My Favorites Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The folks over at Variety published an article ranking every Marvel Studios movie and TV show from worst to best at the end of last week, and while I can’t say that I agree with the order of their choices, I found the list interesting, especially the comments made by readers who really didn’t like the list, for the most part.

You can judge that list, which can be found here and the comments for yourself, and then make your own list – that is if you’re a fan of the whole Marvel Universe, of course.

Perusing over that list made me want to create my own top list, but after reading the comments I decided to nix that idea. Instead, I decided to simply put together the TV shows and movies from within the Marvel Universe that I have enjoyed the most; not placing them in any list from top to bottom, not picking the top one or picking that one that was my least favorite; just picking the ones that I liked.

So, here are my picks – in alphabetical order – just to make it easier:

Agatha All Along

Two words: Kathryn Hahn! She was terrific as Agatha Harkness in WandaVision, and she was even better in Agatha All Along. It also doesn’t hurt to have Patti LuPone along for the ride along the Witches’ Road filled with all the crazy, and sometimes scary, tests the witches had to endure in order to get their powers back and to figure out who the “Teen” actually was (no spoilers for those who haven’t watched).

Ant-Man

Michael Pena may not have been the lead character in this movie, but fast-talking Luis was certainly a scene-stealer and added to the giggle-fest that most of this movie thanks in great part to Paul Rudd’s fantastic portrayal of Scott Lang aka Ant-Man.

Avengers: Endgame

The final movie in the franchise, at least with the existing cast at the time, brought about a culmination of 11 years of movies, stories and characters. It included, no, assembled (as the article states) nearly every single MCU character and proved that Thor wasn’t the only person in the entire universe to be able to handle “Mew Mew” (aka Mjolnir). The roar of the audience in the theatre I was in when that moment happened, wow, it was electrifying!

Black Panther

As the article states, this movie was a “towering cultural moment” and made everyone seeing it recreate the cross-armed salute “Wakanda Forever,” and made history with a Best Picture Oscar nomination. It was a box office success, making the late Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan even bigger stars than they already were. The vibrancy of colors and time-bending technology of Wakanda were pretty incredible too.

Captain America: The First Avenger

This was our introduction to Steve Rogers and how he became Captain America while holding onto his complete and abject decency as well as his overwhelming devotion to his best friend Bucky that would later play out in so many ways in future movies. Hayley Atwell was also great as Peggy Carter, showcasing what an important role her character would play in the over-arching story of how S.H.I.E.L.D. came to be.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

As this article states, this sequel contained some of the best action scenes in all of the MCU as well as showcasing the undeniable friendship between Cap and Bucky encapsulated in Steve telling The Winter Soldier, “I’m with you till the end of the line.” Bromance, indeed.

Guardians of the Galaxy

From the opening scene to the ending take-off of the Guardians in Peter’s ship, this movie was just a rip-roaring riot even if most of the viewing audience wasn’t all that familiar with the Guardians unless you were a devout comic book fan. This movie made “I am Groot” a part of the pop culture lexicon and gave us one of the best movie soundtracks with all of the 1960s and 1970s songs that played throughout.

Iron Man

This movie put the MCU on the map and revitalized Robert Downey Jr.’s image with the movie-going public. His spin as genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist Tony Stark was VITAL to the future of the franchise and, as the article states, his casting was “one of the most consequential decisions in cinema history.”

Loki

Say what you will about Loki – good guy, bad guy – you just had to love Tom Hiddleston as the trickster even if most of what he did ended up going badly. But in the small screen adaptation, Loki was given the opportunity to show a different side of himself – no matter which version of him there was – and while he was a full-on toxic narcissist – you couldn’t help but love him, right?

Ms. Marvel

I knew little to nothing about Ms. Marvel before I watched this small screen adaptation of the character and was blown away by the performance of newcomer Iman Vellani in the title role. The show was part history lesson, part whimsy and part idol-worship (on the part of Kamala having an overwhelming adoration for Captain Marvel, that is). She MADE that show, she WAS that character and if you haven’t watched it, you need to coz it’s just that good!

Thor: Ragnarok

Chris Hemsworth was nothing short of eye-candy in the other movies, but in this third movie in the Thor-specific franchise, wow, did it deliver! Director Taika Waititi filled the movie with color, offbeat humor and an absolute scene-stealer in Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster; and let’s not forget about the showdown between Thor and his sister Hela to the “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin.

WandaVision

Watching life play out for Wanda Maximoff and Vision in each episode of this, the first TV series in the MCU, was pretty amazing. From the B&W homage to “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “I Love Lucy” to “The Brady Bunch” to “Step By Step” to “Full House” and beyond. The overall impact of Wanda’s grief played out profoundly as each episode was released culminating in a massive reveal that not everyone saw coming. I know I sure didn’t see the truth until almost the last moment. If you haven’t watched WandaVision, I won’t spoil that reveal, by the way, but I will say that you owe it to yourself to watch.

What If…?

This animated series took all of the MCU characters that were featured in each episode and turned them on their heads by pondering alternate realities for them and introduced us to some characters who were little seen or discussed in any of the MCU-themed shows or movies. Except for the zombie-filled episodes (which have never been a genre I like or could tolerate watching), these 26 episodes were, in my opinion, some of the most intriguing stories about the superheroes and villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Special Mention:

I cannot finish off this salute to the Marvel Universe without including the ten “I Am Groot” shorts that aired in August of 2022 and in September 2023 because they were just so much fun to watch. In true Groot fashion he got into trouble in every single one but seemed to sort of learn a lesson each time, well, sort of. If you get a chance to watch them, you really should. They are good for a laugh, that’s for sure.

What have been your favorite shows and/or movies out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Please share them in our comments section below.

[Featured Image Photo Credit: Disney/Marvel Studios]