Top 10 Earth-Shattering Moments in the MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been full of surprises from the very moment Iron Man graced theaters 18 years ago. Now expanding beyond the Earth-616 timeline in the Multiverse Saga, the doors are completely wide open for more shocking revelations as the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday will be setting the stage for Marvel’s past and future to collide. How MCU fans got to this point is homework in itself.

The following MCU installments are ranked as the most earth-shattering moments in the franchise's history. While most of them are based around the larger repercussions for the MCU at large, others are more character-defining times when heroes and villains face a truth that forces them to grow beyond their personal beliefs. There is no denying, however, that anytime Marvel dropped a bombshell, it would get the fans talking.

10 ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’

The Council of Kang

Though he was introduced as He Who Remains in the first season of Loki, Jonathan Majors brought a comic-accurate take on Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Kang was initially positioned as the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, hellbent on escaping the Quantum Realm so he could make every timeline feel his wrath. After his defeat at the hands of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), however, the real threat gets revealed in the mid-credits, featuring multiple Kang variants prepared to go to war on the MCU at large.

Despite the rug being pulled from under audiences, the payoff to this shocking scene appears to be a dead end for the time being. Between Majors’s legal troubles and Marvel Studios’s sudden pivot to Dr. Doom, the intended plans for Kang are on ice. Yet, the idea of multiple Kang variants squaring off against the Avengers had serious promise, given how different the supervillain’s portrayal was from Thanos (Josh Brolin).

9 ‘Black Panther’

T’Challa Makes Wakanda Public Worldwide

To the people of Wakanda, it is a land full of hope and innovation. To the rest of the world, it is a poor African nation outside the Wakandian shield made of vibranium. The latter perception changed as soon as T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) stepped in front of the United Nations council to announce the country’s need to “build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.”

It was in this very mid-credits scene that the nation responsible for the material used to make Captain America’s shield takes its rightful place as a new shining light for the world as well as the universe to see. While not a shocking development in MCU history, T’Challa’s speech and Black Panther as a whole showcased Marvel’s maturity from popcorn entertainment to an important contribution to the history of cinema.

8 ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2’

Ego Reveals The Truth About the Death of Star-Lord’s Mother

So much of Peter Quill/Star-Lord’s (Chris Pratt) love for classic rock music and ‘70s space adventure movies was shaped by the loving influence of his late mother Meredith (Laura Haddock). The years away from home after his abduction by Yondu (Michael Rooker) forces Peter into a quiet search for his true dad, which he finds in Ego (Kurt Russell). What begins as touching father-and-son bonding takes a turn in one of the MCU’s darkest moments in franchise history: Ego lets the cat out of the bag to Peter on how he gave Meredith the brain tumor that took her life.

The incredibly devastating revelation was a seismic shift in Peter's living out his boyhood fantasy within the cosmic realm of the MCU. The signature James Gunn style of quirky action and humor completely altered itself into a tragic tale about what it truly means to be a father. For Peter, he had to lose sight of the fantasy so he could come to terms with the family that always had his back.

7 ‘Iron Man 2’

Agent Coulson Discovers Mjölnir

The early Phase One period of the Infinity Saga kept the action grounded on Earth between Tony Stark going public with his Iron Man alter-ego and the Hulk on the run. However, the discovery of Thor’s Mjölnir by Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) in the middle of a New Mexico desert was the first sign of another world outside the reality the human heroes inhabited.

Iron Man 2’s post-credit scene was more than just a tease to Thor’s introduction in his 2011 debut film. The sci-fi tone set by director Jon Favreau opened itself to classic Greek mythology surrounding Asgard and the otherworldly threats that would call for the Avengers to assemble. Additionally, it was Iron Man 2 where Agent Coulson was firmly established as a key connecting thread for bringing the Avengers together, and went on to kick off Marvel’s dominance on the small screen with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

6 ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’

The Spider-Verse Enters The MCU

Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their respective Spider-Men in Spider-Man: No Way Home was treated as more than nostalgia bait. Their arrival into the MCU through the multiverse through a botched spell by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to rid the world of their memories of Tom Holland’s wall-crawler added to the character’s growth by reckoning with what it means to be a hero. In the process of this monumental crossover, the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb eras of Spider-Man movies became canon adjacent to the larger MCU.

