10 Ways The Marvel Cinematic Universe Proves That Dreams Do Come True

4. It's Shown Superhero Ensembles Work

Superhero team-ups have made for some of the most fantastic storylines in the medium, and no one knows that better than Marvel Comics. Obviously they weren't the first to pioneer such an approach, (that credit goes to DC) but with lineups like the X-Men and Fantastic Four, they damn near perfected it.

For some reason or another, the company's biggest and most iconic team - The Avengers - were never considered for the silver screen treatment during the initial flux of comic book capers. We may have had the X-Men, but the chances of seeing Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk together on the big screen seemed exponentially low. As opposed to the Fantastic Four, these were characters that existed in their own right, with their own literature and dedicated fanbases. A movie dealing with all their monolithic personalities seemed predestined to fail; interlinked superhero adventures just weren't for the cinema.

This meant that when that famous first post-credits scene appeared in 2008's Iron Man, featuring an eye-patch-clad Samuel L. Jackson discussing the "Avengers Initiative," theatres everywhere launched in collective cries of adulation. For Marvel to have delivered upon that promise of a fully realised and heterogeneous universe is an absolutely remarkable feet, and, for better or for worse, one that studios everywhere are since trying (and failing) to recreate. I mean seriously, what else would have compelled Sony to do a Men In Black/Jump Street crossover?