10 Times The MCU Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted

10. "I Am Iron Man" - Iron Man

Let's kick this list off with something that fans didn't actually realise they wanted at the time, yet in retrospect it's tough to imagine things going any other way.

In the lead up to Iron Man's release, it was widely expected that the film would keep Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) superheroic persona a secret identity, as per the tradition of the comic books.

Yet the film instead ended with Stark holding a press conference and bluntly revealing that he is, in fact, Iron Man.

Beyond being an hilarious and unexpected punchline on which to end the film, it did an extremely bold thing for a burgeoning franchise, by dispensing with the expectation that most of the MCU's superheroes would have secret identities.

Considering the tendency for secret identities to come off as goofy and implausible in live-action form - think Superman's low-effort disguise in the Christopher Reeve movies - it was thrilling to see the MCU obliterate this notion in its very first movie.

Again, fans didn't know they wanted this at the time, but it quickly confirmed itself to be a smart and important storytelling choice, ensuring the bevy of subsequent origin movies didn't bog themselves down in dull identity-preserving nonsense.