A Look at a Marvel-ous Universe Part 2

Hello everyone,

  Welcome back to my overview of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In my last post, I looked over the first 6 movies, A.K.A. Phase 1, of the MCU. This phase introduced Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America as movie characters, as well as reintroduce the Hulk to the big screen. Due to the success of the former three characters (Hulk has had some tough movies to sell) sequels were made as apart of Phase 2. During this phase two Marvel television shows were put into production.
  Note: There are spoilers ahead from Phase 1. I will not be vague when this information is spoiled!

  Phase 2 took place over a shorter period of time than Phase 1, starting in 2013 with Iron Man 3. After the Battle for New York at the end of The Avengers, Tony Stark is suffering from nightmares due to the trauma of nearly sacrificing himself to save the day. Due to his lack of sleep, he is also suffering from anxiety, as he feels the weight of the people on his shoulders.
  Meanwhile, Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), Tony's girlfriend runs Stark Industries in his absence. A former love interest of her's, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) enters her office and offers her a job at his Advance Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M. for short.
  All the while, a new villain has risen, the leader of the Ten Rings known only as "The Mandarin" (Ben Kingsley). He broadcasts terrorist acts on TV, threatening the American populace. However, the Mandarin isn't as he seems, and after Pepper is captured by this mad-man, Tony vows to find her, and stop the Mandarin once and for all.
  The next movie in Phase 2 is Thor: The Dark World.
  Centuries ago, a race of Dark Elves sought to corrupt and destroy the world with a force of destruction known only as "The Aether." Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), the leader of the Dark Elves, planned to use the world-linking "Convergence" to set the power free, but the Asgardians intervened, and the Dark Elves were believed to be defeated.
  After Thor left her without explaining his absence, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), searched earnestly for Thor. Eventually she gave up, and attempted to move on in her life. That is until her intern, Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), brought her news of a celestial event similar to the one Thor arrived with.
  Having liberated Vanaheim, Thor visited the gatekeeper Heimdall (Idris Elba) hoping to use the gatekeeper's senses to find Jane. After discovering that Heimdall could not see her in his visions, Thor transported to Earth, hoping to find her. The woman he finds is not the same as he remembered.

  Between Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, Marvel produced a TV show called Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The show follows Agent Phil Coulson and his team of Agents as they travel the world solving missions under Nick Fury's orders. Ever so often, characters and plot points intersect with the movies. The show's second season only began recently and is scheduled to continue into 2015.
   Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the next movie in Phase 2. Steve Rogers, now under the alias of Captain America, is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top operatives. After rescuing important men off of a captured ship, Steve is addressed by Nick Fury about the future of the agency, and the message that they are trying to send.
  Somewhat considered the other head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) is convinced that Fury is attempting to go rogue.
  After leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D. home-base, the Triskelion, Fury is attacked by a strange man referred to as "The Winter Soldier."
  It then becomes Steve's duty to reclaim S.H.I.E.L.D. for fear of what would happen if all of their intel would fall into the wrong hands.
  Guardians of the Galaxy is the most recent movie to release as a part of Phase 2.
  Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a defunct of the Ravagers, sets off on his own to find an object called "The Orb." Not knowing what he steals, a group of Kree soldiers, led by Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou), apprehend him and the Orb, intending to deliver the object to Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). Quill takes the Orb back and is again apprehended, but this time by the deadly Gamora (Zoe Saldana). They are both captured eventually by the Nova Corps, and are taken to the Kyln prison facility. In an attempt to escape, Quill, Gamora, and a group of delinquents named Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) try to cease the facility, escape, and retrieve the orb before Ronan gets his chance to claim it.
  There are currently two more movies that have yet to release of Phase 2, the two of them being The Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 2015) and Ant-Man (July 2015). The teaser trailer of the former can be seen below.

 

  Marvel will also produce another television show called Agent Carter. Based on Captain America's Peggy Carter (Haylee Atwell), the series will tie in with the films and will be eight episodes in total.

  Ant-Man marks the end of Phase 2. Phase 3 will open with the next Captain America movie, with the title Civil War. The movie features Tony Stark/Iron Man as the antagonist of the film. Black Panther will be introduced in this movie, and will eventually star in his own movie afterward. Another Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor:Ragnarok, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans, and The Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2 round out the complete lineup for Phase 3 as well as four Netflix series based off of Daredevil,  Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage.

  And that concludes our look at the MCU. I hope you found it informative, and please let me know if you would like to see more posts styled like this one in the future.

Thanks all,

-Peter