Marvel Phase One movies, ranked
Almost 15 years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was formed with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and the Marvel Phase One movies. Now, there are 31 movies in the MCU so far and even more Marvel movies are on the way in 2023.
Looking back, it’s wild to think how it all started with Phase One and the introduction of a few main characters: Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor, which led the way to The Avengers in 2012.
With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and even more new MCU Movies coming later this year, we thought it would be a good time to revisit and rank the Marvel Phase One movies from worst to best.
Here are the Marvel Phase One movies in order:
- Iron Man (2008)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Iron Man 2 (2010)
- Thor (2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- The Avengers (2012)
Let’s get the list started with, unfortunately, the worst of the Marvel Phase One movies, The Incredible Hulk.
6. The Incredible Hulk
- Release Year: 2008
- Director: Louis Leterrier
- Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and Christina Cabot
The Incredible Hulk is the second movie of the MCU. It tells the origin story of Bruce Banner, played by Edward Norton, who becomes the Hulk and is one the run from the US Military who is trying to use him as a weapon. In the film, Banner is tracked by Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth, who becomes obsessed with Hulk and begins taking experimental doses, which turns him into Abomination. Hulk and Abomination get into a huge battle, but eventually, Hulk wins and flees New York City only to be tracked down by the one and only Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr.
The Incredible Hulk is one of the first and only misses in the MCU so far! The movie was released one month after Iron Man, which in hindsight was probably a big mistake. Overall, The Incredible Hulk is not a bad movie, but considering the quality and standards we’ve seen from Marvel over the last 10 years, it just wasn’t good enough.
Marvel cast Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk following The Incredible Hulk. We haven’t seen any other Hulk movies, but the character has been a major part of the MCU stories and will continue to be in the future.
5. Iron Man 2
- Release Year: 2010
- Director: Jon Favreau
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson
Iron Man 2 is the second Iron Man movie, obviously, and it’s the only sequel that’s part of Marvel Phase One. The film premiered in 2010, nearly two years after the first Iron Man movie was released.
In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark has revealed himself as Iron Man and is struggling with his personal health. He also faces a new enemy in the form of Ivan Vanko, played by Mickey Rourke, a Russian physicist who seeks revenge on the Stark family.
Iron Man and Rhodey/War Machine, played by Don Cheadle, defeat Vanko and his army of drones. Stark also discovers a new element to replace the palladium in his arc reactor, saving his life, which sets up the birth of the Avengers shortly after.
Unfortunately, Iron Man 2 just isn’t quite as good as the first film, which is no surprise and not really an insult, either! Iron Man is such a great movie and so revolutionary. It delivered something we’d never seen before. It would be foolish to think the sequel would do that all again. Still, Iron Man 2 is really good; it’s just not quite one of the best MCU movies we’ve seen so far.
4. Thor
- Release Year: 2011
- Director: Kenneth Branagh
- Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins
In Thor, Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, is banished from Asgard and sent to Earth by his father, Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins, after a colossal mess-up on Thor’s part. On Earth, Thor falls in love with Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, and gets involved with SHIELD, which paves the way for his involvement in The Avengers and other major storylines.
In the film, Thor returns to Asgard to stop his brother Loki, played by Tom Hiddlestone, from bringing Asgard’s destruction.
Thor isn’t the best of the Thor movies. I think that Thor: Ragnarok is clearly better than Thor in a lot of ways, but there’s no denying how crucial the story of Thor is in the overall MCU. There were so many important characters introduced in Thor and so many of these stories are carried through Avengers: Infinity War and into Thor: Love and Thunder. While the movie is called Thor, and obviously the character is very important and deserving of four movies, the big winner of Thor is clearly Loki and Tom Hiddleston. Loki is such an important part of the MCU and even has his own show nearly a decade later.
3. Captain America: The First Avenger
- Release Year: 2011
- Director: Joe Johnston
- Cast: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, and Stanley Tucci
Captain America: The First Avenger tells the origin story of Captain America. In the film, which is set during World War 2, Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, is ineligible to join the fight because of a medical condition. An experimental treatment turns him into Captain America, a super soldier, who is responsible for stopping HYDRA and Red Skull, who is going to try to take over the world using the tesseract, which comes up later A LOT in the MCU.
Overall, Captain America: The First Avenger is one of the best origin stories of the MCU that we’ve seen so far, but the movie falls a little short in some areas. Captain America: The First Avenger is probably the worst of the Captain America movies. There’s no doubt that Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: Winter Soldier is so much better than this movie.
With that said, The First Avenger holds up because it’s an integral part of the overall arc of the MCU. It’s the source of a lot of tension among the team simply because Steve Rogers is from a different generation. It adds a layer of drama to the team and sets up many of major story arcs that plays out in future MCU movies.
2. The Avengers
- Release Year: 2012
- Director: Joss Whedon
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson
The Avengers is so close to being the top movie of the Marvel Phase One movies. There’s only one movie that is notably better than The Avengers, although I’m sure some people would claim it’s the best movie of Phase One.
The Avengers is the first big team-up for the Avengers. In the film, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye are brought together by Nick Fury and SHIELD to stop Loki and the Chitauri after Loki opens a portal and opens up New York to an attack. The Avengers eventually stop Loki, but the battle foreshadows what is to come and how necessary it is for the Avengers to work together to stop this from happening again.
The Avengers is easily one of the best MCU movies to date, although it’s not even the best of the Avengers movies. That title belongs to Endgame, which was released in 2019. For Phase One, though, The Avengers is another example of showing fans what was possible in the MCU. Seeing these great characters come together on screen and work together was EPIC!
Up next is the best movie of Marvel’s Phase One!
1. Iron Man
- Release Year: 2008
- Director: Jon Favreau
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, and Shaun Toub
There’s no doubt that Iron Man is the best movie of Marvel’s Phase One movies. It was the movie that kickstarted the Marvel Cinematic Universe, showed what was possible and what the future of the superhero movie could be, and paved the way for a whole new generation of fans to discover the magic of Marvel.
In the film, Tony Stark, a billionaire inventor, is kidnapped by terrorists while on a business trip in Afghanistan. The terrorists demand that he build them a powerful weapon, but instead, Tony uses his knowledge and resources to create a suit of armor that allows him to escape captivity. Back in the United States, Tony perfects the suit, which gives him incredible strength and abilities, and uses it to fight crime and protect the world from harm.
Iron Man grossed about $600 million at the box office, which is a lot less than some of the more recent Marvel movies grossed, but there’s no doubt this is one of the best MCU movies we’ve seen so far. It will be hard for future MCU movies to beat this one. It’s just that good.
After Iron Man, Marvel made two more Iron Man sequels with Robert Downey, Jr. in the lead. The first movie is easily the best of the Iron Man movies. He also played a part in 10 Marvel movies, including the biggest MCU movies we’ve seen, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.