10 Most Nonsensical Plot Holes In The MCU
9. Why Does Hydra Think Stephen Strange Is A Threat?
Formerly a death cult that evolved into the science division of the SS, Hydra was thought dormant after the disappearance of the Red Skull in 1945. However, the MCU’s equivalent of the real-life Operation Paperclip (in which the US co-opted the scientific minds of the Third Reich after World War II) saw the Red Skull’s former deputy Arnim Zola rebuild Hydra inside the newly-created S.H.I.E.L.D.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, like a parasite growing within its host, the fascist collective bursts out of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a fully formed terrorist paramilitary organisation. The plan, based on Zola’s own algorithm, involves using S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Project Insight (a network of satellites linked to three heavily armed Helicarriers) to target Hydra’s enemies.
Zola’s algorithm identified current enemies of Hydra and predicted potential future enemies of Hydra, based on an analysis of public data found online and private data within financial and medical records, voting patterns, emails and phone conversations.
So why on earth did it identify Stephen Strange as a possible threat? This is 2014: he’s two years away from the accident that cost him his neurosurgery career, and three years away from becoming Sorcerer Supreme.
True, he’s a prodigy… but a targeted bombing campaign against a sarcastic narcissist with nimble fingers and an interest in neurogenesis seems like overkill.