and the Soul Gem?

Perhaps the Steve-Wanda appeal is something for the long game. If the MCU goes long enough, Cap and the Witch may yet be a thing. Or maybe we'll get a glimpse of a reality in which that's so.

SPIDER-MAN's (aka UNDEROO’s) NOT-A-ONESIE!

Spidey's eyes! One aspect of his abilities involves heightened senses in general (which I'd wager add up to his net "Spider-sense"), so having eyepieces that iris up and down to reflect his expression and focus—in a suit augmented w/Stark-tech—makes complete sense and is pretty much a stroke of cinematic storytelling genius, trumping even comic book and animated storytelling, which of course takes artistic license when reflecting Pete's expression/emotions in the features of his mask, but doesn't have an in-universe justification for it. Genius. =)

The Spidey-signal was a bit of a let-down for me. True the Peter-May dialogue was fun (getting punched by Steve, getting a few shots in, getting taken down by a big big guy), and signing off w/Spidey was a good way to tease/push Spider-Man's return, but that little projection as a post-credits reveal? Hohum. Maybe I missed a detail? If it was obviously an Avengers app-communicator, or maybe an "Avengers Assemble" call, or an alert that he's needed somewhere, or a message from Tony (or Cap?), well, that would've been something.

Peter's driven to mess w/his new webshooter (presumably part of the Stark 100-point upgrade) because it's suddenly itchy/irritating. So it would make sense that the tech is signalling him to check it (but of course, he didn't read the manual). An alert or message would've been a strong follow-thru.

But y'know, if THAT's what I'm complaining about, goes to show how frickin great the rest of the movie is, right? And Spider-Man is definitely one of the best realized elements of the film.

BLACK WIDOW / WINTER SOLDIER HISTORY?

Did anyone catch what Natasha gasps when re-activated Winter Soldier has her by the throat? It's something like, "Recognize me!" Or "Why don't you recognize me?" How much face time did they ever share in WINTER SOLDIER? I haven't seen it since it was out, but don't remember any, honestly. So, my mind goes to her as-yet-unrevealed origin—some incarnation of the Red Room, which is where the counter-agents of AGENT CARTER were trained and indoctrinated, ostensibly for the Russian government, but actually/also, for Hydra. Some advanced form of this technique/program was no doubt used to bring Bucky under control as the Winter Soldier. I think that Black Widow must have worked on a mission with him, maybe even trained with him, to learn strategies for facing a powered opponent. Maybe this history/mystery could be the basis of a Widow-Soldier team-up film?

But, if they DO have some history together, why DOESN'T Bucky acknowledge it? Perhaps his mental "files" have been updated to consider her an enemy of the state/Hydra? Hrm… Could Bucky have been in contact w/Natasha while in hiding? Between the events of WINTER SOLDIER and CIVIL WAR? Or maybe Natasha encountered the Soldier as an enemy or (friendly?) competitor on a mission for her Russian superiors?

Frack. I've gotta watch WINTER SOLDIER again. I vaguely remember Natasha recognizing the code name "Winter Soldier" somewhere in the course of the film, and so, having some intel/knowledge of the program. But whatever she volunteers about it must not have been specific to personal experience with him, or knowing that it was Bucky Barnes, right?

FUN BITS AND PIECES…

The Wanda-Cap fastball special! Very nice! Also, Wanda containing and funneling the poison gas used by Crossbones's goons out of the disease control labs? Wanda's got some crazy control of her abilities. Impressive. What kind of person could train her or train with her?
Love the rival Cap partners. Too bad we don't have a Rick Jones in the MCU to add to the mix. In the low profile getaway car…

BUCKY: Can you move your seat up?
SAM: No.

On the floor in the airport concourse after Redwing takes Spidey for a ride…

BUCKY: You couldn't have done that sooner?
SAM: I hate you.

So many great voices added to the mixx… T'Challa, Peter Parker, Scott Lang… He's just happy to be there, y'know? =)
On seeing Wanda in the airport garage…

SCOTT: I know you. You're great! Captain America! I'm shaking your hand for too long!

On returning to normal size after Giant-Manning it up…

SCOTT: Does anyone have any…orange slices?

Taking a jab at Tony in his cell on the Raft…

SCOTT: Hank Pym always said, never trust a Stark.
TONY: Who are you?
SCOTT: Aw, c'mon, man.

Stan Lee—Fed Excelsior! Lee’s CIVIL WAR cameo is a great little Tony Stark sting and a winning spirits-lifter for Rhodey =)

RHODEY: Table for one… Tony Stank!

Also, THE RAFT. The frickin RAFT, man! That is gotta be the basis for AVENGERS 5 or 6 or so, right? I was soooo hoping that we'd see more cells, more prisoners. Are these Avengers the only inmates so far? Who is managing the Raft? Doesn't seem like SHIELD. Secretary of State Ross has access and authority, so, American? Or part of the UN Joint whatzit?

Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross as Secretary of State. Nice detail, moving familiar characters/supporting cast around in the background of our heroes' adventures.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME GO HMMM…

GREAT POWER (tm?)

Does Sony own the use of "With great power comes great responsibility" in movies? Slightly painful watching Peter NOT say that. Although what he DOES say is just what Tony wants, maybe needs to hear when recruiting a new Avenger. When recruiting someone who might be helping to fill a void left by the absence of Captain America, the heart of the Avengers.

WHO'S CHARLIE SPENCER?

Who is Charlie Spencer? In CIVIL WAR, he's the son of the state department worker who confronts Tony about the aftermath of Sokovia. The face that gets put to the remorse that Tony feels for what happened in the wake of Ultron's creation. Wondering if the name has significance in the Marvel Comics universe, or perhaps in the real world.

A SIGNIFICANT DATE?

12/7/86
1/27/86
Is there a Marvel Comics or MCU in-universe significance to either of these dates? 12786 is the passcode to the Winter Soldier complex in Siberia.

WHAT ABOUT THAT BIOWEAPON?

What was the "bioweapon" that Crossbones stole? Who was the buyer?

Allright, I’m calling it. End ramble.

THIS one, at least. =)

So—Until the Watcher joins Hair Club for Men…

Make mine Marvel!

Keep on keepin’ on~

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR: Excelsior!

AWESOME BRILLIANT SO VERY SATISFYING! Nuff' said!

The rest of this rambling post is gonna be making notes for myself if no one else. So, if you haven't seen CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR yet, turn back now, for here there be *SPOILERS*!

THE GOOD/GREAT…

The wild kingdom of superheroes!

SPIDER-MAN! This incarnation is very much in line w/Bendis's Ultimate, which is really the logical play given the existing MCU. Superheroes are new, so Spider-Man should be, too. And he's still in high school, which will give us THAT whole scene to enjoy again. I enjoy high school/teeny drama if decently executed, or flipped, and I think I can trust the MCU to not waste our time. I had a smile on my face for most of the movie, but maybe slightly smilier when Tony meets Peter and when Spider-Man meets everyone. They're writing him really great, immediately likeable and thoughtful and pure of heart, y'know? I hope his solo stories get to be as powerful as ones in the first two Sam Raimi films. He's probably my ideal fave Marvel character.

