MARVELOUS MARVEL RECAP - PHASE 3 (Part 2)

Well... here we are, folks.

The whole dizzying tapestry and ever-expanding character cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been the rising action to this one fever pitch of an event, capped off once and for all TOMORROW NIGHT when Avengers Endgame drops.

There are only a few entries left in our Marvelous Marvel Recap before this grandest of grand finales, so let's just dive right into them without any further ado:

BLACK PANTHER

THE GIST: Returning to his hyper-advanced and secretive kingdom of Wakanda in the aftermath of his father's death in Civil War, Prince T'Challa ascends to the throne and assumes the hereditary warrior mantle of Black Panther among his people, all the while aided by his genius sister Shuri and an elite force of all-women bodyguards.

Soon into T'Challa's rule, however, his claim to the throne is challenged by an American mercenary named Erik Killmonger, who has secret ties to the royal bloodline and whose experiences with racism during his upbringing as an African-American put him at ideological odds with Wakanda's isolationist policies. T'Challa must confront Killmonger's violent actions while reckoning with his valid claims, and ultimately decides to share Wakanda's technological marvels with the rest of the world.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It might be a toss-up between this and the original Iron Man for the title of best self-encompassed entry in the MCU. Easily the studio's most social-minded work, the film's intelligent message and themes don't get lost in or interfere for one second with our total immersion in the utopian Wakanda, whose various tribes and traditions make it Marvel's richest setting (literally and figuratively so) to date. Add in some downright Shakespearean family dynamics between fathers, sons, and cousins, and it's no wonder this one shattered box office records around the world and became the first MCU film to take home some Oscars bling.

Wakanda Forever.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

THE GIST: Believing his actions will save the universe from the effects of overpopulation and the scarcity of natural resources, the purple-chinned space warlord Thanos sets out to collect all six of the Infinity Stones: deadly and mysterious ingots of concentrated cosmic power that grant their wielder absolute control over the very concepts of time, space, and reality. Individual stones have been scattered across the preceding eighteen Marvel flicks as plot points unto themselves; by collecting them all in one place and activating them simultaneously, Thanos will have the ability to eliminate half of all sentient life across the universe with a snap of his fingers.

The Avengers and their various allies across the cosmos therefore find themselves scrambling to prevent Thanos from carrying out his terrible mission. Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy confront the stone-wielding warlord in a climactic battle on his desolated homeworld, while the fugitive Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (aka War Machine) unite with Black Panther and the Wakandan army to fend off Thanos' minions from obtaining the final stone in its hiding place on Earth.

The heroes' efforts ultimately fall short, however, and even after the tide-turning arrival of Thor with a powerful new battle axe, Thanos is able to obtain and activate all six stones with a snap of his fingers. Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Groot, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Shuri, Mantis, Drax, Star Lord, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and half of the universe's population then disintegrate into dust, leaving the stunned survivors behind to grieve while Thanos himself retires to a peaceful farm world.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The culmination of all that came before it and the shadow over everything that's come since, the hype leading into Infinity War was almost impossibly unrealistic - yet somehow, this movie was able to not only pass expectations, but shatter them. There is so damn much happening here, yet unlike Age of Ultron, this one sticks the landing, and so is one of the more epic spectacles you're ever likely to watch. Infinity War sprints out of the gate, and never once lets up for a breather: Thor is rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy, who quip with Iron Man, who has a battle of egos and goatees with Doctor Strange, who duels Thanos, who pulls a damn moon from the sky and throws it at his opponents.

You think the movie has reached peak-goosebumps level when a renegade Captain America emerges from the shadows, war-torn and sporting a full beard - and then Thor touches down in Wakanda with Rocket and Groot, brandishing a battle axe and bellowing "BRING ME THANOS!" as he charges into enemy hordes... and you realize you can't even see the peak yet.

