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Marvel universe ranked

Ranking best and worst offerings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

BY CHRISTOPHER BORRELLI

From TV to film, and animation to cartoon; here’s the best and worse offerings of the 14-year-old Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What we have here is a ranking of every single TV show and movie that’s a part of the 14-year-old Marvel Cinematic Universe, which will continue long enough to bury you and me.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” now playing, is the 50th live-action installment of the MCU juggernaut, which includes streaming TV series on multiple networks. Part of the unease with the MCU is that it created a third species, neither TV nor film, but an ongoing, interconnected narrative that requires both.

My criteria for inclusion here is simple: Was it intended as a part of the MCU? That means ranking TV and film together. (But not including animation. Or any Deadpool, Fantastic Four, X-men film — all of which were made before the formal MCU or

by other studios.)

The MCU began formally with “Iron Man” in 2008. For a lumbering corporate beast, it’s been an achievement, an adaptation of an entire medium. Considering that scale and scheme, there’s lots of mediocrity. And dumb things. But, also, lots to admire.

50. “Iron Fist” (2017-2018): This unintentionally hilarious martial-arts series centered on a white dude (Finn Jones) who travels away and returns a god — yet less skilled than those around him. Even the powers are nuts: Iron Fist melds his “thoughts” into a mystical gun.

49. “Inhumans” (2017): A family of genetically altered bores live on the moon, escape a coup, then move to Hawaii. Black Bolt, the lead super, could shatter the world if he spoke. He never does. A knowing wink might have made this ABC series work. But no one smiles.

48. “Helstrom” (2020): Meant as a tie for several spooky Marvel shows that fizzled before they started, it’s a lifeless TV take on ‘ 70s horror comic “Son of Satan,” about siblings facing their demonic lineage. Dramatic as it might sound, it’s all just a “Hannibal” riff.

47. “Thor: The Dark World” (2013): The nadir of the Marvel cinematic cavalcade, so undistinguished Chris Hemsworth calls it “Thor, The Second One.” He would prove himself later in the role, but here, not even Tom Hiddleston’s reliable Loki looks convinced.

46. “Iron Man 2” (2010): Empty of purpose (other than getting super ducks ready for “The Avengers”) and jammed tight with booms, CGI and Mickey Rourke attacking a car race with electric whips. (Scarlett Johansson’s walk-on as Black Widow hints at fun to come.)

45. “The Defenders” (2017): Meant as a crossover culmination of Netflix’s Marvel period, pulling together Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Daredevil for a grittier Avengers. Three of the characters were smart. Their bickering was fun. But the plot never builds.

44. “Thor” (2011): Marvel was still figuring out this universe thing. Nearly 12 years later, it’s hard to believe Hemsworth was once sluggish — or that Hiddleston’s perfect bad guy was so ill-served. Director Kenneth Branagh trusts too much in the original Thor comics.

43. “The Punisher” (20172019): The Punisher — created in the ‘70s to capitalize on Dirty Harry-like antiheroes — was never interesting. Jon Bernthal is mostly good, but his self-pitying lunatic with a heart of gold never achieves those subversive aims.

42. “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2” (2017): I remember wondering if I should leave the theater because it felt like a highlight reel of the first film. Groot’s oblivious dance through a battle is fun. And Kurt Russell plays a planet who is also Chris Pratt’s father.

41. “The Runaways” (20172019): The premise is clever: John Hughes-ish teens (goth, jock, etc.) discover their parents are supervillains and work to counter them. The series started well. But it took one season for everyone to run away.

40. “The Incredible Hulk” (2008): Coming five years after Ang Lee’s heady stab, it suggested Marvel had vision. There’s more Hulk! More smash! But the studio can’t yet balance Ed Norton’s philosophical Bruce Banner with thrills. The result is underwhelming.

39. “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015): Joss Whedon’s second spin with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes suffers from being more of a superhero networking party than a compelling story. It’s all setup for stories that happen later (“WandaVision,” “Civil War,” “Black Panther”).

38. “Cloak & Dagger” (20182019): Marvel corporate history is loaded with heroes who never click. These two channel light and darkness. Together — one superhero! It has fans, and at its best, this Freeform team-up show nailed the vibe of the ‘ 90s CW teen gold rush.

37. “Eternals” (2021): By the time this serious epic landed — about godlike figures guiding history — we knew the MCU. And were maybe even sick of it? You have to admire director Chloe Zhao. But there isn’t a single interesting character — and there are so many.

