Every Marvel Cinematic Universe series to catch up on before Avengers: Doomsday, with summaries and Rotten Tomatoes scores.
43 titles
Phil Coulson, alive and unexplained after his death in The Avengers, assembles a new S.H.I.E.L.D. team to chase down superhuman threats in the wake of the Battle of New York -- only to learn that the mysterious "Clairvoyant" hunting the same cases is one of his own, and that his top field agent has been a Hydra sleeper agent for years.
Director Coulson rebuilds S.H.I.E.L.D. from a secret base while chasing down Hydra's last leadership -- and while Skye discovers she's not just an orphan with no past, but an Inhuman whose real family is hiding an entire hidden society.
In 1946, Peggy Carter is sidelined into secretarial work at the Strategic Scientific Reserve while secretly working with Howard Stark's butler Edwin Jarvis to clear Howard's name after his own stolen weapons research starts turning up on the black market. The trail leads to Leviathan, a Soviet spy network training sleeper agents—and straight to Peggy's own new neighbor.
Matt Murdock begins his journey as a vigilante, operating at night to stop criminals who the law cannot touch. This season establishes the tension between his lawyer identity and his masked persona as he confronts Wilson Fisk, a man determined to control the city.
As newly Terrigen-exposed Inhumans start appearing worldwide, Coulson builds a team of powered agents to find them first -- but the season's real threat is Hive, an ancient, parasitic Inhuman that Hydra has spent generations trying to bring home, and who takes over the corpse of Grant Ward to do it.
Jessica Jones operates as a private investigator in Hell's Kitchen, using her superhuman strength reluctantly when cases demand it. This season introduces Kilgrave, a man whose power is mind control and whose obsession with Jessica becomes the season's central threat.
A year later, Peggy is sent to Los Angeles to investigate a body found glowing in a frozen lake—a case that pulls her into Isodyne Energy's research into Zero Matter, a substance that starts turning actress Whitney Frost into something no longer entirely human, and into a secret council of powerful men steering the country from behind the scenes.
Matt faces a new threat in the form of Frank Castle, a vigilante with even fewer scruples than Matt, and Elektra Natchios, a woman from his past who teaches him that desire and duty are not always aligned.
The season runs in three connected arcs: a supernatural Ghost Rider case, a Life Model Decoy conspiracy that replaces half the team with androids, and a virtual-reality nightmare called the Framework where Hydra won and nothing anyone remembers is real.
Luke Cage possesses superhuman strength and unbreakable skin. He uses these abilities to protect his community in Harlem from criminal exploitation, even as he struggles with the burden of being a symbol.
Danny Rand returns from a mystical monastery with a glowing fist and martial mastery, seeking to reclaim his identity as a man and understand his place in the world.
Four vigilantes—Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist—must work together to stop the Hand, an ancient organization that has infiltrated the city and poses a threat none of them can stop alone.
Frank Castle is a military veteran whose family was murdered by criminals the law could not touch. He becomes a vigilante instrument of vengeance, pursuing those responsible with methodical violence.
Coulson, May, Daisy, Simmons, Mack and Yo-Yo are abducted to a space station orbiting a devastated future Earth roughly ninety years from now -- and getting the team home means finding a way to stop that future from ever happening.
Jessica investigates the origins of her superhuman abilities while navigating complex relationships with Luke Cage and her mother, whose apparent death may not be what it seemed.
Luke Cage continues his work protecting Harlem as he confronts a new threat and struggles with the role of community protector that has been thrust upon him.
Danny continues his struggle between his martial training and his responsibilities as a billionaire, while confronting enemies both physical and organizational.
Matt struggles to rebuild his life after his identity is exposed. Wilson Fisk returns from prison, and Matt must confront the question of whether he can be both a hero and a person worthy of the heroic label.
Frank Castle navigates new enemies and unresolved questions about his past while continuing his campaign of vengeance against those he deems deserving of punishment.
A year after Coulson's death, the team splits in two -- one group searching deep space for a missing Fitz, the other confronting a mysterious stranger who looks exactly like Coulson but isn't -- while an alien threat far worse than either of them closes in on Earth.
Jessica faces a new threat from within the city as she continues to grapple with her role as a powered individual in a community that increasingly expects her to be a hero.
The Chronicoms declare a time war on S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, jumping the team through the agency's own history -- 1931 to the 1980s -- to stop an enemy trying to erase S.H.I.E.L.D. before it's ever founded, in the series' final season.
Wanda Maximoff creates an idyllic suburban sitcom world to escape the loss of Vision, but her grief is powerful enough to trap an entire town within her fantasy. This series asks what responsibility the grieving have when their pain becomes weaponized, and whether love can justify the violation of thousands of people's autonomy.
