That nagging question – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

From the moment that Thor enters the scene in the first Avengers movie, there is one question that continually arises, slowly gaining traction until it all comes to a head phase 3's Civil War (which will be discussed in a subsequent post). We see it in the mistrust between Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the members of the Avengers team. It plays out in covert government operations and secretive weapon-building programs as much as it does in the need-to-know style of operations frequently undertaken by our heroes.
As any great Spider-man fan knows, "with great power comes great responsibility." But what happens when no one trusts the powerful people to be appropriately responsible in their actions?
The question at the root of Hydra's subterfuge and the plot to use S.H.I.E.L.D. technology for murderous purposes is essentially the same as the one that spawned Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's comicbook masterpiece, and it is this: "Who watches the Watchmen?"
If the world is home to these all-powerful protectors who operate outside of government regulation and public accountability, then who is making sure that they aren't doing more harm than good? Each MCU installment presents us with yet another villainous figure to prove to us, the viewers, that there are power-hungry people out there who will use these abilities to serve their own twisted desires and schemes, or who mistakenly believe that it is their responsibility to shape the world into a new and "better" image of their own design because they are the only ones who can see that through.
The Hydra plot in Winter Soldier, however, raises a question which will plague the Avengers across several movies in their franchise by asking whether our own heroes are really making things better with their brand of vigilante justice. Now, this movie doesn't for one second even ask us to agree with their viewpoint, but it introduces it into the saga of discord that will follow as more and more people want to hold the heroes accountable for their destruction and failure along with their successes.
And it is certainly an important question for the people of the MCU to ask. As fans, we want to vilify the people who doubt our heroes because we know their backstories and their motives, we know their characters and their hearts; but the people in their stories are not so well informed. To them, these so-called heroes are masked strangers with abilities, wealth, and power beyond their imagining, so I can't blame them for wondering whether all of it is really as good as it seems.
Just as we, in recent years, have begun to hold our police forces more accountable for their actions by reminding them that they live under the same law that they swear to protect, so too do the people in the world of the Avengers begin to question the morality of the choices made by their supposed peace-keepers.
However, that being said, Hydra goes about it all wrong. If we were to destroy our police forces entirely, or kill off all of our law-keepers in an attempt to prevent them from abusing their power, we would simply be opening up more space for chaos and evil to take over. Likewise, a plot to kill off anyone who has the potential to abuse their power and abilities by using them for villainy (or even simply by misusing them) in order to bring peace is misguided. If we removed everyone who had such potential, we would also be taking away their chance to change the world for good in some really big ways.
What is truly interesting, though, is the many nuances that this question takes on in the future of the franchise. It will be interesting to look back over the following films now to see what answer the MCU writers give us for the question they've posed, if they give any at all.