I'd agree with this, largely. Cap needed more of a chance to shine, as even with the Super-Solider formula it didn't seem like he could do much that the Widow couldn't. I liked that they at least bowed to his combat experience, but more certainly could have been done.





You definitely had the feeling Coulson's days were numbered the moment Whedon was signed to write and direct... He's exactly the kind of character Whedon likes to kill off. At least here it was intended in service of the story (whether it worked for you or not), as opposed to just being a shocking, random "cost of war" kind of thing that he often does.

It worked all right for me because of that bit of dialog between Cap and Stark. Really, Stark was the one who needed the motivation more than any of them to quit treating it like a fun puzzle. His "We're not soldiers!" line was telling because, at that point, everyone who was left besides himself actually were. Cap had just come from WWII, so losing allies wasn't new to him. For him, the trading card thing wasn't so much motivation to stop Loki (he had been all about the mission all along), it was to instill the idea that he wasn't fighting for a world in which he no longer belonged after all.





Honestly, I don't know what to make of that Council. If they had represented some actual governing body, I might have had more of a problem with it... but I don't really expect a shadow cabinet to be altruistic. What it does is throw real doubts on how altruistic SHIELD itself is.

I agree that the "Nuke NY to save the world" plan just raised the issue of why there wasn't a better military response. However, it's the hyper-technological nature of the Marvel universe that makes it seem like shooting nukes through that portal should have been a viable option (which is a fair charge to level if that's the standard for the universe portrayed.) Certainly, in real life that kind of bizarre, specific targeting seems like it wouldn't be easy to do, especially quickly... but then we don't have giant, cloaked, flying aircraft carriers and Iron Man armors.