BLACK PANTHER! Boseman sells the martial abilities, the nobility, and the wisdom. Granted, I'm coming at this with that already attributed to the character, but he is just so ready to wear all that, and well. Powerful, commanding, thoughtful (if still vengeful), and damn relentless. He wasn't quite set up as a match vs. Captain America—maybe more of Bucky's opponent?—but I think he is, in skills, power, and nobility.

FALCON! Love the intro of Redwing. And have to give him a lot of credit for playing Vizh against War Machine the way he did.

ANT-MAN! Loved seeing the application of Wacko (i.e. West Coast Avengers) Hank Pym's literal bag of tricks in this movie. Only wish that they'd used it more than once! And Giant-man! SO well realized on the big screen! I would've liked some sidebar exposition about his mass and strength and durability at that scale (will the "science" ever be consistent? =), cuz he took and dealt some serious punishment that he wouldn't have been able to stand at human scale.

Spidey has a nice choice remark on Cap's shield not obeying the laws of physics. I'll just take that as being applied to everything.

VISION! Learns that he can be distracted! By a telekinetic redhead. =)

What are Vizh's origins again? All JARVIS? Any Ultron? Any human engrams involved?

THE DRAMA!

When Cap and Bucky arrive at the Siberian Winter Soldier outpost and are then joined by Iron Man, I got confused. This looked like the setting that we see in the trailers where Cap and Bucky take on Tony, but here they are, truced up and ready to take on the five Soviet Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Any one of them could take down a country and disappear. Heh, that line landed with a bit of a thud for me. But dammit if this movie didn't do a damn good job of keeping me happy and in the moment like 90 percent of the time. I didn't put together the clues until right when Tony says, "I know this road…" And then it all clicked. So weird how the drama of it vibes for me with classic comic book lore, as if it's a comic booky thing, and not just a dramatic, narrative turn. I guess it's just where I come from, all of the comics reading and plotting I've absorbed over the years.

It does remind me of SOMEthing, tho… A little bit of Batman/Bruce Wayne, but something else. Something Greek? Maybe structurally Oedipal? Shakespearean? Dammit, I can't put my finger on it…

Still, a great turn and even if I do/did feel the writing is unfair to Tony Stark, it is consistently so. That piece of info, that secret revealed, is just the thing to get us from point A—Cap and Bucky and Tony ready to save the world—to point B—Tony needing to avenge his parents and Cap needing to defend his best friend.

THE CONFLICTED/CONFLICTING…

Turning Baron Zemo into this Zemo. I like this character's origin/back story, but it seems almost a waste/mismatch to make him a Zemo. I guess there's kind of a correlation with the Zemo of THUNDERBOLTS, who at least for a time seems driven by righteous or right-seeking motives. I'm afraid I didn't follow that plot thread consistently or to an end. Yeah, I think I might've been happier if this had been a completely new name, unconnected to familiar Marvel Comics baddies. A Zemo with no history vs. Cap, no ties to Hydra or Nazi Germany, just doesn't seem like a Zemo. I mean, he should be engaged in some kind of bet w/Zola, trying to one-up each other in ruining Cap's life.

He does finish strong, tho. Taunting the UN joint task force head, John Watson, with the notion that his machinations did NOT fail. He broke the Avengers. Now, we've got Tony's legit, daylight (still UN-sanctioned?) Avengers team, and Cap's shadow, off the radar, independent, secret Avengers team, that has a friend in Wakanda. It's interesting that cinematic CIVIL WAR ends with the adjusted status quo that the comic book CIVIL WAR series maintained for most of its year-long run.

Crossbones. Although he went out with meta-purpose, it seems a shame to cut down such a capable Hydra field leader already. In the comics, he's a thorn in Cap's side for a good long time, brutal and smart and a lieutenant of the Red Skull.

Scarlet Witch's powers. She describes her abilities as "moving things with her mind," so, telekinetic. But what does she do to Vision? It seems to me that she manipulates his own density-control abilities against his will. Does she have Phoenix-level control over matter? Does she "see" more than just matter? Is she manipulating the flow of electrons in Vision to manipulate his systems? Or is she manipulating probability? Hrm… Is it similar to the comic book Scarlet Witch's powers in that it's been described as one thing for a long time, but is then revealed to be something completely different? In the comics, it was described as chaos-magic, but Strange at some point says, nope, and with other concludes that it is reality warping, and not magic. Perhaps it's magic and she's instinctively limited it to telekinesis and every once in a while reaches in a different way and accomplishes not-quite-telekinetic feats. I always liked the idea of probability-altering, shifting the odds so that something very unlikely actually happens.

AM I MISREMEMBERING…?

Wasn't Cap outfitted w/some kind of energy tether that connects one (both) of his gauntlets to his shield (and back)? I forget if it was WINTER SOLIDER or AGE OF ULTRON, but when activated, it behaved like magnetic attraction. But y'know, that wouldn't be all that accurate or smart. Is vibranium magnetic? Maybe there's some iron/steel in the alloy of Cap's shield (is that what it is—an alloy?), but even so, you'd get that powerful an electromagnet attracting silverware through the walls, right? I think it's gotta be something different. Would be a neat trick if it affected ANY vibranium.

Wait, so…

Cap left his shield with Iron Man. Did we see where it ends up? Somewhere at the Avengers compound? Can the Black Panther hook him up w/a new one? Perhaps Coulson will reach out somehow and offer him a version of Fitz's shield? Altho that doesn't help in the distance weapon department.

That's all I've got just now. Gonna see it again, so probably more gushing soon-ish. =)

Keep on keepin' on~

Marvel ramblings: Hail Hydra!

Some randomish bits of crazy talk in the wake of CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER and AGENTS OF SHIELD: Turn, Turn, Turn.

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Garrett/Clairvoyant: Hail Hydra? Yeah, yeah, whatev…

I hope/don't yet believe that the Clairvoyant is just a Hydra lieutenant. I stand by my theory that the CV is someone who's been involved in all parts of the SHIELD turducken, but only for his own goals. Even if Ward were free to express his own independent thoughts, he wouldn't need to "Hail Hydra" because that's not to whom he'd pledge his allegiance (extorted or freely given). His allegiance is to Garrett, who has so far enjoyed being taken for the CV. When SHIELD agents storm the room he and Coulson's team are in, he calls out Sitwell's recruits with a "Hail Hydra" out of convenience more than loyalty. He explains as much when he describes how he turned his sails.

I'm finding it less likely that Garrett has had access to the Insight Algorithm now. I was hoping that the CV would have stolen/duped a beta of the algorithm for personal gain and planned out most if not all of SHIELD's confrontations with Centipede. Now it seems that he's a gifted button-pusher and strategist whose taken genius-level advantage of the SHIELD's HR department's files.

Which, incidentally, are now out in the open, thanks to the events of WINTER SOLDIER, no? I'm gonna not go out on a limb here and say that Fury's super fancy secure tip top secret files were not released (Coulson's recovery, GH-325, among others), tho. So, Avengers Initiative files? Perhaps a seed for something like a Young Avengers team? The Index? Which could be tapped for super-skilled and super-abilified human resources for good and evil, no? Skye's history? Weapons designs? Project Pegasus? What else?

So, what IS Garrett's/the CV's motivation? Survival? Being on the winning side?

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Hail Hydra: Ward?

