Villain Cameos in Marvel Movies

'Captain America: Civil War' is undoubtedly a 5 star superhero movie.  They had a lot of story elements to juggle: resolution for the Winter Soldier story-line, bringing the conflict between Cap and Iron Man to a head, and introducing new characters like Black Panther and the latest version of Spiderman.  But the movie in no way feels overstuffed, and each character has a moment in the spotlight.  I loved all the stuff with Falcon, Spiderman and Antman are both hilarious, and I really want to see more of Scarlet Witch now - I wasn't crazy about her in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'.  The main themes of the story - standing your ground on moral issues, dangers of conformity, the futility of revenge - are really strong.

But I have a problem with how they treated one of the villains.

Marvel has villain problems.  Nobody on the internet ever said that before, amiright?

But I'm not talking about the usual complaints of unmemorable villains.  I'm talking about the way Crossbones - a pretty major villain from Cap's rouges gallery - has a brief cameo and is killed off before the twenty minute mark.

I'm not saying that Crossbones should have been the main villain of this movie or anything.  I'm not saying that at all.  A story featuring conflict between Captain America and Iron Man barely has need of a main villain, and the one who is lurking behind the scenes does a fantastic job of being the mastermind and tying all of those revenge themes together.

But to take a villain like Crossbones - whom Marvel had been teasing since 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' - and then kill him off after only one appearance in costume is disappointing to fans.  It doesn't matter if they were planning to use him more later or not.  They could have if they wanted to, but they can't now because he's dead.

"But Geekboy," you say.  "Villains die and then come back in superhero comics all the time!  Heroes too!"  And that's true. But to the casual movie audience who don't read the comics and don't already know that Crossbones is a big deal IT WOULD BE CHEATING TO BRING HIM BACK.  So it's a lose-lose situation when you turn your villain into a cameo thug and then kill him off.

I can see Marvel's point of view here.  What they're doing is trying to give all the major villains some screentime without overstuffing the movie like fans complained about in superhero movies like 'Spiderman 3' or 'Amazing Spiderman 2'.  And this is a technique that's been working well so far in the Captain America movies.

'Captain America: Winter Soldier' gives fans a scene with Batroc the Leaper in the beginning.  It doesn't feel like a waste that he hasn't appeared again, because a man in a purple costume doing French kickboxing probably couldn't carry a movie as the main villain.

Taking Arnim Zola - a goofy cyborg character from the Silver Age of comics - and turning him into an AI computer worked because fans weren't really expecting Marvel to have Zola in such a serious movie at all.

But then in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' we have Baron Strucker - Nick Fury's nemesis, and one of the head honchos over at Hydra - who is killed off before the halfway point of the movie just like Crossbones.

And you do NOT want to engage a die hard Mandarin fan in conversation about the infamous plot twist in 'Iron Man 3'

It's puzzling to me how Marvel keeps taking villains like Baron Strucker and Crossbones and disposing of them before they have a chance to live up to the potential of the villains they are in the comics.  Especially when fans and critics alike are waiting for a villain who can give pretty-boy Loki a run for his money.  Hopefully Thanos will live up to all the hype when he finally shows up in Avengers 3 and 4.