My personal take on the MCU as a whole, as well as on the comics, is that if I _have_ to eat various other properties to understand what the hell is going on, OK*. But I'd prefer to just consume what's in front of me, and enjoy it on its own merits.

There's no part of the MCU that has failed the "on its own merits" test for me. The characters are big and fun and true-to-the-spirit-of renditions of their comic selves, as far as I can tell. And they're so lovely to watch. There's some truly good casting going on, and almost everyone gets a moment or two to shine. I can without reservation say that I have had a grand old time with the Marvel Cinematic Universe properties, and I am looking forward to re-watching, well, everything in prep for AoU.

*Who's this pink gal? Utena? Isn't that an anime**?

**Wait, they're wearing airplanes as pants?