captain america Archives - hungry and fit

As we near the end of Phase II in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron as the final two installment before beginning Phase III, Captain America: The Winter Soldier adds tons of new paths for the movies in Phase III. It gives you an insight into what Iron Man 4, Ant-Man, Thor 3, a possible Hulk with Mark Ruffalo, and most of all, Captain America 3 might have to offer. It presents tons of potential, which Marvel can take advantage of or just tie off easily. Before I talk about that and really get into some spoilers, let me say a few words about the movie.

The Winter Soldier was one of Marvel’s best movies since 2008. It had a little bit of everything that you want from a quality movie: good acting, some laughs, some tears, some nail-biting, some jaw dropping action scenes, a reliable soundtrack, some amazing effects and scenery, and some plot twists that kept you intrigued. It brought you some heroes you know and love and some new ones as well. It also introduced some anti-heroes, some villains, some super-villains (you could argue) and as I mentioned before, contributed a ton to the Marvel movie-verse.

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Overall, it lacked the romantic connection that the first Captain America created between Peggy and Cap. This is personal preference, but I care about story and I love a good romance. Therefore, what they did in Captain America 1 really worked well for me. I know this because it made me want a relationship between the two even though they never really had it. Sure, in House of M, they got married but they later divorced. That wasn’t satisfying and the closure with Peggy in this movie was as lively as a piece of cardboard, for me. He had cut all ties, she acted like she moved on, and I was not happy! But that’s a total aside, I can’t believe I went into so much depth about that so let me just cut that off now! (You can comment if you want to know how I feel about that whole situation.)

SPOILER ALERT

Now for some spoilers, so turn away, or read even closer. The movie was filled with references to characters in the Marvel universe. Rumlow, the guy who was roasted in the end (but alive) is arguably the Cap’s most consistent super-villain. As Crossbones, he is Red Skull’s henchmen and he is the person who assassinated the Captain in Marvel’s Civil War. You get the idea he’ll make a comeback since they showed his battered body… alive. Also, there is a lot more to Batroc the Leaper than the movie shows. I loved the casting of my favorite mixed martial artist, GSP, as the role. He is sort of a funny villain as he has fought everyone with his huge ego and sense of honor, leaping around ridiculously and always getting beaten. He’s great.

GSP and Cap (Image source)

When Hydra was listing all their threats, there were a few names that appeared but one stood out. Bruce Banner, Anthony Stark, Maria Hill… Steven Strange. OH YEAH! Doctor Strange was mentioned so they have to bring him in soon! I think he might help the team out in Phase III when they finally go to take on the villain of the whole movie-verse (in my opinion), Thanos. Looking forward to that. Also, for those of you who saw it and don’t know who Agent 13 is… she is Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter’s “niece” and Cap’s main love interest, period. (There is hope for the Cap/Chris Evans in this movie-verse!)

But let’s get to the real good stuff, the endings! One shows that Nick Fury has burned the secret stash of SHIELD and will chase Hydra members. (SHIELD really always comes back in the comics, so yeah.) The Winter Soldier checks out his exhibit in the Smithsonian… BUCKY! (We need him to take Cap’s place when he dies!) Cap is going with Falcon to find Bucky. Natasha is going to find herself a new identity. Agent Hill is working for Stark. Sharon is in the CIA. Oh wait, that’s all the boring stuff. Here is the good stuff!

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Baron Strucker, a Hydra big boss, acknowledges that SHIELD and Hydra are no longer powerful, basically. But he is! He has Loki’s Staff that was given to him by Thanos. (Strucker, don’t steal anything from Thanos… maybe he is working for him now!) But even more amazingly, and this was one of the best parts of the whole movie, he has Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Quicksilver, I think, is going to be in Days of Future Past. I don’t know what that means since X-Men hasn’t (unfortunately) been included in the Marvel movie-verse. And more importantly, Scarlet Witch is sort of awesome so between her and Dr. Strange being introduced, that’s just great.

END OF SPOILERS

So all in all, I think most casual movie-goers, Marvel nerds, and film critics will find enough points of greatness in this film to say it was worth the trip. And while I did not love the story, since they teased me with Cap/Peggy in the first one so much, it had enough extra laughs and references to make it worthwhile. Go see it! And as always…stay hungry and fit!

BONUS PUPPY PIC

On a walk

I want to avoid making this painfully long so if you want an in-depth review of the roughly five hours we spent at the event, read my biography in a few decades. I’m only saying this because I could talk about those five hours forever. I know we didn’t spend much time there but we made it count and it was completely worth it so let me tell you how we ended up at DCC and how it went.

Months and months ago, the great Stan Lee, inventor of Marvel Comics and most of its iconic characters, announced that he would make his return to Comic Con after a near twenty year hiatus this year in Denver. They published an article about it in the Boulder Weekly and I immediately told Fit. She had never attended a convention, especially one of this scale, so we decided it had to be done. Unfortunately, we had planned to attend a wedding in Santa Monica months in advance to that so we knew we wouldn’t be able to take off of work for Friday and Saturday… bummer. We settled for Sunday and I bought tickets in person at Guiry’s in Boulder at a discounted rate. I bought two one day passes for Sunday.

