I was late to the Whedon train. I didn't give any of his shows a chance until college, because they always seemed cheesy to me whenever I watched an episode here and there (I was generally more into HBO/Showtime fare, Aaron Sorkin, Ron Moore, and J.J. Abrams types of shows). But I was the resident "TV Guru" of my group of friends there (our apartment was practically a TV-on-DVD library for how many people borrowed shows from me, lol), and they said I couldn't be a proper TV Guru without having seen a Joss Whedon show, so they pretty much forced me to watch them. And I'm SO glad they did, because underneath all that campiness was actual storytelling that rivaled all that HBO/Showtime I watched in complexity, ideas and character development. He just wrapped it all in a much more fun, less self-serious package. Over the course of about 3 months, Joss Whedon went from a guy whose work I always scoffed at, to arguably my favorite writer/director on television (while there are several others who have created shows I love at least as much as his, only one or two have created multiple shows on the same level).
And it just so happens that two of his great creations were superhero shows. I feel like a lot of people don't realize that's what Buffy and Angel were. Superhero shows. About super-powered beings who fought super-villains and saved the world a lot. Buffy was basically a Spider-man-like tale: a coming-of-age superhero saga about a relatable, wise-cracking protagonist whose journey is mostly about growing up and learning about life and relationships. Angel was more of a Batman-esque scenario: The tortured, urban superhero that's more about saving the souls of his city while working to salvage his own along the way.
And they aren't just superhero shows, they're the only two live-action superhero shows I've ever seen that were actually great shows. Early on, sure, Heroes had a few moments of being a good show, but they were fleeting moments, and it was never great, imo. Not only did Whedon make a couple of great superhero shows, but every single show he ever created worked magic with their ensembles and their dynamics. That seemed to be one of his main areas of expertise. That's why I jumped for joy when Joss was a announced as the director of Avengers. He's a fantastic storyteller with a knack for iconography, a Marvel comics expert, and has previously created 4 completely different ensembles that were all beautifully handled, with each member being fully fleshed out and getting their time to shine. I'm not sure they could have picked a better person to helm this, tbh (other than Brad Bird, who was otherwise detained.)
I wasn't even worried about the spectacle, because I felt he already worked wonders with Serenity, considering it was a sci-fi adventure made for about half the budget of the last few Reese Witherspoon romantic comedies. So with a budget of over SEVEN times that? Yeah, I was never worried. I have complete faith that Joss Whedon will knock this outta the park.
And that was with a budget of 39 mil. 
