SilverWook said:

Arguably, you had to have seen Star Wars to know what was going on in ESB. And the Holiday Special to know who Boba Fett was. ;)

Colson's death was the catalyst for the Avengers to start acting as a team. It wasn't just some throwaway tie in reference. I've only seen bits of Iron Man on tv and none of the other films before I saw Avengers, and had no trouble figuring out what was going on. Haven't even followed any Marvel comics in over a decade.

I didn't see The Holiday Special animated segment until a good 30 years into my life and never missed it. The equivelant would be if those two imperials officers instead of whuspering "We don't need their scum" had said "Ooh look there's Boba Fett, I wonder if he still rides that giant space brontosaurus?" ;-)

Re Avengers: Exactly Coulson's death was supposed to be the emotional climax of the film for characters and audience but it wasn't for me. I was just thinking why is everyone losing there sh*t over this minor character. I was struggling to remember when half the Avengers had even met Coulson and the other half of the Avengers had literally never met or heard of him prior to the film. Now if Nick Fury had died at that point I'd be right there with the characters on the same emotional page.