Marvel Avengers Recap: Beginning to Endgame

Before reading, be aware that this article has more spoilers than the Hulk has muscles. So, if you haven’t seen the Marvel MCU films yet, see them before reading this. And, also, welcome back from the bunker that we assume you’ve been living in.

The Avengers films have united a whole bunch of epic characters, united worlds and universes, and created a bigger saga than the time you dropped your keys behind the sofa and had to fish them out with a pole made of chopsticks.

Fittingly, as a whole, these films are called the ‘Infinity Saga’. ‘Saga’ as in they cover a lot of action and ‘Infinity’ in that they’re all about the Infinity Stones… a bunch of coloured gemstones. Yep, they’re more focussed on gemstones than the Real Housewives of Cheshire.

But, those little gems have created a lot of drama… and a lot of plotlines. Like, a LOT of plotlines. So many, in fact, that they can be harder to remember than the words to Despacito. So, as the dust settles on Avengers: Endgame, let’s take a little refresher course and look back at all the events that brought us to that river bank (with lumps in our throats).

A (basic) plot recap of all the Marvel MCU movies 

So, before we dive right in like Tony Stark into a paddling pool of cash, we have to point out that there were Marvel superhero movies before the Infinity Saga. Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, anyone? No? Andrew Garfield’s then? Nope, we’re just going to cruise by those and pretend they’re not there, like the awkward ex you see on the street. The actual MCU began in 2008, so that’ll be our starting point.

So, with that sorted, let’s (ahem) assemble the elements of the 22 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Smashed it… just like the Hulk.

The beginning, or ‘Phase One’

The whole thing really started with Iron Man, when Tony Stark decided to go out to the desert to make a killing selling weapons. He got captured, built a metal suit, escaped, fought his dad’s old partner, and ate some cheeseburgers. Et voila, Iron Man was born and the whole thing kicked off with more gusto than a comments fight in an online forum. Also, at the end, Tony Stark was approached by Nick Fury and told about a secret ‘team’.

Next, in The Incredible Hulk, we met Dr Bruce Banner, who was exposed to gamma radiation. He got angry and turned into a giant, veiny monster with super-strength… like you did that time you dropped your keys behind the sofa. He fought a mutated Emil Blonsky and was eventually drafted into Nick Fury’s ‘team’ by Tony Stark.

Basically, while the Hulk was smashing, Tony Stark was fighting Ivan Vanko with the help of James Rhodes (as War Machine) in Iron Man 2. He was also meeting Natasha Romanova, who we know as Black Widow.

And, while all this was going on, the God of Thunder was falling to Earth in Thor. He smashed coffee cups on the ground, fought giant robot things, and met the coolest archer since Robin Hood – Clint Barton, or Hawkeye.

Now, way before all this happened, Steve Rogers had already been turned (by Tony Stark’s dad) into a super soldier, who we met in Captain America: The First Avenger. His bravery and strength were put to good use leading a chorus line. He then did a bunch of heroic stuff like fighting the Red Skull and Hydra and crashing a plane.

Since the 1940s, he had been chillin’ in more ice than you’ll find in a Slush Puppie. But, then, he woke up in NYC in a ‘40s-style hospital room. If only the people who made it spent as much time choosing the baseball game to play on the radio as they did on picking the right thread count for the sheets. Anyway, that’s how Cap met Nick Fury and was roped into his ‘team’. Captain America also introduced us to the Tesseract, which would go on to play a big part in future films. Shhhh, spoilers.

OK, so now we’d met all of the major players, it was time to assemble them… which happened in Avengers Assemble. And, just in time, too, because Thanos (as it turns out) was about to use the wormhole opened by Loki and the Tesseract to send a bunch of cybernetically enhanced aliens to Earth to trash it like a bunch of gatecrashers at a house party. Fortunately, the Avengers all stopped bickering long enough to fight them off and round out the end of Phase One with a straight-up banger of a film.

MCU Phase Two, or ‘Things get Juicy’

After being a total hero in Avengers Assemble, Tony Stark was feeling… a little insecure, actually, and was battling post-traumatic stress disorder in Iron Man 3. He was also battling the Mandarin, who wrecked his mansion like, well, gatecrashers at a house party. But, Pepper Potts saved the day and it was all good.

While that was going on, Thor was introducing his Earthling girlfriend, Jane Foster, to his mum and dad in Thor: The Dark World. He was also trying to reconcile with his brother, desperately trying to trust him. The whole fiasco was reminiscent of a dysfunctional reality-TV family. And, just like reality TV, everything went wrong and there was loads of fighting and things getting broken. But, with Jane’s help, Thor stopped the Dark Elves from regaining their former dominance.

