In the aftermath of The Avengers, Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) continues his work as an agent of S. H. I. E. L. D. under the direction of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and alongside Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) but finds himself increasingly conflicted with the moral shades of grey and compartmentalization of modern warfare and spycraft which are significantly less clearcut than his days in World War II. As S. H. I. E. L. D. prepares for a new surveillance program, Project: Insight, for launch, Nick Fury who has voiced concerns with the project is subjected to an assassination attempt barely escaping where he goes to Steve's apartment to tell him S. H. I. E. L. D. is compromised giving him an encrypted flash drive and telling him to trust no one before Fury is killed by an assassin known as The Winter Solider. Now on the run from both S. H. I. E. L. D. and the Winter Soldier, Steve with the help of Natasha and former Army Pararescueman Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) attempt to unravel the conspiracy and understand what the imminent threat is.

Following the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely returned to pen the sequel that would be based on Ed Brubaker's run on the character and continue to examine Captain America as "a man out of time" contrasting his traditional values of right and wrong in a world where the enemy is rarely wearing flags/colors or even in plain sight. The film would also be the first major entry in the MCU from brothers and directors Anthony and Joe Russo who based on the strength of their work on the TV series Community were given the highly competitive position beating out several other directors. While I was rather mixed on Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World as entries into the second phase of the MCU, Captain America: The Winter Soldier stands at the same level of quality as the first film and The Avengers.

Once again Chris Evans is just perfectly cast as Steve Rogers/Captain America as he embodies all the best values of the character but also gives him solid pathos as a man who is out of his element with the world having relegated his past as a relic and the scenes where he visits an exhibit in the Smithsonian of the Howling Commandos or a now 90 year old Peggy Carter who is stricken with dementia are quite heart wrenching but the character never lets himself become overwrought from it and continues to move forward finding purpose within his drive to do good. Scarlett Johansson continues to be good as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and with the two of them paired up for a considerable amount of time they make a set of leads with Steve's more forthright approach contrasted well against Natasha who's more comfortable with ambiguity and falsehood having been exposed to this line of work longer than Steve. We also get a solid addition to the universe with Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson who Steve Bonds with over their shared experience as servicemen and the scenes between them at the VA are quite good.

In terms of story, The Winter Solider does a solid job of having Captain America face off against the muddled modern world by taking inspiration from the classic paranoid and conspiracy thrillers of the 70s (the filmmakers have cited Three Days of the Condor and Marathon Man as such). The movie starts off with a great hook with Captain America forced on the run after being told S. H. I. E. L. D. has been compromised and it creates a feeling of helplessness and desperation that carries through the whole film until the climax. As with the first Captain America film this one also provides us with some of the best villains we've gotten to see in the MCU (way above the Dark Elves from The Dark World) and the themes of freedom versus security are explored in a manner that while fitting within a comic book universe do still have real world parallels that make for good food for thought.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a welcome entry in the MCU and only serves to cement how great of a character Captain America is. Evans is wonderful as the character and Johansson and Mackie are great allies to the character and the story is rich with twist, turns and revelations that just work.