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.

4. Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

The best Marvel movies are the ones that find their own niche within the larger framework, whether it’s putting or dropping Spider-Man into another . With , Taika Waititi gave the MCU its best comedy to date, buddy or otherwise. The What We Do In The Shadows director plays up the deadpan humor and awkward interpersonal dynamics, finding killer pairings in Chris Hemsworth and every single one of his co-stars, from Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk to Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, who is at his most charming here. That would be enough to make it the strongest film in the Thor trilogy, but Waititi also delivers some of the most striking visuals in all the MCU, creating a blacklight-poster aesthetic for this apocalyptic tale. Thor: Ragnarok pushes further still, intermittently setting aside its screwball energy to tell a poignant refugee story. So although he was tasked with bringing Asgard to an end, Waititi ended up breathing new life into Thor and his solo series. [Danette Chavez]