Ranking Phase Five of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Geek Dad

23-05-2025

Although I've never read many comics outside of a few Spider-man issues back in the 1980s, The Marvel Cinematic Universe has turned me into a huge Marvel nerd. With The Thunderbolts* having made it to theaters this month, Marvel has closed out Phase 5 of their films, and only one of the eight Phase 5 Disney Plus shows remains: Ironheart premieres on June 24th. With Phase 5 now wrapping up, it seems an opportune time to review and rank the six films and seven available television shows in The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 5.
Please note that this article will contain spoilers for Thunderbolts* , Captain America: Brave New World , and Daredevil: Born Again . Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5 Movies 6 – Captain America: Brave New World
So much went wrong with this film that might have gone right. It could have followed in the impressive footsteps of Captain America and The Winter Soldier , being a well-made espionage thriller. Instead, the film was haunted by COVID delays and other behind-the-scenes that can't have helped its production. William Hurt, who would have been the film's star alongside Anthony Mackie, passed away in March of 2022 and deprived us of the General Ross that we've loved to hate since Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk . That 2008 film also gave us Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns, AKA Mister Blue.
Tim Blake Nelson is an incredible actor, and one of the best things about Captain America: Brave New World. But his character's abilities and the overall story around his plot were either poorly thought-out or just poorly explained to the audience. In the end, I found the film's plot to be as confusing as the politics in the Star Wars prequels. Maybe I just need to watch the film again.
The great Giancarlo Esposito is a welcome addition to nearly anything. But his role in Captain America: Brave New World felt like a last-minute rewrite, and his scenes felt like something out of a different movie. I again attribute this to COVID delays and behind-the scenes troubles. Oh well, they can't all be great. 5 – Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was largely collateral damage of Marvel's false start into Phase 5 that ended with Jonathan Majors's criminal assault charges. Kang may have been a great big bad – Majors was a great Kang, and an even better Victor Timely in the second season of Loki , but I can now only pine for what might have been a great villain.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had a lot of CG. It felt like Tron levels of CG. And while characters like Broccoli Guy and Veb (voiced by the great David Dastmalchian) were fun, I felt at times like I was watching an animated film. Along the same lines, while it seems fun to bring an absolutely insane character like M.O.D.O.K. to a live action film, his presence may have pushed the film's silly levels above acceptable tolerances. 4 – The Marvels
It was panned by many critics, but I enjoyed The Marvels . Having seen the three title characters' origin stories in Captain Marvel , WandaVision , and Ms. Marvel respectively, it was great to see the three of them come together and defeat the MCU's flattest villain since Malekith, Kaecilius, and Ronan the Accuser.
I'll admit that the having the crew be saved by being devoured by a litter of flerkins was flat-out stupid. And I wasn't a huge fan of the planet on which Carol had married into royalty and had to sing everything in order to be understood. Yeah, now that I'm remembering everything, the film absolutely had some weak spots. But every damn scene with Kamala's family was fantastic. 3 – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3
The Guardians of the Galaxy films have always been in a class of their own. Drax was for a long time my favorite MCU character, Kraglin is nearly as good, and before this series, nobody could have predicted that an animated tree and a raccoon could be characters as good as this. While the first Guardians of the Galaxy film was possibly the best of them, I was an enormous fan of the second, and I liked it even more each time I re-watched it. Its emphasis on family was well-done in a way you'd never expect from a ridiculous super-hero film.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 is an emotional journey and an exploration of Racket Raccoon's past. While The High Evolutionary isn't Marvel's greatest villain, he suffices. What truly makes this film outstanding is its humor, its character, and its scenes. The raid on OrgoCorp which begins with the guardians leaping from their airlock wearing Crayola-colored spacesuits, set to SpaceHog's In The Meantime is such a visual spectacle set perfectly to a killer needle drop while Mantis tumbles clumsily through vacuum. I challenge you to watch the scene and not be impressed.
Cosmo the soviet space dog, who had a brief appearance in earlier Guardians films, becomes a full character in this film, and also my then-eleven-year-old daughter's favorite MCU character. I was also very impressed by Will Poulter's portrayal of born-yesterday Adam Warlock. 2 – The Thunderbolts*
At the time I'm writing this, it's been less than a week since I've seen The Thunderbolts* , so it's still relatively fresh in my mind. That said, I'm about to spoil the heck out of the movie, so if you haven't seen it yet, please don't read further.
I was very surprised that they killed off Taskmaster as early in the film as they did, but given how seldom any characters are given any kind of final end in a comic book movie, I think it was for the best.
I always get nervous when any character as powerful as Sentry makes an appearance – it wreaks of G'iah in Secret Invasion , which is easily the worst single property that the MCU has ever released. I've often wondered whether super-speed or telekinesis would be the ultimate unstoppable superpower. Well, Sentry has both and a few more to boot. His mental health struggles appear to be the only thing keeping him from Dark Phoenix territory. I can only hope that this egregious power imbalance is addressed at some point in the future.
I liked that the end boss in this film was mental health. It's a different tack, and the movie made it work.
Lastly, the reveal in the movie's final minutes that the Thunderbolts team is in fact The New Avengers makes me feel a lot of different things. It's cool in that you immediately realize that this was the film's original title, and that it was changed in order to not spoil this end scene. It's concerning in that this team isn't a fraction as powerful as Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor were, and the impending threats are likely worse. And it makes you think about what might be next, as The Fantastic Four enter the picture. 1 – Deadpool and Wolverine
And now, the best film in phase five. I'll grant you that this is just my opinion, but I loved Deadpool and Wolverine . It's such a shame I couldn't bring my kids. And no, they still haven't seen it. Not even the one turning 18 this month.
