Marvel Cinematic Universe possible watch orders; Fan’s hottest takes

Leah Hillier, Copy Editor

     Even casual fans of Marvel are aware of the hype surrounding the new series coming out in the upcoming year, and with the new shows and movies streaming on Disney Plus, some people are trying to catch up on the series as a whole. 

     The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a combination of every Marvel movie, combined into phases one through four, order within the movies exist, and some are direct sequels. However, many movies can be watched in other orders.

     Junior Elle Saulsbury enjoys watching the movies in both chronological orders, following the four phases, and in release order, which puts the movie Captain Marvel (2019), second on the watchlist, following Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). “It is pretty interesting to watch Marvel movies in chronological order to be able to fully understand everything.  But, watching it in release order is cool too cause if you watch captain marvel towards the end of the movies instead of second, you come across a lot of cool realizations.”

     The sheer amount of Marvel movies available bring out fans’ strong opinions on the series, and about characters within them. Alyssa Ireland, junior, believes that “Thor and Loki deserve more hype,” because of their character design, saying that “something about the fact that [Loki is] always up to something is so wonderful”. In the Marvel comics Loki is featured in portraying him as a pansexual and nonbinary god of trickery, reflecting the Norse mythology he and his family come from. 

     The original stories of Loki in Voluspa, a chapter of the Norse Poetic Edda, depict him as a shapeshifting god, who ultimately led to the death of a beloved god due to his trickery, which can be seen in Marvel. The story changed greatly, but some of the characterizations of the beloved Odinson brothers, Thor and Loki did not. 

     Character development over the course of the series is an important aspect of the MCU, and one hotly debated by fans of the series, “Captain America completely ruined his whole character arc by going back in time to be with Peggy. In Age of Ultron, he said that he no longer wanted that life, he wanted to protect the world with the Avengers”, according to Saulsbury. 

     Similarly, the act of the original Captain America, Steve Rogers, passing on the duty of Captain America to Falcon is one that confused and angered some fans, while others defended the action. “Falcon deserved the shield. People say that Bucky should have gotten it but he’s too emotionally damaged and doesn’t want any more blood on his hands.” Bucky, a childhood friend of Steve Rogers, had been captured and experimented on during the Second World War, and had been tasked as an assassin ever since until he joined the Avengers.