*Warning Spoilers for the entire Marvel Universe Ahead*
Last week I watched the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order, live tweeting the experience. My gigantic supercut began with Odin’s father putting the beatdown on some Dark Elves and ended fifty-three hours later with my favorite brain damaged scientist quitting S.H.I.E.L.D, grabbing a cab, and enjoying a Prosciutto and Mozzarella Sandwich with just a hint of Pesto Aioli. In between I got a whole lot of Hail Hydras and Norse gods and more than a few cameos from the great Stan Lee.
Below I’ve included my tweets so you can see what I was thinking as I went through this in real time but first I’d like to share some thoughts and takeaways from the experience.
Obviously because of size considerations I couldn’t fit all fifty three hours into one .avi file but rather I cut my supercut into seven parts averaging about eight hours apiece so that’s how I’ll address them here.
Part 1 (Prehistory-1947)- This section is mostly made up of The first Captain America film and the first season of Agent Carter. It begins with a pair of Odin flashbacks (the prologues for Thor 1 & 2) which don’t make a lot of sense and are almost forgotten about by the time you get to their section later though Thor is our first avenger sighting in this cut. After Anthony Hopkins soothing exposition we skip ahead to 1937 for creepy Russian assassin girls before moving into WWII with Steve Rodgers and the Red Skull. The majority of this eight hour stretch is actually devoted to Peggy Carter. In fact the massive amount of screen time she gets almost has a backward ripple effect that makes her seem to be even more important than Cap in this story.
Part 2 (1983-2011)- There is a large in-universe time jump here with the first twenty minutes or so being a series of short sequences showing that Hydra is still around and that their are people with powers hanging around the fringes of the world. From there we go to Iron Man then directly into one massive section that flips between Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor which happen simultaneously in-universe. I got to say watching six plus hours of these narratives cut together is way better than watching them individually. I’d recommend a 12 hour long cut of Iron Man through The Avengers. with the bracket scenes from the first Cap film thrown in.
Part 3 (2012)- Avengers-Iron Man 3- Agents of Shield. I’ll be honest I slept through most of this. Can you really blame me? I will say knowing Ward is Hydra does make this nominally better than not knowing
Part 4 (2013) – Thor 2 and Agents of Shield. The problem with this cut is too much Agents of Shield which doesn’t really get good until……
Part 5 (2014)- Cap 2 and Agents of Shield or “The Fall of Shield” For the first time since Part 2 we actually have inter-cut scenes again. This is where agents of shield gets good and its overlap with Winter Soldier is really cool. Oh and considering how much time has passed the Bucky resurrection is pretty effective.
Parts 6 & 7 (2014-2015)- Guardians of the Galaxy and Agent’s of Shield. Guardians is fun but really feels totally apart from the rest of what I’ve seen. (I did sleep through part of it so maybe that was my bad) Then its just a season 2 Agents of Shield marathon which is cool but not necessarily worth it.
My major takeaway? I’m fairly sure there is a way to cut the MCU so that its a generational saga. Peggy has two sons. One with Captain America (Phil Coulson) and one with Howard Stark (Tony Stark). Making Phil and Tony half brothers. Tell me that would not be awesome.
Now here are my real time tweets in order:
- Here we go starting of with Anthony Hopkins talking bout some dark elves. #Thor #MCU #Avengers.
- Shoot no subs and I don’t speak dark elf.