Can Ward be a double agent? We're meant to understand that he killed all those SHIELD/Hydra guys in the corridor while Skye was hiding, right? He eyed that knife on the floor, got to it, used it.

Hrm… Any chance he's kept a sliver of the Berserker staff in his utility belt?

I've got two possibilities:

1. He's under Centipede-tech remote control, like Deathlok. He could've been implanted before or early in his tenure as part of Coulson's team, without his knowing. Not sure where that would've been likely in show continuity, but I'm sure there's a gap where it could happen. The connection might not have been activated for control until more recent events, and until then used for passive intel gathering. This certinaly fits into an explanation of his shooting Thomas Nash, the prop CV. He finds himself pointing his weapon directly at the man who's been manipulating him by remote for days, weeks, maybe months. What can Nash possibly do to Ward or anyone/anything Ward cares about (leverage) before he shoots and kills him? Nothing. Maybe there were even remote commands like "PLAY ALONG AND TAKE ME INTO CUSTODY," "ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN," playing in Ward's eyes. But Ward's doing that bullet math, and when Nash's mechanical voice starts explaining what will happen to Skye, he carries the one and fires. F it. At this point, the real CV would stop transmitting to Ward's implant. So, Ward would still have the hardware in his head, but see no more commands and believe that he's truly free and the CV is dead. Until it's revealed that he shot the wrong man, that is. New commands would have appeared in his HUD when Hand gives him the opportunity to execute Garrett. And, if that IS what happened, then the CV is still transmitting, which means that the CV can't be cuffed and restrained Garrett, right?

2. This is kind of a romantic notion, but he's legitimately in man-love with Garrett. He's not a Hydra agent, he's a Garrett agent. Garrett's training was such that he instilled unquestioning loyalty and respect in his agents. Ward believes in the man. If he's doing something that appears shady, he's doing it for the right reasons. Yeah, definitely a tough sell given that Garrett was involved in activity that led to Coulson's torture and Skye's near-death, but how's Ward been sold to us since the show began? The good soldier, the specialist, the guy who makes the tough calls in the field.

Frack, just came up with a third possibility…

3. What if Ward agreed to be implanted and it's to receive commands from Coulson. In this scenario, Coulson suspected Garrett, or someone close, early on, and had Fitz-Simmons implant him (w Skye's help?). So, when he turns on Hand to save Garrett, he's acting on orders given by Coulson. AND, his sidearm would've been replaced with something that wouldn't kill his targets, but make it appear he did. AND and, the drive with all the data from The Bus that Ward is carrying is a decoy with false or corrupted data.

Crazy talk?

Maybe. But I like it. =)

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Hail Hydra: Heads or limbs?

I love that Garrett and Coulson have that little back and forth about the Hydra oath, Garrett thinking that it's "Cut off a limb…" but Coulson certain that it's "Cut off a head…" From what I think I remember from my Steranko NICK FURY reprints ("Dark Moon Rise, Heck Hound Hurt" anyone? =) and forward is "limb" but yeah, in the Marvel Movie Universe so far, it's been "head." I never thought twice about the "limb" in the comics, as that works scientifically (and graphically, for when agents do that Vishnu-looking pantomime standing behind one another) in reference to the microbiological hydra. The image of a gooey microscopic organism with tentacles around its mouth doesn't seem very romantic or inspirational, tho, does it? But in the comics, they pulled it off, and it fairly described the organism's actual structure. "Head," however, evokes the mythical Hydra. Much more awe-inspiring, no? And that dude was about being multi-headed.

You can see the legacy of the change in the design of the Hydra sigil. The figure is more Cthulu than Hydra, a (red) skull with tentacles below it rather than a body with multiple heads.

I wonder if the Garrett-Coulson exchange is a pet peeve of any of the writers, heh. In any case, I appreciated the in-story wink and nod to the comic book organization.

Heh. Would be awesome if AGENTS OF SHIELD encountered a, like, 5-agent rogue Hydra group that split off over the oath. =)

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GH-325.

A drug/extract refined from the chemistry of an extraterrestrial (perhaps extradimensional) being, a blue-skinned being whose remains were held in some kind of stasis in a lab marked T.A.H.I.T.I. at an off-the-books SHIELD facility known as The Guest House. The Guest House has been destroyed. I'd love for the being to have slipped thru a portal between worlds to Earth, but at this point, I'm thinking we've got to go with alien, and if it's a blue-skinned alien in the Marvel Universe, it's got to be Kree.

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084: Skye.

Skye was an 084 before she was injected w GH-325 to save her life. The search for her origin revealed that her parents were killed, but we never get names for them, nor any mention of their species (which in most any other TV show context would not be conspicuous =). The simplest, most basic details are given: she was orphaned, her parents killed or found dead. Now, let's add a few details…

In the wake of a massive energy discharge, SHIELD agents were sent in to investigate the source. At the epicenter of the phenomenon they found the baby who would be called Skye. Her parents were found nearby, killed by gunfire. One was human, the other, unknown. They were in front of a structure built to camouflage the wreckage of a spacecraft. The bodies of armed operatives in bright yellow hazmat suits were found surrounding them. Heh.

In the Marvel Comics Universe, the Kree are either pink- or blue-skinned. I'm not certain of the differences between them besides color, but both are capable of mating with non-Kree species. The Kree Empire has a history of mucking about with the genetics of other races (including Human), effectively producing Kree hybrids with unusual abilities/characteristics. This is what Skye is. A child of love and/or science, we can't know just yet, but I'm a sucker for the stranded alien/alien spy scenario, y'know? An extraterrestrial finds itself in dire straits on Earth. Stranded (or if a spy, assigned to gather intel), it learns Earthican ways and eventually falls for humanity in general and one human in particular, and decides to make a home and a family here. But someone notices, human scientists and military or alien superiors and military.

This partially explains why Coulson's physical reaction to the GH-325 was so violently different from Skye's. I say "partially" cuz—HelLO!—he was frickin dead, everybody, remember? Hrm… I wonder when in the series of surgeries and whatnot was the GH-325 administered to Coulson.

But you know, aside from the resurrection deal, Skye's Kree-Human hybrid genetics accepted the GH-325 whereas Coulson's simply Human flesh tried to reject it.

Hey, what if GH is Skye's father? Wack!

Are the healing effects of GH-325 one-time or forever? It seems like forever, as Simmons seems to believe that Skye's blood may be the key to healing others. Coulson's tests earlier in the season revealed that he was in tip top human shape, but nothing more than that, right? No evidence of a healing factor?

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Artificial Intelligence: JARVIS.

JARVIS is the first we've encountered in the Marvel Movie Universe. Built with personality, but with no indication thus far of true sentience. No independent desires or preferences save what Stark has programmed to exhibit. Back when there was no sign of a Hank Pym in the MMU, I thought that a JARVIS on board one of Stark's remote IM suits might have a comic book moment (cosmic ray exposure, hostile takeover malfunction, interception by a ghost or alien intelligence) and become sentient and ultimately become Ultron.

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Artificial Intelligence: Arnim Zola.

Arnim Zola was a living human being until his mind was backed up onto millions of miles of magnetic tape. He now exists as a disembodied electronic consciousness. Presumably once the transfer was made, his body died, but we do not know that for a fact. Leaves the possibility open for the electronic Zola to be a copy of an original that might be maintained by some kind of stasis or life support, eh?

