*Spoilers.*
This is the big one. Phase 3 is what brings us to Infinity War and Endgame, the culmination of all that came before in the MCU. In addition to that, we finally got the first Marvel film centered around a BIPOC hero in Black Panther and the first centered around a female hero in Captain Marvel. Oh, and the TV side of the franchise really took off, albeit mostly separately from the movies—the brunt of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is here, along with most of the Netflix shows.
Best Arcs – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Seasons 3-6)
Maybe it’s inevitable, since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is really the only long-running show in the MCU, with multiple full-length 22-episode seasons before the reduction to 13 in its last years. But even though no other MCU project has the same chance to play with ongoing arcs, S.H.I.E.L.D. really does them quite well, and phase 3 finds the show in its heyday. Season 4 alone delivers hit after hit, giving us Ghost Rider, LMDs, and the Framework. These discrete arcs keep the story focused, while also leaving room for overarching development as one arc leads into another.
Best Supervillian Horror – Jessica Jones (Seasons 1-3)
Frickin’ Kilgrave, man. I think I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but when I was watching season 1 of Jessica Jones for the first time, I quickly learned that I couldn’t watch an episode after dark and then leave my house—not to go to the gym, not even just to take out the trash. The utter skin-crawling creepiness of Kilgrave absolutely does me in, and Krysten Ritter sells Jessica’s terror and revulsion for all she’s worth. So, so effective.
Best Enemy Team-Up – Agent Carter (Season 2)
I’m a sucker for a good “forced to work with my enemy against a greater mutual enemy” storyline, and it’s fun that we get this here. Dottie is a wonderfully entertaining character anyway, and it’s terrific to watch Peggy and Jarvis navigate needing her help to investigate Whitney Frost. There’s lots of clandestine shenanigans, attempted betrayals, and pulling together against the larger threat.
Best Vendetta – Daredevil (Seasons 2-3)
Look, Matt Murdock takes things incredibly personally; he just does. He puts everything on his shoulders and won’t let go. Season 3 of Daredevil is an excellent character study for Matt and the way he pours his entire life into seeing Wilson Fisk brought to justice. He isolates himself from his friends, punishes his body, and contemplates going against one of his most deeply-held beliefs, all in the pursuit of Fisk. It’s a story in which we watch a superhero go after a bad guy and are asked to think, “But at what cost?”
Best New Character Previews – Captain America: Civil War
Civil War has quite a bit going for it, and most of the main Avengers get at least a few moments in the spotlight. But I love it best for the introductions it makes as a prelude for new franchises on the horizon. I’m talking, of course, about T’Challa and Peter Parker. It’s hardly the first or the last time new heroes have debuted in someone else’s movie, but I don’t know if anyone does it better than these two. T’Challa brings cool action, gravitas, and an emotional culmination at a climactic moment, while Peter is instantly lovable and fun.
Best Neighborhood Superheroing – Luke Cage (Seasons 1-2)
There’s a lot to like about Luke Cage, but when it comes to superlatives, I think about the way the series shows the day-to-day realities of life for a street-level hero. While all the Defenders are pretty street-level, Luke Cage gives us the best examination of the odd, specific fame of being a neighborhood superhero. Luke’s friends and neighbors leverage his notoriety with merch (like hoodies with bullet holes in them) and a hero-spotting app. He gets approached for sponsorship deals and is hired by a millionaire fanboy to make an “appearance” at a party. Method Man writes a song about him that he debuts live on a radio interview. Lots of great examples to show what it’s like being Harlem’s Hero.
Trippiest CGI – Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange isn’t a favorite of mine by a long stretch, but I have to give it to the mirror dimension. That animation is absolutely, brain-breakingly wild! Fantastic work there.
Best Personality in a Fight Scene – Iron Fist (Seasons 1-2)
I want to clarify that there are larger parts of Iron Fist that I like. Colleen Wing is a cool character, and I’m always happy to see Sacha Dhawan in a show. But when it comes to Iron Fist’s superlatives, it’s all about Danny’s season 1 fight with Zhou Cheng. My man is in the show for less than five minutes, but Zhou Cheng’s single drunken-style fight scene is cool, funny, and interesting enough to make me want to watch a whole show about him. Shoutout to the excellent fight choreography and Lewis Tan’s fluid, effortless moves!
Cutest Character – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Baby Groot! Yes, I love me some Grogu, but Baby Groot is sooooooo adorable. I love him rocking out to ELO as the rest of the Guardians fight a big monster in the background. His powerful mix of confusion and eagerness makes me smile. And I’m ready to punch those mean Ravagers for making him cry. I loved Groot in the first movie, but the second managed to up the ante even more.
Best Dig-Deep Hero Moment – Spider-Man: Homecoming
Tom Holland is great as Peter Parker anyway, but he’s so, so great when Peter is at his lowest, trapped by the Vulture under a pile of heavy rubble. It’s wrenching to listen to him cry and scream for help—Homecoming never lets you forget how very young Peter is. But then, realizing that no one is coming, he steels himself and powers through, using his incredible strength to get out from under the rubble. I just love it so much!
