Is Guardians of the Galaxy the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s greatest trilogy? The debate is on, now that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is out in theaters. As we’ve been writing here at ComicBook.com, Guardians of the Galaxy is, without a doubt, one of the greatest stories that the MCU has told, but does it REALLY trump the other famous trilogies that the franchise has produced?
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Just to be clear, the comparison being discussed here is between individual film franchises in the MCU – not the Avengers team-up films. What we are measuring here is the development of characters and stories in the solo franchises, to see which ones delivered the best overall saga.
NOTE: Obviously, at the time of writing this there are multiple MCU franchises that have gone beyond the trilogy mark, but we’re keeping the discussion limited to actual three-film trilogy runs. That’s actually kind of easy because Captain America: New World Order and Armor Wars haven’t yet arrived to start new eras of the Captain America and Iron Man movie franchises (respectively). Only Thor has gotten to a fourth chapter with Love & Thunder – and nobody would argue it has any bearing on this contest…
What Is The Best MCU Trilogy?
Look, right off the bat we can go ahead and take the Thor Trilogy right on out of the running. Each Thor film has its fans and defenders (yes, even The Dark World), but each entry was divisive, and there is virtually no one who would argue that as a trilogy, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Ragnarok come anywhere near matching the enjoyment, depth, and progression of the Guardians of the Galaxy Trilogy. Let’s move on…
The real furious debate here will boil down to four MCU Trilogies competing with Guardians of the Galaxy:
- Iron Man (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3)
- Captain America (Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War)
- Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home)
- Ant-Man (Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania)
The debate will no doubt reach several different outcomes, depending on who you ask, but like Thor, it’s probably easy to take Ant-Man out of the running sooner before later. While the quality and fun factors of the first two Ant-Man movies is debatable, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dropped the ball too much to complete the larger story of the Ant-Man Trilogy in a satisfying fashion.
That leaves Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man to compete with the Guardians of the Galaxy Trilogy. And this is where the debate will get HEATED.
Iron Man is, funny enough, likely the next Trilogy in the bunch to get knocked off. While the first film started the MCU, and the second and third films have some now-classic moments and sequences for sure, there were also more criticisms of the storytelling choices in the Iron Man sequels than we saw of Captain America and Spider-Man – and way more than we ever saw with Guardians. To be fair, Iron Man was the canary in the coal mine that Marvel Studios used to figure out the formula for MCU success, and Iron Man 2&3 reflects a lot of those Phase I and Phase II growing pains.
When it comes to Captain America and Spider-Man Trilogies vs. Guardians, the debate will rage a lot harder. Before James Gunn delivered Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Captain America’s Trilogy was probably the most widely recognized as the greatest set of films in the MCU – but there have been a lot of passionate Spider-Man fans who have been trying to put that Trilogy at the top after the milestone crossover event that was Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It may be recency bias, but right now Guardians of the Galaxy does indeed feel like it is the best MCU Trilogy. The fact that it was a team film trilogy already sets it above in terms of the difficulty level James Gunn was working with; add in the clear level of development with the respective characters (and their family bond) and its hard to find a fitting parallel in the other solo movie franchises. It’s also clear that behind-the-scenes James Gunn and co. probably had the most challenging time even getting a trilogy made; if Disney firing James Gunn wasn’t a big enough hurdle, Gunn has said in public that the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame definitely saddled him with character arc and story challenges he didn’t initially plan for. If all that wasn’t enough, Gunn also brought Guardians a half-chapter of success on the small screen as well, filming The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney+ at the same time he made Vol. 3. Kind of hard to argue against all that achievement and popularity…
Which is the best MCU Trilogy in YOUR opinion? Let us know in the comments.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now in theaters.
