Captain America, The Winter Soldier Trailer Analysis
[youtube=http://youtu.be/NLWsK1ZFunA]
As is made self-evident in the trailer Steve Rogers (Captain America) is working for SHIELD with Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow). Rogers begins to question SHIELD's motives and extra-constitutional way of business.
Rogers visits a WWII museum which features some of his exploits from the war. Rogers seems to be reflecting on who he is and what Captain America really stands for. Notice the kids idolizing him just as they did back in WWII. Rogers, at some point in the film, decides that he has to part ways with SHIELD and they try to take him into custody. The people Rogers fights in the elevator are SHIELD agents who work for a division of SHIELD called STRIKE. They have STRIKE pins, badges and one has a a STRIKE patch on his arm. Notice that the two men in the quinjet with Rogers and Romanoff at the beginning are two of the men in the elevator.
In the screenshot below you can see both Rogers and Romanoff in civilian clothes. This seems to take place after Rogers leaves SHIELD. Does Romanoff agree with Rogers and decide to go with him or is Romanoff just playing along to keep tabs on Rogers? We will have to wait for the film to find out. Romanoff is a ruthless liar and killer, but as we saw in The Avengers she is trying to find and establish a moral compass.
Below we see an old SHIELD logo from the late 1940's. Notice it has the Stars & Stripes shield in the center much like Captain America's first shield made of iron.
Cap sheds his new SHIELD issued uniform and puts on his old 1940's uniform. Cap is obviously making it clear that he is Captain AMERICA, he is Captain Steve Rogers U.S. Army; not Captain SHIELD and not Captain international surveillance state. All surveillance state's become states ran by fear, just as we are seeing in our own government here in the real world. In the trailer Falcon is also seen in battle against a SHIELD quinjet. As a matter of absolute clarity, SHIELD is an agency with much more than its fair share of liars and killers; they most certainly do violate human rights (in the Marvel Universe). As far as we know, little stands in SHIELD's way other than people such as Agent Coulson who do have some moral compass.
In episode one of Agents of SHIELD, Agent Ward asked Coulson if he should "scratch off" – meaning murder – members of "The Rising Tide", an idealistic hactivist group. Coulson's reaction was one of shock…fortunately.
Those who watch Agents of SHIELD on ABC television are being lulled into a false sense of security. Agent Coulson is a good man, and I suspect that because he IS a good man they have him working assignments on The Bus to keep him, and any would be objections from him, out of the way. Coulson is a threat to SHIELD because if any one man has the influence to turn the Avengers against SHIELD it is Phil Coulson.
While SHIELD is the hero in the show, let us not forget that in several ways they are also an anti-hero (a key dynamic that makes SHIELD so interesting). Power corrupts …and not every SHIELD authority figure is Agent Coulson.
Stark, Banner, Rogers and Thor were and do remain skeptical of SHIELD. SHIELD Director Nick Fury lied to their faces about just wanting the Tesseract to be a "warm light for all mankind". Fury was in mid-sentence lying to Rogers' face about using the Tesseract to make weapons when Jarvis finished hacking SHIELD and Stark said, "What were you lying?"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzgBUEEjks] This writer has always liked Captain America because he keeps it real, he keeps things in perspective, he does not let agendas trump principles – in short he IS good. I am impressed that Joss Wheadon is exploring how truly on the edge of dangerous SHIELD is to its own charter.