That image above, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of cinema: a talking raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) riding a walking tree (voiced by Vin Diesel). It is beyond absurd. It's an idea so ludicrious that it's hard to imagine that anyone would spend the millions of dollars it would take to make it happen, yet thanks to Marvel it's a thing that will be in thousands of theaters across the country later this year.

While it might be foolish to go so far as to say that Guardians of the Galaxy, the movie that Rocket Raccoon (the raccoon) and Groot (the tree) are in, will be a game changer, one thing that most can agree on is that it's "The Gamble."

But if it pays off, it may just make Marvel Studios the most interesting major production house in Hollywood.

In the grand scheme of things, when someone writes the definitive history of superhero movies, The Avengers will always be seen as the moment when Marvel did the impossible and managed to make an honest to god superhero team epic. If the still untitled Batman vs. Superman movie -

Time out: does this thing really still not have a name yet? For the love of god DC get it together. As I was saying...

- becomes a major success, everyone will still point out that Marvel took the risk first. The Avengers really was a game changer for the entire genre of superhero film, one that's given Marvel a huge lead on the competition.

But was the success of The Avengers really that impossible? Yes, Iron Man wasn't a hot property before the movies came out, but by the time of The Avengers everyone knew who Tony Stark was. Captain America? Iconic. The Hulk? Also iconic. Thor? OK, so Thor was a bit of a wild card on the first go around, but Chris Hemsworth sure is dreamy.

That's a pretty stacked line-up, and although coming up with a story that puts them all together in a way that works may have been difficult, in hindsight it does seem a bit silly that anyone would have looked at what Marvel was doing and think "it'll never work."

But work it did, to the tune of something like a gazillion dollars.