I think it's safe to assume that as technology progressed, so did his storage media. If SHIELD/Hydra was smart, they'd do everything possible to keep Zola isolated and unconnected to ARPAnet and the present day internet. Perhaps he was contained in such a way on the Lemurian Star? Hrm… But what about his coordination with the SHIELD missile launch on the bunker? I guess that could've been analog, a radio signal or voice line, but not a data line.

Maybe there are limits to what a human consciousness can do digitally, and Zola *does* have access to the internet, but can't be everywhere and see everything and maintain his scheming genius self.

What WAS that Zola that addressed Steve and Natasha in the SSR bunker? Was that a Zola "agent" or drone code that the master Zola (on the Lemurian Star) embedded in the data that Natasha duped? She described the data as protected by an intelligent encryption, right? So, once the drive was plugged into the bunker machines, it unpacked itself into a (nearly) full version of the original and did what it did.

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Loki's Sceptre.

Quite an oversight by Thor and Asgard, taking the Tesseract back to Odin's Vault, but leaving behind the Sceptre, which *somehow* holds a portion of the Tesseract's energy. So far, I believe it's been established by demonstration that the Tesseract generates energy and creates stable wormholes. Regarding the Sceptre, on the energy front, it's a fraction of the "Cosmic Cube's," but a fraction of the infinite is still infinite, right? I imagine it would do a more than decent job of powering up those WW2-era Hydra weapons and any new models based on that tech.

On the wormhole front, well, the Sceptre allowed Loki to be transported thru an unregulated wormhole created in Project Pegasus. It also allowed Loki to communicate and interact with Chitauri across galactic(?) distances, something resembling astral projection.

The Sceptre, in Loki's hands, at least, also demonstrated an ability to corrupt and control those touched by it. Perhaps the effect is dependent on the wielder, tho? If Cap had used the Sceptre on anyone, perhaps their most selfless and all-American qualities and desires would come to the forefront of their personality. It would still be imposed behavior mod, but—hey!—as long as it's for the greater good, right, Cap? Oh, right, forgot about WINTER SOLDIER's that whole freedom vs. security thing. My badd.

Well, in any case, Strucker and Hydra have a fraction of the infinite to play with. What do you suppose the Baron would do with such a resource? SATAN CLAW anyone? Highly impractical, but pretty frickin iconic, right?

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Keep on keepin on~

AGENTS OF SHIELD: Turn, turn, turn: Hand, Garrett, Ward?

Some more rambling theory-spinning crazy talk on AGENTS OF SHIELD after WINTER SOLDIER before tonight's ep…

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I see three possibilities for the allegiance of Hub Director Agent Victoria Hand…

1. She's loyal trust-the-system SHIELD and answers to the SHIELD chain of command (as Hub director, would that only be Fury?). This offers two sub-options: that she's following orders from legit SHIELD, or unwittingly following orders from Hydra, perhaps with (well-hidden) misgivings. This second sub-option seems true to her comic book persona.

2. She's Hydra and in cahootz w the likes of Sitwell and Crossbones and Pierce. This would be a powerful strategic move for Hydra, as she can enlist all the resources of The Hub for Hydra objectives, without revealing Hydra itself.

3. She's Centipede and answers to the Clairvoyant. Okay, maybe she IS the Clairvoyant, but I'd rather she was another lieutenant. Either way, this would be a powerful move for the Clairvoyant for the same reasons as option 2.

By ordering some level-something something-protocol lockdown, she might effectively seal The Hub off from the events of WINTER SOLDIER, at least for a while. And by trumping up some charges on Coulson's team, or even just throwing up the "Level 8" classified wall, she can defend any moves she makes against them, including killing them. As a legit SHIELD agent, she may have received orders branding Coulson & co as traitors, and the Bus's course change might be just the manufactured or coincidental proof to back them up. I don't quite buy that Hand is responsible for the plane changing course (away from the Triskelion and Insight, btw).

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Ward could easily be SHIELD's or Hydra's. I feel like he genuinely believes the Clairvoyant to be a menace and a monster, tho, so I'm gonna say he's not w CV. I don't know that his delivery sold me on the emotional duress he experienced when he cracked and shot Nash, but if I take him at his words, okay. His execution of Thomas Nash was indeed in the heat of the moment. That makes sense, as it would have been choreographed by the Clairvoyant. CV's words, pumped thru the machinery surrounding Nash, were no doubt designed to manipulate one of the agents in the room into killing Nash, as CV could *not* have him be taken into SHIELD custody alive. Ward may have been the easiest mark, or simply the first on CV's list, or served the bonus purpose of fracturing Coulson's team.

Maybe the Clairvoyant is going to use the SHIELD/Hydra schism and WINTER SOLDIER events to his advantage by outing some Hydra agents close to and on Coulson's team.

The next episode is titled "Turn, Turn, Turn," the same words that Garrett uses to describe the wheel of agents and S.O.s. Garrett trained Ward and Ward trained Skye. So, what if Garrett is Hydra, eh? That would make me really sad. Not just cuz it's Wild Bill playing him, but because he's ostensibly playing the character brought to life by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz in ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN. Not quite as over-the-top as I remember him, but he definitely brings some cowboy swagger.

Taking "Turn, turn, turn" to heart, tho. Would Hydra Garrett have recruited Ward? Is there something in Ward's past (I'm real shaky on character histories, bleah) that would make him seem a likely convert?

And let's say he did. Would he have expected Ward in turn to convert Skye? I found their conversation before the double-blind mission to be… conspicuous. It wasn't unreasonable or unlikely, just… I dunno. Seemed to skip a few beats somehow. Maybe he was fishing for a Hydra call and response? Third degree burn, nerve endings, gut shot?

Keep on keepin on~

AGENTS OF SHIELD: The Clairvoyant: Hail Hydra?

Some more rambling on the Clairvoyant, incorporating some events and intel revealed in CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER.

]]] WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS FOLLOW [[[

Let's say Clair Voyant, aka CV, is a SHIELD agent who's been recruited by Hydra. Let's say CV moved up the ranks of both organizations, to a level high enough to gain access to Zola's work, specifically the Insight Algorithm, perhaps an Alpha or Beta, y'know? Not in its ultimate, Hydra-ted form. CV sees a way to exploit the Algorithm for his own personal agenda, copies/steals it, and begins using it to plan and predict. The first thing CV would do would be to hide himself from both sides. How? Modifying his SHIELD file to project a competent, loyal, sufficiently high-level, but not trouble-making operative, basically painting the picture of a successful but forgettable drone.

What agenda?

I like the Clairvoyant as having a personal stake and/or a high ideal as the drive behind his clandestine machinations. On the surface, it seems like CV's operations, aka Centipede, are focused on the development and acquisition of exotic weaponry. I don't think we've seen that weaponry applied in the support of a particular ideology, right? Seems mostly like an arms dealer on the surface, traveling in the same circles as alien tech scavengers and exiled cybercriminals, right?

Not very satisfying to me, but that might be enough. Especially as a til-now-phantom-like third party in the SHIELD-Hydra dynamic. A mercenary villain, building an enhanced mercenary army for hire.

