12 Reasons Captain America Makes The Best Standalone Marvel Movies

11. His Movies Lead The Universe Into The Avengers

With the thrill of all the heroes on screen together still pretty fresh and coming at the end of the studio's story Phases, the Avengers movies are the focal points of the series, marking the biggest shift in the universe. Which puts a lot of pressure (and potential) on the films that precede them. While Guardians Of The Galaxy is technically the film preceding Avengers: Age Of Ultron, it looks set to be a little more separated from the Earth-bound events, meaning narratively The Winter Soldier is the final piece of set-up. Not only does this allow Cap to cover any distance the films earlier in the Phase slacked on, it means the events of the film carry a greater weight; The First Avenger gave us a couple of hours with the tesseract and The Winter Soldier leveled the playing field ready for Ultron. It's scheduling convenience that has allowed this trend to emerge, but it's very believable part of Cap's appeal comes from where he sits in the release plan. We'll just have to see how coming in the middle of Phase III affects Captain America 3 come 2016.