2. The Post-Credits Scenes As Currency
The stinger is a curiously unspectacular cinematic phenomenon. You sit there for twenty five minutes, your backside already numb from the 120 minute plus run time, reading all about the Grip and the Best Boy and trying to spot funny names in the credits and you're rewarded with 30 seconds of cameo or a joke. Is it really worth it? Not really, but it's an Easter Egg all the same and there's no harm in that. Unfortunately though, MCU stingers have now become a currency of their own, inspiring as much analysis as the main plot, and Marvel have gradually pulled back the value from the days when Nick Fury was putting a team together. And yet still the hype rolls on. It's now got to the stage where both Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige have openly and very firmly stated that there is no post-credits stinger on Age Of Ultron, and not a single person actually believes them. Seriously, you'll all still be sitting in the cinema when the staff are trying to pretend to clean the floor, and there will be no scene to justify it.