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Phase 2 is nearly complete, and as ever, Marvel is killing it. I saw Age of Ultron on Friday, and I'd have to say that it's just about as good as the first Avengers movie. I'm going to keep this post largely spoiler-free until after the big list following, and then I'll talk more detail about Age of Ultron.

It's difficult now, because we're no longer running on the initial high of seeing the Avengers team together in action. But James Spader really brought it as Ultron - I was surprised to see that he actually had a couple funny lines, which you don't generally expect from a villain. But Joss Whedon does great with his villains - just look at Loki. Ultron is so much better than Malekith or Ronan the Accuser.

Even when you look beyond the movies, Marvel did a fantastic job with the Daredevil series, and Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter are not bad shows. I especially enjoy the Agents of SHIELD movie tie-in episodes.

But Marvel has their movies laid out for some time to come. I'm looking forward to some more than others - here's a refresher on the three phases.

Phase 1

Marvel's Phase 1 was really about introducing the characters. Every character in The Avengers got an intro movie, although they went heavy and gave Iron Man 2 movies, and The Hulk started with a different actor

Iron Man

Marvel started really strong with Iron Man. When it came out, it was the best superhero movie I'd seen, excepting maybe the first X-Men film. Was Dark Knight out at that time? I don't know. Anyway, Iron Man was great despite its weak third act, it put Robert Downey Jr back on the map, and the stinger made the first mention of The Avengers.

The Incredible Hulk

I wish they hadn't pulled the actor switch, but this movie was worlds better than the Eric Bana hulk years earlier.

Iron Man 2

I felt like Iron Man 2 wasn't nearly as good as the first movie, but the first Iron Man remains one of my favorites.

Thor

Thor was a fish out of water comedy as much as it was a comic book adventure. The best thing the movie had was Tom Hiddleston's Loki.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I felt that the Captain America intro was far better than the Hulk or Thor intro. The CGI transformation they pulled was great, and the World War 2 era was portrayed wonderfully.

The Avengers

Probably still my favorite of all the Marvel films, although the sequel would have to take a very close second.

Phase 2

Iron Man 3

This was the movie in which Iron Man's armor kept falling apart at the slightest ping. I liked a lot about it, but the Extremis powers seemed way overdone in how they'd always cut through Iron Man's armor like butter. Superpowered Extremis Pepper was kind of odd too.

Thor: The Dark World

At the time I saw it, it was my least favorite of all the Marvel movies, although it's kind of grown on me since. The villain was a bit boring and generic though. Loki saved the film.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Easily a contender for the best of the Marvel films. It gives me great hope for Civil War. They showcased Cap's powers wonderfully during the carrier fight, and continued to do so throughout the film.

Guardians of the Galaxy

A one-off, but what a great film! They did an amazing job integrating comedy with action.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Living up to the standards set by the first Avengers film was always going to be difficult, but they pulled it off well. I probably need to see Age of Ultron again.

Ant-Man

As another one-off, I can't expect Ant-Man to be as good as Guardians of the Galaxy, but I'll see it anyway.

Phase 3

Captain America: Civil War

Civil War is my new most-looked forward to film, and it's coming in 2016. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really hope that they include Spider-Man in this film. They'll certainly include Black Panther and Iron Man, and they may include Hugo Strange, The Vision, or even Captain Marvel. At the very least, we'll get a Dr. Strange stinger.

Doctor Strange

Also in 2016, I don't really know what to expect from Doctor Strange, but I can't wait.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

We won't get this sequel until 2017, but given how unexpectedly amazing the first one was, I have high hopes.

Spider-man

This is actually Untitled Spider-man Film (2017), and will be a Sony picture, but the new crossover agreement means that we may see Avengers characters in Spider-man's film, which is excellent.

Thor: Ragnarok

I haven't liked the Thor films nearly as much as I have the other Marvel movies, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Thor I saw in Avengers 2, so maybe the third Thor film won't be terrible.

Avengers: The Infinity War, Part 1

This is the big one, in 2018, when Thanos finally shows up and goes for all the Infinity Stones. We know of the Tesseract, which Hydra had been using to create weapons. It's now in Asgard. We know of Loki's sceptre stone, which ended up in The Vision's forehead. We know of The Aether from Thor 2, which is now in the hands of The Collector. And we know of The Orb from Guardians of the Galaxy, which ended up with Nova Prime. Two more have yet to be seen, and there's a good chance we'll see them before 2018.

Black Panther

I know pretty much nothing about this character, so Civil War will be my introduction.

Captain Marvel

Civil War and the Avengers 3 movies are the only films I'm looking forward to more than this. Captain Marvel seems pretty amazing.

Avengers: The Infinity War, Part 2

Not until 2019.

Inhumans

The Agents of SHIELD TV show is doing quite a lot of Inhumans setup, even 4 years prior to the film. The theory I like is that Marvel is trying to make The Inhumans into the new X-Men, since they don't have the X-Men license.

Okay - the list is over, and now I'm going to spoil the shit out of things, so sack up or tune out.

I'm curious as to whether the new team of Avengers we saw at the end of Ultron will actually lead to future movies. Wikipedia lists various New Avengers teams including Spider-man, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, Wolverine, and The Thing, but nothing about The Vision, Falcon, War Machine, or Scarlet Witch.

I didn't realize at the time I was watching that Hawkeye's wife is actually played by Linda Cardelini from Freaks and Geeks. Cool. Also, the introduction of Ulysses Klaue will become important later when we see Black Panther - I'm guessing that the hand Ultron chopped off will be replaced with... something. I can't imagine what.

I was a bit surprised to see what went down with Quicksilver, but I guess I should expect no less with Joss Whedon directing.

Also very interesting: Tony Stark's replacements for Jarvis. Veronica made an early appearance in the Hulkbuster fight, but later he slotted in Friday. These both seem like alternate AI personalities that can fill the void left by Jarvis. It will be something I'm keeping my eyes on.