For all the fireworks, however, nothing compares to the gut-punch of disbelief delivered by the film's eerie ending, as one beloved hero after another literally disintegrates into oblivion before our eyes. No one expected (or certainly believed) Marvel would be gutsy enough to actually go through with such a bold narrative choice and off these characters, who we've invested so much time and attention in - but now that they have, the sheer hysteria leading into Endgame has paid their chess master strategy off in spades.

RE-WATCH VALUE: ∞/5

ANT-MAN & THE WASP

THE GIST: Breaking the house arrest he was placed under after the events of Civil War, Lang becomes Ant-Man again to assist Pym and Hope - now with a shrinking suit of her own and calling herself The Wasp - in extracting Hank's wife Janet Van Dyne from the Quantum Realm, a subatomic time warp zone where she has been trapped for over twenty years.

The trio's efforts are challenged by black market dealers and a masked criminal known as The Ghost, who can walk through solid surfaces after surviving a Quantum Realm-related accident as a child.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Just as funny as the original Ant-Man, this outing has the additional benefit of Lang's double act with the even-more-adept heroism of the Wasp, as well as a more realized threat in The Ghost, whose phasing powers make for some "coooooool" special effects.

Most important, however, is an after-credits scene that [SPOILERS] will likely prove of the utmost importance to all the Avengers' hopes in Endgame. When Hank, Hope, and the now-rescued Janet all disintegrate as a result of Thanos' snap, Lang finds himself stranded in the time-warping weirdness of the Quantum Realm. The mysterious timey-wimey properties of Lang's cliffhanger fate might just turn out to be the eleventh-hour Hail Mary the Avengers are in such desperate need of...

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5

CAPTAIN MARVEL

THE GIST: An amnesiac warrior from an alien race known as the Kree crash lands on planet Earth in the 1990s; working with a younger Nick Fury at the start of his SHIELD career, she discovers that she is in fact a human by the name of Carol Danvers, and disappeared in a mysterious plane crash incident six years ago.

Carol subsequently uncovers some unpleasant truths about her time with the Kree and their war with the shape-shifting Skrulls, then uses her newly unlocked powers to put an end to the conflict. Carol departs from Earth on a mission to help the Skrull refugees find a suitable new homeworld, and leaves a modified pager with Fury to contact her in case of emergencies.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The most recent of the MCU releases, it's fitting that Captain Marvel debuted during Women's History Month. Carol is feminism's new favorite superhero, and she ends her arc in the movie with the fist-bumping realization that she doesn't owe it to anyone - least of all her male detractors - to prove herself in any way. She knows exactly who she is now: a tough-as-nails pilot who can shoot energy blasts out of her fists and punch gaping holes in spaceship hulls, without getting so much as a scratch herself. Oh, and she likes  flerkens  cats

At the end of Infinity War, Nick Fury is one of the uncountable victims to fall casualty to Thanos' snap; in his final moments before being dusted, he is able to successfully activate Carol's modified pager. In the mid-credits scene here, Carol, having received his distress call, returns to Earth and meets up with the surviving Avengers. Thanos, if I were you, I'd be running. Fast.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5

PHASE 3 (Part 2) FINAL TALLY

Snapped: Ant-Man & The Wasp, Captain Marvel
Survived: Black Panther, Infinity War
"Perfectly balanced... as all things should be."

Gun to the head, if there's only ONE movie of the whole MCU effort you should watch before Endgame, it has to be Infinity War, since the pair allegedly comprise Parts I & II of the same story - but honestly, Infinity War requires just as much prep to understand it as its sequel, hence the whole darned purpose of these last few posts.
For those willing to enjoy the full ride, however - as well as for those who've been keeping count as we made our way through here - we have Iron Man, The Avengers, The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, Civil War, Ragnarok, Black Panther, and Infinity War as our final roster of A-list, starting lineup, MUST SEE offerings before it all comes to a close,.

And there you have it! A Marvel-sized thanks to anyone who followed along here from start to finish. I hope these recaps were able to save some time and maybe even refresh some memories for those hoping to brush up on their Captains (from America to Marvel) before the cinematic event of our generation rolls around this weekend.
It's been one of the joys of my movie-going life to experience these movies, this shared universe, with friends and family all throughout high school, college, and now "adult" life. What was once the kind of thing you got laughed off the playground for showing enthusiasm over has become the pop culture pantheon of our time, and witnessing it blossom into a beacon of inclusion, humor, and heroism - at a time when they're all so desperately needed - has been a once-in-a-lifetime ride.
I've had Endgame circled on my calendar now for months; experiencing it tomorrow night with my dad Patrick (the original hero who introduced me to this all in the first place), fiance Katie, and cousin Ben, in a sold-out theater of fans who will laugh, cry, and clap their hands raw, will be a memory I'll probably take with me the rest of my life.

Enjoy, everyone - good luck, and keep the spoilers to yourselves.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!!!

MARVELOUS MARVEL RECAP - PHASE 3 (Part 1)

Not to be cliche, but the third time really is the charm.

While Phases 1 & 2 had incredible highlights of their own, and laid the groundwork for everything that was to come, many people agree that Phase 3 - which we're still technically in the throes of - is where the Marvel Cinematic Universe fires on all cylinders, all the time. Every installment here swings for the fence: some clear it, some fall only just short, landing in warning-track territory, and some go over the fence, over the street beyond, and clear to the other side of the block. This truly is where we separate the ladies and gents from the boys and girls.

Phase 3 is also twice the size of its earlier counterparts, so for the sake of digestion, I've halved this portion of our tour into parts I & II. This splitting happens to be a fitting parallel to the opening salvo of this chapter in the MCU, kicking things off with a bang in...

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

THE GIST: A vengeful Sokovia survivor manipulates the recovering Winter Soldier's brainwashing as a murderous HYDRA agent to bring about controversial United Nations legislation, which splits the Avengers down the middle: one faction, led by Rogers, resists the legislation out of skepticism about corrupt government oversight; another, led by Stark, favors the restrictive measures as the most responsible approach given the group's unintentionally destructive history.

Through further staging and manipulation of events, the ideological debate comes to blows, and the Avengers are left effectively disbanded.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It does not get better than this, the strong contender for my personal favorite of all the MCU offerings to date. The plot here unfolds a complex narrative that reckons with the mistakes of previous movies and gives them real, friendship-ending consequences. There's no "bad guys" here, just heroes with differing, valid, faithfully-characterized points of view that place them in opposition to each other, leaving wounds that have yet to be healed.

On top of all this, the film still manages to squeeze in some fantastic moments of humor, stages what might be the greatest superhero action sequence of all time (good luck ever looking at an airport tarmac the same way again), and masterfully introduces two MAJOR A-listers into the MCU's proceedings. Rounding out #TeamIronMan, we meet the regal, vibranium-clawed Prince T'Challa of Wakanda, aka the Black Panther, and also the world's favorite wisecracking webhead, Spider-Man, finally at home and among friends in the MCU where he belongs after some hit-and-miss reboot attempts.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5

DOCTOR STRANGE

THE GIST: As gifted as he is arrogant, Stephen Strange's career as an eminent neurosurgeon is cut short when a car accident causes permanent nerve damage in his hands. Seeking a cure, he winds up at a remote monastery in Nepal - where instead of a medical miracle, he discovers practitioners of sorcery and dimensional-spanning magic.

Strange studies and eventually masters these powerful newfound skills, becoming Earth's new Sorcerer Supreme after thwarting a band of fanatics from summoning a lethal interdimensional entity.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The ingredients were all here for this to potentially become Marvel's first flop: Doctor Strange simply doesn't have the kind of fan following or name recognition as the Captain Americas of the world, and worse, his "brilliant white man goes to the uncharted Orient and masters its secrets" narrative could've left a bad taste in audience's mouths.

Fortunately, things turned out entirely for the opposite.

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch slides into Strange's Cloak of Levitation like a surgical glove, flexing some serious acting chops while the movie around him conjures up what might be the MCU's most impressive special effects to date (if not, then certainly the most trippy). Whole city blocks furl and unfurl like an M.C. Escher painting on acid, and the film's creatively brilliant use of time manipulation in the final act elevates it into something special among superhero flicks.

Rumors abound of the MCU's old guard heading off into the sunset after Endgame; hopefully not, but if so, Strange is the one standing poised to receive the "brilliant goatee'd leader" baton from Iron Man.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 2

THE GIST: Gamora's murderous adoptive sister/cyborg (and fellow abuse survivor) Nebula, and the naive empath Mantis (she can feel others' emotions and lull people into sleep) join the Guardians' lineup while Star Lord confronts some major daddy issues, and the grooves get groovier.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Like riding a roller coaster a second time, this one isn't quite as unexpectedly thrilling or fun as Vol. 1, but it still gets the job done in spades. An opening tracking shot of Groot (now a baby) innocently dancing his way to Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" through a battle scene of absolute carnage is better in and of itself than whole other franchises.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

THE GIST: Bored with his return to ordinary high school life after being handpicked by Stark to participate in the events of Civil War, Peter Parker seeks out ways to prove himself as a superhero by being "a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," around his native Queens.

His heroics frequently cause more problems than they solve, however, and Parker must learn to responsibly balance his high school commitments, his mentoring under Stark, and his web-spinning superpowers in enough time to stop a high-tech weapons thief known as the Vulture, who is scavenging wreckage from Avengers battles to create dangerous black market items.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It's no secret: I love Spider-Man. Yours Truly learned to read in the pages of the webhead's comics, and of anyone in the entire comics pantheon, there's no-one I relate to more on a personal level than the bill-fretting, pop culture obsessed Peter Parker, who uses humor and kindness to make his way through family health crises and supervillain threats alike.

While not an essential MCU pillar, I can point outsiders to this one movie and say, "This, right here, is what I love about the character." Note-perfect mastery of Spidey's tone, his Breakfast Club dynamic with his high school classmates, his street-level heroism (which includes things as simple as providing directions to tourists), and a great bad guy make this one charmingly endearing.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5


THOR: RAGNAROK

THE GIST: Hela, the Norse Goddess of Death and Thor's previously-unknown sister, is released from her imprisonment by the death of Odin. She overpowers Thor and Loki, destroying Mjolnir in the process, and afterwards invades Asgard to become its new ruler. Thor, with Loki in tow, finds himself stranded on a desolate waste planet, where he is forced to become a gladiator to fight for his survival. During the fights, he is reunited with Hulk, who has risen through the gladiatorial ranks to become the reigning champion after his last appearance in Age of Ultron. 

Thor, Loki, Hulk, and one of the legendary Valkyries (a gladiatorial champion herself) escape back to Asgard, where they cause Ragnarok - the destruction of Asgard - to destroy Hela and save Asgard's people.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: New Zealand comedy director Taika Waititi takes the reins of Thor's "Vikings... in space" saga, and immediately gets to work trimming away almost all the franchise's window dressing with glee: Thor loses his father, his friends, his hammer, his homeworld, his hair, and even an eye over the course of his misadventures here. But bizarrely, despite all these hardships, Ragnarok is one of the most playful, quirky, and frequently hilarious offerings in the MCU.

It expertly inserts Hulk back into the fold, introduces the hard-drinking and head-slashing Valkyrie, and establishes Thor as an even more powerful hero because of his ability to overcome each of his never-ending losses. It also has a sequence of Thor blasting down from the heavens in a blaze of lightning into a crowd of zombies on Asgard's Rainbow Bridge, all to the deafening musical accompaniment of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." If your head doesn't explode from sheer hard-rock awesomeness of that sentence, check your pulse.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4.5/5

PHASE 3 (Part I) FINAL TALLY
Academic Decathlon champs: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok
First Alternate team: Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming
Detention: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol.2

Comic fans who survived the Dark Ages of the direct-to-home-release atrocities trying to pass as superhero adaptations in the '90s know: we are well and truly in the middle of a Golden Age. Spider-Man now swings through the same city blocks as Doctor Strange's Greenwich Village digs, all watched over from above by Thor and the Asgardians.
But a certain Mad Titan has been looming on the periphery of this happy interconnectedness, plotting to decimate it all by half. And he's about to step out into the spotlight.

Next up: Wakanda Forever, a new kind of HERo... and the Snap heard round the world.

MARVELOUS MARVEL RECAP - PHASE 2

The Avengers have Assembled, the world has been saved - now what?

Welcome to our recap of Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)!

Encouraged by the landscape-altering success of The Avengers, which showed critics and audiences everywhere that "hey, there just might be something to this insane chess game they're playing after all..." things are about to get wilder and weirder and just more all-around WOW! All our old favorites return to their respective corners of the universe for some soul-searching and shake-ups, while a whole host of new heroes make their way into the spotlight for the very first time.

Buckle up, baby, because this Awesome Mix cassette tape is just getting started!

IRON MAN 3

THE GIST: While coping with crippling PTSD after the near-death events of The Avengers, Stark must hunt down a terrorist known as The Mandarin, who has been orchestrating a series of biologically-enhanced suicide bombings. Along the way, Stark must also contend with just how much he has come to rely, or even over-rely, on his dual identity as Iron Man.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Improving on Iron Man 2 with a much tighter, wit-packed script and some truly inspired usage of the Iron Man armor(s), this one is enjoyable but ultimately not super consequential to the MCU at large. Its controversial Mandarin-centered twist polarized legions of diehard comics fans, even drawing outright disgust from more than a few, but it's worth it just to have another chance to watch RDJ swagger along in the role that'll carve his name in history.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5

THOR: THE DARK WORLD

THE GIST: Thor must defend Asgard from the attack of a race known as the Dark Elves, who seek to use a reality-altering substance known as the Aether to snuff out life across an astrological convergence. To do this, he must free and form a begrudging truce with Loki, imprisoned after his actions in The Avengers.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: For Game of Thrones fans of swords and sorcery, this one scratches that genre itch nicely, and the bonkers, reality-warping final fight through London is a blast to watch. Unfortunately, though, this one falls at the bottom of a lot of people's MCU rankings, thanks in no small part to a forgettable, lackluster enemy threat.

If nothing else, though, it's a treat just to watch more of Loki cackling and snarking his mischievous way to a cliffhanger ending that sees him finally on Asgard's throne, impersonating Thor's father Odin through his magical illusions.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3/5

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

THE GIST: Still adjusting from the "gee-whiz!" spirit of patriotism of his previous life in the 1940s to the 21st century's morally-jaded landscape, Rogers must ally himself with Romanoff and an ex-military parajumper named Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon, after SHIELD is revealed to have been infiltrated across all levels by HYDRA sleeper agents.

The deadliest of these, an ultra-lethal assassin known as the Winter Soldier, turns out to be none other than Bucky Barnes, Rogers' closest friend from before WWII, brainwashed and put on ice by HYDRA (who have also replaced Barnes' left arm with a cybernetic implant). Rogers must break Barnes' brainwashed programming in time to stop HYDRA from carrying out a global terror attack.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: This one is top. level. Marvel.

Many, many people list Winter Soldier as their favorite of all the MCU entries, thanks to a script that tackles 21st century fears about government conspiracies and Big Brother Watching head-on, as well as some of the flat-out best action scenes Marvel has ever put to film. The pulse-pounding, kinetic K.O.'s here were the first time a lot of people realized, "Oh wow... Captain America's a BADASS," and shifted his perception among general audiences from the white-toast boy scout of previous films to the fan-favorite moral compass of the entire Marvel Universe.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4.5/5

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 1

THE GIST: Five space outlaws come together and form a rag-tag family while preventing a world-destroying artifact from falling into the wrong hands: Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, a 70s-music grooving human kidnapped from Earth during childhood by space pirates; Gamora, a ruthless killer and the escaped daughter of Thanos; Drax, a hysterically literal-minded and super-strong warrior on a mission to avenge his family; Rocket, a cybernetically-altered raccoon who spits sarcasm and adores all things explosive; and Groot, a humanoid tree who serves as the group's Chewbacca figure and communicates solely with the phrase "I am Groot" (a running joke arises from the characters' abilities to derive various complex meanings from the same repeated phrase, i.e. "I am Groot?" "No thanks, I'm all set, I already ate lunch.").

