Watching the Marvel movies

A friend who is an astute watcher of popculture recently confessed to me that they have been intrigued by the phenomenon of the Marvel Studios films, but had not yet sat down to see them. This is a viewing order for the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe fun for fans but designed for someone coming in cold like my friend — only glancingly familiar with either the movies or the comics they are based on — who is ready to commit to watching most or all of the films. Inspired by the “Machete Order” for watching the two Lucas trilogies of Star Wars — which treats Episode II & III as an extended flashback between V and VI, omitting Episode I entirely — this viewing order is different both from the order in which the films were released and from the chronological order of the events in the world of the films.

Marvel Studios and the fictive “Marvel Cinematic Universe” are interesting and unique for a number of reasons. There have been movie series with multiple sequels before, and superhero movies before, but the MCU is the first to capture the distinctly entangled series quality of superhero comics which fans love. Alan Moore, in his introduction to a collection of comics published in 1987, describes it better than I could:

There are great economic advantages in being able to prop up an ailing, poor-selling comic book with an appearance by a successful guest star. Consequently, all th ecomic book stories produced by any given publisher are likely to take place in the same imaginary universe. This includes the brightly colored costumed adventurers populating their super-hero titles the shambling monstrosities that dominate thier horror titles, and the odd girzzled cowpoke who's wandered in from a western title through a convenient time warp. For those more familiar with conventional literature, try to imagine Dr. Frankenstein kidnapping one of the protagonists of Little Women for his medical experiments, only to find himself to the scrutiny of a team-up between Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. I'm sure that the both the charms and the overwhelming absurdities of this approach will become immediately apparent, and so it is in comic books
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The continuity-expert's nightmare of a thousand different super-powered characters co-existing in the same continuum can, with the application of a sensitive and sympathetic eye, become a rich and fertile mythic background with fascinating archetypal characters hanging around, waiting to be picked like grapes on the vine. Yes, of course, the whole idea is utterly inane, but to let its predictable inanities blind you to its truly fabulous and breathtaking aspects is to do both oneself and the genre a disservice.

This viewing order is intended to highlight this quality of superhero stories, the sense that different stories about different characters made by different creators are part of a grand story about a sprawling world of wonders and adventure, delivering a story of its developing world across the whole series.

How to use this list:

• Marvel Studios' movies famously include one or two post-credits bonus scenes. Many of them are in-jokes for comics nerds or teasers for later movies which may be screwed up by this watch order, so I encourage you to skip most of them. I have marked movies with an asterisk when you do want to check out the post-credits bit.
• For convenience, this post starts with just the list of movies, then repeats itself, that time with notes on each of the movies.
• In order to highlight the building narrative, the list is sequenced such that it leaves a lot of the best stuff for late in the series. If your patience runs thin, I encourage you to just skip ahead to Section II, then Section B, to catch those three strong films before dropping out. There are also ways to abbreviate the viewing binge less radically ...
  • Within the sections, if the viewing order is important the movies are numbered. When the viewing order is less important, the movies are in a bullet list starting with the best of them, so one can skip the weaker films if one wishes.
  • Sections with Roman numerals deliver the initial long-sweep story in a deliberate order. If you want to focus on that experience, run just through these and skip the lettered sections.
  • Sections marked A, B, and S in the Roman alphabet deliver bonus Marvel Studios movies — the best of them among these — which enrich the long-sweep story but are not integral to it.
  • Sections marked Σ & Χ in the Greek alphabet deliver movies about Marvel characters which were not made by Marvel Studios; they may make an interesting contrast which inform what the Marvel Studios movies are doing.

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I — Welcome to the Marvel Universe

1. Captain Marvel
2. Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1
3. Thor
4. Iron Man
5. Iron Man 2

II — Getting the band together

• The Avengers

III — The Ballad Of Tony Stark takes shape

• Iron Man 3

IV — The Ballad Of Steve Rogers begins

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

V — The Problem Child

• Avengers: Age Of Ultron

A — Bonus stories

• Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Ant-Man
• Ant-Man & The Wasp
• Black Widow
• Doctor Strange
• The Incredible Hulk

VI — The Ballad Of Steve And Tony

• Captain America: Civil War

B — Marvel’s best

• Black Panther
• Thor: The Dark World
  Thor: Ragnarok

VII — Infinity

1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Avengers: Endgame

S - Spider-Man

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming
2. Spider-Man: Away From Home
3. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Σ — Alternate Spiders

1. Spider-Man
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Into The Spider-Verse

VIII — Starting the next story arc

• WandaVision
• Loki
• Hawkeye
• The Eternals

X — X-Men

1. X-Men: First Class
2. X-Men
3. X-2: X-Men United
4. X-Men: Days Of Future Past
5. Deadpool & Deadpool 2
6. Logan

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I — Welcome to the Marvel Universe

