Captain America: The First AvengerEssential
A man too small and too sick to enlist is picked for an experiment because of exactly the qualities the army had been screening out.
Opens and closes in the present day.
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Marvel Cinematic Universe · In-Universe Order
Doomsday is not out yet, so this is a reading of what matters going in, not a ruling.
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Legacy: The War and the 1940s 1 title
The Nineties 1 title
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Captain MarvelEssential
A soldier in an alien war crash-lands on a planet she does not remember, with someone else's version of her own past in her head.
The Avengers Assemble 6 titles
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Iron ManEssential
A weapons manufacturer is taken hostage, builds a way out of a cave, and comes home with a very different idea about what he wants to make.
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Iron Man 2
Going public has consequences. A government wants the armour, a rival wants the contract, and a stranger with a grudge wants the man inside it.
- Tony Stark
- Pepper Potts
- James Rhodes
- Ivan Vanko
- Justin Hammer
- Nick Fury
- Phil Coulson
- Howard Stark
- Natasha Romanoff
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The Incredible Hulk
A scientist on the run in South America looks for a cure for what he turns into when his pulse climbs, while the people who want to weaponize it close in.
- Bruce Banner
- Thaddeus Ross
- Emil Blonsky
- Tony Stark
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ThorEssential
An arrogant prince of an alien kingdom is stripped of his power and dumped on Earth, where nobody has any reason to be impressed by him.
- Thor
- Loki
- Odin
- Jane Foster
- Darcy Lewis
- Erik Selvig
- Heimdall
- Sif
- Frigga
- Phil Coulson
- Nick Fury
- Clint Barton
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The AvengersEssential
A spy agency spends its last favors assembling people who do not work well together, because the alternative is losing the planet.
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Iron Man 3
After New York, the armour is a coping mechanism. Then a bombing campaign takes the fight somewhere the suit cannot follow.
Christmas.
- Tony Stark
- Pepper Potts
- James Rhodes
- Aldrich Killian
- Happy Hogan
- Harley Keener
- Trevor Slattery
- Bruce Banner
After New York 7 titles
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Thor: The Dark World
An enemy older than the realms wakes up, and the only route to stopping him runs through the one person nobody in Asgard should trust.
- Thor
- Loki
- Jane Foster
- Odin
- Frigga
- Heimdall
- Darcy Lewis
- Erik Selvig
- Sif
- Malekith
- Algrim
- Taneleer Tivan
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Captain America: The Winter SoldierEssential
A man out of his own time starts pulling at a thread inside the agency he works for, and something very good at killing is sent to stop him.
- Steve Rogers
- Natasha Romanoff
- Sam Wilson
- Nick Fury
- Alexander Pierce
- Maria Hill
- Sharon Carter
- Peggy Carter
- Arnim Zola
- Bucky Barnes
- Wanda Maximoff
- Pietro Maximoff
- Baron Wolfgang von Strucker
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Guardians of the GalaxyEssential
A thief steals the wrong orb and ends up in a cell with four other people who all want to kill each other slightly less than they want to get paid.
A prologue in 1988.
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Essential
Still barely a team, still barely paid, and now being chased by a fleet they stole from — until someone turns up claiming to know where Peter came from.
- Peter Quill
- Gamora
- Drax the Destroyer
- Rocket
- Groot
- Nebula
- Yondu Udonta
- Mantis
- Kraglin
- Ego
- Adam Warlock
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Avengers: Age of UltronEssential
An attempt to build something that would let everyone go home works exactly as well as that has ever worked.
- Tony Stark
- Steve Rogers
- Thor
- Bruce Banner
- Natasha Romanoff
- Clint Barton
- Ultron
- Wanda Maximoff
- Pietro Maximoff
- Nick Fury
- James Rhodes
- Sam Wilson
- Maria Hill
- Ulysses Klaue
- Laura Barton
- Vision
- Thanos
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Daredevil — Season 1
A blind lawyer works Hell's Kitchen by day and does something less legal about it at night.
- Matt Murdock
- Karen Page
- Foggy Nelson
- Claire Temple
- Wilson Fisk
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Jessica Jones — Season 1
A private investigator who would rather not be anything else is forced to deal with a man she got away from once.
Civil War, Infinity War and the Snap 13 titles
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Daredevil — Season 2
Two people arrive in the neighborhood with methods Matt cannot live with, and one of them he used to love.
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Luke Cage — Season 1
A man with unbreakable skin who wanted a quiet job in Harlem is pulled into what the neighborhood is actually run by.
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Iron Fist — Season 1
A man declared dead fifteen years ago walks back into his family's company barefoot.
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The Defenders — Season 1
Four people who all work alone are pushed into the same room by the same conspiracy.
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The Punisher — Season 1
A man everyone believes is dead goes looking for the truth about the operation that killed his family.
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Jessica Jones — Season 2
Jessica finally looks into the accident that changed her, and would rather not find what she finds.
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Luke Cage — Season 2
Harlem has a new problem, and Luke has become something the neighborhood expects things from.
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Iron Fist — Season 2
A shorter, sharper season about what the fist is actually for.
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Daredevil — Season 3
Matt is presumed dead, which is convenient for the man being released from prison.
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The Punisher — Season 2
A road trip, a girl who needs protecting, and a man who cannot leave anything alone.
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Jessica Jones — Season 3
The last season, and the most personal antagonist the show ever gave her.
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Ant-ManEssential
A burglar fresh out of prison is handed a suit that shrinks him, by an old man who needs a theft done and cannot do it himself.
- Scott Lang
- Hank Pym
- Hope van Dyne
- Darren Cross
- Luis
- Cassie Lang
- Janet van Dyne
- Sam Wilson
- Steve Rogers
- Bucky Barnes
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Captain America: Civil WarEssential
After one operation too many goes wrong in public, the world asks the Avengers to sign something, and they do not agree about it.
