Happy 10th anniversary, Marvel Studios!!!!

Yep, here it is!
Marvel has been using the whole year to celebrate, but this is the actual day Iron Man 1 came out.
Infinity War even has a special 10th annivrsary logo in front of it.

Not only is this saga quite possibly the best thing put to screen, its transformed the entire movie business.
You won't be able to tell the story of Hollywood in the 21st century without talking about Marvel.
It can't be done.
I mean, you COULD, but your history book would be a redacted pile of worthless lies.
So much for this being a fad.

Previously-

Happy 4th anniversary, Iron Man!
(Except it was the 5th, and on the wrong day, and the fucking date was right on the poster.
What an idiot!)
Ranking the MCU so far (2017)
The saga of the Sony/Marvel Spidey deal.
Disney/Fox Part 1: Comcast drops out.
Disney/Fox Part 2: Marvel's cinematic history. 
Disney/Fox Part 3: Confirmation!
Disney/Fox Part 4: Don't celebrate yet, kiddies!
Disney/Fox Part 5: The home stretch is in sight!
Disney/Fox Part 6: IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!

Now, let's go over the films again.
I'll put them in proper watching order, and review my old reviews.
I marathoned all of them up to "Raganrok", leading up to "Infinity War", so I have a fresh perspective on 'em.

1. Captain America: The First Avenger.

The old review nails it pretty well.
Except now in the light of the secrets from "Winter Soldier", "Civil War", and "Infinity War", it plays even better.
Some people's watching order is to put this as a flashback after the ending of "Thor", introduces the Tesseract, and I guess you could do that, but I like it better as a prequel, then you're introduced to Nick Fury at the end, then you jump to Iron Man as the son of Howard Stark, then Nick shows up again to link the two. Eh, it works either way, I guess.

2. Iron Man.

The one that started it all.
When you want to start a cinematic universe, you wanna go with John Favreau, not Zack Snyder.
Just saying.
I mean, no knock against Snyder, but he's better with self-contained weirdo artistic visions, not laying down tracks other directors have to emulate.
You gotta look at these things like big TV shows when you're building them.
The director of the pilot lays down the style for the other directors.
You gotta keep that in mind.
Although, to be even more fair to Snyder, I think WB sprung the whole cinematic universe thing on him after the fact. WB suits are assholes.
Anyway, this one is still great, and it's wild to go back to it knowing how far everyone has come.

3. The Incredible Hulk.

Okay, the continuity on this, "Iron Man 2", and "Thor", has always been contentious, but here's how I finally come down on it.

Go with release order.
Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor.

They all happen at roughly the same time, and overlap, but with Thor leading right into Avengers, that has to go last.
And with both the Hulk news footage, and the Thor hammer, Iron Man 2 should be in between.
Doesn't matter that Tony goes to meet Ross in Hulk AFTER the scene in Iron Man 2, there's just no way to make it perfect.
Just accept that time jumps around a little.

Except for Ross being in "Civil War", and "Infinity War", this one doesn't impact the saga much.
Maybe Abomination and Leader will be in Avengers 4, who knows?

4. Iron Man 2.

Come on, it introduced Black Widow, War Machine, baby Spider-Man, and adds a piece to the Howard Stark saga that runs through "First Avenger", "Iron Man 2", "Winter Soldier", "Ant-Man", and "Civil War". And the Gary Shandling evil senator thing pays off in "Winter Soldier".
I think it's underrated as fuck.

5. Thor.

Y'know, it snuck up gradually, but now with "Ragnarok", and "Infinity War", I think Thor might be my favorite character.
My only beef with this one, Hemsworth's blonde eyebrows.

6. The Avengers.

Still awesome, the MCU truly arrived as a force with this one, and in MCU continuity, the ripple effects of "the battle of New York", are still being felt.
And Thanos first appears here.
Cap to Thor were the gestation, the MCU baby was birthed here.

From the old review...

This is no fly-by-night summer flick that you forget about, this is the new epoch.
This is history making.
The box office records are justified.

Nailed it.
I was right.
I knew even then.

Also from the old one...

This is the new saga. Envy the children that'll grow up with it.

A generation has grown up with it now.
If you were 10 when Iron Man came out, you're 20 now.
If you were a fetus, you're 10.
This is a generation's Star Wars now.
I think that's awesome.

