A comment often heard when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it’s too bad Marvel Studios doesn’t own the movie rights to Spider-Man and X-Men. For those that don’t know, the rights to make a Spider-Man movie belong to Sony while X-Men belongs to Fox (Fox also has Fantastic Four but that has yet to prove itself a hit). So as long as Sony and Fox keep making those movies, they retain the rights indefinitely. A lot of fans love the MCU featuring the Avengers and wish that Marvel’s other franchises were a part of it. While I think that it would be cool to see this on the big screen…

Coming to Theaters Never

...I am grateful that it’s currently not possible.That might sound crazy, especially coming from a lifetime comic lover, but there’s a logic to my lunacy. Only so much time and money can be put into making superhero movies, so a cap exists to how many can be made each year, no matter how big a hit they are. This means that the resources available will go to the safest bets to be a success. As far as Marvel’s comics go, their most popular franchises had always been Spider-Man and X-Men -- it’s why they were sold off in the first place.Now, if Marvel Studios had the rights to those superhero characters, then they would probably have never even considered making a Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man movie (which now both are slated for release). That’s why I’m glad they don’t have those movie rights -- it’s forcing them to dig deeper into their catalog of heroes that would have otherwise remained untapped.

From a comic reader’s point of view, the fact that Rocket Raccoon -- a wise-cracking raccoon with a machine gun -- is making it to the big screen, voiced by Bradley Cooper no less, is pure insanity. It’s like seeing your favorite obscure indie band suddenly make it big, dominating Top 40 radio and winning a bunch of Grammys (for me, that’s fun.). You thought you’d never see the day, but now you’re happy everyone else is into what you’ve known is cool all along.

I would go so far as to say that if Marvel Studios owned the rights to X-Men and Spider-Man, then the Avengers movie would have never been made. Could you imagine a world without what is arguably the greatest achievement in superhero movie history? Any way you shake it, Avengers characters just weren’t that popular before 2008 when Iron Man came out, but now everyone from Black Widow to Thor is a household name.Marvel Studios took a risk to make that first Iron Man movie, and it paid off beautifully. But there was always the chance mixing a comedic star in a high-flying superhero movie could have failed -- that’s what we call Green Lantern -- and the entire MCU would have started and ended with that one flick. When spending millions of dollars to make a movie, studios don’t like risk, so it’s easy to imagine Marvel Studios continuing to crank out X-Men, X-Force, and X-Factor movies for years before even considering adapting their one comic about a dude who flies around in a robot suit. Even if they did eventually do an Avengers movie, it wouldn't have been the same: Wolverine would have been the main character.Suddenly, it sounds pretty great that Marvel’s most iconic characters are spread out among different studios, each with their own plans. With Spider-Man and the X-Men being developed elsewhere, Marvel Studios can continue to dive deeper into their catalog to show general audiences what makes Doctor Strange so cool and, one day if we’re lucky, why Beta Ray Bill is the best character, like, ever.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Game of Thrones, or Green Lantern are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN