These days the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the gold standard in movies. Every other Hollywood studio hopes to emulate their success, from implementing their own shared fictional universes for their franchises (erm, Transformers?) to attempting to get that same sweet spot of big-budget CGI action and bantery characters (Sony's struggles with that balance is probably why they sort-of returned the rights to Spider-Man). It seems bizarre that, a few short years ago, Marvel funding the first Iron Man film partially out of their own pocket seemed like a mad idea. The dream of a lunatic with full creative control and pockets more shallow than you'd think. Sure, it all worked out, but people weren't expecting much. Even that mention of the Avengers in the credits was considered a pie-in-the-sky idea that may never pay off. And there's a reason for that. Before, say, the first Blade film, Marvel movies roundly sucked. It wasn't until the noughties that directors and producers started to successfully translate page to screen. The special effects were bigger, the ideas were less out-there, and the budgets were no longer threadbare. Before that point, though? The Marvel movies weren't in anything approaching a shared universe, rarely managed the A-list stars they do today, and were made for about the price of Kevin Feige's average lunch bill. From a very different Nick Fury to a motorcycling Steve Rogers, here are the ten most ridiculous moments from the early days of Marvel movies.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
