If contrasting symbolism isnt what makes you giddy for a character in an action movie, though, theres always the fact that the Winter Soldier is simply really cool. Where Thor 2 gave us, in the words of Christopher Eccleston, a naughty elf, here is a bionic, mind-wiped, super-soldier assassin focused on one thing only: his mission to kill Captain America. One need not look further than the scene where the Winter Soldier literally single-handedly rips out the steering wheel of the heroes car to understand what makes him so undeniably cool: unlike Loki, he doesnt need magic, and unlike Iron Man villains, he doesnt need a metal suit to hide behind. The Winter Soldiers methods are intimate: he is fast, strong, and precise, with remarkable skill in every area of combat. Whether by gadgetry, knife, or a good old machine gun, his methods produce awesome hand-to-hand fight scenes with a mesmerizing choreography. With his obscure and eerie past, his lack of dialogue, and a masked military-esque costume complete with cybernetic arm, he has just the right mix of capable, mysterious, and unsettling that gives the renegade antagonist a scene-stealing cool factor that has been hitherto unbeaten by MCU villains.