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: In 2007, if you'd have stated that a talking tree and a RACCOON would headline a big-budget superhero film, you'd have been laughed off the internet. But with the loving direction of James Gunn, Chris Pratt's transformation from a fat slob on the NBC sitcom Parks and Rec. into a matinee idol, the color palette of a 70s blacklight poster, and one of the greatest superhero movie soundtracks ever assembled, that's exactly what happened.

Rock and roll provides the lifeblood for this smash hit, probably the funniest movie to ever come from the Marvel powerhouse, and its D-list characters all became household names overnight. Hooked on a feeling? You betcha.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

THE GIST: The squad's back together again, when Stark's efforts to create a peacekeeping "suit of armor around the whole world" backfire catastrophically, resulting in a genocidal robot named Ultron.

Ultron's solution to solving all mankind's problems is to logically just eradicate all mankind in the first place, leading to a climactic battle which decimates the small (and fictional) Eastern European country of Sokovia.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: There's a lot happening here, and while it's peak Marvel whenever the core Avengers are in the same room bouncing off each other, the total effect of this one is more disjointed and overwhelming than their previous team effort. Pausing the action no less than four times for extended dream sequences, and featuring a skyscraper-leveling slugfest between Hulk and a tank-wearing Iron Man, the film stretches itself a bit too thin trying to check off a dizzying list of franchise boxes, even as the world-ending stakes posed by Ultron's threat huff and puff mightily.

In the end, this endless smorgasbord somehow comes off feeling incidental, and there's an undercutting sense of "Hmm... I wonder if these characters who are all already confirmed for Civil War AND Infinity War will make it through this 'final' fight..."

It's notable, though, for introducing a slew of new characters to the team's roster, such as the android Vision (Tony Stark's A.I. brought to life with human form... think Siri, with superpowers) and the telekinetic Scarlet Witch, who will become team staples in the years to come.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3/5

ANT-MAN

THE GIST: Recently released from prison and desperate to help pay child support for his daughter, expert cat burglar Scott Lang is enlisted by aging scientist Hank Pym and his daughter Hope Van Dyne to become Ant-Man.

Training in the suit created (and first worn decades ago) by Pym, which allows its wearer to shrink down to ant-size while gaining proportionate strength and speed, Lang helps Hank and Hope stop a corporate criminal who seeks to release the shrinking technology to terrorists for profit.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: A truly welcome step down in size and scale (pun intended) from the world-threatening stakes of the Avengers' outings, Ant-Man is a comedy first and foremost. It knowingly embraces the eye-rolling concept of a hero who can communicate with and shrink down to the size of ants, and plays it for laughs against what's actually a very good heist movie.

Ultimately, it doesn't impact the MCU all that much, and Ant-Man's inclusion in Civil War will introduce him perfectly adequately to binge viewers who are pressed for time - but leaving this one from your watch list will deprive you of a whole lot of laughs.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 3.5/5

PHASE 2 FINAL TALLY
"What should we do now, Guardians? Something good (The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1)? Something bad (Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron)? Or a bit of both (Iron Man 3, Ant-Man)?"

Phase 2 has not only kept the ball rolling, but sped things forward down an increasingly bendy and far-afield route. There's tough times ahead, though, for the Avengers and everyone associated with them, and things will never be the same again... but fortunately for us, that means the best of the MCU is still to come! We'll see you next time for Phase 3!!!

MARVELOUS MARVEL RECAP - PHASE 1

Greetings, True Believers! Amidst a new job and wedding preparations (which will all be covered and covered some more in subsequent posts, rest assured), I've been getting more and more hyped lately as the film event of our generation approaches nearer and nearer. For months on end, millions of comics fans around the world have circled April 25 on their calendars as the premiere date of the unprecedented Avengers: Endgame.