36. “Black Widow” (2020): A thankless coda to Johansson’s Natasha Romanov, super spy. There’s a lot to like here: Florence Pugh’s Yelena, David Harbour’s Russian caricature, an “Americans”-like espionage backstory. It’s scene-setting for the rise of Pugh’s star.

35. “Iron Man 3” (2013): A sunny corrective to Jon Favreau’s tedious part 2, though mostly a showcase for Robert Downey Jr.’s rat-a-tat delivery. Its plot doesn’t land, and Downey spends a lot of the film in a farm house, asking who he is without his technology.

34. “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (2013-2020): The first official MCU TV series ran seven seasons on ABC, remarkable because its promise of being an all-encompassing stop for Marvel — its plots and characters floating in and out from the movies — never worked.

33. “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018): The highs here work because the MCU is a monument to smart casting. But there’s also a million fights, a zillion CGI hordes, and more exposition than “One Life to Live.” The moving parts pile until you just want to get to the next film.

32. “Moon Knight” (2022): I hate to knock a show with so much on its mind and willing to explore it in six episodes, shuttling from horror to comedy, musing on free will and justice. But it plays like a superhero show in name only. Not a bad thing, but it needs more time.

31. “Captain Marvel” (2019): You want this one to work more often than it does. By 2019, Marvel had not had a movie centered on a woman. Brie Larson is a steely portrait of resilience. But it’s another Marvel table setting, and colder than most.

30. “Doctor Strange” (2016): It was our introduction to the multiverse, and the MCU’S most convincing argument these flicks could venture outside grounded “Iron Man” territory into Jack Kirby-inspired psychedelic travel. And yet, the rest is so familiar.

29. “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022): Boy, after the heights of Taika Waititi’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” expectations soared. Like too much MCU, though, it’s a mess of tones and stabs at reviving what worked. Waititi seems distracted, but he throws a decent party.

28. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022): Chaotic, yet ... fitting? Sam Raimi returns to comic books after his “Spider-man” set the stage for the MCU. Ironically, he helms the Marvel film that implodes beneath the MCU’S accumulated subplots.

27. “Spider-man: Far From Home” (2019): Tom Holland’s Spidey has proven so indelible that part of me wishes he operated outside the MCU infrastructure. This European road trip gives him space to explore that iconic “with great power comes great responsibility” credo.

26. “Ant-man” (2015): This is a light diversion powered by an excellent cast (Paul Rudd, Michael Pena, Michael Douglas) and dependable heistflick snappiness with nice slightness. It’s a tribute to the MCU that a superhero flick without ambitions is a change of pace.

25. “Ant-man and the Wasp” (2018): A bit sharper, leaning into what worked the first time — the laughs and Pena’s embellished recaps of its confusing plot. The best MCU films get “Abbott and Costello”-esque, and this, turns its lack of consequence into rollicking fun.

24. “Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021): Before the second half slides frustratingly into CGI bombast and stale MCU rhythms, Marvel’s first Asian-led blockbuster is vibrant, casting legends (Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh) alongside a smart young cast.

23. “Hawkeye” (2021): The Aquaman of the MCU. He shoots arrows. Which is why this Disney+ series works more often than not. The world isn’t at stake. Just Christmas. Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), an antihero Scrooge, fights off ghosts of his past.

22. “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (2021): Black Panther aside, the MCU nods vaguely to social context. Not here. As Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) inherits Captain America’s shield, we see how it feels for a Black man to embody America.

21. “She-hulk, Attorney at Law” (2022): Tatiana Maslany, as the Hulk’s cousin, anchors essentially a sitcom, though one that reminded how enjoyable Marvel can get when it allows inventive freedom, and goes with its knowing, winky instincts.

20. “Spider-man: Homecoming” (2017): You have to admire a film that arrives this confidently, knowing you’ve seen it many times before. Its charm is in its return to the early ‘60s source, giving us a truly teenage Spidey — a kid — played by Tom Holland.

19. “Luke Cage” (2016-2018): Like Black Panther, Luke Cage was mostly a white creation, loaded with reflexively racist detail. This nearly great Netflix show gave those questionable roots a humanity, depicting a broken man combating social injustice and his own reticence.

18. “Agent Carter” (20152016): A victim of Marvel still figuring out TV. This spirited wartime spy show never had enough time in two short seasons to meld MCU tics to the midcentury matinee serials in its heart. Its reputation is overblown but only a bit.

