However what's awesome is not (or not just) the inclusion of the character in these films, but what it implies: specifically that the films take place in the same shared universe and the possibility exists for a film to be made based on the Avengers, a team formed (classically) of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, and slight more obscure characters like Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Ghostrider wasn't even bad in a good way, it was just horrendous (sorry Franklin T. Marmoset, wherever you are) with possibly the lamest 'action' scenes ever. At the very least, the dumbest villains ever.

thelordofhell, I liked the Defenders. Who else was in it? Wasn't there Dark Hawk or something like that?

Feathers on the ankles are so 21st century now!

on another note, as mediocre as Ghost Rider was, it still worked in a nice 70s era way and was pretty fun, whereas Fantastic Four ruined a)one of the single greatest comics stories ever (coming of Galactus) and b) the best Marvel villain ever (Doom). Those 2 sins are truly unforgivable. You can go further with a Ghost Rider story and improve things, but the FF movies are only ever going be saddled with a bad concept, bad cast (especially Doom) and a bad director, though maybe a new director can salvage a few things.

I really do like it when authors/movies connect their universes, it should be done more often. I don't think it would have been too much to have Ben Ulrich in any of the Spidermans played by Joey Pants or a mention of the Kingpin being in jail (Avi does seem to like DD based on his and MSJ commentary on the vastly improved but still not perfect DD:DC) or the X-Men being mentioned or heck even talk of Senator Kelly, I guess they could get away without mentioning the X-Men because it took place in a "not to distant future" or "a few years from now" or something like that according to X1. It's an irritant when you're watcing a superhero movie and all the cops are like "whoa have never seen that before" and it's a nice treat when mentioning another hero in that universe (DC/WB tries God bless em with a mention of Metropolis in Batman or Gotham in Superman movies, but they can't seem to nail it perfect *coughJusticeLeaguemovienoBale noRouthcough*

this method has helped me enjoy many comic book movies more then I probably should. While ghost rider of film is not the 616 Ghost Rider, he is a ghost Rider of a different universe and therefore liberties can be taken (i.e. Blackheart adn Cartaker interacting with Johnny Blaze's orignes...however that doesn't excuse it from poor filmmaking or storytelling, it just helps me distinguish and not get bunched up)

this rule however does not apply to LXG, as the League was never presented as being part of a true "multiverse" but rather an amgalmverse and thus i don't know, i just lost my train of thought, making up words like amgalmverse

Uhmm.. And every German-speaker in the world.