10 Important Milestones The Marvel Cinematic Universe Must Pass

Marvel Studios have accomplished a huge amount since releasing their first effort, the little-known indie movie Iron Man, in 2008. In six short years they've established a cinematic reign and dominance of the box office to rival the success of their comics empire - perhaps even eclipsing it in terms of audience numbers - and becoming acquired by The House Of Mouse, one of the biggest film producers and distributors in the world, certainly adds an extra bit of legitimacy (not to mention power) to the whole enterprise. In that time they've produced an impressive body of work for a company that's been going for less than a decade, especially one that's dedicated to solely making one kind of movie. Beginning with Iron Man, a second-stringer superhero who'd never come close to headlining his movie before but ended up becoming a worldwide phenomenon almost overnight, Marvel defied expectations pretty much immediately and kept doing things that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. An earnest period action movie about the most patriotic superhero in history? Captain America: The First Avenger, coming right up. Convincing audiences that an Asgardian alien-god who speaks in Shakespearean English will fly as a legit concept? Here's Thor. You're welcome. Developing a credible world for all these capes to share and managing to bring them all together without crashing and burning? Oh, wait - here comes The Avengers. That was kind of a blip on your radar, right? Marvel have jumped all these hurdles and more, and they're not set to slow down any time soon - they might even be speeding up if their plans to release four movies a year in the future come to fruition - but there's still plenty they haven't done. For all they've achieved, Marvel's movies haven't branched out all that far, and some fans are disappointed in their lack of diversity or development of certain characters and storylines, and it'll be unclear just how far their Cinematic Universe can be pushed until some significant landmark moments are reached. To wit, the following is a list of ten crucial milestones that the Marvel movies haven't yet met, and a discussion of how each one might affect the landscape moving forward...