Now that “Endgame” is out, I thought I’d at least make a stab at watching some of these movies. Better late than never, right? I checked, and it seems that my state library has copies of most and possibly all of them. I dutifully scoured the internet for advice on how to watch them and decided using the internal chronology as a guide would make more sense than taking the release date as gospel.
This order seems to be accepted wisdom, so I started requesting them at the library.
- Captain America: The First Avenger (Introduces the concept of superheroes and takes place decades before any other movie. Watch it first.)
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- The Incredible Hulk (Could skip this one. Weakest of all Marvel movies.)
- Thor
- The Avengers
- Iron Man 3
- Thor: The Dark World
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Doctor Strange
- Captain America: Civil War
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Thor: Ragnarok
- Black Panther
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (Probably the 2nd weakest of the Marvel movies, but there is a bit of info here you need to understand before Endgame. You could just read a recap and save time, though.)
- Avengers: Endgame
So far I’ve seen “First Avenger” at home, “Captain Marvel” in the theater, “Iron Man” at home, and “Iron Man 2” (well, half of it; it became blindingly obvious what was going to happen by the end of the film). I just got “Thor” from the library today. I saw “Black Panther” in the theater a year ago. I don’t recall it had any connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. or any of the other players, but that could be my failing memory.
I also discovered that I have to watch these on my desktop. The remote control for my DVD player in the kitchen suffered that most awful of calamities: battery corrosion.
I went off in search of a new remote at Best Buy (no more Radio Shack!) and discovered that they don’t sell inexpensive universal remotes for DVDs anymore; they’re all streaming and television and soundbar. If you want one for a DVD player you have to buy online or pay as much as you’d pay for a basic DVD player (which I need; I have about 40 movies on disc; I don’t want to dump them for Netflix or any of the other options). Progress, bah! I ordered a $10 remote from Amazon which should be here in two weeks.
Despite 31 years buying and reading Marvel superhero comics (and a few DCs – can’t live without Wonder Woman!), the only one of these I’ve seen was Black Panther, and I only saw that because the plane coming back from Italy last year offered it for free. I’ve gotten out of the habit of going to movie theaters and we haven’t turned on the TV in about 5 years. Sorry to hear about your remote issues, good luck with the replacement.
I see one or possibly two movies a year in a theater and not many more on home TV, but I’m making an exception for these just to be au courant. đ
Late to the game, but I’ve seen them all except Endgame and Hulk. The order you have them in is chronological within the universe, not the order they came out in. That should work, although some of the end credits scenes may be confusing. I agree that you can skip The Hulk, but disagree about Antman and the Wasp. The Wasp actually steals the show here.
The only connection I remember between Black Panther and the rest of the MCU is Bucky in Wakanda in the end credits.