Wow. Can you imagine Hydra getting SHIELD on the ropes at some point in the WINTER SOLDIER struggle and Coulson cutting a deal with the Clairvoyant to *hire* his forces to help SHIELD? And maybe Hydra counters, but CV sticks w Coulson, as he can be trusted while Hydra certainly cannot.

What if CV tweaked Insight to do more than hide himself, but also cripple Hydra, perhaps out of philosophical disagreement? That would be a nice touch. Like when the mob turns its Tommy Guns on the Nazis instead of the cops, cuz, F that—Nazis! Y'know?

So, on the surface, Centipede looks like an exotic arms developer and dealer and super army for hire. But what does the Clairvoyant really want out of this? What end would this be a means to? Well, it's the creation of a force that can stand toe-to-toe with SHIELD and perhaps Avengers. I've gone on quite a bit about my wild hopes that there is time or dimensional travel involved, that the Clairvoyant doesn't just have SHIELD files from the present, but from the future as well. Well, the algorithm renders that unnecessary. So, maybe CV has used the algorithm and discovered an imminent Earthican catastrophe—Insight itself? The rise of a supervillain or superpowered force? The age of Ultron?—and created Centipede as a pre-emptive strike or defense against it. Or as a force against which SHIELD (and Hydra?) can be tempered and strengthened, to better face this coming apocalypse.

I say Earthican because the algorithm operates on recorded personal history and data, and we can assume that CV would only have access to human information…

Or can we? What if CV is an extraterrestrial, or has access to extraterrestrial data? Perhaps the algorithm, applied to an ET-net, revealed that another battle in the higher form of war is going to take place on Earth soon and in his way is helping to arm and prepare the adorable Earthicans.

Would be a nice comic booky "Humans Number One!" to have a mad Earthling scientist develop something like the algorithm that no one's seen applied in the rest of the galaxy. Hari Seldon's psychohistory, anyone?

Or, we go back to one of my old theories that doesn't require ET data or the algorithm, but simply Nick Fury's do-what-has-to-be-done-to-protect-humanity directive. SHIELD as the world knows it is too massive (so massive that it's unwittingly become home to Hydra as well) and transparent (compartmentalized, sure, but everything is logged somewhere) to do the dirty work needed to properly defend the Earth in a higher form of war. So, Nick sets up an independent rogue op, completely disavowed and unconnected to SHIELD, to develop weapons and soldiers in the wild, to fund itself any way it needs to, and then to get big enough that it has to lock horns with SHIELD, and in that conflict, SHIELD gets smarter, stronger, and when it wins, acquires weapons that it would otherwise have been unable (read also as unallowed) to ethically and safely develop on its own.

Keep on keepin on~

WINTER AGENTS: syncing up CAP2 and AOS redux ramble

Then again…

How about we try this without being so impatient? Not as much fun, but we do have most of half a season to go, right? =)

]]] WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS (and the usual crazy talk) FOLLOW [[[

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Before Victoria Hand returns to The Hub, she relays that Agent Sitwell is to report to the Lemurian Star. This is the SHIELD barge that Cap and the Widow are sent to free from Batroc and his pirate mercs (enlisted by Nick Fury). This doesn't necessarily mean that Batroc strikes immediately on Sitwell's arriving at the Star. He may have been there for days or even weeks before he's taken hostage.

Although… In WINTER SOLDER, we *do* get the apparently superfluous information that the Star has been held by the pirates for 93 hours when Cap and Nat are brought in, right? That's almost four days of time that begins sometime after Sitwell arrives. How much time do we think passes in the course of the events of "End of the Beginning?" Could it have been four days?

*Maybe.* But if AGENTS OF SHIELD needs more time for Agents-vs-Clairvoyant to play out before Fury's apparent death, they can write it in easily enough. Just extend Sitwell's time on the Lemurian Star before Batroc takes the ship. So, if it "helps," everything that happens in last week's episode happens BEFORE Cap, Nat, and the Strike Team board the Lemurian Star. That potentially opens up weeks in the AGENTS timeline before SHIELD has to be dissolved. Coulson may have a chance to speak to Fury before his death, and with Insight and Hydra on his mind, he would definitely clue Coulson into a contingency plan/mission.

Actually, going along with the notion that May is reporting to Fury, let's take her report to Coulson that Fury has returned (from wherever/whatever) as legit. Assuming that Nick hasn't been dodging Coulson specifically (which is what it's seemed like from within AGENTS), that would have happened *before* Cap meets Nick in WINTER SOLDIER, right? That by itself significantly extends the amount of time between the events of "End of the Beginning" and WINTER SOLDIER.

Are we gonna let AGENTS OF SHIELD get away with no mention of Insight's satellites? The three carriers, well, okay. Let's say they're ultra super top secret. Altho launching them from the heart of D.C. seems counter-intelligent, no? Okay, okay, fine. Let's say that despite the fact that everyone in the Triskellion seems to know about Insight, it's been compartmentalized tightly enough that none of our AGENTS would know about it and discuss, refer to, or gossip about it.

Hrm… All of SHIELD's files were released to the interwebs. That means the Index and Skye's history are Out There, right? Hrm…

There's no need to bring Hydra into AGENTS, altho it would certainly be cool and bold. As I keep saying, for me, Clairvoyant ≠ Hydra. Way more interesting for me if they do bring Hydra in as an enemy of the Clairvoyant as well. Hrm… 

What if the multiple choice options for "To whom is Agent May reporting?" are actually…?

1. Nick Fury - SHIELD
2. The Clairvoyant - Centipede
3. Hydra - SHIELD

Answer 3 would be frickin cool. Hell, what if Victoria Hand is Hydra and she wants to quash the Clairvoyant as badly as Coulson and co? Which way would the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" dynamic swing things in that scenario, eh? Agents + Centipede vs. Hydra? Or Agents vs. Hydra vs. Centipede?

Hrm… You know what. For the Clairvoyant's prop gambit to work, Thomas Nash could not be allowed to survive as a prisoner of SHIELD. If Ward truly did fire because of emotional duress or whatever, someone else in the room was ready to do the job. Or Nash would somehow have to appear to provoke an attack. Altho… Frack. I guess the Clairvoyant would be able to push anyone's and everyone's buttons in that room in order to get that desired result. For whatever reason, probably to screw w Coulson's team, Clair chose Ward for the job.

Try to forget about the Clairvoyant. If Hydra does wrap a tentacle head around AGENTS, who would be the most likely target for Hydra recruiting? I kind of like Fitz for that. Agent May, sure. She's been thru hell for SHIELD and as a result might be susceptible to the right pitch from Hydra. But Fitz! C'mon, that would be way more fun! It's played for comic relief, but you see the flashes of resentment and superiority beneath his nerdy Brit surface, don't you? He might be science-nerdy enough to appreciate the Hydra philosophy as something elegant, or perhaps something incredibly naive but convenient. Man, that would be Something. =)

Curious. Hand is quite insistent on having Simmons join her at The Hub, ostensibly to brief her agents as SHIELD's expert on Deathlok. Nah. Simmons couldn't be Hydra w Hand. If Hand wants Simmons at The Hub, it's because she/the Clairvoyant is counting on her bringing Skye's blood sample with her for study.