When Captain America retires, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes must confront a world where the symbol of the shield matters more than the man carrying it. This series asks what responsibility the powerless owe to systems they cannot change, and whether symbols can mean anything in institutions designed to resist that meaning.
Loki is arrested by the Time Variance Authority for deviating from the predetermined timeline. This series asks whether choice means anything if the outcome is already written, and what freedom requires when the very concept of agency is an illusion maintained by those in power.
Nine standalone departures from the MCU's story, narrated by the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) — from Peggy Carter taking the super-soldier serum to a zombie outbreak swallowing Earth's heroes — building to a team-up against an Ultron who has already claimed every Infinity Stone.
Clint Barton is forced back into action during Christmas when his past catches up with him. This series asks what legacy an aging hero leaves behind, and what responsibility one person has to correct damage they caused when they were broken.
Steven Grant wakes up to find his life is not what he thought—he shares a body with Marc Spector, a mercenary who serves Khonshu, the Egyptian god of vengeance. This series asks whether the voices in your head are divine or delusion, and what agency means when your mind is fractured into competing identities.
Kamala Khan discovers she has superhuman powers and is immediately forced to confront her dual heritage. This series asks what we owe to the histories that made us, and how to claim power when that power is inseparable from cultural and family inheritances we did not choose but must carry.
Jennifer Walters gains superhuman power and is immediately pressured to use that power for others' purposes. When the finale descends into typical superhero chaos, Jen breaks the fourth wall, literally crashes into the Marvel Studios writer's room, and argues with K.E.V.I.N. (an AI version of Kevin Feige) to rewrite her own ending. This series asks what obligation power creates and what agency remains when everyone expects your power to serve them.
Nick Fury confronts a Skrull invasion where hostile aliens have infiltrated the highest levels of human government. When his ally Talos is killed by the rebel leader Gravik, Talos's daughter G'iah becomes humanity's unlikely savior. This series asks what trust means when identity itself is mutable and how institutions survive when the people running them might not be who they claim to be.
Loki attempts to prevent timeline collapse while confronting the architectural lie of the Sacred Timeline. This season asks what power actually is when you have the ability to reshape all of reality, and what responsibility comes with that power.
Nine more standalone departures, with real connective tissue this time — a Captain Carter arc that runs through three episodes and a season-long reveal that Strange Supreme has been working from the shadows the whole time.
Echo, a deaf Choctaw woman, confronts the cycle of violence in her family and her own complicity in that violence. This series asks whether redemption is possible when you have hurt people and how to break cycles of violence that have shaped you.
Three years after being trapped under Wanda's spell, Agatha Harkness is freed by a mysterious teen who needs her help navigating the Witches' Road. This series asks what it means to reckon with your past when you've hurt everyone who could forgive you, and whether found families can form between people who have every reason to betray each other.
The final season of the trilogy: eight more departures building to the Watcher himself standing trial for breaking his own rules, and the team he's assembled paying the price for a multiverse he can no longer just observe.
Matt Murdock returns as Daredevil to confront his past, his faith, and his methods. This series asks what justice requires when the law itself is corrupted, and what accountability looks like for someone who has broken the very rules he is trying to enforce.
Riri Williams returns to Chicago after the events of Wakanda Forever and finds herself entangled with Parker Robbins, a criminal who wields a mystical hood granting him dark powers. This series asks what price you're willing to pay for what you've lost, and whether deals made in desperation can ever be undone.
Four Hatut Zeraze missions across 3,000 years of Wakandan history — Bronze Age Crete to the eve of colonization — follow the secret order that keeps vibranium out of the wrong hands, ending with a warning from five centuries in the future.
Five years after the What If...? zombie apocalypse, the last survivors — Kamala Khan chief among them — fight across a ruined Earth to reach space and call for rescue, only to find out the horde chasing them was never the real threat.
Struggling actor Simon Williams hides a secret: he has ionic-energy superpowers that could end his career under Hollywood's Doorman Clause. When legendary recluse director Von Kovak announces a remake of the in-universe Wonder Man film, Simon and washed-up actor Trevor Slattery finagle their way into leading roles—but the DODC is watching, and Simon's powers are getting harder to contain.
Roughly six months after Wilson Fisk seized the mayoralty, Matt Murdock and a loose coalition of vigilantes resist Fisk's Anti-Vigilante Task Force as the city slides toward authoritarian rule. Bullseye returns chasing a twisted redemption, Karen Page builds a legal case to topple Fisk, and Matt is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice of his secret to win.
A brutal, R-rated Marvel Special Presentation. Frank Castle, hiding out in NYC's Little Sicily after escaping Fisk's prison camp, believes he has finally avenged his family and has "nothing left to do"—until Ma Gnucci and her crime family drag him back into a war, forcing him to choose between one last act of revenge and becoming something other than a killer.