Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread

[Marsden]

I would like it if they did it similarly to what they did in Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes, they had Carol with Captain Mar-Vell and she was exposed to radiation that he blocked with his body, which gave her powers but they didn't show her again for quite a while and she's already been trained and suited up and working for SWORD. Then she becomes an Avenger.

 

[Christopher]

I would like it if they did it similarly to what they did in Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes, they had Carol with Captain Mar-Vell and she was exposed to radiation that he blocked with his body, which gave her powers but they didn't show her again for quite a while and she's already been trained and suited up and working for SWORD. Then she becomes an Avenger.

Well, you never know. Spider-Man 3 used the '90s animated series' version of the Alien Costume-to-Venom story, with the symbiote changing Peter's personality, rather than the more unfocused comics version where it just drained his life force. So there's precedent for movies following the lead of animated adaptations.

 

[Reverend]

I've been wondering if they might take the approach the Arrowverse did when they introduced Flash. We meet her in Infinity War, and her involvment with the whole thing leads to the incident that gives her her powers which she then starts using in her movie.

My thinking is that as you suggest, she's introduced somehow as just Carol Danvers, something happens to her at some point that takes her out of the plot (zapped with the soul stone or something) leaving her hospitalized or in a coma. Then the post credits or mid-credits scene is her snapping awake with glowing eyes or something to that effect. Cut to black and "Carol Danvers with return in Captain Marvel."

I'd be surprised if they bothered with the Mar-Vell character, at least in 'Infinity War'. If he shows up at all I'd think the more logical place is in her solo movie, in which he's a mentor or antagonist, or both ('Training Day' in space anyone?!) Either way, he's dead by the time the credits roll.

 

[Marsden]

I'd be surprised if they bothered with the Mar-Vell character, at least in 'Infinity War'. If he shows up at all I'd think the more logical place is in her solo movie, in which he's a mentor or antagonist, or both ('Training Day' in space anyone?!) Either way, he's dead by the time the credits roll.

Agree, I only mentioned him because they did in that animated show.
But the basic idea, a character that is not central to the plot, but also not stitched on like a patch just to say here they are as some characters, then she's zapped or what have you and nothing else needs be done until she's all ready to go in her own movie. While I don't dislike some origin stories, I hate when it's an excuse for the movie feature a character not at their best. "Oh, that's only his first day, he wouldn't normally let the mugger kill those people" and other such crap to excuse a poor movie or scene in a movie.

 

[JD]

My thinking is that as you suggest, she's introduced somehow as just Carol Danvers, something happens to her at some point that takes her out of the plot (zapped with the soul stone or something) leaving her hospitalized or in a coma. Then the post credits or mid-credits scene is her snapping awake with glowing eyes or something to that effect. Cut to black and "Carol Danvers with return in Captain Marvel."

That is pretty much exactly what I'm expecting too.

 

[Reverend]

Personally I think they'd be better off not using Mar-Vell at all, for a number of reasons.
He's not a very interesting character. He's never been a very popular character. He only really exists so that Marvel can prevent DC publishing the original Captain Marvel under anything other than "Shazam." And most of all it doesn't really send a good message for their first female led superhero movie to essentially be a derivative of a male character. One that nobody has heard of or even cares about no less.

Now I'd be fine with them name dropping him somehow, or re-cycling the name to mean something else entirely that is nevertheless the basis of her superhero codename. Like say for example the source of her power is the "Mar-Vell Crystal" which as it turns out is the housing for the final infinity stone.

 

[JD]

The Marvel name does seem to be a lot more associated with Carole Danvers these days than Mar-Vell. I do agree that we don't really need him in the movie, but the fact that they've stuck so close to the comics most of the time does make me think we'll see him in some form.

 

[Christopher]

I'd be fine without Mar-Vell. I've always found his name kind of corny anyway. In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, they even pronounced it more like "Mar-Vale" so it wouldn't be so obvious.

 

[Turtletrekker]

So before seeing Civil war I am doing a MCU re-watch so far I have seen 2 of the films and my order was going to be CA > IM > IM2 > Thor > IH > Avenger Assemble > IM3 > Thor: Dark World > CA2 > Avengers: Age of Ultron > Ant man then to Civil war, I think that's the right order but can anybody tell me if Guardians of the Galaxy fits in anywhere or is it more of a marvel films that's more like "meanwhile in another part of the galaxy" sort of film?

I would say right after Thor: The Dark World. Its post-credit scene with The Collector, Sif and Volstagg would give it a nice narrative lead-in.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I just switch around TIH and IM2, since the Stark scene in TIH is meant to take place after IM2. Otherwise, release order. The main story of Cap:TFA is meant to be a flashback, not the "present" of the film.

 

[Reverend]

The Marvel name does seem to be a lot more associated with Carole Danvers these days than Mar-Vell. I do agree that we don't really need him in the movie, but the fact that they've stuck so close to the comics most of the time does make me think we'll see him in some form.

They've hewed close when it makes sense, but they've never shied away from making *drastic* changes or reinterpretations.
The thing here is that there isn't a clear "origin story" for Danvers as Captain Marvel in the comics. She was a random ancillary character that eventually got spun-off and went through a number of different personas (to say nothing of the whole mind-rape/impregnation mess) before finally finding some popularity fairly late on.

If any character needed their origin story streamlined, it's Captain Marvel.

 

[Tosk]

I would say right after Thor: The Dark World. Its post-credit scene with The Collector, Sif and Volstagg would give it a nice narrative lead-in.

That's what I do too. It may not be "timeline accurate" but it feels right. Although sometimes I keep it between Winter Soldier and Ultron just to break up those storylines.

