History Headscratchers / CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier

** There are countless possible reasons that may lead to that, but you can read ComicBook/CivilWar for some basic ideas.

*** And not only was Hanssen a double agent working counterintelligence for the FBI, but when the FBI realized there was a mole (Hanssen), [[HiredToHuntYourself Hanssen was put on the team to find this person]]. Working on that team gave him several more years to cover his tracks or stay ahead of the search.

** With ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' it has now been confirmed that a Soviet/Russian cell of HYDRA was involved in the Winter Soldier program -- the primary facility was in Siberia. Given that at least ''some'' of the HYDRA agents involved seemed to be Soviet officials or at least ''masquerading'' as Soviet officials, it makes perfect sense that there would be aspects of the Winter Soldier program made to look superficially Soviet.

* Kind of a tangent, but related to Natasha's history: Zola says that her middle name is "Alianova", which doesn't seem like a patronymic[[note]]In Russian names, a version of the father's name is used as a the middle name for his children[[/note]], and Wiki/TheOtherWiki confirms that patrynoms don't end with -nova or -ova. Does this mean that "Natasha Romanov" is just another of Black Widow's many aliases?
** I always like referring to [[http://fuckyeahblackwidow.tumblr.com/post/5457623630/the-name-game this Tumblr post]] for a good explanation on Nat's confusing name history (at least in comics). "Alianova" was an interesting choice when Claremont first used it but not because patronymics don't end in "-ova". It's actually very common, and Wiki/TheOtherWiki does not explicitly say female patronymics cannot have "-nova" or "-ova", which would be incorrect. My guess is that the movie just went with Alianova since that seems to be Marvel's default in their encyclopedias. Whether or not Natalia Alianova Romanova is an alias or not for MCU's Widow remains to be seen.

*** Wiki/TheOtherWiki says her name is Natalia Alianovna Romanova.

** First, this isn't the comics. Not every character has every ability they have in 616, or the Ultimate-verse, which heavily inspires the MCU. If they did, Thor wouldn't need the Bifrost for inter-dimensional travel. Second, Hulk's not invincible. The Chitauri pinned him down during the Battle of New York with far less firepower than even one of those helicarriers could have brought to bear and he was completely unable to escape their barrage. Thirdly, Banner trying to kill himself happens offscreen. In these movies he Hulks out when his heart rate increases. There is no way he could work up the nerve to shoot himself before starting to transform (shown in a deleted scene from TIH) so he'd already have some durability to survive a bullet in the mouth. When Banner is sniped with a tranquilizer unawares in Film/TheIncredibleHulk he's out like a light. To be fair, that's after the Hulk suppression procedure, but that treatment clearly didn't suppress the Hulk as intended. There's no reason why HYDRA can't kill Banner/Hulk with those helicarriers.

[[folder: Ambushing Fury]]
* Nick Fury has just led his ambushers (the mock police) on a several-block chase through D.C. Finally throwing off the last pursuers (okay, he let a truck throw them off, same diff), he makes a left turn, and sees... the Soldier waiting in the middle of the street to ambush him with his grenade/mine launcher. The question: ''How the hell did the Soldier know where Fury would end up'' in time to position himself in his path? How would anyone predict Fury's ultimate path, especially given his making a turn at the last minute? Given that Hydra is good at this kind of thing, but how are they ''that'' good?

* The idea that HYDRA had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. from its inception simply doesn't hold water in the grand scheme of things. Why didn't they arrange for Elvis' court martial, conviction, and life sentence to a brig? Why didn't they whack or frame Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, or before? Why didn't they put (more) operators into the National Guard during the Kent State Massacre? How was it that S.H.I.E.L.D. super science didn't knock North Vietnam out of that war? Why did they never try to overthrow Fidel Castro after the TheGreatPoliticsMessUp, or keep at least one BananaRepublic going after the end of the Cold War? Why didn't they whack or frame Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, or for that matter, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_(Watergate) Mark Felt]]? Why didn't they blackmail the senators who voted for Bill Clinton's acquittal into voting for conviction? Why did they wait until 2008 to manipulate a presidential election after the 1972 one, or did the October Surprise happen on their watch? Most especially, how come the Militia/Posse Comitatus movement was cracked down on, rather than infiltrated and used as an ear to the ground? All of this simply jolted me out of the story until Cap and company left that bunker.

** Adolf Hitler and several other high ranking Nazis were on record as absolutely despising Jazz. Rock and roll would have been seen by Johann Schmidt and his disciples as Administrivia/TheSameButMore UpToEleven. I know, we have Ike Turner, Big John Hooker, Little Richard, Chubby Checker, and arguably James Brown as antecedents, and Buddy Holly actually wrote his own material, but Elvis was the poster child to the masses.

** Either that, or he's secretly [[ComicBook/LukeCageHeroForHire Heroing for Hire]] in his free time.

* After all the AvengersMania after the Battle for Manhattan, how does the Smithsonian not know Steve is alive? And the kid who recognizes Steve is acting as if he's seeing his hero, not as if he's seeing someone back from the dead. I'm sure that Cap's banner lists his dates as 1918-1945, just as Bucky's banner gives his dates as 1917-1944? Is this some of the footage that was filmed for Avengers and not used there? And if so, couldn't they have done a CGI correction?

** It's not someone from his high school. Its ''Zola'' who picked the targets, for one thing.