Captain America: The Winter Soldier is what Marvel fans often point to as the film where the cinematic universe truly came together because it was here that the complexity, nuance, and genre-defining that were already prevalent in the previous films were brought to the attention of filmgoers and critics. Any series that went from pulpy, old-fashioned WWII adventure to espionage political thriller in the same vein as The Manchurian Candidate and the Bourne series.