It was 4 years in the making, and worth all the wait. From the moment we saw Nicky Fury at the end of Iron Man mentioning the Avengers initiative to...

*WARNING!! SPOILER ALERT!! DO NOT READ PAST THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EASTER EGG AT THE END OF THE AVENGERS, OR THE AVENGERS PERIOD!! OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY OF THE AVENGER BASED MOVIES!!!


The evil smile of Thanos at the very end of the Avengers, it was a wild 4 year ride where MARVEL showcased a line up of films that did justice to their property. The question now is this, which of the Avenger movies was the best? Which one captivated us and delivered on its promises the most? I am here to rank all the Avenger movies. Note, I don't think any of the movies were bad. I loved them all and thought they were all good, so the ones I put at the bottom of the list I don't think were bad movies, just my least favorite of the collection. My decision is based on 1, how good the film was as a stand alone, and two, how important it was to the build up of the Avengers.

6. IRON MAN 2- It's very difficult to follow up the first Iron Man movie, Iron Man 2 was a worthy sequel, but in the grand scheme of the Avengers movies, seemed to be the least important. We loved the works of Robert Downey jr. and company from Iron Man 1, and while they did a great job a second time around, it just wasn't as good as the first. And even the parts we did enjoy, it was still more of the same of what we were exposed to. We got to see more of S.H.I.E.L.D. But with exception of the great easter egg at the end of the credits leading into Thor, this film overall played out as more of fan service to people who wanted to see War Machine in action. Which was great to see, but it did not contribute to the grand scheme of leading into the actual Avengers, especially since War Machine wasn't in the Avengers. Yes they also introduced the Black Widow who was important to the Avengers, but she was just one important character introduced where the next movie pushed and introduced more vital characters to the over arching development for these movies.

5. THOR- While enjoyable, this movie suffered from a bit of an identity crisis for me. The scenes from Asguard meshed with the scenes from earth at times didn't flow as well as I would have liked, and at times looked like I was watching two different movies. It still worked, but I thought they could have flowed better. Chris Hemsworth was great as Thor, but Tom Hiddleston as Loki stole the show. This movie was much better served as a build up for Loki as the main villain for the Avengers than it was for Thor being a star and key member in the team. Which the whole transformation of the Thor character I felt was rushed to begin with. Like with Iron Man 2, the easter egg at the end was thee most important contributing factor to the whole Avengers story with the introduction of the Cosmic Cube, but where it differs is that Loki, Hawkeye and the Dr. who helped Thor went on to play vital roles in the Avengers where War Machine did not for Iron Man 2. And while Iron Man 2 was more of the same of the first film, Thor was different, it was new, and was more exciting for me to watch.

4. THE INCREDIBLE HULK- To this day many people believe that there still hasn't been a properly done Hulk movie. But this movie served as not only a great relaunch, but as an important piece of the puzzle for the Avengers story arch. While I think Thor was better overall in the contribution for the Avengers, this movie still did its fair share with the inclusion of S.H.I.E.L.D. the mention of the Super Soldier project, (Nice nod and lead into Captain America) but also worked in Tony Stark to help build up the web of characters involved in this MARVEL universe they are attempting to bring to life in film. And unlike Thor, I didn't feel like there was a clash in the film making, or that I was watching two different films back and forth through the viewing, it was a nice, consistent story beginning, middle, and end. I wasn't sure if I wanted to rank Thor above this one for being more important to the overall contribution to the build up of the Avengers, but I felt the Incredible Hulk worked better as a stand alone film than Thor, and therefor gets the tie breaker.

3. IRON MAN- The movie that started it all. I don't think Paramont or even MARVEL for that matter expected Iron Man to be such a hit. Yet alone spark what is thee biggest endeavor in cinema history. But it was. Of all the moments in all the films, the two biggest moments for me were the easter eggs at the end of each Iron Man movie. And funny factoid, director John Favreau and MARVEL had no intention of doing the Avengers whatsoever, John added the easter egg with Nick Fury at the end of the film just as an extra bonus to the fans who stayed til the end of the credits, nothing more, but when the overwhelming positive response came back to MARVEL from that easter egg, they had no choice but to move on with the Avengers. So even though Iron Man didn't have much in the contribution factor through the film building up to the Avengers, it contributed probably the most important element with that first post credit easter egg. That topped with being a fun and enjoyable movie where Robert Downey jr. is considered by many as arguably the best casting for a superhero in any superhero film, that's quite an accomplishment.

2. CAPTAIN AMERICA- Probably the hardest of the movies to make. World war II, and a more fragile character to develop for the big screen than his predecessors, yet somehow they did it, and with flying colors. The story for Captain America was better told and portrayed than any of the other characters. I really enjoyed watching weak Steve Rogers go from wimp to warrior, and in a very compelling manner. Most of my complaints with this film is more in the way of minor nit picking. And while I liked Iron Man more, this was the better film in general. Many of the previous movies could have been less successful and the Avengers still would have moved on and been great, but for the star figure in Captain America, if he failed, then the Avengers project as a whole would have failed, and the build up would have been for not. It was a tight rope act making this movie work and fit in with the rest of the films, but they did it, and it exceeded my every expectations.

1. THE AVENGERS- The build up was worth the wait, 4 years of anticipation for this film, and it did not disappoint. All the characters were weaved in perfectly. The audience, be they comic fans or not, believed that a God, WWII hero, a Monster, Metal Man, and two assassins could meld together and work just right for this film. The ingredients were given to Joss Whedon, and he presented a 5 star masterpiece that many say has reset the bar for comic book movies. I talked about how much of a tight rope act Captain America was, well this movie was even tighter. It had the higher expectations, longer build up, and bigger budget thrown at it than any of the previous films, there was little to no room for error, and I couldn't have asked for a better film to conclude the long 4 year wait. Each previous movies were good, but the Avengers took the best elements from each of them, and took them to the next level. Bigger question now, where do they go from here? Sequels are being planned, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Capt. 2, a Black Widow movie, and of course the already green lit Avengers 2. But can they recapture and duplicate what they just did? Guess we have to wait another 4 years and find out.