End Credits – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain American: The Winter Soldier releases worldwide today. It is an excellently thought-out and fun film, we’ll have a review for you later. But in the meantime, here’s a little history lesson explaining the end credits scene.

It should go without saying, but SPOILERS for the end credits scene. I won’t spoil the movie, but if you want to know more then bash your way past the jump.

Baron Von Strucker

First off, the gentleman (if you can call him that) that is leading the HYDRA research team is Baron Von Strucker. An ageless ex-Nazi officer who, in comics, have faced off against Cap and the Avengers many times. Strucker worked directly for the Red Skull on numerous occasions. Thomas Kretchmann has signed a multi-movie deal (this scene does not count); so we’ll see Strucker a few more times.

But let’s be honest, he’s just a scientist/thug-type character. Nothing really interesting. You want to know about some other characters.

Maximoff Twins

In comics; the Maximoff Twins (Wanda & Pietro) are the offspring of mutant terrorist, Magneto. Although they are unknowingly his children, they join his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and battle the X-Men a few times.

After a bit of reform; Iron Man recruits the two along with another former villain, Hawkeye. They become the second generation of Avengers to form together.

Pietro, Quicksilver and played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is a speedster (super-fast). Think of him as the Marvel equivalent to the Flash. Pietro’s personality is very curt and short-tempered, but will do anything for his sister.

Wanda, the Scarlet Witch and played by Elizabeth Olsen, has the power of probability which they call her hex power. Her power set is probably the most difficult to explain as it bleeds into magic, which Marvel Studios has currently steered away from. I believe, they will handle it more in line with telekinesis (control of objects with the mind). An interesting tidbit, Wanda eventually marries the Vision who is created by Ultron (the main villain of the next Avengers movie).

The real interesting idea here is the Maximoffs are not mutants as they are in the comics. Instead they are referenced to as “Miracles.” It’s interesting to see that Marvel Studios decided to use Miracles as the description instead of Inhuman or even Marvels. But that is just semantics, especially since they cannot use the Fox-owned word mutants at least as for movies.

How do you think these new characters will affect the movies? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.