- No Segway just straight into frost giant humble brags. Odin is a terrible story teller. #MCU #Thor #chronologicalMCU
- One thousand years later little girls kicking the shit out of one another. #chronologicalMCU #BlackWidow #Marvel
- Kind of all over the place but I like this skinny orphan kid and his buddy. #CaptainAmerica #chronologicalMCU
- My pizza showed up when Howard Stark did. #chronologicalMCU
- Let’s be honest you forgot tommy lee jones was in the MCU too. #chronologicalMCU #CaptainAmerica
- Aww they killed dr. erksine. Sad face. #chronologicalMCU #CaptainAmerica
- 50 minutes in and we get our first Hail Hydra. #chronologicalMCU #CaptainAmerica
- We know killing a Nazi is Hollywood code for good guy. But what happens when a nazi kills a nazi?#HailHydra#CaptainAmerica#chronologicalMCU
- Oh snap! Red Skull! #chronologicalMCU #HailHydra
- 1st Stan Lee cameo “I thought he’d be taller.” #chronologicalMCU
- Random Russian front interludes. #leviathan #AgentCarter #chronologicalMCU
- RIP Bucky. #chronologicalMCU #CaptainAmerica #feels
- RIP Cap. Man forget about DC these marvel movies are dark. At least we beat hitler. #chronologicalMCU #CaptainAmerica
- They just dealt with the tesseract and know there’s an obelisk? Wtf? Oh Agent Carter’s got it. No big. #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter
- Can I love Peggy Carter as a symbol of female empowerment and think Haley Atwell is a knockout? #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter
- Ray Wise head of Roxxon drinking neat scotch at 10 am. #LikeABoss #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter
- I think the matriarch of the Griffith hotel is the scariest villain in the MCU so far. #AgentCarter #chronologicalMCU
- 4 hours in.Scorecard so far Stan Lee sightings: 1 Shirtless Superheroes: 1 Men Peggy Carter has kicked the shit out of: 6 #chronologicalMCU
- Stan Lee sighting number 2. #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter
- Wait Dottie just split her baguette like the little girl from five hours ago. Crazy Russian lady #AgentCarter #chronologicalMCU #BlackWidow
- What’s Neal McDonough doing these days? I need a Dum Dum Dugan series. #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter #howlingcommandos
- “You think Ginger Rogers is a Russian assassin?” “You didn’t see her eyes.” My favorite line so far. #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter
- RIP Chief. Funny enough since he had more screen time this one chokes me up more. #AgentCarter #chronologicalMCU #takingonefortheteam
- Damn missed a 45 second 6 Months Earlier clip. The whole experiment is ruined.
- Agent Carter vs Dottie. Best fight so far. #chronologicalMCU #AgentCarter #kickasswomen
- Okay now for the agent Carter one-shot which doesn’t make a lot of sense after the series but still has Bradley Whitford so I’ll cope.
- Flash forward to 1983 with a night crawler knock off with no eyes bouncing off walls. #chronologicalMCU #Inhumans
- Pretty sure the last shot of Dum Dum I’m gonna get is him mouthing bikini. Which is the Happy ending he deserves, #chronologicalMCU
- Random woman dying of cancer. Awesome mix vol. 1 makes it’s first appearance. #chronologicalMCU #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy
- Oohhh spaceship. #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy #chronologicalMCU
- Oh shit Hydra is alive and well in the 80’s and they just killed Kyle Maclachlan’s best girl. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD #HailHydra
- 8 hours in we just made it to 1999 and met Howard’s kid Tony. Who’s a chip off the old block. #chronologicalMCU #ironman #explodingficus
- 8hr scorecard. Hulk Outs: 2; Dudes Peggy’s beaten up: 23; Stan Lee sightings: 2; girls the Starks have banged: infinite #chronologicalMCU
- I’ve spent 8 hours with Howard Stark then I find out he died in a car crash from a throwaway line. Sad face. RIP Howard. #chronologicalMCU
- 8hr 50min First Coulson sighting!!!!!
