Two thousand eighteen is a monumental anniversary year for comic book movies. Forty years ago Superman: The Movie helped a worldwide audience “believe a man can fly,” upping the ante with groundbreaking cinematic special effects. Twenty years ago, New Line released Blade, and Hollywood, finally, keyed in on the profitability of Marvel’s stable of characters, understanding that superhero flicks not starring Batman or Superman could still draw an audience.

And that of course led to the formation of Marvel Studios which, ten years ago, brought funnybook continuity to the movies with Iron Man, the first entry in Marvel’s wildly successful Cinematic Universe.

With this week’s home video release of Ant-Man & The Wasp, the latest installment in the MCU’s film canon, a team of Idlers assembled to rank all twenty movies, from worst to first. Counting down to our favorite (so far):

20
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Tough to sit through, lousy plot to blame more than anything. The sole bright spot might be in the performance of Tom Hiddleston. Loki might be the most underrated character — from his characterization through his development — in the MCU. – MMDG

19
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
This still isn’t good. I’d forgotten that Marvel tried setting up The Leader (I’ll wager Marvel was counting on us forgetting this as well) for some future sequel or tie-in. Worth noting: during the climactic brawl in Harlem, there’s a Michael K. Williams (Omar from The Wire) cameo! Apparently he had a minor part that included some lines, but none of that made the final cut. – MMDG

18
Iron Man 2 (2010)
The first thing people usually mention about this film is Mickey Rourke’s cockatoo, which, uh, isn’t good. We get introduced to ScarJo as Black Widow, Don Cheadle dons the War Machine suit, and Sam Rockwell is pretty entertaining as Justin Hammer, but there is still a major lack of any sort of villain character to make this film stand out. – hltchk Continue reading Marvel Studios 10th Anniversary: Ranking the 20 MCU Films →