But it also was a vote of confidence in the Marvel way of telling stories, likely giving the studio the spine to make movies based on smaller (no pun intended) heroes like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Black Panther.
Hindsight is 20/20, and we now know that James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a tremendous success, both financially and creatively.
After all, if it worked for the Guardians, why can’t it work for these guys?
This set the idea of Thanos into further play (though the Mad Titan was hinted at in the end credits of The Avengers).