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With Black Panther out, phase one, phase two, and phase three of the MCU are complete. The next film, Infinity War, is part of whatever they're calling phase four. I think they're not calling it that. In any event, as we move on to Infinity War, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and Captain Marvel, the MCU is going to be different. I have a feeling there's a lot of revealing to be done, but Marvel is staying tight-lipped about it until Infinity War drops. Maybe then we'll learn what they've got in mind for the upcoming untitled Avengers film. Personally, I'm hoping for Silver Surfer / Galactus / Fantastic Four.

I saw Black Panther in the theater for the second time recently. I've heard nothing but super-positive feedback from everyone about it. And yeah, I kind of liked it too, but honestly I really like all of the MCU films. Even the Iron Man sequels. But it wasn't until my second viewing of Black Panther that I started to realize that despite the many great things about the movie, it wasn't my personal favorite.

That led to a conversation a few days later with friends where people were listing their top three Marvel movies. Most of my friends had Black Panther in the top three. I realized that for me, it is not.

That said, I then felt the odd compulsive need to list all the MCU films in order of my personal preference. Please remember - I'm going to complain a lot about the movies lower on my list. Understand that I really like even these movies; I'm just holding them to an extremely high bar.

18: The Incredible Hulk - When this one first came out, everyone found themselves comparing it to the Eric Bana Hulk film, which was pretty bad. Aside from the Tony Stark appearance in the after-credits scene, it was barely above average. Of course, this was well before the MCU films had hit their stride.

Tied for 15th-17th: Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man 3 - I really couldn't place these three in relation with each other. I enjoy them all, I've seen them all multiple times, but they're just not great. They do have great moments. But those are offset by cheezy Extremis powers, unnecessary Rhodie-vs-Tony fights, and uninspired villains like Malekus.

14: Thor - The first Thor movie was a fish-out-of-water comedy mixed with a fantasy action film. The plot about Thor maturing, losing and then regaining his Worthiness, was a bit trite. Still, it was a Marvel superhero film, and I enjoyed it for what it was.

13: Captain America: The First Avenger - Cap's introduction to the MCU was a bit slow. The pre-serum story was necessary, but not nearly as exciting as the rest. I enjoyed Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones, but the film didn't pick up until Cap's prisoner rescue run late in the movie. It was a necessary prequel, and it introduced my favorite MCU character, but it wasn't Marvel's best.

12: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Guardians of the Galaxy has been an improbably strong entry in the MCU since the first one came out. The movie was good, Taserface was great, but the story of Star-Lord's origins, the pursuit by The Sovereign, and the shaky progeny-as-battery evil master plan fell a bit short for me. I dunno - maybe I just need to watch it again.

11: Ant-Man - I've been a big Paul Rudd fan since Knocked Up. The guy can say just about anything and somehow, it's funny. So continuing the MCU's move towards more humor in its movies worked really well in Ant-Man. Unfortunately, the villain was lackluster and much of the plot was a bit lacking.

10: Black Panther - Okay, here we go. I know that right now, you're flabbergasted that I've put nine other MCU films ahead of the one you regard as the best. I'll try to get a bit into my rationale. I understand that the premise and the villain's motivations in this film were absolutely top-notch. Similar to Captain America: Civil War, there's a side to the opponent's perspective with which it's easy to sympathize. It's only Eric Killmonger's methods and his obvious brutality and disregard for life which make him a villain rather than an anti-hero. There were also some excellent action scenes, and I loved a number of the characters, as well as the fact that this film was a cultural milestone in many ways.

But in many ways, comparing this film to other superhero movies feels like apples-to-oranges. While the losing-your-country-to-a-wacko-ruler trope feels quite timely, I didn't think it did as much as some of these other films. Don't get me wrong - I loved Black Panther. I haven't seen many MCU movies in the theater twice. But there just happen to be nine others I loved more.

9: Doctor Strange - For the longest time, I'd professed that the two MCU films I was most looking forward to were Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange. I'm not sure why these two characters have been so appealing to me, but they have. This movie introduced magic to the MCU, something which had previously been entirely absent. I've heard some debate as to whether Scarlet Witch's powers are magical or not, but at least in the MCU, it seems that her powers came from an infinity stone rather than from having studied magic like Dr. Strange.

I can absolutely understand criticisms of this movie, from its over-reliance on special effects to its poorly-fleshed-out and shortsighted villains. At least Mordo will prove a deeper character as a villain in the sequel.

8: Iron Man - The film that launched the MCU did so for a reason. Robert Downey Jr was the first example of the perfect casting that would later continue with Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Tom Holland. Hmm. Basically anyone named Chris or Tom.

Iron Man had an excellent first act, in which we saw how he was captured, changed his worldview, and invented the Mk1 Iron Man armor to escape. It was followed by an even better second act, in which he developed and perfected the Iron Man armor, and confronted the terrorists from the first act. Sadly, the movie's third and final act was rather lame, up until the final scene of the movie, in which he broke previous superhero norms and decided not to have a secret identity. Overall, this remains an excellent film, and it laid down the blueprint for many MCU films to follow.

7: Spider-Man: Homecoming - Given the past Spider-Man movies, I didn't expect much from this film. I was very pleased to find that they'd reinvented a silly old man in a green bird suit as a really well-developed villain character. Someone who'd been unfairly edged out of his lucrative contacting position after the Battle of New York by Damage Control. So he goes illegal.

Tom Holland's Spider-Man was young enough to actually appear like he was in high school, and he's wonderfully portrayed as an immature hero. They didn't need to re-tell the uncle Ben story, and they didn't need to come out and explain his Spider Sense. It just worked.