Endgame promises to be the superhero movie to end all superhero movies, an epic and climactic finale to a revolutionary brand of filmmaking which has stretched across ten years, more than twenty movies and streaming shows, and billions, billions, billions of dollars.

For a lot of people, prepping for Endgame might feel a bit like cramming for a final exam, especially if they're unfamiliar with the 20+  individual puzzle pieces that have brought us all collectively to this point.

So, to help those people out, as well as to provide a refresher to others who are looking for an abbreviated SparkNotes-esque recap of pop culture's hottest franchise before we're all left collectively traumatized on April 25, here now is a self-professed comic aficionado's run-through of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

For each of the twenty-one films released to date, I'll provide a quick synopsis, an analysis of why the movie's worth your hard-earned time, and a "re-watch grade" to help prioritize whether or not you should give it a second (or third or fourth or twenty ninth...) viewing before Endgame. Got it? Alright then.

Since coverage of all twenty-one films would call for a post near novel-length in its size, I've borrowed a page from the MCU's playbook and broken everything up into more digestible "phases."

Here, then, without any further ado, let's start our recap of Phase 1. In the beginning, there was...

IRON MAN

THE GIST: Tony Stark is a genius, billionaire playboy with no responsibilities or qualms about who gets their hands on the mass-destructive weapons created by his father's defense company - until he finds himself with a chestful of shrapnel while in the captivity of a Taliban-esque splinter group.

Now vowing to devote his life towards a higher purpose of accountability, Stark uses his smarts to create a technologically advanced suit of armor that lets him escape his captors while keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart. He refines the armor's design to become Iron Man, and later reveals his secret identity to the world press.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: This is the movie that started this whole grand Marvel project. It's doubtful if any role has ever fit an actor as well as the quip-spewing, in-love-with-his-fame Tony Stark fits Robert Downey Jr. It's a match made in movie heaven, and to this day, RDJ's performance is a central tent pole of the whole MCU. Throw in some timely commentary on the U.S.'s War on Terror in the Middle East, a truly funny script, and some of the silver screen's niftiest hardware, and you've got yourself a sky-high bar that has proved difficult to reach again for a lot of what has since followed.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5


THE INCREDIBLE HULK

THE GIST: After a failed experiment exposes timid scientist Bruce Banner to critical levels of gamma radiation, he morphs into a hulking green behemoth with impossible levels of strength and "breathtaking anger management issues" whenever he becomes stressed or threatened.

Banner must elude U.S. government forces who seek to imprison or even weaponize his less-than-jolly green giant counterpart, all while trying to suppress the Hulk's violent and destructive tendencies.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: A fine smash-em-up film all on its own, this nevertheless might be the most throwaway of all the MCU fare. Actor Ed Norton does a decent job as the skittish Banner, and there's a fun fight scene at the end that breaks... well, the whole neighborhood of Harlem, but there's nothing here that won't be covered, and covered better, when Mark Ruffalo takes over the role in the following Avengers films.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 2/5

IRON MAN 2

THE GIST: While publicly reveling in his celebrity status as Iron Man, Stark is now desperately seeking a cure in private for the toxic effects which the armor's technology is having on his body.

At the same time, he must deal with a rival weapons manufacturer, face off with the disgruntled son of one of his father's forgotten business partners, and entertain the joint efforts of the eyepatch-toting badass Nick Fury and the kickboxing super-spy Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) to recruit him into SHIELD, a peacekeeping intelligence organization, and their classified "Avengers Initiative."