Compartmentalize the information. Skye's double blind protocol. Could be an illustration of Agent May's situation, believing she's working for Fury, but actually reporting to someone else?

Okay, am I totally arguing w myself now? *sigh* Allright, enough w the crazy talk…

…for now. =)

To address what I originally meant to walk thru…

The next eps of AGENTS OF SHIELD could be playing out before or during the events of WINTER SOLDIER. I *want* it to be during, with Fury's return (announced by May in "End of the Beginning") marking the completion of some off-the-grid counter-intel work (investigating Hydra corruption and setting up Batroc's Starjacking). I want for Centipede to be distinct from Hydra. I'd love for there to be a three-way battle/struggle.

And I'd really like for Nick Fury to be "wearing" Victoria Hand's eye to gain Alpha-level access to SHIELD's files at the end of WINTER SOLDIER. =)

Keep on keepin on~

WINTER AGENTS: syncing up CAP2 and AOS…

I made some connections between AGENTS and WINTER SOLDIER when doing my post-movie debrief ramble, but let me try and think it thru in more detail…

]]] WINTER SOLDIER SPOILERS (and the usual crazy talk) FOLLOW [[[

(Note that this is based on the assumption that events of AGENTS and SOLDIER sync up as soon as possible. Here's a ramble that allows for more time.)

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Before Victoria Hand returns to The Hub, she relays that Agent Sitwell is to report to the Lemurian Star. This is the SHIELD barge that Cap and the Widow are sent to free from Batroc and his pirate mercs (enlisted by Nick Fury).

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… May relays to Coulson that Fury is back on the grid. He can contact him to discuss his problem/s. Not sure where this falls in relation to WINTER SOLDIER, but there's definitely no news of Fury's death/assassination in the episode, so it must be before Fury's shot.

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Fitz attempts to set up a secure hard line between The Bus and Simmons at The Hub. He succeeds in getting a broken signal, and while he's working on it, Simmons explains that there's a sudden burst of activity, that a group of agents have stormed the situation room. I *thought* this would have lined up with Steve Rogers's outing of the Hydra tendrils in SHIELD, but none of the Agents have heard about Fury's assassination, right? So, this must be early in the course of WINTER SOLDIER. Perhaps it's a reaction to Fury's assassination/death, which happened at 2am or so, D.C. time, I think? When Fitz cuts May's line, perhaps he cut all comms on The Bus? In any case, in the minutes following that, everyone on The Bus is engaged in gunpointing and doubletalking, right? No time to acknowledge a message from the Triskelion about Fury's death.

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Fitz does a wonderfully lame job of talking his way out of the cockpit and mentions their imminent landing at the Triskelion (to deliver Ward). Perhaps the course change that The Bus makes—a flying U-turn—is made remotely, or pre-programmed and triggered, as part a Nicholas Fury contingency plan: if things get messy (i.e. I have to fake my death) get Coulson and his team as far away from Hydra/SHIELD as possible. Perhaps The Bus and Coulson's team is MMU Fury's Secret Warriors, his answer to a Hydra-corrupted SHIELD, outfitted with last generation equipment (which might make them safe from certain modern technological vulnerabilities) and an eclectic mix of operatives and specialties, including two 084s (one natural—Skye, one man made—Coulson) and their highly skilled watcher (Agent May, reporting to Fury).

In AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning… Victoria Hand at The Hub issues orders to bring down that plane (The Bus) and kill everyone on board except Agent Coulson. Hrm... No interest in Skye? Perhaps because she already has her blood at The Hub, thanks to Simmons. The latest this could be in the events of WINTER SOLDIER would have to be Fury's death. Hand would not show her hand as a Hydra minion yet, but maybe The Hub has been strategically staffed with Hydra, and Hand doesn't need to take over by force. But—SOMETHING happened that Simmons mentioned over the static-y secure line… Perhaps Hand, directed by Pierce, used the Fury assassination as pretense to apprehend potential troublemakers, which would include all of Coulson's team. Not sure if I remember enough to piece together a decent string of logic to explain that, tho. Is there a way to connect the dots from Wade killing the supposed Clairvoyant (Dourif) to Fury's assassination by an unknown/ghost (Winter Soldier).

So, the next chunk of this season of AGENTS OF SHIELD plays out in the course of the second two-thirds or so of WINTER SOLDIER, after Fury's assassination. In the epilogue of the season finale, I hope to see Coulson speaking loudly and clearly, knowingly at Fury's grave (the place that Cap is supposed to send anyone who wants to see Nick), as we pop thru the headstone's surveillance camera and monitor to see Nick watching, listening, and grinning at Coulson's report from some unlikely safe house. Maybe across the street from Cap? An office in Stark Tower? Working a food truck? Renting a room at Aunt May's? Heh.

Oh—I know! Coulson shows up at Fury's grave to drop off the objective of his final mission as a SHIELD agent: the eyeball of Victoria Hand. For Nick to have inserted into his socket before returning to the Triskelion near the end of WINTER SOLDIER. =)

I know it looks like Victoria could be Clair Voyant, but I'd really like for her to be yet another link in the chain.

And, I'd still like for Centipede and the Clairvoyant to be something separate from cut-off-one-head-two-more-shall-take-its-place Hydra. Perhaps the Clairvoyant went double-rogue, lifted Zola's algorithm for a specific, not as high-minded as forcing freedom on the thankless masses purpose, but what? Making lots of money via exotic weaponry? Seems kind of lame and base to me. Gotta be something bigger and better. Maybe the exotic weaponry is means to a more personal end.

I want it to be personal somehow. Involvement of time or dimensional travel a bonus. =)

Maybe it's to take down SHIELD and Hydra for something they did to the Clairvoyant? Or *will* do?

I want the Agents vs. Clair + Centipede to outlast the mothballing of SHIELD.

Hrm… AIM, anyone? =)

Oh, and cuz I haven't said enough crazy but totally likely stuff yet this post… Is Skye Spider-Woman? Or Ms. Marvel? Kree flesh wouldn't reject Kree chemistry the way human chemistry would, right? We've been told that her parents died, but we were never told they were human, right?

RE: Dourif as the Clairvoyant prop. Man! That was some lovely wonderful brilliant casting and yarn spinning! Casting Bard Dourif and not hiding it (having his name, plain as can be, in the opening credits) was a stroke of simple genius.

Brad Dourif? O man, he's *totally* the Clairvoyant! Why else would you get Brad Dourif? I'll bet I'm the 167th to tweet it, too! Duh, Internet!

But hey, not only is this the Marvel Universe, but a chunk of the Whedonverse, so think about it, people! Who's gonna take sweet, sugary convention, like casting Brad Dourif as your vile evildoer, and then punch you in the stomach while you're lapping it up?

But, y'know, in the supercoolest way possible? In the way to which you can only respond: thank you, sir, may I have another?

I'll tell you who: a Whedon. Or TWO, even! Nicely frickin done, MoJed. =)

Keep on keepin on~

CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER rambling

Caught it at an early show tonight. A very satisfying Marvel movie experience. But then, I already felt I got my money's worth when I got the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY trailer followed by GODZILLA! =)

A moment of sadness at not living in the universe in which Marvel has the film rights to Godzilla, allowing them to bring bits and pieces of the GODZILLA comic book to the big screen—G v. SHIELD and the Avengers! Thor and Godzilla in a shoving match with the Empire State Building caught in the middle! Shogun Warriors!