6: Guardians of the Galaxy - The Guardians franchise came from out of nowhere, and somehow succeeded in a field where so many other films had failed. Its universe was incredibly weird, its heroes included a tree and a raccoon, and its leading man was a side character from a TV comedy. But somehow, the film was a huge hit.

The choice to use classic music as a soundtrack was an inspired one, and one facet of the movie rode the same nostalgia train employed by Stranger Things and Super 8. But that's not all the film had going for it. The intro heist and escape, the tussle that ended with our heroes jailed, the characters joining up to escape jail, and the shift of the group's thinking when they collectively put the good of the galaxy above their own profit. These shifts, and these set pieces, worked beautifully. It was just a remarkable script perfectly acted by a great cast. I've heard it called this generation's Star Wars.

5: Avengers: Age of Ultron - The team-up films were always bound to be the big ones. But while the first Avengers was astoundingly excellent, and I expect the third to be even better, this second film was merely very good. You may be surprised that I've rated it as highly as I have. But it's easy to forget everything this movie had going on.

After the initial (amazing) set piece in which The Avengers recapture the mind stone from Strucker, there's that epic Stark tower party where everyone takes turns trying to lift Thor's hammer. Then, we have the Ulysses Klaw vibranium deal where Klaw loses a hand, followed by the set piece where Scarlet Witch pwns the team and Hulk ends up trashing the city and starting the Hulkbuster fight. Then, Ultron's new body with an infinity gem in the head, which The Avengers capture in a crazy car chase that ends in a flying tractor-trailer. The twins turn on Ultron and join the Avengers, and we first see The Vision, who picks up Mjollnir. Then they head to the final fight, which was the biggest set piece of all. Then, Hulk stays Hulk and leaves for the Devil's Anus, Thor heads out to research Ragnarok, and we get The New Avengers. That's a lot for a single movie.

It's that density of so-much-going-on that really floors me when I look at this movie, and pushes it over the top and into my top five.

4: Thor: Ragnarok - The third Thor movie wasn't only the best Thor movie, it was a departure from all the other MCU films in so many ways. It was almost more comedy than action. It didn't follow the same formulas as its predecessors, and it spent nearly zero time on Earth. But if you've seen it, you likely need little convincing from me. It easily earned the #4 spot on my list. Not much more to say.

3: Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Winter Soldier was more an espionage movie than a spy movie, which is why Black Widow fit in so very well. For my part, I loved it because it's the first film where Cap started to feel like a legitimate superhero. His assault of the carrier at the beginning of the movie is still one of my favorite Cap moments, as is Steve Rogers running through a wall in pursuit of Bucky after Nick Fury's apparent assassination.

This movie gives us the mini-boss villain Batroc the Leaper and an origin story on Brock Rumlow, who becomes Crossbones. I've had friends tell me that it's their #1 MCU movie, for for myself, I'll put it at number three.

2: The Avengers - I just re-watched MovieBob's The Avengers: Really That Good episode, and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend setting aside 40 minutes to check it out. It makes the excellent point that up until now, we've seen Iron man in a couple movies, seen Thor in his own movie, seen Captain America in his own time, and seen bits of Black Widow and Hawkeye in other movies, but we haven't gotten a chance to see these characters interact. Much of the joy of this movie is in seeing the various leading roles all become co-stars and meet and interact with each other. Thor fighting Tony. Hulk fighting Thor. Captain America understanding that reference. One of the big realizations Bob brought to light for me is that The Avengers is a character piece. I'd rather watch a movie with The Avengers sitting around and talking than a movie with a group of similarly powered but less interesting characters fighting evil.

1: Captain America: Civil War - Do you remember everything I said about Age of Ultron being event-dense? Civil War turns that to eleven. I had to see it a second time in the theater to just parse what was even going on. Although billed as a Captain America movie, Civil War was really an Avengers movie. It brought together disparate characters in a way we didn't see in Age of Ultron. Suddenly now, we've got not only the original five Avengers, but also War Machine from Iron Man 2, Falcon and Bucky from Winter Soldier, Vision and Scarlet Witch from Age of Ultron, Ant-Man... from... Ant-Man, and the introductions of Black Panther and freaking Spider-Man!

Captain America is my favorite MCU character. He's a paladin, and that's a difficult character to make work. The chances that anyone was going to put a character like Captain America on screen and have him not be cheezy were always really far fetched. The dude's wearing a flag and has a letter A and wings on his head! But I love the character. He's the symbol of the American ideal - The Greatest Generation. He's a moral compass.

Captain America: Civil War was a necessary story because the Avengers team needed to be damaged to allow Thanos to be as great a threat as possible. But it allowed us to further explore these characters, their relationships, and their ideologies. Tony Stark has been forced to question his own judgement and force restraints on himself after inventing an AI which literally nearly destroyed the world, and so adopts the Sokovia Accords. Captain America has his own very clearly laid out objections, which fit perfectly with his character. Hawkeye's motivation is shakiest, but every single other character joins the side they do for reasons which make complete sense, mostly because of their associations with either Steve or Tony. Helmut Zero's master plan is perhaps overly convoluted, but boils down to continually going after proof that Steve's friend Bucky killed Tony's parents, and thus creating a huge rift in the team.

Oddly enough, the same exact evening I was putting together this list, a friend of mine shared a script he'd adapted for use in rating the MCU movies for yourself. Here it is: Sort Your Favorite MCU Movies. Feel free to paste yours in the comments. (the original was this)