10 Darkest Moments In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's defining traits is its spirited tone.

From day one - the first Iron Man movie and The Incredible Hulk, back in 2008 - humour and fun have been two key elements of each adventure, with every darker moment significantly outweighed by dozens more lighter ones.

This is by no means a bad thing; as the billions of dollars in box-office receipts will tell you, it works, and people enjoy it. But it does mean that the franchise has garnered a reputation based on this single element alone, with many of its more harrowing scenes going criminally overlooked.

But there are plenty of them, from smaller, subtler moments to lengthy, dialogue-heavy scenes, with these often going under the skin of the characters to some truly dark places, past the surface-level exuberance that made them famous in the first place.

And though most of us visit the MCU time and time again for the fun adventure, the laughs and the easy-to-watch nature of each story, it's important not to underestimate the importance of the darker moments that helped turn these archetypal heroes into fully fleshed-out characters.

Marvel (and director James Gunn) had one heck of a challenge on their hands when approaching the creation of Guardians Of The Galaxy; making audiences care about, and believe in, a talking raccoon.

But not only did they do it, they crafted arguably one of the finest, most memorable CGI characters of recent times.

A big part of the character's success was his saddening backstory, which he details in a scene featuring an argument between himself, Drax and Star-Lord.

Rocket painfully yells "I didn't ask to get made! I didn't ask to be torn apart and put back together over and over and turned into some... some little monster."

This reminds us of the scarring on his back from an earlier scene set in a prison, reaffirming that Rocket was, essentially, born out of torture and pain.

This helped us connect with him on a level other than 'he's funny and witty', giving this CGI creation heart, humanity and depth.

It also made us think about what he's been through - the incredible pain and distress he suffered - and imagine what it must be like to be the result of somebody else's twisted experiment.