O well. *sigh*

I was saying, satisfying, but not what I would call wonderful. I *LOVE* THE FIRST AVENGER. It was a near perfect film for me in so many smart, clever, joyful, button-pushing ways. This one doesn't deliver that brand of nickelodeon adventure joy. It's darker, more "grown-up," and that change fairly reflects the change in eras within and without the Marvel movie universe continuum, FIRST AVENGER being about a character living and fighting in WW2 who was drawn and inked in the 40s in bright propaganda reds, whites, and blues, and WINTER SOLDIER retelling a story originally written in the 21st century with all of its frustrating gray areas. But there is no chance that it will bore you. There's a lot of action sugar to help the darker themed medicine go down.

Hadn't thought of it at all while reading the comics, but if you're just a little poetic, "Winter Soldier" can refer to either Cap or Bucky, and even Nick if you push a bit. The comic places the Soldier's origin in Russian cover ops, which makes "Winter Soldier" a logical code name: cold war, Russia, and all. It also works because in between ops, he is kept literally on ice in cryosleep. Winter also evokes a lateness in time that reflects both Steve and Bucky's chronological, if not lived, years. Being out of time, y'know? And of course, it is about cold. And who's the coldest warrior we know in the MMU? Nick Fury. Bloodstained Captain America trading cards, anyone? =)

The film's action for me is generally a bit sterile and mechanical but definitely has its moments. I felt oddly uncomfortable with the amount of carnage and the body count delivered by the film. For better or worse, it's totally appropriate to the story, but I just didn't enjoy most of it. Probably the correct, responsible response, tho, and I guess that comes with the darker territory of the film.

I will say that I totally dig seeing Cap's shield *spang* back into his hands after a combo strike, but I did find myself wanting something different in the sounds of its contacts and strikes.

Allright, I'm just gonna start scattin on what comes to mind, so if you continue, you are entering SPOILER territory…
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Cap vs. Batroc! Nicely shot face-off, almost Capcom arcade gamey, heh. And while the Leaper did get a lot of good hits in (he might've won by points in a tournament =), he's outmatched by the super soldier in strength (as a result, not sure about skill—would've been nice to have seen Rogers training in various martial arts in *any* of the movies so far, or even a reference to SHIELD basic or an instructor). I would've liked for Batroc to do better vs. Cap, but, well, he *is* Batroc, right? Heh. And he was the first "boss" in the film. Their fight helps us calibrate our notion of how superhuman Cap is.

Batroc! Good wardrobe. Subtle color choices made him appear comic-book Batroc when in action vs. Cap. Not sure if I'm disappointed that we didn't hear him challenge Steve in heavily accented English. =)

Right away I'm feeling the darkness of this sector of the MMU and this film. Watching Cap mercilessly take out the pirates holding the Lemurian Star just doesn't sit easy with my image of him from the comics. MAYbe he's using nonlethal force when possible, but it looks like he's not pulling any of his enhanced punches (which look pretty awesome/fearsome).

The Black Widow also goes in with tiny pistols blazing. I really wish that we got to see Tony Stark or SHIELD outfit her with ballistic or distance Widow's Bites. They seem to work as close-up tazers, not blasters or projectile launchers. It's easier to see that, tho, given Natasha's modern day covert ops background. Are her throwing discs a standard in the Widow's arsenal? Maybe they'd do better launched from one of the barrels of her bites, instead? First I thought that it was some kind of contact EMP device, but later I realized that it's a kind of tazer. It tries to fry whatever it lands on, i.e. Winter's cybernetic arm or the badge that Pierce tricks Natasha into wearing.

Lemurian Star. I'm fairly certain I heard Fury and Cap call it "Lumerian" a couple of times while others called it "Lemurian." Would've been nice to be consistent and correct, but maybe it's a subtle sign of derision of the corruption/infiltration of its crew by Hydra?

The Lumerian Star was referred to earlier this week in AGENTS, which I thought was significant. Yes, it refers to a once hypothetical ancient (sunken, I think?) continent, now rendered impossible by modern plate tectonic theory. However, it also refers to the very Marvel-real original home of the Deviants, monstrous counterparts to the Eternals. Also, realms and denizens connected to Atlantis (an offshoot of Atlanteans) and the Savage Land. MMU-wise, introducing Atlantis would be pretty sweet altho I feel it would require/deserve some the retcon-insertion of The Invaders during WW2—Cap, Namor, and the Human Torch (check out the Stark Expo in the first Cap movie =). But that seems like a lot of work, no?

What would be an easier and fit would be the Savage Land. How awesome would that be? Maybe a High Evolutionary storyline? Perhaps he could be the end-credits villain reveal of an Ant-Man/Ka-zar team-up? =)

Arnim Zola! Where the heck is his primary brain now? It was originally housed under Cap's old SSR training camp in Jersey, which apparently become one of the first SHIELD facilities. SHIELD or Hydra, if I was dealing with Zola, I'd do everything possible to keep him contained in a closed network, cut off from the wilds of the Internet. Was his primary consciousness transferred to the Lemurian Star? That would make sense to me. Was the intelligent encryption that Natasha copied from the Star some kind of Zola "agent" that independently knew to reactivate the old tape drives and stall Cap and Natasha and sacrifice its self/instance in the missile strike on the bunker?

Wherever he was, he's still at large. A disembodied digital consciousness. An awesome interpretation of Zola for the big screen from the comic book. Do Zola and JARVIS get it on in some corner of the deep web and birth Ultron? So great to see the Project Paperclip era tech. =)

The Insight Algorithm?! Where the heck is this? On what computers/drives is it stored? It was on the computers on the Lemurian Star. It was backed up—AI-encrypted and unreadable—to the thumb drive by Natasha. It was apparently in the computers of the Insight satellites, added or activated (I can't remember) by Hydra cronies (that's when we see one of the Insight helicarrier screens identifying targets on the ground in the White House and Stark Tower and (who the heck was standing in the middle of?) that baseball field or park.

It sounds like Zola had developed this some time ago, so Hydra must have been using it to help with their campaign to sow chaos and drive humanity to the point where it would willingly give up its freedoms/privacy (gotta say, I appreciate the dark theme, if presented overly dramatically as the purpose of Hydra). Would be nice to have the history of the algorithm revealed in upcoming AGENTS OF SHIELD eps.

Does WINTER SOLDIER Insight Algorithm = AGENTS OF SHIELD Clairvoyant? I kind of hope not. I'd made the suggestion that Clair is more Hari Seldon than Amazing Kreskin, and the algorithm is exactly the tool to back that up. Zola's algorithm = Seldon's psychohistory.

Brock Rumlow! (aka Crossbones!) Nice way to bring him in. I think it was kind of masterful and economical writing putting so much bad-guy-ness under the tentacled arms of Hydra. Looking forward to seeing him resurrected and improved in a future Cap flick. I never quite got his loyalty to Red Skull in the comics (I thought of him as more of a merc than a true believer), but I can see how he'd follow Strucker and Hydra in his movie incarnation. "There is order in pain," he says. Or something like that. Wackjob.

Cap and Natasha are Level 6. When Pierce gives Winter Soldier his final mission, he describes the targets as Level 6.

