Thor

After selecting the best sci-fi movies of the last 25 years and the best comedies of the last 25 years, the only logical way to wrap up our #CountdownToUltron and Avengers 2 here on ScreenCrush was to choose the best superhero movies of the last 25 years as well. Initially, this was just supposed to be a brief essay. But on an innocent field trip to the world’s most advanced genetics lab, this blog post was bitten by a radioactive list and transformed into the gargantuan piece you see before you. On that day, we all learned a valuable lesson: That with great power must come great listicles.

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.

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.

Before Marvel's Thor finally hit theaters in 2011, there were multiple attempts from directors to make a movie based on the popular comic character. Way back in 1991, Sam Raimi (who had just directed Darkman) pitched both Stan Lee and Marvel his take on the Norse god, but the studio “didn’t get it” according to the director. Probably a good thing, because if they did, we might not have the Avengers movies. This is just one of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which heads to Asgard with Thor!

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. well full-on Inhuman with this past week's 2015 premiere "Aftershocks," but now the Avengers-adjacent series will go Asgardian once more to return Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) to the fold. Find out if Sif remembers "Who You Really Are" with the full set of photos and trailer from next Tuesday's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

We're on the set of Avengers: Age of Ultron, inside the new Avengers Tower; formerly Stark Tower and now converted to a de facto headquarters for the Earth’s mightiest heroes. It’s all very sleek and shiny and pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a place Tony Stark calls home. Except now, it's a complete disaster. There's broken glass scattered across the floor. Furniture is destroyed. There are giant gashes in the wall. There's a production assistant dramatically swinging a giant cape around (the actors film their fight scenes without the cape, and the cape is added later in post-production).

Marvel's 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' will hit the ground running with its 'Inhumans' element in March 3 return "Aftershocks," but the subsequent week will return to a more familiar corner of the MCU, and with a fan-favorite at that. 'Thor' star Jaimie Alexander will put in a second appearance as the battling Lady Sif, only this time the Asgardian won't quite be at her best.

One of the reasons why we love Marvel’s Cinematic Universe so much is that all of the heroes and films operate in a shared universe, allowing for cameos and crossovers and storylines that affect and acknowledge other films and events. But Marvel’s superhero films haven’t exactly been presented in chronological order, so if you’re struggling to unravel the timeline for Marvel’s movies, don’t worry: someone already edited the first phase of films together in chronological order, and he’ll show you how to do it yourself.

Tis the season for studios to release holiday-themed videos and e-cards featuring some of your favorite movie characters, and so far we’ve seen animated holiday greeting videos for ‘The Babadook,’ ‘Hotel Transylvania 2,’ and even SpongeBob Squarepants. But this new holiday video from Marvel takes things to a whole other level: it’s a stop-motion short featuring the villainous Thanos, who disguises himself as Santa for his latest evil plan … and then it sort of backfires.

We've seen college course offerings focus on the 'Harry Potter' universe, comic books, and even one specifically for 'The Walking Dead,' but now it's Marvel's turn to educate younglings about the intricacies of their Cinematic Universe.