Apparently the little kerfuffle back in The Avengers where Thor leaped through the air and brought his Godly-powered magical hammer down on Captain America’s shield was horseplay compared to the carnage going down in this sequel, Captain America: The Winter Solider, as the All-Americano custom job on Cap’s shield is chipping away like bargain-bin paint. While this teaser hardly gives us much to go on in terms of character or plot, it seems pretty congruous with the dark-horse sophomore picture that superhero films seem to be so fond of nowadays.

If the first films in a planned franchise are now exclusively origin stories, the follow-ups seem to be finding their own pattern where the hero is faced with a breed of “darkness” that they never could have imagined. Since Batman Begins, the whole genre has undergone a categorical shift in tone with everyone and their mother trying to emulate the dark, gritty nature of Nolan’s franchise. But up to this point, Marvel has done a good job at keeping things light (almost too much at times) so we’ll see have deep down the rabbit hole they plan to take us with this second installment.

Captain America: The Winter Solider is based on the popular comic line in which Cap’s old friend and war buddy Sebastian Stan returns as his arch-nemesis; an assassin also frozen in time, the Winter Soldier. So long as he’s not spouting off lines like “Ice to meet you*,” or “You are not sending me to the cooler*” or worst of all, “What killed the dinosaurs? The ice age! (proceed to blast freeze ray)*” then I’ll give this a shot.

*These are all actual lines from Batman and Robin‘s Mr Freeze, as is “Allow my to break the ice,” “Stay cool, bird boy,” “Let’s kick some ice,” “Cool party,” and the classic “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is directed by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo stars Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Frank Grillo, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson, Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Toby Jones, Emily VanCamp and Robert Redford. It hits theaters April 4, 2014.