1. Captain Marvel
   Though this was released late in the series, it is a perfect demonstration of the basic charms of Marvel movies — action & spectacle, character melodrama, actors having fun hamming it up — plus it sets up a few things for an ordinary viewer which one had to be a comics fan to appreciate when encountering the films in release order.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1 *
   Another movie from late in the series, showing the Marvel movies' capacity for exuberant fun speaking to our inner ten-year-old, threaded with some surprisingly poignant notes. If Star Wars has broken your heart with disappointment, this picture may rekindle your enthusiasm for Wacky Adventures In Space.
3. Thor *
   Most film industry folks were puzzled when Marvel got Kenneth “Henry V” Branagh to direct this early Marvel movie, but it was the right move, bringing the right note of shameless Shakespearean melodrama. The story is simple but then-unknowns Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston turn out to be awfully charming, and the supporting cast are having too much fun.
4. Iron Man *
   The movie which initially put Marvel Studios on the map. When it was released, Marvel Studios' first experiment with the Blade movies with Wesley Snipes had done well enough but had not really opened up Marvel's comics sensibility, Robert Downey, Jr. was all washed up, not even comics fans were enthusiastic about Iron Man, and director Jon Favreau was a small-time cult actor / writer / director. But Favreau was a nerd who respected the material, so the movie just worked and was a hit. And the post-credits bonus — then a surprise from out of the blue — teased the series of films which Marvel Studios hoped to build.
5. Iron Man 2
   Frankly a mediocre entry in the series. It's not bad, but I recommend skipping it unless you find yourself loving Iron Man or RDJ as Tony Stark ... or you are someone who cannot get enough of Sam Rockwell goofing around.

II — Getting the band together

• The Avengers *
  With this film, the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink pleasures of the Marvel Universe unfold. Aliens! Mad science! Super-spies! Hammy pseudo-Shakespearean dialogue! And Mark Ruffalo delivers an acting miracle that powers a perfect narrative climax. Uber-nerd director Joss Whedon (not yet disgraced when this was made) made it work with his love of genre shenanigans and knack for character ensemble.

III — The Ballad Of Tony Stark takes shape

• Iron Man 3 *
  Writer / director Shane Black directed RDJ in the weird comedy-noir masterpiece Kiss Kiss Bang Bang back in 2005; tapped by Marvel, he delivered a mix of big spectacle, twisty storytelling, and a character turn for Tony Stark which made RDJ work for a living and set Tony up as interesting enough to serve as the backbone of the series. It's also worth noting that when Marvel announced that the villain would be The Mandarin — a character who is basically Comics Supervillain Fu Manchu — folks like me were Concerned about how badly racist that could go, but the movie subverts the problem of that legacy more cleverly than they (or just about anyone) have managed again since.

IV — The Ballad Of Steve Rogers Begins

I imagine that the viewer could be either binge-ing the Marvel movies or picking through it at a leisurely pace, but these two are a matched set, playing off of each other in a way that demonstrates the range of things superhero stories can do with a character. I recommend watching them in this order as a double feature, or at least within a week or two of each other.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
   This origin story set in the Second World War was released before The Avengers, but I think it works better — especially for non-fans — as a flashback after the ensemble movie, which introduces Captain America well enough even if you don't know anything about him. Marvel once again reached for a cult director with unique qualifications: Joe Johnston had directed the underappreciated, deliberately earnest, dieselpunk retro-pulpy The Rocketeer, and he reprises that voice for this WWII story about a character created in 1941. Chris Evans as our hero makes it look easy to play a character who is an unequivocal good guy, in contrast to the other movies featuring characters with striking flaws unto often being anti-heroes.
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
   The first Marvel movie to really stretch what the setting and characters can do, this entry is as much a crackling 1970s paranoid political thriller as superhero spectacle. One thing this watch order does steal from you as a viewer is how up to this point, as originally released, we had experienced our heroes were a handful of exceptional individuals in a world otherwise much like our own; Winter Soldier was a breakthrough which made the Marvel world feel expansive, with weirdness hiding behind every door.

V — The Problem Child

The problem is that this movie is not good, but it includes some loadbearing elements in the overall story of the film series, plus a large handful of good thematic and character bits worth watching it to get. Since the biggest problem is the pace and structure, the movie is a lot more fun watched a few scenes at a time. There are a bunch of good movies in Section A, so I recommend watching a scene or three from Ultron as an appetizer before picking up the next movie from that set; ideally you want to have finished Ultron before watching Section VI's Civil War, though it is not strictly necessary.