I also move Thor 2 up to right after Avengers. It had Thor and Loki pretty much arriving home after departing in Avengers, and Iron Man 3 is framed about a year after Avengers.

So my personal order is

Iron Man
Iron Man2
Thor
Incredible Hulk
Captain America
Avengers
Thor 2
Guardians
Iron Man 3
Winter Soldier
Age of Ultron
Ant-Man

 

[Skywalker]

I just switch around TIH and IM2, since the Stark scene in TIH is meant to take place after IM2. Otherwise, release order. The main story of Cap:TFA is meant to be a flashback, not the "present" of the film.

Agreed. TIH ends with Tony Stark already acting as a consultant with SHIELD, which doesn't officially happen until after the events of IM2, so it makes more sense to watch the latter movie first. IM2, Thor, and the bulk of TIH all take place around roughly the same time, covering about a week in-universe, while the rest of the MCU pretty much continues in real time. Guardians of the Galaxy's cold open was set in 1988 and then when it jumped to the present it explicitly said "twenty-six years later," so it took place in 2014, the same year the movie came out.

This is generally how I order the movies:

1. Iron Man
2. Iron Man 2
3. Thor (because Coulson's departure in IM2 leads directly into this movie)
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Captain America: The First Avenger
6. The Avengers
7. Iron Man 3 (Christmas 2012; dialogue places it six months after The Avengers)
8. Thor: The Dark World (2013; dialogue indicates two years have passed on Earth since the first movie, which came out in 2011)
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Ant-Man
13. Captain America: Civil War

And if you want to include the Marvel One-Shots...

1. Iron Man
2. Iron Man 2
3. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer...
4. Thor
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. The Consultant
7. Captain America: The First Avenger
8. Agent Carter
9. The Avengers
10. Item 47
11. Iron Man 3
12. Thor: The Dark World
13. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
14. Guardians of the Galaxy
15. All Hail the King (not explicitly dated, but I put it here to give a decent amount of time between it and IM3)
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron
17. Ant-Man
18. Captain America: Civil War

 

[Christopher]

I just switch around TIH and IM2, since the Stark scene in TIH is meant to take place after IM2.

In fact, both IM2 (aside from its opening scene) and Thor take place entirely within the timespan of TIH, as you can see here:

http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/2011

The main body of IM2 begins just after the opening portion of TIH, and ends just after the university fight in TIH (the footage from which is showing on Fury's monitors in his final scene with Stark). The main events of Thor begin while Banner is making his way to Culver University and end shortly before the Battle of Harlem.

So really, it just makes sense to watch TIH first and then see the rest as going back and filling stuff in. Kind of like how the final scene of IM2 (Coulson reporting finding Thor's hammer) actually takes place a day before the previous scene (Fury debriefing Stark). Sometimes stories just get told out of order because it makes the most narrative sense. Think of the tag of TIH as a flashforward, with IM2 then backfilling and explaining how we got to that point.

The main story of Cap:TFA is meant to be a flashback, not the "present" of the film.

That's true. The opening scene of Cap being found in the ice and the closing scene of Cap waking up in NYC are meant to be between TIH/IM2/Thor and The Avengers.

 

[JD]

They've hewed close when it makes sense, but they've never shied away from making *drastic* changes or reinterpretations.
The thing here is that there isn't a clear "origin story" for Danvers as Captain Marvel in the comics. She was a random ancillary character that eventually got spun-off and went through a number of different personas (to say nothing of the whole mind-rape/impregnation mess) before finally finding some popularity fairly late on.

If any character needed their origin story streamlined, it's Captain Marvel.

As soon as I posted that I remembered The Mandarin, and Col. Zemo who both prove they aren't afraid to make some pretty massive changes. Has Mar-Vell played much of a role in Carol's story once she got her powers.

 

[The Old Mixer]

So really, it just makes sense to watch TIH first and then see the rest as going back and filling stuff in.

Not for me...however exact events between the movies are meant to happen chronologically, I put more narrative weight on the scene with dialogue between Stark and Ross than on briefly-glimpsed background footage from TIH, so it makes a lot more sense to put TIH after IM2.

ETA: Also, it occurs to me that IM2 is the narrative glue that ties those three movies together chronologically...so again, more sense to start with it.

 

[Reverend]

As soon as I posted that I remembered The Mandarin, and Col. Zemo who both prove they aren't afraid to make some pretty massive changes.

There's also middle-ground cases like Daisy/Quake. They actually stuck fairly close to her comic origin, but came at it from a whole other direction.

Also, the MCU version of Hulk's origin took more from the old TV show than the comic book version and I'm pretty sure most of the Kingpin's origin as depicted on the Netflix show is something they made out of whole cloth.

Has Mar-Vell played much of a role in Carol's story once she got her powers.

I'm no expert, but from what I gather, no, not really. Like I said, they only trot him out every now and again to maintain the rights on the name. Kind of like how Fox have to make an 'Fantastic Four' movie every once in a while or it reverts back to Marvel.

 

[Turtletrekker]

FWIW, this is my order (I include The First Avenger twice because when I do a re-watch, I can do it either way, sometimes I start w/IM1, and other times with CA:TFA).

Captain America: The First Avenger
(Agent Carter)
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
(A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer)
The Incredible Hulk
Thor
(The Consultant)
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
(Item 47)
Iron Man 3
(All Hail The King)
Thor: The Dark World
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ant-Man
Captain America: Civil War

 

[Marsden]

I kind of just watch whatever. Last weekend I watched IM3, then IM2, then Iron Man.

 

[Skywalker]

I kind of just watch whatever. Last weekend I watched IM3, then IM2, then Iron Man.