The Blip 8 titles
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Black WidowEssential
On the run and off the books, Natasha goes back to the people she was raised with, which is not the same thing as family.
A prologue in 1995.
- Natasha Romanoff
- Yelena Belova
- Alexei Shostakov
- General Dreykov
- Taskmaster
- Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
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Black PantherEssential
A new king inherits a country that has spent centuries hiding what it can do, and a challenger arrives who thinks that was a crime.
- T'Challa
- Erik Killmonger
- Nakia
- Okoye
- Shuri
- Ramonda
- M'Baku
- Ulysses Klaue
- Everett Ross
- Bucky Barnes
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Spider-Man: HomecomingEssential
A fifteen-year-old with an internship he cannot explain wants to be taken seriously, and picks a fight with people salvaging things they should not have.
- Peter Parker
- Adrian Toomes
- Tony Stark
- Happy Hogan
- May Parker
- Ned Leeds
- Michelle Jones
- Liz Allan
- Steve Rogers
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Doctor StrangeEssential
A brilliant, unbearable surgeon loses the use of his hands and chases a cure to a place that offers him something else entirely.
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Thor: RagnarokEssential
Asgard is promised an ending. Thor is stranded on the far side of the galaxy with a collar around his neck and no hammer to reach for.
- Thor
- Loki
- Hela
- Valkyrie
- The Grandmaster
- Korg
- Heimdall
- Odin
- Stephen Strange
- Bruce Banner
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Ant-Man and the WaspEssential
Under house arrest and two days from freedom, Scott is pulled back into a rescue that has been thirty years in the planning.
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Avengers: Infinity WarEssential
Everything that has been building for ten years arrives at once, and it is not remotely enough.
- Thanos
- Tony Stark
- Steve Rogers
- Thor
- Bruce Banner
- Natasha Romanoff
- Stephen Strange
- Peter Parker
- T'Challa
- Peter Quill
- Gamora
- Drax the Destroyer
- Rocket
- Groot
- Mantis
- Nebula
- Loki
- Heimdall
- Vision
- Wanda Maximoff
- Sam Wilson
- James Rhodes
- Okoye
- Shuri
- Wong
- Pepper Potts
- The Stonekeeper
- Nick Fury
- Maria Hill
- Carol Danvers
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Avengers: EndgameEssential
What is left of the team works out what to do next. Do not watch this one first.
Spans five years.
After the Blip 7 titles
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten RingsEssential
A man parking cars in San Francisco under a name that is not his is found by the organization he ran away from.
- Shang-Chi
- Xu Wenwu
- Trevor Slattery
- Emil Blonsky
- Wong
- Bruce Banner
- Carol Danvers
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Spider-Man: Far From HomeEssential
A school trip across Europe, an adult who wants a favour, and a kid who would very much like one summer off.
- Peter Parker
- Quentin Beck
- Michelle Jones
- Ned Leeds
- May Parker
- Happy Hogan
- Nick Fury
- Maria Hill
- Talos
- J. Jonah Jameson
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Spider-Man: No Way HomeEssential
With his name public and his life falling apart, Peter asks for a spell to make everyone forget, which goes about as well as you would expect.
- Peter Parker
- Stephen Strange
- Michelle Jones
- Ned Leeds
- May Parker
- Happy Hogan
- Wong
- Otto Octavius
- Norman Osborn
- Max Dillon
- Flint Marko
- Curt Connors
- Matt Murdock
- Quentin Beck
- J. Jonah Jameson
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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessEssential
A girl who can punch holes between universes is being hunted, and the safest place for her is next to a man who keeps having the same dream.
- Stephen Strange
- Wanda Maximoff
- Wong
- Christine Palmer
- Karl Mordo
- Reed Richards
- Captain Carter
- Black Bolt
- Maria Rambeau as Captain Marvel
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Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor is trying to work out who he is with nothing left to avenge, which is when something starts killing gods.
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Black Panther: Wakanda ForeverEssential
A country in mourning is pushed by the rest of the world, and by a kingdom under the sea that has stayed hidden even longer than it did.
The Multiverse Saga 8 titles
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Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantumaniaEssential
The whole family is pulled into the world under reality, where somebody has been waiting a very long time for a way out.
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3Essential
To save one of their own the Guardians have to go back to where he was made, and find out who made him.
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The MarvelsEssential
Three people with light-based powers start swapping places every time they use them, which is a serious problem in a fight.
- Carol Danvers
- Kamala Khan
- Monica Rambeau
- Nick Fury
- Goose
- Valkyrie
- Hank McCoy
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Deadpool & WolverineEssential
A washed-up mercenary is recruited by an organization that manages timelines, and immediately makes everything much worse.
Placement is loose on purpose; the film treats its own chronology as a joke.
- Wade Wilson
- Logan
- Cassandra Nova
- Vanessa Carlysle
- Colossus
- Negasonic Teenage Warhead
- Eric Brooks
- Elektra Natchios
- Laura
- Remy LeBeau
- Johnny Storm
- Victor Creed
- St. John Allerdyce
- Happy Hogan
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Captain America: Brave New WorldEssential
A new Captain America walks into an international incident at the centre of government and cannot tell who arranged it.
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Thunderbolts*Essential
A group of people who have all done unforgivable things are put in a room together, and it is not a rescue.
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The Fantastic Four: First StepsEssential
Four explorers come back from a trip changed, in a bright retro-futurist world that has already decided they are heroes.
Set in its own universe, not on the main timeline.
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Spider-Man: Brand New DayEssential
Working the city alone, with nobody left who remembers who he is.