Zola's algorithm would identify anyone who could threaten Hydra, including Stephen Strange! =)

On Fury's headstone: The path of the righteous man… =)

Senator Shandling: "Hail Hydra!" =)

Nick Fury's eye?! Aka, proof of his Alpha-level clearance identity. He lost it the last time (the one time) he trusted someone. It seems like he's talking about Pierce and Bogota, when he disobeyed orders and rescued Pierce's daughter. But that didn't actually require him to trust Pierce, did it? The result of that action was that Pierce trusted Fury, and became a believer in what he took to be Fury's way. Still, I'm there was something in the delivery of some of Nick's lines regarding losing his eye that seemed to point the finger at Pierce, no? Dammit, I'll hafta watch again soon. =)

Pierce does say that Nick already took a bullet for him. We saw that happen when Winter popped him thru Cap's window. But maybe he wasn't referring to that?

Nah. I'd say it's 95% likely he was. Foo.

Anyhow, we've always heard that it's been LOST, right? That under the eyepatch, we'd expect to see a socket or scar tissue but definitely not an organic eyeball. Frustrating when we see him dead on the gurney in profile, with his right eye hidden from view—argh! But in the end, he shows us, and surprises Pierce with, his other eye, which when scanned releases SHIELD's (and Hydra's) data to the Twitters. Heh.

I want to believe that he DID lose his eye. I want to believe that they eyeball that he reveals is not his eye, but someone else's. Someone who has Alpha-level clearance or whatever they called it. Victoria Hand, perhaps? =)

Does that sound crazy? Well, does it sound crazier than the notion that SHIELD, in its bureaucratic precision, decided to revoke all of Fury's codes and biometrics, but were so mind-numbingly utilitarian and practical about it that they only revoked those codes and biometrics that Fury could supposedly actually use? And, since all SHIELD's records indicate that Fury no longer has a left eye (but did back when he joined SHIELD, before Bogota) there would be no reason to delete that retinal scan from Alpha-level access.

Like when the gunners on Vader's Star Destroyer decide to conserve "blaster ammo" or whatever and not destroy Artoo and Threepio's escape pod? =)

I like how when the council is dressing Pierce down for hiring and supporting Fury as director when he's the one responsible for Batroc, the attempted data heist, and sabotaging Insight, that it so nicely fits into the picture that Pierce is painting for the need for Insight. Some smooth plotting.

A lot of things click nicely into place as the story moves along, but I would not have minded swapping out 10 minutes of action for character and relationship building. I'm bringing my own comic-book-assimilated Cap-Bucky history with me to this. I'm not sure that a flashback and one line ("to the end of the line") sells that to me if all I know is what's in the movie/s. I do like that Cap is so ready to believe he's back, tho.

Sam Wilson! You will believe a man can fly! I love the Falcon exo-rig or whatever it is. I would've liked to have seen some logo or brand attached to it somewhere (did I miss it on the dossier folder?). Introducing him as the outsider who can help Cap and Nat on the run was well done, and "on your left" was pretty irresistible for me.

No one ever says Agent 13's last name. Her first name is Sharon, and if this character is a one-for-one from the comic books, her last name ought to be Carter, which would make her Peggy Carter's daughter (or maybe granddaughter, I forget). Maybe Marvel-Disney is debating the creepiness of a 95-yo Capsicle dating the granddaughter of his not-exactly widow from WW2 before revealing her back story, eh?

Epilogue 1. Baron Strucker in some research facility where Hydra scientists are studying Loki's spear. You know, the one that seems to contain a piece of the Tesseract? It *seems* like the flunky who's speaking to Strucker refers to the facility as something legit that's a cover for Hydra activity. First thing I thought of was a revived Project Pegasus, which would make sense since the first one was studying the Tesseract at the start of THE AVENGERS. Strucker's walking around in the open in this place, tho, so I'm thinking it must be a hidden lab, period. Or maybe a hidden lab beneath a legit lab or complex. The flunky mentions "the volunteers" and the Baron explains that the dead will be buried deep, so disposed of and covered up. Then flunky mentions "the survivors," and the Baron refers to "the twins." As the twins are revealed to be Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the Baron declares the present to be an age of miracles, and describes them as…"horrible," I think? I was kind of hoping to hear "age of marvels," but maybe that line's being saved for a different speaker and moment. Pietro looks properly ticked off and Wanda looks wonderfully potentially out of her mind. I wonder what kind of countermeasures are built into their cells.

Epilogue 2. Back to the Captain American exhibit at the Smithsonian. Earlier we saw Steve Rogers visit it incognito, civilian togs and baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. Now we see a similar figure and when he approaches the Bucky Barnes section, we see that it's Winter Soldier. Is he remembering, or learning? Either way, he's alive and hanging around, at least for the time being, in D.C. Steve and Sam won't have that far to go.

AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning. In this week's episode, before the agents deploy in double-blind fashion to identify/apprehend candidates for Clairvoyant, Victoria Hand relays orders to Agent Sitwell to report to the Lemurian Star. She also excuses herself from the op, claiming that she must return to the Hub to pull their fat out of the fire when the time comes. In WINTER SOLDIER, Cap is sent to rescue Sitwell and the SHIELD crew of the Lemurian Star, held hostage by mercenary pirates led by Batroc.

AGENTS OF SHIELD: End of the Beginning. When Fitz attempts to set up the secure hard line between himself on The Bus and Simmons at the The Hub, he gets a not-great connection and the last thing he hears from Simmons is something about a group of agents storming the situation room. This could be a response to Steve Rogers's announcement at the Triskelion, outing Pierce, Insight, and the STRIKE (I'm assuming that's an acronym =) team as Hydra. The end of WINTER SOLDIER shows all of our cinematic SHIELD stars parting ways, implying that SHIELD has, in fact, been dissolved. However, who knows just how long it takes to make that happen, right?

AGENTS OF SHIELD, moving forward… Is Victoria Hand the Clairvoyant? I'd be okay with that after the wonderful Brad Dourif sleight-of-hand. But I'd be much happier if she's yet another link in the chain.

Is Victoria Hand and/or the Clairvoyant a stooge of Hydra? Hrm… I'd like for Clair to be something different, completely unaffiliated (and from the future =). If not that, then someone who's taken a pledge to both SHIELD and Hydra and turned on both of them to create their own operation, aka Centipede. They've got a Deathlok in the field, and with the acquisition of Mike Peterson—a stabilized Centiped super soldier—they supposedly have the key to "Stage 3" of their Centipede soldiers.

Nit. I would've thought that Cap would hold his shield between Nat and himself and the explosion when jumping thru the window to avoid it on the Lemurian Star. Instead, he uses the shield on the window (which Natasha has already shot twice).

Nit. I would've liked to have seen Cap land on his shield on his feet when jumping from the Triskelion. His shield is supposed to absorb like 99.9999% of the kinetic energy thrown at it, right? Or is that not established in the MMU? Hrm. In the comics, do bullets hit his shield and just drop to the ground? I *liked* seeing him redirect the chain gunfire at other baddies, but hafta wonder how dangerous that would be for bystanders, right?

This isn't everything, but it's as much as I can put together semi-coherently just now. More later. =)

Keep on keepin on~