Ideas for the MCU
Three ideas for expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will not let me sleep until I've written them down for posterity.
1) Ready, AIM, fire!
Just because their boss bought it in Iron Man 3 doesn't mean the Advanced Ideas Mechanics is dead, far from it in fact. Being forced underground following their exposure as something less than legal could be the catalyst for their transformation into the bee-keeping bunch of evil super-scientists we all know and love. Heck, with a decent PR man (and that does seem to be their speciality), they could remain overtly active and in the pay of the government(s), much to Tony Stark's disgust. With all the technology lying around from the various battles the superheroes have been involved in (Chitari weapons, Hammer drones, even bits of the Iron Monger), they could corner the market in cobbled together exotic tech - just what twitchy global powers would want as the superhuman revolution gets under way.
And hey, they'd make great recurring foes for Phil Coulson and co.
2) Van Dyne Particles
With Hank Pym nowhere to be seen in Avengers 2, here's an idea: move the shrinking technology over to the Wasp. Have Janet Van Dyne be the brilliant physicist who invents a way to make people shrink to the size of ants and grow to the size of skyscrapers. In one fell swoop, you can bring in another strong, smart female hero, torpedo the Wasp's dizzier portrayals (I'm looking at you, EMH) and remove any need to involve Hank How-Can-I-End-The-World-This-Week? Pym in anything, ever.
This would work especially well since the size-shift technology would involve the kinds of complex quantum physics that you can only understand while standing on your head after several pints and a whisky chaser, so even Bruce Banner would be let behind when Janet explains it. That way, you have someone who can deal with the very strange things they come across (like wormholes) and you don't have to make Tony or Bruce into omni-disciplinarians.
Janet would also be a nice contrast if she really wanted to be a party girl but didn't have either the time or the ability to stop doing equations in her head, a sort of half-way point between Tony's effortless playboy lifestyle/act and Bruce's self-imposed isolation. There would be no need to lose the more extrovert parts of her personality: they would just be tempered by the effort involved in getting the science to work.
3) Strange Tales
Doctor Strange should be played as a man using cold arrogance to hide from the fact he cannot save everyone. His single-minded obsession to restore the use of his hands should stem from the burning conviction that his entire life is bound up with his skill as a surgeon and that he is nothing without it: if he cannot save some people, some of the time, he is nothing. In his travels, this hubris is shattered and he comes to realise that that world is bigger than that and requires more of him than he has been willing to give. He needs to open up and accept the slings and arrows, not hide from them.
When Mordo betrays the Ancient One, have him wounds his teacher - and have Strange be the one who rushes to the old man's side to staunch the bleeding. Strange's first impulse, however high he tries to hold himself above it, is to rush in and help. So, while the other students (Wong etc) fight off Mordo's demons, it is Strange who tries to save the teacher, and Strange who receives the trappings of the Sorcerer Supreme. The Ancient One is too weak to open the Eye of Agamotto and so uses his power to move himself and Strange outside time to a place where he can teach the surgeon how to be a sorcerer, how to be the sorcerer. Not only does this negate the 'Mighty Whitey' aspects of the origin by making Strange's selection a result of chance and his good impulses, it also leaves it open whether it was destiny or luck that means he takes the Ancient One's place.
Once he has done his part in driving off Mordo's forces, Strange is left in the odd position of being Sorcerer Supreme with the training wheels on. He needs Wong and the others to teach him the complexities of magic that the Ancient One did not have time to impart, thus setting up a reason to keep an expanded cast around and not just casually dismiss everyone else who trained under the old master. The Sanctum Sanctorum could be quite crowded, or at least full of comings and goings and the constant exchange of knowledge - the very keystone of magic.
Also, Dormamu should posses people as a burning light that blazes from their eyes and mouths and slowly burns them up from the inside out. Not only would this be incredibly disturbing, it would make him look distinct from Ghost Rider.