Best Team-Up – The Defenders (Season 1)
This might seem like an absurd thing to say, given that this phase includes two Avengers films and, well, The Defenders doesn’t make the strongest showing. But when I say “team-up” here, I don’t mean “team” or even “team formation.” I’m looking at an individual level, not a group one, and when it comes to taking heroes from two different properties and bringing them together, Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones are up there with the best of them. I love their mutual mistrust and opposing damage, their combination of snark and home truths, and how much they accomplish when they work together.
Best Good Boy – Inhumans (Season 1)
Look, I did watch Inhumans, so I feel compelled to include it alongside the other ABC shows, and that means I need to give it something. It’s only natural that its winning quality is Lockjaw! This show didn’t give us much, but it did give us a giant teleporting bulldog, and that’s worth remembering. Good boy, Lockjaw! (Side note: if you’re not doing anything, maybe go check on Kamala Khan?)
Best Sibling Dynamic – Thor: Ragnarok
I’ve loved the complex relationship between Thor and Loki throughout the MCU, but there’s something special about them in Ragnarok. There’s so much to love here: their goofy bickering, their painful conversation in the elevator, and especially, Loki making the decision to fight by Thor’s side against Hela. They had to lose so much to get to this point, but it’s wonderful to see the sons of Asgard finally come to this understanding.
Best Subversion – The Punisher (Seasons 1-2)
Frank Castle is a character who’s been misinterpreted and coopted in the name of a lot of unsavoriness, but The Punisher makes it clear that it’s not about thin blue lines or revenge fantasies. Frank’s trauma is front and center throughout, we explore the corruption that infected his years as a Marine, and we see how his vengeance has gotten in the way of moving forward with his life. The show also centers the experience of veterans, particularly the difficulties of returning to civilian life and struggles with PTSD. It would’ve been easy for Netflix to stick to cheap, easy violence here, but they examined deeper psychological themes instead.
Best World-Building – Black Panther
Come on, this one was obvious. The whole cast of Black Panther knocks it out of the park, the story is excellent, and the direction is wonderfully done, but the biggest star of the show is Wakanda itself. From the sets to the costumes to the music, from the landscapes to the ancestral plain, from Shuri’s lab to the armored rhinos, the film does an impeccable job of bringing Wakanda to life and making it feel so gorgeously lived-in. I love the different color schemes to denote the various tribes and positions, and I love seeing how their Vibranium-powered technology shapes their lives. Amazing!
Best Heartbreak – Avengers: Infinity War
Even before we get to the whole dusting sequence, we watch Thanos murder Loki and Gamora, and we see Wanda forced to kill Vision to save the universe, only for Thanos to render her sacrifice meaningless. And once the dusting starts, we get the rug pulled out from under us. Bucky! T’Challa! Groot! I remember the gasps in the theater. But I’m hardly alone in thinking that the most brutal moment comes when Peter’s spidey sense allows him to feel his dusting before it happens. From, “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good,” to his repeated plea, “I don’t want to go,” it’s just heart-wrenching from top to bottom.
Best Chase Scene – Ant-Man and the Wasp
Come on, what’s not to love about a wild car chase down the streets of San Francisco with size-shifting cars? The Ant-Man and the Wasp films have always done a great job of playing with perspective and knowing just when to make its heroes/assorted objects big or small for maximum effect. It’s fun that Luis gets to join the action in this way, and I love it when our baddies chuck a giant Pez dispenser at the baddies’ car.
Best Buddy Cop Dynamic – Captain Marvel
Carol and Fury make such a great team, somewhat begrudgingly teaming up but growing to respect and admire one another. I like Fury is the lighter one in this dynamic, more open and talkative compared to the very driven Carol. But she gets in some fun moments too, like when she waits for Fury to painstakingly lift a fingerprint to activate a biometric lock and then blithely photon-blasts the next locked door they encounter. They’re such a great duo!
Best Nostalgia – Avengers: Endgame
This one was kind of inevitable, I suppose. The culmination of the MCU up to this point, this movie brings in as many established characters as possible and offers up memorable callbacks and returns. I’m so glad Thor got to see Frigga one more time, Endgame Cap vs. The Avengers Cap is great fun, and “I am Iron Man,” is a huge moment. And of course, who can forget, “On your left”? I don’t think Endgame is the be-all end-all of Marvel films, but it’s a lovely celebration of the first three phases of the MCU.
Best MCU Details – Spider-Man: Far from Home
This is kind of a funny superlative, but what I mean is, Far from Home takes the prize for planting its individual franchise so firmly within the greater MCU. The Tom Holland Spider-Man films have always been good at this, little references to what else is happening in this world. I love the quick shots of in-world documentaries as Peter is scrolling through in-flight options on the plane, and it cracks me up that Quentin Beck realizes people will just buy it if he puts on a cape and claims to be from another universe. And yes, the cheesy tribute to fallen Avengers during the morning announcements show at the school is tacky, but it’s also what teenagers would do. These little details are dropped in nicely and add to the film in small but significant ways.
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