et's be honest. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had its fair share of hits, it isn't exactly immune to the prospect of producing an overall "bad movie." Some of its biggest flaws even extend beyond a single movie. Over time, fans and critics alike have grown more and more exhausted with the strict, checklist-like structure that many Marvel movies follow, while others are starting to resent the amount of quippy humor woven into otherwise intense or serious action scenes. At times, however, a disappointing entry in Marvel's lineup only accentuates these underlying problems and reveals their potential to detract from the overarching story.

Though Marvel's track record is certainly not as uneven as that over on the side of DC films, these uncommon missteps do prove that Marvel is entirely capable of failure. Considering all the hype surrounding "Avengers: Infinity War," I find it immensely important that Marvel fans like you and I recognize the very real possibility that this culmination of everything we love might showcase everything we hate.

In case you don't believe me, here's a list of 7 times in the past that Marvel disappointed its fans with subpar results:

1. Iron Man 2

With "Iron Man 2," fans of the first installment learned for the first time that an entirely optimistic mentality of "Marvel can do no wrong" is not only incorrect, but laughable after seeing some of Marvel's worst creative decisions. "Iron Man 2" was bland, featured few moments of action, and started Marvel's widely recognized problem of forgettable villains.

2. The Incredible Hulk

Of the two films Marvel Studios released in 2008, one, "Iron Man" proved incredibly successful and transformative for the superhero genre. The other was "The Incredible Hulk," a dull, visually unpleasant mess of a movie that most fans have since forgotten. It certainly doesn't help that Edward Norton, who played Bruce Banner, was later replaced by Mark Ruffalo in the newer films, further separating this movie from the rest of Marvel's properties.

3. Thor

"Thor" was a misfire in every sense of the word, but to be fair, I can imagine why it'd be difficult to make a serious superhero movie about the Nordic god of thunder seem anything but ridiculous. It's only the success of the character in recent films that retrospectively makes this film seem like nothing but wasted potential. Thor's character has since been fleshed out into a badass hero whose hubris makes for some genuinely hilarious moments, but this first film refuses to depict him as anything but stoic and serious.

4. Thor: The Dark World

If "Thor" was disappointing, its sequel was a laughable exercise in what not to do when making a superhero movie. The movie obsesses over a melodramatic love story between Thor and Natalie Portman (I don't remember her actual name, but I swear, she looked just like Natalie Portman!), finishes with the cliche world-threatening final battle (though the movie never feels like it has stakes), forcibly injects set-up for future movies, and pits Thor up against the least charismatic, most forgettable villain (an arguable title) of the entire MCU.

5. Inhumans

In case you haven't heard of Marvel's "Inhumans," I don't blame you. In fact, I envy you. "Inhumans" was the ABC TV series about the conflicts surrounding a superpowered royal family in an isolated world of superpowered people. As soon as the show premiered (as part of a hyped-up IMAX event in select theaters), it was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, panning its atrocious acting, poor visual effects, and overall boringness. The show was canceled after its first season, but its memory lives on as the worst content Marvel Studios has ever put out (10% on Rotten Tomatoes, woot-woot!).

6. Iron Fist

Since they began, Marvel's Netflix shows have maintained a refreshingly gritty take on the MCU to satisfy fans of the darker parts of Marvel comics. While most of them succeed at this principal idea, "Iron Fist" stands alone in its mostly negative reception, and for good reason. The show is painfully boring, features several moments of subpar acting, and trudges on for a painful thirteen episodes with terrible production quality and a snail-paced story.

7. Avengers: Age of Ultron

If any film were to indicate the quality of the upcoming third Avengers movie, it'd probably be the second. "Avengers: Age of Ultron," though enjoyable at times, suffers from an over-indulgence in story set-up, a dull villain, and many lackluster action scenes.

With all these failures in mind, it's silly to think that "Avengers: Infinity War" is guaranteed to be fantastic because it includes your favorite characters. As the culmination of a decade of story build-up and foreshadowing, the movie has a lot of things it needs to accomplish in its runtime, which is inarguably difficult when trying to keep the film engaging.

So, Thanos might not end up being the best villain, and maybe some parts of "Infinity War" will be too formulaic for the taste of some fans. With that being said, however, the movie's undoubtedly worth all the hype being created before its release. As we've seen, Marvel fans have stuck around through plenty of not-so-great moments to find out how this overarching story pans out, and while the movie might not live up to our highest expectations, being able to witness the climax of this story is absolutely worth celebrating.