Every Year In The MCU Ranked Worst To Best

There are only two years since its inception in which the MCU has produced just one movie. In 2010, it underwhelmed with Iron Man 2, but two years later came a movie that needed no others around it to make 2012 a success. For the first time on the big screen, the Avengers assembled.

Marvel Studios brought together six heroes, already introduced to MCU audiences through the Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Incredible Hulk franchises, and incited the most ambitious crossover movie in the history of the industry. All of this ambition, the planning, and risk of failure that went into the years preceding it paid off in a big way.

Marvel didn’t rush in the build up to The Avengers, and that patience allowed some stunning payoffs when it came to the movie in 2012. This is where most other attempted shared universes have failed, but this movie built perfectly on what had come before it to give the fans something completely new and unique.

The Avengers also began the ball rolling on Thanos’ involvement in the MCU, again, something for which the franchise’s patience with would be greatly rewarded years later.