Every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, ranked from worst to best

Conventional critical wisdom holds that the floor and the ceiling of the 15-year-strong Marvel Cinematic Universe, a.k.a the MCU, are not so far apart—that in devising a recipe for success, the company has managed to avoid any outright disasters, even as its principle of quality without risk more or less negates the possibility of a true pop masterpiece of the genre. Still, as anyone who’s sat through both Eternals or Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and the Oscar-winning zeitgeist phenomenon Black Panther can surely attest, there remains a range of quality within this franchise of franchises. Which is to say, while most MCU movies have been hits, they are not all created equal.

How does Marvel’s latest cinematic installment, The Marvels, measure up to the 32 movies that have come before it? Here The A.V. Club offers our comprehensive ranking, from worst to best, for every Marvel movie to date, going all the way back to Iron Man in 2008. Like the studio, we wouldn’t dream of spoiling our endgame, but here’s a hint: Ed Norton fans, this won’t be your day of vindication.

This list was updated on November 10, 2023.

33. Iron Man 2 (2010)

Despite what its position at the very bottom of this list may imply, Iron Man 2 is not completely devoid of fun. For example, the suitcase armor is still a very cool concept, and Tony Stark activating it while staring down Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko is a great moment. Speaking of which, who could forget Rourke’s weird pronunciation of the word “bird”? All good stuff. Unfortunately, everything else is less good. The movie features the introduction of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, and while she would eventually go on to become a core pillar of this series, here she’s like that portable gear. Then there’s the big final battle, with Tony fighting an army of faceless Iron Man clones and then taking out a newly armored Vanko in a matter of moments, neither of which are particularly cool or satisfying. [Sam Barsanti]