Captain America: The First Avenger

When they work, they really work. When they don’t, they really don’t.

‘Black Panther’ is about to surpass the box office earnings of ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Thor,’ and ‘Captain America’… combined!

With the arrival of Avengers: Age of Ultron this week, we are officially 11 movies deep in the wildly ambitious and massively popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not including TV shows like Daredevil, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, that’s approximately 23 hours of superhero content, or 1,384 minutes to be exact. When you have that much content and so many recurring characters, patterns start to emerge. You begin to see the habits and tropes that define any franchise played out on an unprecedented scale. It encourages some genuine nerdery. Just how many times does Captain America throw his shield? How many times does Thor boast? How many alcoholic beverages does Tony Stark consume?

By the time you read this, I will be on my way to “The Ultimate Marvel Marathon.” It’s 11 films back to back to back; all the official entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from 2008’s Iron Man to this week’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. By the time the final credits roll, I will have sat through — and hopefully written about — approximately 27 hours of superhero movies.

Without a great adversary, what good is a superhero? Without someone to punch in the face, Batman would just be some rich schmuck driving around in a weird-looking tank. Without someone on the receiving end of his shield, Captain America would just hang out at the V.F.W. all day. So let’s celebrate the villains. Let’s bring on the bad guys and give them their moment in the sun. With Avengers: Age of Ultron introducing another memorable baddie in the form of James Spader’s titular metallic menace, let’s take some time to run down the 10 greatest superhero movie villains of all time.

Before Captain America: The First Avenger hit theaters and helped kickstart the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel had much different ideas for Cap. Namely, a comedy. Before Iron Man became a hit, the original plan was for the Captain America movie to be funny, because they didn't know if audiences could take Cap seriously. The man they wanted to direct? Jon Favreau, the man who would eventually direct the first two Iron Man movies. These are just some of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which heads back to WWII with Captain America: The First Avenger!

Every movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe contains at least a couple Easter eggs (along with a cameo from famous Marvel writer Stan Lee). They’re there — if you know where to look and what to look for (it helps to have spent a lifetime reading comic books and books about comic books and watching television shows based on comic books and you get the idea). For those of you still acclimating yourself to the magical world of Marvel — and for those Marvel zombies who just want to make sure they caught everything — we’ve compiled this extensive gallery of the best and geekiest Marvel Easter eggs so far.

With the release of 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' we are now 10 movies deep in the Marvel cinematic universe and nothing seems to be slowing down. The films keep on making money, they keep on garnering great reviews and they keep on setting the trend for what's cool and fashionable in modern blockbusters...

With the release of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier,’ we now have our ninth film of the Marvel Studios continuity since the first ‘Iron Man’ debuted in 2008. It’s a weird thing, these movies have happened so relatively fast, re-watching them now, it’s hard not to have that, Oh, that’s right, Jeff Bridges was actually in ‘Iron Man’ moment. The Marvel movies come so quickly, it almost feels lik