LogFAQs > #961867641

Currently watching Civil War

This seems to follow the story of Captain America: The Winter Soldier a little more directly than Thor 2, Iron Man 2 & 3, or even Avengers 2 did their predecessors.

I think it marks the first time a set of villains have returned in such a direct way. First is Bucky, who is just as brainwashed as he was when we met him. Next is Kurlow or whatever the burnt guy's name from the beginning of the movie is. (He won't be coming back again lol)

The closest they got to bringing a villain back outside of this was Loki in Dark World, but he's mostly playing a changed man in that one, and his character in Avengers was a little different than from where we saw him in the first Thor, as he was an emissary of Thanos and we never returned to the Frost Giant plot. You need to watch Avengers to truly understand what's happening in Dark World with Loki's character. This bounces off Winter Soldier rather cleanly by comparison.

That, plus the factoid that this is a glorified Avengers film (bringing everybody back from Age of Ultron, and introducing Ant-Man into the mix, while setting things up for Spiderman and Black Panther).... is pretty cool. On top of that, we get General Thunderbolt Ross back (while the Hulk is missing.... Interesting direction) ~ and an acknowledgement of the devistation the Avengers kinda wreak on the planet. All in all, a cool way to bounce out of Ant-Man & Guardians of the Galaxy, thematically.

Also leads into Ragnarok very well. We get to learn just exactly where Thor & Hulk were lol

The corruption plot of Winter Soldier transitions really well into the control plot of Civil War

*Edit: bringing back the villains from Winter Soldier is actually fascinating because the main struggle involves infighting