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Once again, RDJ owns every minute of screen time he's in, and there are some fantastic action sequences - but this is a case where a sequel packs in too much, too soon, and so ironically becomes a case of diminishing returns. You can skip this one and never miss a beat.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 2/5

THOR

THE GIST: The arrogant and belligerent Norse God of Thunder is exiled from his native realm of Asgard to modern-day New Mexico, where he must prove himself "worthy" in order to once again wield his enchanted hammer Mjolnir and regain his godlike powers.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: Chris Hemsworth debuts his star-making turn here as maybe the number one reason male audience members have developed insecurity complexes watching these movies - the only thing bigger than his biceps and ab muscles are the laughs he draws through his fish-out-of-water predicament in New Mexico. He regally strolls into a bargain pet store at one point, demanding in high Shakespearean tones "I need a horse!" only to have the sweater-vest wearing cashier inform him that he won't have any luck finding anything here much larger than a dog.

But threatening to steal this movie away from Thor - in truth, the whole Thor franchise, both in front of and behind the camera - is Tom Hiddleston's silver-tongued, malicious, and tragically misunderstood Loki, the trickster God of Mischief and Thor's adoptive brother. He turns in a truly great villain performance that went unchallenged as the MCU's best baddie until only the most recent offerings came around.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

THE GIST: Steve Rogers is a scrawny weakling from Brooklyn who spends his days getting beaten up in alleys behind movie theaters and his nights trying to unsuccessfully sneak his way into the U.S. draft for WWII. His mindset is the same on both fronts: "I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from." But when Rogers volunteers for and receives an experimental "super-soldier" serum that transforms his body to the pinnacle of human ability, he can finally do something about those bullies.

Dubbed "Captain America" and wielding an unbreakable shield, Rogers is dispatched to eliminate various advanced-level threats facing the Allied war effort. In the last of these missions, Rogers sacrifices himself to down a plane carrying a payload of explosives to his native New York; the craft plunges into the ice of the North Atlantic, but Rogers survives, frozen solid and preserved. He remains in suspended animation for nearly seventy years, finally resuscitating in New York in 2011 under the care of Nick Fury and SHIELD.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: The chronological granddaddy of the MCU, The First Avenger is the most pure pulp escapism you can get from watching these flicks. Like the Indiana Jones movies or Saturday morning cartoons, it's a totally immersive 1940s period piece that blends history's most natural villains, the Nazis, with scientific and occult mumbo-jumbo, and lets Chris Evans (a Captain America-like figure of goodness both on and off screen) shine as he gets in some good old fashioned socks-to-the-jaw. There's even a winkingly playful propaganda montage thrown in for good measure, complete with its own catchy show tune.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 4/5

THE AVENGERS

THE GIST: When an embittered Loki invades Earth with a marauding alien force at his command, Nick Fury and SHIELD bring together Rogers, Stark, Thor, Banner, and Romanoff, along with expert archer Clint Barton - aka Hawkeye - to stop him.

It's not an instant match made in heaven - the egos and insecurities of each individual hero are sizable enough when taken on their own, let alone in a group. The team manages to cohere just in time, however, for a jaw-dropping battle across New York City that weaves these multiple franchise threads together for the first time in movie history - and attracts the attention of one purple Mad Titan.

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT: It was an unprecedented idea at the time: take headliners from four lucrative but separate film series, and make them play nice together in the same sandbox. It would have been impossible not too long ago, but as written and directed by nerd guru Joss Whedon, it's cinema history. The quips are electric, the story makes sense and yet gives each hero his or her place to shine, and there are at least three scenes in the last half hour that made whole theaters rise to their feet in roaring applause. Once a comic nerd's pipe dream, it's become the golden standard for cinematic events, with more than a few rival studios trying and failing spectacularly to capture the same genie in a different bottle.

Avengers, assemble.

RE-WATCH VALUE: 5/5


PHASE 1 FINAL TALLY
"Stop whatever it is you're doing right now and watch this" - Iron Man, The Avengers
"Will this be on the test?" "Maybe..." - Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger
"Sorry, Next" - The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2

The MCU has gotten much, much bigger in its scope, tone, diversity, and ambition than fans from these early days would ever have dared believe - but all empires start somewhere, and the foundation laid here by Phase 1 for future endeavors remains as unbreakably sturdy as Cap's vibranium shield.

Next up, it's "Hail Hydra," shrinking suits, and "I am Groot..."

We're on to Phase 2!