• Avengers: Age Of Ultron
  On the one hand, the effects for the face of killer robot Ultron are a queasy Uncanny Valley failure, several elements just don't work, and there is one scene which is a horrendous misfire that has Natasha “Black Widow” Romanov say something really stupid and sexist. On the other hand, there is smarter engagement with the themes of Frankenstein in the age of artificial intelligence than a superhero movie really needs, some delightful scenes of our heroes just hanging out together, a direct rebuke to the inhuman callousness of the nearly-fascist Superman film Man Of Steel which was released while this was in production, and a few crackerjack action sequences.

A — Bonus stories

You don't need any of these to make sense out of the story arc explored in the sections with the Roman numerals, but the more of them you catch, the more callbacks and character stuff from later movies will land.

• Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2
  A refinement of all the zany, vulgar charm of the previous entry, building to an ending with much more emotional resonance than one would expect.
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
  A gem where superhero sensibilities marry well with other kinds of stories. If one has any love at all for xianxia or wuxia or kung fu movies, it reflects what Daniel Pinkwater said about Laurel & Hardy — one knows exactly what is coming but the delivery is so perfect that one cackles with delight when it arrives. This was released after the story cycle was completed but only really references Iron Man 3 and a bit of Doctor Strange, and stands well on its own.
• Ant-Man
  Loose goofy fun, with Paul Rudd characteristically charming and funny, bursting with setpieces more about cleverly playing off of our hero's superpower than the special effects. I must also note that this is my young neice's favorite.
• Ant-Man & The Wasp
  A sequel almost as much fun as the original, and there is even more clever play with the implicitions of our heroes' weird superpowers, if you like that sort of thing.
• Black Widow
  This pretty-good spy thriller and family drama belongs right after Ultron in the story sequence despite production problems which wound up deferring its release until much later. (Indeed, catching this movie before the Very Bad Scene in Ultron may make that scene play a little less cringe.)
• Doctor Strange
  The story is a little tepid and it leaves some of its interesting actors which too little to do, but there is a lot of fun to be had along the way. Our hero comes up with a very clever resolution at the ending, there are some dazzling unique visual setpieces (which will be refreshing for folks who found that Inception left a lot of opportunity for extravagant effects on the table), and it sets up my single favorite callback in a later film.
• The Incredible Hulk *
  Originally released shortly after the original Iron Man, this picture is a mess which just does not quite come together. But if you love the Hulk, Frankenstein, Ed Norton, or mad science you may find it interesting.

VI — The Ballad Of Steve And Tony

This story works a bit better if you have gotten through Age Of Ultron first, but that is not strictly necessary.

• Captain America: Civil War
  The first Avengers movie introduces non-fans to a type of pure superhero story, delivering a taste of a world with disparate wonders; this picture follows through on that promise, showing the kind of melodrama you can do about characters who live in a messy, complicated superhero world ... plus it finally shows the truly extravagent superhero action setpieces fans are accustomed to seeing on the comic page when a lot of superheroes are on stage together.

B — Marvel's best

These two are generally understood to be the two best Marvel movies as movies. They benefit significantly from playing off of earlier movies in the sequence but are not necessary to feed the long story of the series.

• Black Panther
  An allegory of colonialism and global racial injustice through the lens of US Black cultural dreams and sensibilities, which sounds like eating your spinach ... but enlivened by superheroes and the exuberance of the Marvel sensibility, it is instead a fun and inspiring modern myth.
• Thor: The Dark World
  This weak entry from much earlier in the story cycle is not really a part of this list, but if find that you love Thor and Loki enough to want to check it out, best to catch it at this point, because it sets up a great callback in ...
• Thor: Ragnarok
  Somehow this candy-colored delight is both the most fun and funny Marvel movie while also managing to deliver another meditation on colonialism and a resonant story about family, community, and responsibility.

VII — Infinity

This wraps up the initial big ten-year story arc Marvel Studios built with their movies. Though fans' and Marvel marketing's use of the word “saga” is a bit overly grandiose, they really do add up to something. In comics, every few years comics publishers do a “crossover” story which ties together almost everything they publish, touching the stories in each character's individual books and then climaxing in a story which tries to shoehorn onto stage as many characters as possible to play a role. This is both a sleazy marketing gimmick and, when it works, the ultimate expression of the unique thing that the big superhero storytelling canvas can do with its vast cosmology, numerous genres, and hundreds of characters with interlocking stories. It is a miracle that this works at all, much less as well as it does.

1. Avengers: Infinity War *
   Thanos, the space villain who has been knocking around the edges of the stories told so far, takes center stage in his quest for the Infinity Stones which have played a part in several of the movies. It is worth noting that structurally, Thanos is the protagonist of this movie.
2. Avengers: Endgame
   Most superhero stories begin and end with a stable status quo. This movie shows how the world and our characters were transformed by the events of Infinity War, reflects on where our characters came from, plays out what they do next, and completes both The Ballad Of Tony Stark and The Ballad Of Steve Rogers.

