Full Review: It began with one of the best post-credit sequences we'd ever seen. At the end of Iron Man, a movie that proved Marvel really got it when it came to turning its own properties into films, we were treated to one more scene. Tony Stark comes home and finds Nick Fury waiting for him. Fury, played by none other than Samuel L. Jackson, informs Tony that the hero universe is a lot bigger than he realizes, and they need to talk about a new team he's putting together.
That one moment changed everything. Up until that point, a superhero movie franchise was self-contained. Even though comic book heroes crossed over all the time, we never saw it in the films. Marvel, with its shiny new movie studio, decided to change all that. They figured, why not have Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury occupy the same universe? Thus began a series of movies that we knew would culminate in one of the biggest superhero movie events ever to grace our movie screens: The Avengers.
This was a pretty gutsy move on Marvel's part. Many studios have trouble committing to one big-budget blockbuster, and Marvel committed to at least six. Superhero movies are often hit-and-miss, and there's the fact that the longer a franchise runs, the worse the movies get. Marvel risked running out of steam before even reaching this promised movie, and they countered that by making sure each one of the movies leading up to The Avengers was solid.