Though audiences found more reason to love Holland and cherish memory lane with Maguire, the 2021 blockbuster was pure redemption for Garfield, whose Spider-Man run was cut short by the lackluster attempt at setting up a larger universe in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. His heroic feat of saving MJ (Zendaya) from a deathly fall identical to Gwen Stacy’s infamous demise makes any longtime comic book fan’s heart soar.

5 ‘The Avengers’

Thanos is Coming

Up to this point, Marvel’s mid-credit and post-credit scenes teased the arrival of new superheroes destined to come together to save the world. But Thanos’s quick turn and smile at the camera after the Avengers defeat Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Chitauri proved to be the very opposite kind of tease. The true big bad working behind the scenes was on his way.

General audiences had no idea just how big a deal Thanos was compared to any supervillain that came before. Yet, anyone who picked up issues of The Infinity Gauntlet series knew this was setting the tone for a greater inevitable conflict. This was back when Marvel knew how to create a setup and play the long game for the payoff, while fans sought after every little tease for the future with each new MCU installment.

4 ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’

The Hydra Twist

World War II hero Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) may not have played too much into the culture shock of surviving in the modern age after spending nearly 70 years frozen in ice. From the moment he gets called into action in The Avengers, Cap spares no time for questioning S.H.I.E.L.D.’s orders. Then the greater reveal he faces in an abandoned bunker in Captain America: The Winter Soldier shatters his moral compass forever: A computerized Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) explains how HYDRA has reformed within the upper ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The shocking twist forever altered S.H.I.E.L.D.’s place within the franchise. The subliminal imagery of the Winter Soldier’s hand in various tragic incidents in American history through news clippings on the computer screen is a hard pill to swallow for Cap as well as the audience. This plot development even changed the creative direction of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its ensemble characters. Yet, Cap did not let the revelation break his spirit. He came to the realization in the aftermath of the bunker explosion that the world needed his sense of trust and security more than ever.

3 ‘Avengers: Endgame’

Tony Stark’s Sacrifice

It was the only way. If any Avenger had a substantial arc coming full circle, Tony Stark has to be the one. The playboy billionaire who found his purpose while held captive in a cave evolves into the ultimate superhero by making humanity a priority over his own life with a gauntlet snap to defeat Thanos’s army.

Up until recently, Tony’s sacrifice was proof that Marvel could take a bold swing even at the cost of losing its biggest star. Beyond the impact it had on the MCU, it was a powerful statement about Robert Downey, Jr., the human being. For a gifted actor who went to hell and back personally, Iron Man was more than a character. It is his way of life.

2 ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

The Snap

If there was ever a closing sequence cliffhanger that traumatized the masses, Thanos snapping half the universe out of existence before the credits roll on Avengers: Infinity War was the equivalent of Darth Vader revealing Luke Skywalker’s parentage in The Empire Strikes Back. For the first time in MCU history, the good guys lost.

The Thanos snap was a turning point for the larger MCU narrative. The subsequent time heist in Avengers: Endgame would undo the damage left in the Mad Titan’s wake. However, things would never be quite the same beyond this point.

1 ‘Iron Man’

The Avenger Initiative

The very first MCU post-credits scene was a guarantee for bigger things to come, spoken by one of cinema’s most charasmatic movie stars: Samuel L. Jackson. With the Pulp Fiction actor’s debut cameo as Nick Fury, the seeds are planted for everything that followed, including gods, aliens, demons, and mutants.

Prior to Iron Man, every Marvel movie was treated as a stand-alone universe. This movie sparked the beginning of an ambitious idea which evolved into a global phenomenon.