What is the "Offical" order and canon of the Marvel Super-Hero movies?

As a long time DC comics fan and collector I know my Superman and Batman storylines but I am more or less completely innocent when it comes to Marvel superheros. I mean I know the names of the various characters but remain ignorant of how they relate to each other in the movies. And which iteration is current and which is seen as an independent story?

Is Spiderman part of the Avengers? Is the Punisher? How are the X-Men related to the Avengers? The Silver-Surfer?

In the DC Universe at any rate, ever since The Crisis of Infinite Earths megastory line the DC universe was theoretically all interconnected, but in the Marvel Universe I am pretty ignorant.

I'm sure there are those who can set me on a path of exploring the proper way of viewing these action hero films. With thanks in advance.

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As far as film rights go, Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man, Fox owns the rights to both X-Men and the Fantastic Four and Marvel Studios (and thus Disney) own the rest. There is some complicated legalese going on with shared film rights, though. Basically, Marvel owns the rights to he Avengers, and thus any character who was ever a member of that team. This is why Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are going to be in Age of Ultron: because both were members of The Avengers and thus Marvel technically shares their rights with Fox (although they can't be addressed as mutants nor as the children of Magneto, since those specific rights are X-Men exclusive).

Confusing, isn't it?

In theory, Marvel could include most of the X-Men, Spider-Man and all of the Fantastic Four in future Avengers films for the exact same reason as Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch. In additional, Marvel is currently working with Sony in some capacity to incorporate their Spider-Man into the MCU, although to what end remains to be seen. Also, Marvel is trying to force Fox to sell back their film rights to them by cancelling the Fantastic Four comic and denying to lease the company the merchandising rights for X-Men and Fantastic Four, where a MASSIVE portion of the money comes from (think of the films as extremely lavish commercials that might turn a profit independently of what they're selling).

So unlike DC, where all the film rights to all of their properties reside with WB, Marvel gets really complicated.

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In terms of release order, here is where the MCU film releases fall:

1) Iron Man
2) The Incredible Hulk
3 Iron Man 2
4) Thor
5) Captain America: The First Avenger
6) The Avengers

7) Iron Man 3
8) Thor: The Dark World
9) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
10) Guardians of the Galaxy
11) Avengers: Age of Ultron


Additionally, there are short films, called One-Shots, that are sprinkled in, and the TV series Agents of SHIELD, which begins after Iron Man 3. There are also a bunch of made-for-Netflix TV series on the horizon - Jessica Jones. iron Fist, Daredevil and Luke Cage - plus a crossover between them called The Defenders. There will also be another TV series - Agent Carter - that will start up in January during Agents of SHIELD's mid-season break.

And, peering into the future beyond Phase 2 (ie, beyond Age of Ultron), Phase 3 will include Ant-Man, Captain America 3, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Avengers 3 (and possibly 1 or 2 more, but these are all of what's confirmed at this point).

Thanks Arcanis, I think. It is pretty confusing, but that gives me a start to do further research. What I've come up with as a start is:
1. X-Men (2000)
2. Spider-Man (2002)
3. X2: X-Men United (2003)
4. Hulk (2003)
5. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
6. X3:The Last Stand (2006)
7. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
8. Iron Man (2008)
9. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
11. Iron Man 2 (2010)
12.. X-Men: First Class (2011)
13. Captain America: The First Avenger
14. The Amazing Spider-man (2012)
15. Marvel's Avengers (2012)
16. The Wolverine (2013)
17. Iron Man 3 (2013)
18. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
19. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
20. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
21. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
22. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
23. Avengers Age of Ultron (2015)

And if you want to watch some truly terrible ones, look up things like the 90's Captain America movie, which is a certain kind of special.

Other movies that you missed include Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider 2. If you're looking for every film adaptation of Marvel properties, though, there are a lot of other, more obscure ones pre-2000, like the Japanese version of Spider-Man.

No you need the 70's Reb Brown TV movie Captain America!

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At least we can agree that both are terrible, right?

Thanks again for the suggestions to my question. Like I said it can be very confusing to us novices. I developed my list from Marvel's home page and confining myself to just the live-action movies and excluding animated films. I also excluded those movies that do not seem to belong to those which Marvel owns all the rights. (?!?), so no Ghost Rider, no Blade etc. I also found a version of Capt. America from 1940 when Marvel comics was called Timely comics.

I know about these films but was trying to organize a coherent thread so if I decide to try to watch them I have some sort of guide, but 23 films??? I don't know.

So far I've seen:
1. Spider-Man
2. Hulk
3. Iron Man
4. Captain America The first Avenger
5. Thor The Dark World

I am sure this is a generational thing to some degree. I grew up in the 50's and my first exposure and love was for Superman and Batman. But I distinctly remember when Marvel comics first came out (Make Mine Marvel!). I had the first issue of The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Spiderman and others, but at the time Jack Kirby's art turned me off. (Duh!) At any rate I stopped reading Marvel early on. But time heals all wounds and I've since collected som Marvel archive edtions and I might venture into the film universe. Thanks again.

Shoot, where's Kevin Smith when you need him?

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