Besides being better then the first (which I think is underrated) what makes Winter's Soldier such an accomplishment is how they threw in political thriller elements. If someone said they were going to make a movie thats half Avengers, Half Bourne Identity, id laugh at how bad that idea is. It proves that the current superhero movie paradigm is malleable, which is a good thing since it was already showing signs of fatigue.

Other points: it's really underestimated at how well the movies reference each other...it's getting to the point that sitting down and watching these things are like catching up with old friends.

Marvels run might not give us all GREAT films, but they will give us consistently good ones which is a triumph in the Hollywood system. Hopefully whoever are the showrunners on the Star Wars side at Disney are taking notes