“There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to. To fight the battles that we never could.”
That’s Nick Fury talking about the Avengers. But he could also be talking about the movie The Avengers and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After 14 years and dozens of movies, look at what became of this idea; bringing together all these remarkable people and seeing that, yes, they could be something more when they worked together, when their films were interwoven together until a giant meta-narrative. 14 years ago, the whole notion seemed crazy. An Iron Man movie? Who cares about Iron Man? Starring Robert Downey Jr.? Didn’t he have a drug problem? And then they’re going to make an Ant-Man movie? It’ll never work.
And yet here we sit more than a decade later and we can say, quite conclusively that it worked. Iron Man begat a sequel, plus The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers. Then six more movies. Then seven more after that. (Ant-Man showed up eventually, but it took a little while.) 14 years later, we’re in the midst Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thor: Love and Thunder. What better time than now to rank them all?
After watching Love and Thunder and rewatching the previous MCU movies, I have arrived at this guaranteed to be in-no-way controversial ranking, from the worst film Marvel has made so far (you know what it is) to the best. Again, these are my personal references. For more on what I think of each film, follow the links to each respective essay in my History of the Marvel Cinematic Universe column. Then come back in a few months when we do this all over again for … whatever Marvel releases next.
Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best
It started with Iron Man and it’s continued and expanded ever since. It’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with 29 movies and counting. But what’s the best and the worst? We ranked them all.
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