A little while after Thor was experiencing the equivalent of the Manson family reunion, Captain America was experiencing a bad reunion with Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. More things got broken, but we did meet Sam Wilson, who we know as Falcon (the metal wing guy).

Around the same time, Guardians of the Galaxy introduced us to a motley crew, who were all getting together like shy kids on the first day of school. Also, we heard about Thanos when Drax tried to kill Gamora just for knowing him. This was also the first time the Infinity Stones were a major part of the plot. In the end, Peter Quill (or Star-Lord, man) used his friends and the Orb to disintegrate Ronan like sugar in hot coffee. Oh, and Groot went from heroic tree to dancing twig.

So, once the Infinity Stones were a thing that we were looking out for, things kicked off again in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tony Stark’s Ultron defence programme became self-aware and wanted to break stuff, Sokovia got sucked into the sky as easily as fluff up a Hoover tube, and Vision was born thanks to J.A.R.V.I.S.’s synthetic body and the Mind Stone, which we learned was the stone on Loki’s Sceptre. We also met Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.

Then, a few months later, Scott Lang was mentored by Hank Pym in Ant-Man, taught how to use the Ant-Man suit, told not to go subatomic, went subatomic, and overcame the Yellowjacket. We also met Hope van Dyne, or the Wasp, as we like to call her.

MCU Phase Three, or ‘Things get Crazy’

Things were actually going so well for the Avengers that they had been eliminating their enemies easier than the expensive washing powder eliminates stains. So, what was left to do? Fight each other, obviously. That’s what happened in Captain America: Civil War, which started Phase Three of the MCU.

Iron Man thought they were wrecking the world like gatecrashers at a house party and Captain America didn’t really disagree, but didn’t feel like that was such a bad thing since the parties were off the hook. So, they decided to fight about it and wreck the world some more. Then they made up, then Iron Man realised Cap’s buddy killed his parents, and then they fought again. Oh, and we met Spider-Man!

Around this time, Doctor Strange introduced us to Dr Stephen Strange, who crashed his car and ruined his surgical career, then learned Mystic Arts, created sparks like a buzzsaw on steel, and donned a cape that Dracula wouldn’t be caught alive in. We also learned that the good ol’ doc uses the time-bending Eye of Agamotto as part of his powers.

So, around this time, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 showed us that Star-Lord’s dad was actually a Celestial… a god-like being who created matter with his mind. He was also a bit of a douche, though. He gave Peter Quill’s mum cancer, so got his butt whipped.

Back on Earth, Peter Parker was trying to go back to being a normal, super-powered teenager in Spider-Man: Homecoming. But, the Vulture had other plans. So, Spider-Man and the Vulture clashed and Peter got a few how-to-be-a-superhero pep-talks courtesy of Tony Stark.

A little beforehand, and elsewhere in the universe, Thor was still experiencing his very own Jeremy Kyle Show. This time it was in Thor: Ragnarok and he was fighting with his illegitimate sister who he never knew about. Things went bad and he lost his dad before having to fight his good friend, the Hulk. He also had to watch Hulk bath before he headed back to Asgard and wrecked his own house by actually inviting the universe’s worst gatecrasher, Surtur… who killed his sister for him. Then, along with the Hulk and the rest of his people, Thor decided to return to Earth in the Grandmaster’s spaceship.  

Talking about Earth, T’Challa had just returned to Wakanda expecting to put his paws up and T’Chill for a bit after the events of Civil War. Nope. In Black Panther, the king of Wakanda had to battle for his sovereignty. But, at least that kept his fighting skills as sharp as his claws… because he was about to need them in a big way.

In Avengers: Infinity War we realised that Thanos was collecting Infinity Stones with more energy than a Scout collecting donations. Turns out that we’d actually seen the Infinity Stones at this point, though in other forms, and that they were actually the Tesseract (or Space Stone) from Captain America, Loki’s sceptre (or Mind Stone) from Avengers Assemble, the Aether (or Reality Stone) from Thor: The Dark World, the Orb (or Power Stone) from Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Eye of Agamotto (or Time Stone) from Doctor Strange. We saw the sixth stone in Infinity War, the Soul Stone, which was held by the Red Skull.

Anyway, Thanos proved to be stronger than someone who can resist a cheeseburger in the third week of a diet. So, despite Iron Man and Spider-Man hitchhiking their way onto his ship and fighting him on Titan (with the help of the Guardians of the Galaxy), he got the stones, snapped his fingers, and watched half the universe disintegrate like a hot cross bun left in the toaster for too long.