The inclusion of the TVA as a way to bring together alternate universes was excellent, and I loved seeing B-15 as a significant character. However the biggest jackpot was seeing so many characters from 25 years ago back on screen. My personal favorite was Wesley Snipes as Blade, whom I'd never have expected. So many folks don't even realize that Blade was Marvel. 'Laura', Logan's buddy from another timeline, was also very cool. Elektra was a nice surprise, as terrible as her movie and Ben Affleck's Daredevil movie were. The bait-and-switch of having Chris Evans as The Human Torch was also a lot of fun, but reminded me all too much of the Green Lantern joke from the previous film. And Channing Tatum as Gambit was a better character than I'd ever have expected. I also really appreciated the return of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Pyro from the X-Men films, and the original Sabretooth from the original X-Men film in 2000. Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5 Television
Now we move on to the phase five television shows, airing on Disney Plus. Seven of the eight phase five shows are already out. We're awaiting only Ironheart, which comes out on June 24th. From worst to best, this is how I see it. 7 – Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion could have been an amazing paranoid suspense thriller. Not only was it bad, it was likely the worst show that Marvel has created since the MCU's inception. It's sad, because the cast was excellent. Emilia Clarke is incredibly talented, and Cobie Smulders, Ben Mendelsohn, Don Cheadle, and Martin Freeman are also Marvel heavyweights. I don't know exactly where Secret Invasion failed. But I won't be going back to re-watch it and find out. It's dull and it's uninspiring. 6 – Echo
Hawkeye is my favorite of the MCU shows, and that's where Echo was introduced. So I was fairly excited for the show before its release. I watched it, and I was underwhelmed.
Vincent D'Onofrio will elevate pretty much anything, especially with his Kingpin portrayal. But his Kingpin in Echo wasn't up to the snuff of his Kingpin in Daredevil: Born Again , and even that wasn't as good as the Kingpin we got in the amazing season three of Netflix's Daredevil season.
At this point, I can't recall much of what the characters did in this show, outside of Echo and Kingpin trying to reconcile their relationship. 5 – What If…? Season 3
I have a confession to make. The third season of What If…? is the only existing MCU property that I haven't watched all the way through. I stuck it through Secret Invasion , I've seen all the Marvel One-Shots, and I've even watched Werewolf By Night and Moon Knight twice each.
It's funny – during the first year of the Disney Plus Marvel shows, What If…? was tied for my favorite alongside WandaVision . I'm not sure what happened. It's not as if I think the show is bad. I just don't have interest. It's probably for the best that season three is supposed to wrap this show up. 4 – Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was a great alternate-universe Spider-Man story. This Peter Parker has a story which parallels the canon MCU Peter Parker's history in fascinating ways. Doctor Strange, temporal and dimensional shenanigans all play into his origin story, and interesting new characters are introduced. All in all, this was a well-told original story which touched on MCU canon enough to feel relevant while remaining its own distinct entity. 3 – Agatha All Along
Everyone loved Catherine Hahn's Agatha Harkness in WandaVision . Even before her huge breakout with the song 'Agatha All Along' (which incidentally was written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who also wrote the music for the Disney film Frozen ) she killed it with her vintage nosy neighbor character Agnes.
Agatha All Along plays with many of the same tropes that kicked off WandaVision . While we don't get entire episodes that embody a decade of sit-coms, we do get events inside the Witch's Road that cast the show's characters into various bygone eras, having essentially the same impact. The various escape rooms that the witches must navigate lead to a different resolution for each, and eventually to the revelation of what the Witch's Road actually is. The flashback to Agatha Harkness's past, and her brush with Death, make for some truly excellent television. I very much enjoyed the show, even more so upon a second viewing. 2 – Loki, Season 2
The introduction of the Time Variance Authority in the first season was huge. Loki's post-Endgame survival and his comically narcissistic love affair with a variant of himself was brilliant. The void at the end of time and the demise of He Who Remains were key to the introduction of the eventually-aborted Kang storyline.
The second season gave us Ke Huy Quan's Ouroboros and Jonathan Major's Victor Timely, two amazing new characters. While the second season didn't receive the same critical reception as the first, so many of the scenes with these characters were just so fun to watch that I know I'll be revisiting Loki Season Two again… in the future. 1 – Daredevil: Born Again
I was a big fan of the original Daredevil on Netflix. Season one was pretty good, season two was garbage, and season three was absolutely amazing. By this point, Matt Murdock has been Peter Parker's lawyer, been on missions with She-Hulk, and by the start of this season he's given up his cowl. A traumatic event during the first episode triggers a season that features White Tiger, Mayor Fisk, and a lot of welcome cameos.
I've made it no secret that Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin is one of my favorite MCU villains, alongside Thanos and Loki. My squee when he unexpectedly showed up near the end of Hawkeye was frankly embarrassing. And it should be no surprise that his presence here is a large part of what makes this show so good. But it's far from the only thing.
A second season of Daredevil: Born Again is slated. Perhaps it's too much for me to ask for cameos from Spider-Man, Luke Cage, or Jennifer Walters. But I can hope. Phase Six
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the first film in Marvel's Phase Six, followed by Avengers: Doomsday in 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027. A Spider-Man film will be sandwiched in between these two, and rumor has it that the film will feature a more street level story.
The Disney Plus shows in phase six include the second seasons of Daredevil: Born Again and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man , new animated shows The Eyes of Wakanda and Marvel Zombies , and my personal two picks: Wonder Man starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen, and VisionQuest , in which we learn what happened to the White Vision that absconded at the conclusion of WandaVision . Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!