Instead, I’m actually referring to a perceived increase in diversity of thought and unique filmmaking style.
It was a formula you could set your watch to back then.
To be clear, I’m not just highlighting the increasing diversity of Marvel’s heroic roster — though the introductions of heroes like Black Panther, The Wasp and the eventual debut of Carol Danvers next year do help.
In the earliest days of Phase 1, Marvel movies (largely by necessity) had to play to cliché character beats and well-known story formats in order to get audiences familiar with the landscape of the MCU.