A little before that all went down, Ant-Man and the Wasp had the title characters fighting (and also helping) Ghost while looking for Janet van Dyne at the same time. They were also saying the word ‘quantum’ a lot. Oh, and Scott Lang went into the quantum realm just as Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne disintegrated (like hot cross buns).  

What we didn’t actually know, during this whole saga, was that Carol Danvers had already gone from fighter pilot to superhero (so, cool to super-cool) in 1995. Captain Marvel filled us in. She had then set off to save the universe and was only reachable by pager. Fortunately, knowing how to operate retro technology is Black Widow’s only real superpower.

That brings us to Avengers Endgame…

So, Tony Stark and Nebula, the only survivors left on Titan, jumped into the Guardians’ now ownerless ship and proceeded to float through space looking sadder than, like, every Game of Thrones viewer at the end of the show. But, they were rescued by Captain Marvel, who, received her long-distance page. She goes with the Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Rocket, Black Widow, and War Machine and give Thanos a real good whoopin’… but only after learning that he destroyed the Stones.

Five years passed. Then, Ant-Man escaped the quantum realm thanks to a very tech-savvy rat. So, the team was back together… sort-of. There was still the fact that half of them had been wiped out, so they needed to think up a way to bring them back. Who is good at thinking? Hmmm, Tony Stark!

Thanks to some very quick development, Tony found a way to go back in time to before the Infinity Stones were destroyed by Thanos. Some brilliant time travel happened, Captain America fought himself and complimented his own bottom, the past Infinity Stones were recovered, and the Hulk managed to wield a makeshift Gauntlet to bring everyone back to life. Buuuuut, past Thanos discovered their plans through present Nebula, who was malfunctioning like a microwave in a car wash.

So, Thanos found out that his original plan to destroy half the universe was lame. It was like eating half of a doughnut. Just, weird. New plan: eat the whole doughnut! So, the Avengers faced off with Thanos… and commenced in getting spanked harder than a cheeky child in the height of corporal punishment.

But, remember when Hulk had brought everyone back? Well, they showed up just in the nick of time to start a brawl so big that even internet trolls would be like, ‘Whoa, that’s a lot of aggression.’ But, Thanos still managed to fill the Infinity Gauntlet with stones, exhibiting scrappiness that makes Jack Russell terriers look downright passive.

Captain Marvel didn’t care. She took him on, and even made him a little nervous when his headbutt rebounded off her skull like a football off a tank. Except, he still managed to best her. Then, the man who started it all (sort of) stepped in. Iron Man pickpocketed Thanos of the Stones, snapped his fingers, and then retired in style as Thanos went the way of an overcooked hot cross bun.

Why are we going into so much detail for Endgame, which is the freshest in your mind? Not sure, really, but we can’t seem to stop. Still, short of describing the shimmering colour of Steve Rogers’ eyes as he passed his shield to Falcon, we’ll just say this: Endgame gave us the feeling you get after a brilliant dessert in that you’re sad it’s over, but suitably satisfied.

The Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

So, with Spider-Man: Far from Home leading the way for the next phase of films (even though it’s technically still Phase Three), we know that Endgame isn’t really the end. And, with Falcon becoming the new Captain America, we know there’s some more stars-and-striped awesomeness coming our way there.

The Guardians of the Galaxy now have overweight Thor on their crew, and Thor all but passed his hammer to Valkyrie… so will we be seeing the Goddess of Thunder on screen soon? Yes, if the whispers are to be believed. But, it won’t be Valkyrie. Turns out Jane Foster is going to make a bigger comeback than John Travolta, this time returning as female Thor!

Plus, there’s more than enough opportunity to see Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and Co. carry on stomping all over the universe’s baddies.

But, as exciting as it is to look forward, we can’t help but look back over the incredible journey that the 22 MCU films have taken us on since 2008. And, if you want a little merch to help you celebrate the heroes involved, we can totally help you out with that. Check out our catalogue of Marvel merch now! 

Oh, and if you want to relive all of the awesomeness we just talked you through, here’s the sequence:

Marvel MCU Movies in Order

Phase One

• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Marvel’s Avengers Assemble

Phase Two

• Iron Man 3
• Thor: The Dark World
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Ant-Man

Phase Three

• Captain America: Civil War
• Doctor Strange
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Black Panther
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Captain Marvel
• Avengers: Endgame
• (Spider-Man: Far from Home)