Guest Post by the Dynamic Mary Mordrake Cosplay. She has seen the Marvel Movies quite a few times, and is rewatching them all again because of something coming up called Avengers Infinity War! And SPOILERS for any Marvel Movie you have not seen!!!
Week 9: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Thanks to Marvel moving the release date of Infinity War up to April 27th, the #RoadToInfinityWar has just been shortened. Seventeen weeks, eighteen movies. I won’t be making a specific change in the schedule because, like with this past week, work and life might get in the way. For now, let’s leave it at two movies this week, thanks to my late Winter Soldier watch, and two on another week of my choosing, to keep pace with the new time frame.
On to this week’s rewatch. This is probably the one I’ve watched the most, next to Avengers (and only because it was released earlier). Unfortunately, this is also probably the closest we’ll ever get to a Black Widow movie. She feels much more classic in this movie than her previous appearances, in her hairstyle, the use of the stingers on her wrists during the mission on the Algerian pirate ship, and her connections to the Winter Soldier. Sometimes I wish that this were a Black Widow movie instead, with Cap as the supporting character, to explore more of her history and draw specifically from Ed Brubaker’s Winter Soldier collection. Now that Marvel has Fantastic Four back, perhaps a Black Widow/Winter Soldier movie is in order, featuring Doctor Doom and Latveria? Hey, a fangirl can dream.
I do love Steve and Natasha’s relationship. I love that they have this completely platonic relationship of partners and friends both on and off the field. Granted, Natasha had to earn Steve’s trust back after keeping her mission for intel from the Algerians secret, but there’s never been any kind of animosity or inequality between them based on gender. Steve respects those who are honest with him who uphold a similar code of ethics, and fight for what they believe in, regardless of whether they are male or female, and I love that. Natasha isn’t demoted to a love interest or emotional support for the main character. She earns Steve’s trust by fighting for the same cause and being blatantly honest with him about her experience with the Winter Soldier, perhaps more honest than she’s been with anyone other than Hawkeye or Nick Fury. It’s ironic, I suppose, that the person with the most secrets, double lives, and red on her ledger, is instrumental in the downfall of an organization founded on lies.
A brand new Avenger also joins the fray, with Sam Wilson stepping up as Falcon to help take down Hydra, and we get some bonus Maria Hill action as she rescues Team Cap from SHIELD arrest and coordinates and remotely monitors their subsequent mission. I feel like Maria Hill doesn’t get enough recognition for what she does, or Agent 13, for that matter. Sharon is badass and fiercely loyal, and she needs more screen time. We’re not actually supposed to know that she’s a (spoilers) Carter yet but that knowledge makes the rewatch so much better.
And by the way, people can talk about how Black Panther is the first MCU movie with a POC protagonist, or how there hasn’t been a Marvel movie with a female lead yet, but Winter Soldier is far more progressive than almost all of the Phase One movies, and definitely more than any of the Iron Man trilogy. I love how the very model of the American way, straight out of the 1940s, has more integrity than today’s society and forms a team consisting of three women and two men of colour to take down Hydra without blinking an eye. Gone are the days of Pepper Potts supporting Tony at her own emotional expense, Betty Ross pining over Bruce, or even Jane Foster, inhabited by the ether and more a bargaining tool than a person.
Let’s cap this off with some Random Thoughts:
A) Natasha’s joke about looking for the Smithsonian because she’s here to pick up a fossil, and then we find out that there’s and entire Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian.
B) Elevator fight scenes are the best and I will never get tired of watching this one. As if sheer numbers are all that’s needed to take down Captain America.
C) “On your left”
D) People catching weapons in midair – Bucky catching Cap’s shield, Bucky dropping his knives from one hand to the other, Rumlow catching Agent 13’s gun as it falls from her hand, I live for moments like this.
E) The dramatic reveal of Nick Fury’s left eye. Also the fact that the voice automated system in his car if calibrated to understand all of his verbal quirks when he gives commands and inquiries
I’m still on Instagram! Tag me @marymordrakecosplay and show me how you’re spending #RoadToInfinityWar, and what you’re doing to accommodate the release date change!
Mary is a walking talking living encyclopedia of X-Men and Batman, an avid cosplayer, and obsessive reader. She’s dreamed of living in the X-Mansion and Batcave since she was eight years old, which is almost as long as she’s wanted to be a Sailor Scout. And Quicksilver is her Patronus. Oh, she may have watched a Marvel Movie or two along the way as well. You can check out her cosplay at http://www.facebook.com/marymordrake and instagram Mary Mordrake Cosplay and her fanfiction at http://archiveofourown.org/users/Harleydoll/works . Her twitter is @magnetictrifles and her Pinterest is Mary Mordrake.
Scoop here: When I first met Mary years ago, I found out she is a X-Men and Batman fan. Within a half hour, I found out she is an absolute X-Men and Batman fanatic of colossal degree who has read EVERY FREAKING SINGLE X-MEN AND BATMAN COMIC FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. And, btw, I FREAKING LOVE CAPTAIN AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
scoopsmentalpropaganda 