Age of Ultron AoU's connection to TWS (Spoilers)

[John Venus]

With SHIELD gone, it felt pretty natural to me that the Avengers were going to pick up the slack. Natasha pretty much sets it up at the end of TWS: "because you need us. yes the world is a more vulnerable place and yes, we helped make it that way but we are also the ones best qualified to defend it. So if you are going to arrest me, arrest me. You know where to find me."