Handsomely mounted by Creed’s Ryan Coogler and starring an enviable slate of black actors that makes cameoing comics godhead Stan Lee almost seem lost, Marvel’s best movie, pound for pound, is provocative and satisfying in ways that are long overdue—like its ornate, culturally dense production design and the deeper subtexts of honor, compassion and destiny.
For over a decade, it often seemed like the only movies being made were Marvel movies. Beginning in 2008 with the introduction of Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, new offshoots, franchises and ensemble pictures arrived with the sun, each raking in more cash than the last – a testament to both the comic monolith’s meticulous world-building and, of course, its marketing budget.
Things have changed recently, however. Ever since peaking with Avengers: Endgame, the MCU has been on a downward trajectory, commercially and creatively – and it’s not just the Martin Scorseses of the world saying so. In truth, though, even in its glory days, not all Marvel movies were created equal. For every box-office-dominating event picture, the studio would churn out a few inessential space-fillers. So while we wait to see if upcoming entries Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts manage to pull the franchise out of its doldrums, we decided to see what’s worked best and what has fallen flat by ranking all 33 official MCU flicks released so far. As the list demonstrates, the glory days are still where the gold/vibranium lies.
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