In a perfect world, Marvel Studios would be thrilling us with their own versions of Spider-man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, combining them into the same incredible onscreen world as The Avengers. Unfortunately, the rights to those other characters are tied up at competing studios (X-Men and Fantastic Four with 20th Century Fox, Spider-man at Sony), thanks to deals that were made long ago. Not having those characters in their cinematic stable forced Marvel to get creative, to reach into the not-so mainstream corners of their comics for characters and stories with cinematic potential. And it seems those limitations have turned out to be a benefit to the studio. Because if that "perfect" world existed, Marvel might not have had the creative or financial need for a movie about a strange band of alien misfits known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, and moviegoers would be all the poorer for it.