S - Spider-Man

The three Marvel Studios Spider-Man movies are not strictly necessary to make sense of the big initial story arc, but are all pretty good.

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming
   Another example of bringing life to stale genres by stirring in superheroics, in this case the teen high school comedy-drama. Not great but solid, and there is a superb twist at a key moment. Properly speaking this takes place after the events of Civil War, but it doesn't really hurt anything to get ahead.
2. Spider-Man: Away From Home *
   More teen high school comedy-drama, not quite as strong as the first entry (and a few elements which disintegrate if one thinks too hard), but the lead characters are charming and the villain is interesting. Contains major spoilers for Section VII, so best if you wait to watch this one after that.
3. Spider-Man: No Way Home
   The best Marvel Studios Spider-Man feature by far. It opens up some storyline stuff for the next major story arc after the conclusion of Infinity, and plays with ideas from Spider-Man movies which Marvel Studios did not make, so you may want to catch those ....

Σ — Alternate Spiders

For rights reasons, Sony has three distinct series of Spider-Man movies unconnected by style or story from the Marvel Studios version of the character. The two Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker feature a few technical virtues (Spider-Man moves beautifully in them) but they are just plain bad. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker is better than its reputation, and has some lovely elements, but it is still weak enough to skip. But these three are terrific.

1. Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2
   The first one is super and the second one is even better, in the running for best superhero movies ever in the eyes of many comics fans. In contrast to the Marvel Studios movies, director Sam Raimi commits deeply to the melodramatic storytelling style of the orginal comics of the 1960s.
2. Into The Spider-Verse
   Definitley one of the best superhero movies ever made. And also one of the best animated features ever made. Visually dazzling, bursting with love for superhero stories, and genuinely moving.

VIII — Starting the next story arc

With the conclusion of the big “Infinity Saga” arc, there are a growing set of feature films — plus an array of streaming TV series — informed by it.

• WandaVision
  A streaming series delivering a very good surrealist exercise in creating a David Lynch effect by playing with sitcom conventions to deliver both wit and pathos.
• Loki
  A streaming series delivering a witty romp centered on the recurring villain. Introduces a major villain expected to play a major role in forthcoming stories.
• Hawkeye
  A streaming series which is a fun trifle, part Holiday Comedy With A Hapless Dad, part Buddy Action Comedy.
• The Eternals
  A gorgeously shot feature exploring (and setting up for later stories) the Marvel Universe cosmology ... but oddly dull.

X — The X-Men

Before Marvel Studios began their series, 20^th Century Fox started a series of films about this team of Marvel superheroes and their antagonists. Half of the dozen-plus entries in the series are weak at best, even just plain bad, which is frustrating because the X-Men are one of the best and most beloved things from the Marvel comics. But there are a few that are good, one very good, and one true classic. Disney's acquisiton of Fox means that these characters will get rebooted in Marvel Studios films to come, so if you want a taste of another way of doing what Marvel Studios has done, these are worth a look.

1. X-Men: First Class The second-best X-Men film. It was made late in the series, but since it flashes back to the origins of the team in the 1960s, it is actually the ideal place to start, making its allegory of the Black, gay, and other liberatory social movements very direct. (I wrote a little review of it when it was new.)
2. X-Men
   The first film made in the series. Seeing it now, in contrast to the matured Marvel Studios approach, there are weaknesses from failure to trust the material, but at the time fans like me were excited that it was one of the best superhero movies yet made, with gravitas delivered by Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart, a star-making turn by Hugh Jackman, some clever superheroic setpieces, and effective queer allegory.
3. X-2: X-Men United
   A follow-up that improves a bit on its predecessor, with more room for the performances to breathe.
4. X-Men: Days Of Future Past A flawed, fun mess which ties together the casts of the flashback and later versions of the team. If you're losing patience with the X-Men, skip this one, but it has some virtues, including a couple of terrific superhero action setpieces if you like those. After you see it, search YouTube for “quicksilver sweet dreams” to enjoy a sequel to its most memorable bit, snipped out from the gawdawful movie in which it appears.
5. Deadpool & Deadpool 2
   A pair of gonzo, vulgar, refuge-in-audacity action comedies. They technically belong to this series but have a completely different tone. They somehow work much better than they have any right to. Worth seeing as a taste of superhero comics sensibilities in their silly Brechtian self-parody mode.
6. Logan
   The last, and by far the best, film in this series; a little classic, period, which re-frames the characters and world as a John Ford western. It benefits if one has seen previous movies (especially X-2) but you don't strictly need any of them.