I've been thinking about it, and I think my favorite part of the superhero movie formula is the opening battle against a ancillary villain, usually somebody with an established grudge against the hero from the previous movie, like Batman taking down Scarecrow in the Dark Knight or the Avengers assaulting Baron Struckers mountain fortress in Avengers 2.
It's those moments that we get to see the characters all in their established world playing the roles of fully realized superheroes and supervillains as a lifestyle. The world isn't in danger at this point in the story, so we just get good old fashioned crime stopping as it should be.
Crossbones was honestly one of the best examples of this concept that I've seen. Him and his mercenary unit, which I assumed was made up of the same people that made up STRIKE in Winter Soldier, all have a history with Captain America from things like their elevator fight with him. You could feel the classic villainous hatred Crossbones had for Captain America, just frothing at the mouth to fight him again. Crossbones knew how Captain America fought well enough to have counter measures prepared, like throwing the sticky bomb on his shield to make him fight hand to hand. We so rarely get to see established heroes and villains fighting. It's these fights that feel like a good episodic issue of a Captain America story before the beginning of a major arc.
Captain America and his villains seem to make for the best examples of this for whatever reason. Batroc the Leaper and his mercenary unit was another great one, and like I said already, Baron Struckers mountain fortress was good too. I guess colorful themed mercenary commanders and their henchmen make for good story opening villains.
Kayden Gray
This is a pretty good one too, even though nothing was established before hand.
Yes I also liked Crossbones' appearance in Civil War.
Levi Gonzalez
They're pretty super.
Jonathan Wilson
I thought for sure the power gloves were going to be dumb as fuck honestly, but they turned out pretty neat
Ryder Morris
>Audience: It's the Punisher!
Jason Williams
I wonder how the movie would've turned out if Wanda failed to save cap.
Would it make for a more dramatic story?
Chase Russell
I agree with you OP. Unfortunately this is Sup Forums and you won't get any (You)s if the OP is a paragraph of your thoughts. You'd probably get more replies if you posted bait then replied to the bait with the paragraph of your thoughts.
Nathan Roberts
Totally agree with you. However, I'm not gonna say I'd like this in every movie. Different movies have different moods, and not all can have these kinds of scenes in them; especially those that are geared towards less action-driven stories.
Fan4stic is one example (just ignore the fact that it was a terrible movie for a minute), a scene like the Crossbones fight simply wouldn't fit.
Now, for me, I'm a sucker for leisure scenes of the heroes just hanging out, like the Worthy scene in AoU
Ian Powell
It's because Cap has one of the most underrated rogues galleries ever.
That's honestly why I'm not big on the Civil War movie: There were so many villain plots we could've had, but instead we went back to yet another "villain gets the heroes to fight" plot instead of showcasing stuff like Baron Blood, full on Zemo, Serpent Society, AIM, Flag Smasher, and the like. If anything, Red Skull returning would've made it feel like an actual trilogy.
Kayden Gray
He probably would have just been burned severely with several broken bones and maybe a missing limb
Christopher Jones
Too bad with so many movies such cases are so few. It's like they don't want to establish villain characters
Nathaniel Bailey
Weirdly enough, the Dark Knight movies had the most consistent reoccurring villain with Scarecrow. Even if it was only in a small way, he always had a presence in Gotham
Adam Hernandez
It only works for superheroes that have an established villain type, like Batman and his themed mobsters and Captain America and his themed mercenaries
Adam Rogers
Agreed, I even like Amazing Spider-man 2's inclusion of the Rhino
Isaiah Powell
The movie wanted to establish a New York filled with costumed villainy, they just didn't know how to execute it right.
James Morgan
Remember when Captain America 3 was called The Serpent Society so they could try and surprise everyone when they revealed it was really Civil War?
Lincoln Anderson
Where did he get that bitching punching suit?
Jackson Reyes
They do it in the bond movies to
Colton Young
This so much, I hope the rumors that Evans is going to renew his contract are true because we deserve a true Cap 3, don't get me wrong I liked Civil War but I would have rather seen more Cap villains.
That said a bit after TWS came out Russos teased 50's Cap/Grand Director, would have loved to have seen that.
Elijah Long
People were already expecting Civil War because that event is so fucking associated with Cap more than any other hero and Marvel is crossover crazy, so when the Serpent Society thing got announced people who know shit about Cap were upset about it until the Civil War reveal happened.
And there’s also the fact that the Russos are keeping a more grounded tone to their Cap movies so I guess colorful villains are out of the question unless they can tone rhem down, they seem to be going for a Brubaker feel to their cap movies which has a spy and action thriller feel to it.
