Why Guardians of the Galaxy Gives Me Hope About Marvel

So the first full “Guardians of the Galaxy” trailer is out:

And I love it because Guardians of the Galaxy is showing us just how fucking smart Marvel is.
After the rampant success of the The Avengers, Marvel had a clear path to success – find beloved superhero, unearth a classic storyline, pepper it with witty one-liners, lather, rinse, repeat.  And Marvel looked that future straight in the barrel, and said, “Okay, but eventually, that’s gonna get old.”
And they said, “Why not do a wild experiment when we’re on top, to see how far we can push the limits?”
Usually, the weird tonal dissonances come after the franchise is all but dead and they’re seeing what they can do to repair it – and then you wind up with Friday the 13th in space!  Here, Marvel said, “Fuck it, we could do Power Man, or Deadpool, or Ms. Marvel, or reboot The Punisher/Daredevil well, and utilize this formula that makes a lot of people happy.”  And they thought seven steps down the line and went, “…but people will get bored if we keep churning out the same thing, and this far into our master plan, it’s time to reach deep into our archives and make people excited about something they didn’t even know they wanted.”
So.  A flying raccoon gets the nod.  And maybe Guardians of the Galaxy will be good, maybe it won’t – I trust James Gunn, but every director’s got a misfire in ’em – but I like what this choice says about Marvel’s marketing team, and that choice says, “We’re gonna keep pushing the envelope.”
And after watching Man of Steel, which was stuffing Superman into an envelope of gritty Chris Nolan-style quote-unquote “realism,” I say make mine Marvel.