This non-comic book guy aims to watch all of the MCU movies, plus...

Newcomers is a little too cynical for me, at least based on the Star Wars episodes. They spent a lot of time talking over the movie and then going, “What are these characters doing?? This movie makes no sense!”

That said, I find Nicole Byers endlessly delightful.

It’s definitely not cynical. They absolutely love the Fast and Furious movies. It’s the first time they’ve seen the movies. Some they’re going to like, some they’re going to find dumb.

Like I said, I’m specifically talking about their reaction to the Star Wars movies. When one of them says her favorite Star Wars movie is the Star Wars Holiday Special, it seems like maybe they’re taking the piss a little bit.

Release order.

'Nuff said.

Part of me really wants to do that, just because it would be hilarious, but I’m not funny enough to keep that bit going for 33 of these danged movies and TV shows.

I consulted ruby mcurandomizer.rb and I highly recommend this viewing order to maximize the richness and serendipity the MCU has to offer:

Spider-Man: No Way Home
Iron Man 2
Ant-Man
The Incredible Hulk
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Captain America: The First Avenger
Thor: Ragnarok
Captain Marvel
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Iron Man 3
Captain America: Civil War
Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
Eternals
Iron Man
Black Panther
Avengers: Endgame
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Avengers
Black Widow
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Infinity War
Thor
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Doctor Strange

If that doesn’t work for you, try this order (I actually like the last several picks of this one…):

Doctor Strange
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Avengers: Endgame
The Incredible Hulk
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Black Widow
Thor
Guardians of the Galaxy
Avengers: Infinity War
Spider-Man: Far From Home
The Avengers
Ant-Man
Captain America: Civil War
Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Captain America: The First Avenger
Black Panther
Captain Marvel
Iron Man
Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Iron Man 2
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Eternals
Iron Man 3

Here’s the tally so far (dominant results in bold):

Release Order: 10 votes
(addendum: watch Black Widow after Civil War: 3 votes)
Chronological Order: 0 votes
Friends From Work Modified Chronological Order: 1 vote
Alphabetical Order: 1 vote
Random Order: 2 votes

Watch Disney+ Shows: 7 votes
Watch Agent Carter: 4 votes
Watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 2 votes
Don’t Watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 3 votes

Listen to Newcomers podcast as you watch: 1 vote

Man, the more I think about it, the more I like this and think it might really say something as an experience. I might do this mini-rewatch, dropping Iron Man 2.

OK, I’m in on release order. Thanks for all the feedback on that!

While I wait to start up Iron Man, I have a general comics question.

So I mentioned that I “dabbled” a bit in the 1980s. Actually, I listened to the smart owner of the comic book store in my hometown, and bought the stuff he recommended. Which, yeah, he steered me in some very cha-ching kind of ways:

The Dark Knight Returns and Killing Joke series, first prints
The Tick first dozen issues, first prints
The Punisher, which I think these were a limited initial series of like 6 issues?
Green Arrow something something Longbow Hunters, full series, I think self-contained
The first print, 12-issue run of Watchmen
A ton of early Cerebus issues
A ton of early Flaming Carrot issues (the only ones I didn’t sell for rent money in college)
Moonshadow (Which was this cool hippie thing with watercolor art)
The full first series of issues of Sandman

Anyway…not much Marvel there. (I think just Punisher?).

So was it just the group of comic book fans I hung out with being anti-Marvel at that point in time? Or was Marvel in a real slump through the mid 1980s to late 1980s? I think the only Marvel (besides Punisher) that my buddies liked was X-Men and Spidey. That’s it.

Doesn’t seem like you need another person to weigh in to tell you to watch in release order, so I’ll just say I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the films/shows! Happy binging!

Mini viewing order:

  • Watch The Tick series from 2001
  • Watch The Tick series from 2016 on Amazon

You’re welcome!

I think the issue is timing. I had my run with comics just before that and it included some of what you mention but also quite a bit of Marvel. For example, Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil from the early 80s, the Frank Miller/Chris Claremont Wolverine limited series (still a personal favorite of mine), a very solid John Byrne run on Fantastic Four from the early 80s, a great run by Chris Claremont on X-Men in the early 80s.

By the mid 80s, my list would look much more like yours, even including Moonshadow, which was hippy dippy but cool.

In addition to timing, I also think your recommendations guru was probably more pro DC than my own tastes.

Bottom line is, Marvel had plenty of good stuff from that era or slightly before and in fact some of the stuff I’ve mentioned has been incorporated into some of the Marvel shows and Marvel-adjacent movies. As a specific example, the Daredevil Netflix series is definitely influenced by the Frank Miller Daredevil run from the early 80s.

DC was also going through a sort of rebirth at the time, with Crisis on Infinite Earths leading into the revamped Superman series by John Byrne.

I don’t really know what was going on with Marvel in the late '80s, but I’ll let you know when I get through my Marvel Comics readthrough (release order, in case anyone is wondering)! I’m still only on 1986.

It’s possible Marvel went through a slump in the late 80s after a strong period in the early 80s - these things tend to vary over time, and as various “big name” talents (like Miller and Byrne) move around.

My recollection slowly returns… I think the meta is that Marvel was considered higher quality in the 70s and early 80s and then DC reacted to that by upgrading in several ways, hiring talent, given more rein to certain talent, experimenting, etc. By the late 80s, I think DC would be considered to be on top.

After that I didn’t follow it closely enough - there was a diversification of the market, an expansion of the market in early 90s… then a contraction in the late 90s? I don’t recall.

Anyhow, both DC and Marvel have produced great stuff over the years but it has varied over time.

I’m pretty sure that in the ’90s, the various comics companies saturated the market with variant covers and collector’s editions, and people bought them and the market was doing well…until they stopped, and the market crashed hard. That’s around when Marvel filed for bankruptcy.

One quick note: Because of rights issues, The Incredible Hulk (#2 in release order) is one of the few MCU movies not on Disney+. Triggercut, I will personally PayPal you $5 to rent it.

Oh, no worries there. I, um, may not be tethered to Disney for at least all of this.

Actually, I noticed it on HBO Max. Watching it right now, since I haven’t seen it since it was in the theater.

You too, huh? I still haven’t watched anything after Infinity War. Between it and Civil War I just kinda stopped caring. I really enjoyed quite a few things up to that point, though, and considering how great Ragnarok was I’ll probably still have a look at the next Thor movie.

Yeah, I’d take Daredevil and JJ’s first seasons over a considerable swath of the MCU, for example.

Anyway, have fun triggercut! I kind of envy you the experience, for awhile there I was really enjoying just about everything that came out of the franchise. It’s a fun ride.

That’s a great overview. I’m really fond of Walt Simonson’s Thor run from that early to mid 80s period - the standout Marvel comic of the decade for me. Well, that and Miller’s Daredevil stuff. I still need to checkout the X-Men though.

Also thanks Andy for breaking down how loose Marvel movie licensing was in the 1990s. It seems like Kevin Feige’s basically a producer-auteur with this shared cinematic universe stuff.