7. Iron Man 3.

Like Iron Man 2, I think it's underrated.

Tony's PTSD, his addiction to suits, his struggling relationship with Pepper, those threads play out in "Civil War", "Spider-Man: Homecoming", and "Infinity War".

And hey, you get The Silver Centurion armor in canon...if for only 5 seconds.

Yeah, yeah, fake Mandarin, boo-fucking-hoo.
The Marvel shorts say the real Mandarin is out there.
Get over it.

8. Thor: The Dark Word.

"Ragnarok", and "Infinity War", make this one pay off like gangbusters.
The haters seriously need to shut up now.

9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

From here on out, Marvel hit it out of the park with critics and fans.
Non fucking stop.
I can't think of one past this point that anyone whines about like they do "Iron Man 3", or "Dark World".
We were at critical mass, no going back.

And Bucky has been an awesome character.

10. Guardians Of The Galaxy.

I think the whole planet loves this one.
If you're a hipster douche that hates it, I don't wanna fuckin' know you.

Fans wanted them to meet the Avengers as soon as this came out.
Boy, did "Infinity War", deliver the goods on that!!

11. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2.

I dunno if I can ever bring myself NOT to binge this back to back with part 1 from now on.
Technically, this is a phase 3 movie, but it happens a month after vol. 1, so it jumps back into phase 2.

Some people whine it's not as good as vol. 1,...I dunno parts of it I like even better.
Me, I love it.

12. Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

It gets better on rewatching, and a couple things pay off huge in "Infinity War", so this goes up a few points for me.
And Sokovia has big ripples throughout the MCU, so you gotta see it for that if nothing else.

I was slightly annoyed at the time we didn't get "Infinity War", right away as part 2, but now after seeing "Infinity War", I appreciate why they had to set some more stuff up first.
Also, the mid-credits scene to "Ultron", makes way more sense when you go back and watch it after "Infinity War".
Trust me.

13. Ant-Man.

Oh yeah, this came out the same year as the Josh Trank "Fantastic Four".
I had to see "Ant-Man", again to antidote it.

Ant-Man came right back in "Civil War", he was MIA in "Infinity War", though, maybe "Ant-Man & The Wasp", will explain why.

Hope he'll pop up in Avengers 4.
We will see.

14. Captain America: Civil War.

The best MCU movie until "Black Panther".
And then that one was dethroned by "Infinity War".

"Avengers", "Winter Soldier", "Age Of Ultron", "Civil War", "Ragnarok", and "Infinity War", are the big historical epochs of the MCU universe.
You gotta know at least those for your binge homework.

15. Doctor Strange.

My favorite Marvel characters before the MCU started were Hulk, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and then Thor.

I got 3 out of the 4 right up front.

I never dreamed we'd make it to Strange's solo movie, but holy shit, here we were.
And it delivered the goods.

And Strange delivers like gangbusters in "Infinity War".
Ho-ly shit!!!

16. Spider-Man: Homecoming.

And the Sony deal pays off!!

I said it all in the old review, I think.

17. Thor: Ragnarok.

Best Thor, best Hulk, one of the best MCU's period.

Said it back at Thor 1, with this, and "Infinity War", Thor might just be my favorite character.

18. Black Panther.

The Easter egg for this was planted way back at Iron Man 2, and Stan Lee blabbed that this and Doctor Strange were happening way back in 2013.
Never thought we'd get to it, but blam, here we are.
Hell, it's still in theaters in some places.

My old review of it said it all for the film's quality.
It deserved the box-office records it broke.

And finally...

19. Avengers: Infinity War.

What a long strange trip its been, eh?
Seen it twice already.
My two reviews cover it pretty well, I think.
Plus all the shout-outs throughout this list.

Oh, and as of right now, it broke "The Force Awakens", opening weekend record.
Damn!

So, next comes "Ant-Man & The Wasp", then "Captain Marvel", then Avengers 4, whatever the title's gonna be, and then we'll be into phase 4, and hopefully, some Fox character crossovers.
The future looks bright for Marvel!

Unless there's a nuclear apocalypse or something.
Go to sleep, North Korea! Sleeeep! Sleep for a decade!

Anyhoo, Happy Marvel, everybody!!!