So You Want to Get Into Marvel… Part One

The best way to explain how to get invested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its tie-ins in this day and age is to tell you to learn quantum physics, advanced math, and genealogy. 

I’m an expert in none of those things. 

Raised by a D.C. Comics fan father and a non-nerd mother, it took me until the release of Black Panther in 2018 to have interest in Marvel. Once COVID-19 struck, I roped my parents and my younger brother into watching every Marvel movie with me. Despite some of the more recent films and shows being unpopular, I’ve seen the vast majority. Particularly ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, I found myself trying to explain the world of Marvel to my dad, who slept through most of the movies. Ultimately, why not share that with the world?

Through multiple parts of a series, or a course if you will, I shall attempt to shepherd you through the world of Marvel and its tie-in franchises such as X-Men and Fantastic Four. We’ll even cover the Spider-Man franchise and all of its idiosyncrasies (a word that I’m particularly proud of). The plan is to cover in film and TV release order, with expansions on Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spider-Man as they fit. Yes, I’m even going to cover the TV shows, but slot them in during their debut. Below is a full table of contents, if you will, with films in bold, TV shows plain, and italics for what is connected to Marvel but not technically part of the MCU (more on that later).

1. X-Men (July 2000)

2. Spider-Man (May 2002)

3. X-2: X-Men United (May 2003)

4. Spider-Man 2 (June 2004)

5. Fantastic 4 (July 2005)

6. X-Men: The Last Stand (May 2006)

7. Spider-Man 3 (May 2007)

8. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (June 2007)

9. Iron Man (May 2008)

10. The Incredible Hulk (June 2008)

11. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 2009)

12. Iron Man 2 (April 2010)

13. Thor (April 2011)

14. X-Men: First Class (June 2011)

15. Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011)

16. The Avengers (aka Avengers Assemble) (April 2012)

17. The Amazing Spider Man (July 2012)

18. Iron Man 3 (April 2013)

19. The Wolverine (July 2013)

20. Agents of SHIELD (September 2013 – August 2020)

21. Thor: The Dark World (November 2013)

22. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (March 2014)

23. X-Men: Days of Future Past (May 2014)

24. The Amazing Spider Man 2 (May 2014)

25. Guardians of the Galaxy (July 2014)

26. Agent Carter (January 2015 – February 2016)

27. Daredevil (April 2015 - October 2018)

28. Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 2015)

29. Ant-Man (July 2015)

30. Fantastic Four (August 2015)

31. Jessica Jones (November 2015 - June 2019)

32. Deadpool (February 2016)

33. Captain America: Civil War (April 2016)

34. X-Men: Apocalypse (May 2016)

35. Luke Cage (September 2016 - June 2018)

36. Doctor Strange (October 2016)

37. Iron Fist (March 2017 - September 2018)

38. Logan (March 2017)

39. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (April 2017)

40. Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 2017)

41. The Defenders  (August 2017)

42. Inhumans (September 2017 – November 2017)

43. Thor: Ragnarok (October 2017)

44. The Punisher (November 2017 - December 2018)

45. Runaways (November 2017 – December 2019)

46. Black Panther (February 2018)

47. Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018)

48. Deadpool 2 (May 2018)

49. Cloak & Dagger (June 2018 – May 2019)

50. Ant-Man and the Wasp (July 2018)

51. Venom (October 2018)

52. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (December 2018)

53. Captain Marvel (March 2019)

54. Avengers: Endgame (April 2019)

55. X-Men: Dark Phoenix (June 2019)

56. Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019)

57. X-Men: The New Mutants (August 2020)

58. WandaVision (January 2021 – March 2021)

59. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (March 2021 – April 2021)

60. Loki (June 2021 – November 2023)

61. Black Widow (July 2021)

62. What If...? (August 2021 – December 2024)

63. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (September 2021)

64. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (October 2021)

65. Eternals (November 2021)

66. Hawkeye (November 2021 – December 2021)

67. Spider-Man: No Way Home (December 2021)

68. Moon Knight (March 2022 – May 2022)

69. Morbius (April 2022)

70. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 2022)

71. Ms Marvel (June 2022 – July 2022)

72. Thor: Love and Thunder (July 2022)

73. I Am Groot (August 2022 - September 2023)

74. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (August 2022 – October 2022)

75. Werewolf By Night (October 2022)

76. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 2022)

77. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (November 2022)

78. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (February 2023)

79. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (May 2023)

80. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2023)

81. Secret Invasion (June 2023 – July 2023)

82. The Marvels (November 2023)

83. Echo (January 2024)

84. Madame Web (February 2024)

85. Deadpool & Wolverine (July 2024)

86. Agatha All Along (September 2024 – October 2024)

87. Venom: The Last Dance (October 2024)

88. Kraven the Hunter (December 2024)

89. Captain America: Brave New World (February 2025)

90. Daredevil: Born Again season 1 (March 2025 – April 2025)

91. Thunderbolts* (May 2025)

92. Ironheart season 1 (June 2025 – July 2025)

93. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 2025)

94. Eyes of Wakanda (August 2025)

95. Marvel Zombies (September 2025)

While 95 items certainly seems too much to handle, it’s important to note that even the most die-hard Marvel fans have not seen all of this list, myself included. With the exception of Agents of Shield, most TV shows prior to the limited series Wandavision in 2021 were not incredibly popular or well-rated. There are also movies included that are a part of the Sony Spider-Man Universe, creating a wider web of content that connects to the MCU or other Marvel intellectual property on this list. However, I’d be remiss if I did not give you the fullest picture. For the sake of simplicity, coverage of X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the overall Spiderman content will be separate parts later in what is essentially my Marvel crash course for you. One concept that Marvel leans into is the idea of Phases for its content, which we will use as a method of dividing parts. Part 2 of this discussion will cover Phase One, and I hope to see you there!