- Stan Lee sighting number 3 #chronologicalMCU #ironman
- I just noticed everyone in the MCU drives an Audi. #chronologicalMCU #productplacement
- 10hr 4min First Nick Fury sighting. Followed by Micky Rourke screaming and feeding his fancy looking bird. #chronologicalMCU #ironman
- No subtitles for dark elves, Germans, or Russians but I do have subs for Portuguese. #chronologicalMCU #bannerdoesbrazil #Hulk
- Stan Lee sighting number 4. #chronologicalMCU
- Stan Lee sighting number 5. #chronologicalMCU #Hulk #bannerdoesbrazil
- Scarlett Johansson just showed up being all girl of my dreamsy. Why doesn’t Black Widow have her own movie yet?#chronologicalMCU#BlackWidow
- Picking up a pretty good rhythm switching between Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man 2. #chronologicalMCU
- Timing of the Thor cuts is a bit off. Never trust another man’s edit. #chronologicalMCU
- 12hr Scorecard Stan Lee Sightings:5 Hulk outs:3 Shirtless Superheroes:3 Times Stark Tech has fallen into the wrong hands:7#chronologicalMCU
- Ya know mixing the films together really manages to hide the flaws in iron man 2. #chronologicalMCU #ironman
- Oh that Coulson interlude really was well timed. #chronologicalMCU #afunnythinghappenedonthewaytothorshammer
- Stan Lee Sighting number 6. #chronologicalMCU
- 17 1/2 hours later I’m to The Avengers. #chronologicalMCU #Avengers
- Like a good portion of America I chose to sleep through Iron Man 3 and the first part of the first season of AOS. #chronologicalMCU
- Got to be honest hitting fatigue levels. Partly from over-saturation partly because AOS doesn’t really get good until ep16#chronologicalMCU
- 24 hr Scorecard Stan Lee Sightings:10 Hulk Outs:7 People agent may has beat up:13 Shirtless Superheroes: too many #chronologicalMCU
- The pantsless Dr. svelvigs sounds like a great name for a post-pop punk band.
- Was that a monkey drinking vodka? Caged Heat canceled too soon. #chronologicalMCU #allhailtheking #ironman #therealmandarin
- Seriously though the MCU racks up more deaths than a season of 24. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD
- Watching it this way the MCU really breaks into 3 phases revolving around Carter, Tony Stark, and Coulson respectively. #chronologicalMCU
- 30 hr scorecard Super villains Shield has created: 4 Infinity Gems used: 4 Secret Organisations founded: 4 Nerd crushes: 3. #chronologicalMCU
- Stan Lee Sighting number 11! #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD
- Shady Agent Garrett is back. Haven’t seen him in literally a day. #AgentsofSHIELD #chronologicalMCU
- And now 32 hours later Buckys not dead. #chronologicalMCU #CaptainAmerica
- Stan Lee Sighting number 12 #chronologicalmcu #CaptainAmerica
- Woke up in time for the final fight scene of GOTG. #chronologicalMCU
- Oh Snap it’s the German guy from 40 hours ago. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD
- Crazy Hydra Nazi just made a sound of music reference. Nice. #AgentsofSHIELD #chronologicalMCU
- Why do all the covert op orgs. put their logos on their uniforms? Does hydra have an in house tailor? #AgentsofSHIELD #chronologicalMCU
- Bobbi Morse has made her appearance. And she’s wearing a Star Wars shirt. MCU nerd crush up to four. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD
- Playing out the string now. 6 hours to go. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD
- Hour 46 calling back to hour 2. That pesky obelisk. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsofSHIELD #AgentCarter
- Hey it’s the nightcrawler wannabe from 40 hours ago. #AgentsofSHIELD #chronologicalMCU #Inhumans
- 48 hr scorecard. Awesome Mix Volumes: 2 Double Crosses: 42 Hail Hydras: a few million. #chronologicalMCU
- Psychotic Kyle Maclachlan is the best Kyle Maclachlan. #chronologicalMCU #AgentsOfShield
- Shields within shields within shields. #AgentsOfShield #chronologicalMCU
- 40 minutes left. Tiger’s been loose for a while. #chronologicalMCU
- a hint of Pesto aioli closes us out. #chronologicalMCU
- Final Scorecard Movies: 10, TV episodes: 46, Short films: 5, Total Hours Watched: 52, Time tell Daredevil drops: 1 hour #chronologicalMCU