Colsen

   Agent Phil Colsen was set up heavily in Iron Man 2 in a part that didn't contribute to the story much at all but paid off in Avengers. Watch Avengers, then in Iron Man 2 it makes us glad to see more of him in retrospect. Since he died. And also, hey look it's the guy from that TV show! So, in conjunction with those, his part in Iron Man 2 is pretty major. But, in the film itself? Not much. His part didn't advance the plot forward. Very much, if at all- there's certainly not anything he does that couldn't have been done by a character we didn't have to take the pains to introduce. He was just more baggage in a (however long this movie was; I'm too lazy to look it up) movie. But, it foreshadowed. So all in all it was well done.

   Compare that to Jean Gray, who didn't have to sacrifice herself at the end of X2. She could have stayed inside the plane. But she didn't. If you look closely, though, there's a glow there. It foreshadowed her transformation into Phoenix. This was thrown out the window for X-Men 3.

   Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, twin mutants who are also Avengers, can appear as Avengers as long as they're not explicitly mentioned as mutants (X-Men films being a Fox property.) I'm not sure why I'm bringing this up now, but I spent hours of research just to get that kernel of fact, so I'm using it, darn it! I guess to connect the two franchises?

   At least they've got the rights to the other Avengers.