17. “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011): It’s hard to remember a time when we knew Chris Evans as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four films. But Evans as Cap proved a keeper, this generation’s Christopher Reeve. Good thing: He’s is the linchpin of the MCU.

16. “Loki” (2021): Mighta been a tonal train wreck. Hiddleston returns to his beloved bad guy, facing a worse villain. Basically, a multiverse bureaucracy. Hiddleston’s charisma pairs well with Owen Wilson. Convoluted yet ambitious, it’s closer to an existential thriller.

15. “Captain America: Civil War” (2016): No matter how resonant the MCU — the issue is federal regulation of superpowers — someone gets punched in the head. The mix of character to action is elegant here, as its dozen superheroes are drawn to opposing camps.

14. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022): With a heavier heart than the first film — and least satisfying when it seeks to bring back the Panther — it’s a heartbreaking farewell to Chadwick Boseman. It’s also an aesthetic beauty that showcases a terrific female cast.

13. “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014): The most consequential movie in the MCU? If it hadn’t clicked, Marvel would have been less eager to trot out more B-list heroes from its deep reserves. Now this ensemble (led by Chris Pratt) is a connector of cinematic worlds.

12. “Wandavision” (2021): The first MCU TV series truly

integrated with its big-screen precedent was an often captivating portrait of loss and madness.

You forget you’re an adult watching a show about a robot married to a witch.

11. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014): Before everything blows up, this is the fleetest of paranoia thrillers, featuring jaw-dropping stunts on D.C. boulevards. Bonus points for a weary Robert Redford providing a link to 1970s conspiracy cinema.

10. “Ms. Marvel” (2022): Among the best-reviewed MCU shows, and least seen. Because it was Spider-manlite? About a Muslim hero with a warm Islamic family? Who knows? As a portrait of a community, it was a groundbreaking treat.

9. “Daredevil” (2015-2018): Brutal and pensive, with a hero wearing a cobbled-together costume and a lifetime of moral regrets, this street-level epic about the contradictions of justice had the finest hero-villain electricity in the MCU.

8. “The Avengers” (2012): Writer-director Joss Whedon nails what seemed unlikely: A team-up crossover in which every hero’s story dovetails perfectly. As New York burned behind them, each fighting back to back — the defining MCU image — you saw Hollywood’s future.

7. “Black Panther” (2018): The first MCU film to suggest the MCU should aspire beyond its usual borders. Not villains with grudges, but villains (Michael B. Jordan) with relatable motivations. Not just serviceable direction, but distinctive visions (Ryan Coogler).

6. “Werewolf by Night” (2022): Casting off the standard MCU, this “Special Presentation” is a tight, 53-minute salute to horror comics and Universal monsters, told in black and white. It’s fun and also an immersive reminder of how to tantalize an audience, not overwhelm.

5. “Iron Man” (2008): The “Stagecoach” of superhero cinema. Iron Man never was a household name like Hulk or Spider-man, but Downey’s sparkle proved two things: Casting was the key, and a superhero movie with the right actors and tone could spend as much time on character as it does on the fantasy.

4. “Spider-man: No Way Home” (2021): A hugely satisfying juggling of themes and characters (and actors from other cinematic Spider-man franchises) that finds room to stay tender and, astonishingly, lucid. Both a love letter to decades of super-soap-operaing and a moving appreciation of storytelling.

3. “Jessica Jones” (2015-2019): Like most episodic TV, seasons are not created equal. But even if this never made it past its first season, it’d be a down-low noir classic, with a hero (Krysten Ritter) whose PTSD after years of abuse has left her wondering why her super strength wasn’t enough to protect her.

2. “Avengers: Endgame” (2019): Rousing, big and then finally so touching it’s hard not to tear up. There’s a reason audiences recorded in-theater reactions to this culmination of narratives. When Captain America growls “Assemble” one last time and the whole MCU rushes in behind, it’s hard not to love movies again.

1. “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017): Waititi is no comic book purist, but he recognizes that when pop culture sings it can be simultaneously meaningless and meaningful. Think Monty Python, a clear inspiration. There’s invigorating creative freedom that plays out in laughs, gorgeous designs and a cast who bring a disarming casualness to nearly every scene.

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2022-11-25T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-25T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281509345195017

The Gazette, Colorado Springs