Months pass and we don’t put any thought into the event or what we should wear. Saturday night rolls around and costume-less, we decided to wear our aprons that we use in the house. Alana was a makeshift fit and cooking Wonder Woman while I was the same version of Captain America, with a Sonic the Hedgehog hat that has ears. It cost us no time and no money but we figured no one would even pay attention to us but oh were we wrong.

Excited!

Before leaving

We drive to Denver and pass a line that stretches for half a mile. Ten minutes after parking we end up at the back of that line and wait for the doors to open around 9:30 a.m. Almost everyone there is so nice and accepting of one another. The only people I don’t like are the bullies that make fun of other people. And we don’t tolerate bullying so there was none of that, but rather lots of positive reinforcement, high fives, and pictures. I will say that we got our money’s worth in people watching alone. The cosplays and costumes were top notch and I loved how passionate everyone was. We tried figuring out everyone’s costume and did a really good job. We even helped some clueless people by eavesdropping. Our first picture came when I ran into none other than the hero of Hyrule, Link. He was sporting his red fire tunic and the Master Sword. Link is super fit so I had to take a picture with him.

Link!

While the line was moving, the most unexpected thing happened. A photojournalist asked for our picture. We obliged and posed… little did we know, this would happen about 14 more times throughout the day. We never expected to be so popular but vendors, exhibitors, staff, photojournalists, bloggers, and attendees asked for our picture. One young woman who was with her friends even asked for a picture with us. Not just of us. We said yes and gave our regular pose every single time. I would love to see those 15 pictures especially the one with our fan because it was so random. Either people loved the idea that we were wearing aprons and it was creative or they thought we were fit and somewhat sexy.

Hungry and Fit! Our pose

Once we got inside we headed upstairs for the main hall. By doing this, we ended up missing a bunch of the panels and presentations we wanted to attend, such as the spotlight on Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day. What can you do? We don’t regret our choice because we had our most fun upstairs. When we ended up looking for the panels, gaming rooms, main events, and what not we ended up just wasting energy and getting frustrated. The easiest way to do this is just explain what is in our pictures since they highlight the best parts of the day.

Celebs

Here is Fit posing with Han Solo trapped in carbonite. Damn you, Lando, for selling him out to Vader and Boba Fett. This was a part of the Far Away Creations area where a group of Star Wars fans provided models and replicas of the original trilogy. Lots of fun.

After trekking through some aisles of vendors and trying our hardest not to spend every penny, we decided that we could each have one big purchase. Fit decided quickly that she wanted a picture with Chewbacca. Thus we paid Peter Mayhew for a picture with our camera and he autographed a photo of Fit’s choice. She chose a scene where Chewy and Han are wielding their bowcaster and blaster pistol. Epic. He was huge. He was as tall as us while sitting down and his hands were enormous. She also ran into a Storm Trooper with an awesome voice box and a Jawa.

Alana with Peter Mayhew (who played Chewbacca) –she can’t contain her happiness here

NEVER LETTING THIS GO

“Move along, move along”

Now it was my turn to decide. William Shatner, George Takei, Felicia Day, and Wil Wheaton were all tempting individuals to meet and take a picture with but my decision was a no brainer. I wanted to meet and take a picture with Kelly Hu. I had a massive crush on her when I was a teenager. She starred in The Scorpion King, X-Men, and voiced Visas in KOTOR II. For some reason, she had no line while all of the others were absolutely packed all day long. Her picture proceeds went to Much Love, a charity for animals. She was super nice and was happy to talk to us about everything from shopping on Amazon to our pets and more. Here’s the picture.

Kelly Hu and I

After that I got caught by Umbrella Corp because I was infected by a zombie. Their vehicle was awesome.

Here I am spying on someone’s crafts hoping to get some ideas for a friend. Secret agent style.

This is a co-worker’s ex-boyfriend showing why he was the coolest guy in the room. He’s a self-taught lightsaber master but he had a hard time actually talking into the mic. The crowd loved it though so good for him.

Gandalf! Literally hunted him down the whole time and finally found him

Fit met Gandalf and he let us pass.

Buff chicas. She actually made that armor!

Fit’s favorite costume of the day was Commander Shepard from Mass Effect.

Hungry’s favorite costume of the day was a Hello Kitty samurai. He let me hold his war banner.

Hungry and Fit! Our pose

Here we are on stage finally getting a picture of us together after fifteen other people took them first.

Fit found a bantha to cuddle up next to. It looked like a baby.

Hungry found a sausage for lunch while Fit had a pear salad. We spent a bunch on bad food there but it was expected and we didn’t mind.

I know my brother (Kai) would’ve loved to play this (I’m Gonna Wreck It!)

Fix It Felix Jr. does exist! We didn’t get to play.

I could go on and on but I don’t want to bore you too much so we’ll leave it here and keep you updated the next time Hungry and Fit attend an event!

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