3 Best MCU Character Crossover Moments

Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher once again crossed paths in the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, with subsequent episodes also revealing a minor crossover between Daredevil and the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series. With that on the table, now is the perfect time to look back on some of the best team-ups in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With almost 20 years and 35 movies to comb through, narrowing the MCU’s countless crossover moments down to the ‘best three’ wasn’t an easy task. As such, we’ve tried to stick to the crossovers that weren’t just fun gags or fan service. So, if you were looking for the Illuminati scene from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or pretty much anything from Deadpool & Wolverine, you might be a bit disappointed.

With that out of the way, here are the 3 best MCU crossover moments.

The Avengers vs The Guardians of the Galaxy — Avengers: Infinity War

Of all the individual franchises within the MCU, the Guardians of the Galaxy series is easily the most self-contained. While the majority of Marvel heroes have been earthbound, the Guardians’ adventures take place in the far reaches of space. With a universe-spanning crossover like Avengers: Infinity War, however, it was inevitable that the space-faring group of misfits would eventually make contact with an Avenger or two.

The scene where Peter Quill, Drax, and Mantis meet Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange aboard Ebony Maw’s starship is the perfect way to introduce the Guardians to the larger Marvel Universe. Not only does it show fans how a potential battle between the Guardians and the Avengers would play out, it features the single best ad-lib in MCU history. Frantic to find his lost love, Peter Quill holds Spider-Man at gunpoint and angrily asks, “Where is Gamora?” only to have a completely baffled Tony Stark answer, “I’ll do you one better, who is Gamora?” The exchange as written originally ended there, but thanks to some encouragement from co-star Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer blurts out the line, “I’ll do you one better: WHY is Gamora?” It gives the tense scene a much-needed laugh and made Marvel history in the process.

Spider-Man’s Debut — Captain America: Civil War

In 1999, Marvel ran into some economic hardship and began selling the movie and TV rights to their characters, leading Sony to shell out a paltry $7 million for the rights to Spider-Man. Fast forward 17 years and Marvel — now owned by Disney — is the hottest thing at the box office. The only problem? The most famous Marvel character in existence still belongs to a rival movie studio. Fans had all but given up hope of ever seeing Spider-Man onscreen with the Avengers, and then Captain America: Civil War came out…

Captain America and Iron Man are having a heated debate outside a closed-off airport when Iron Man loses patience with Cap and shouts out a single word: “Underoos!” Suddenly, a web shoots out, ensnaring Captain America’s shield as everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood Spider-Man does a flip overhead. If you saw Captain America: Civil War in the theater, then you know the initial reaction was deafening. To this day, we still don’t know which particular demon Kevin Feige had to make a deal with in order to get Sony to give partial control of Spider-Man back to Marvel, but fans everywhere owe them their gratitude.

Tony Stark Meets General Ross — The Incredible Hulk

For most of our younger readers, Marvel movies began with the MCU. Millennials and Gen Xers, however, remember the dark days of the early to mid-’00s when for every Spider-Man or X-Men, there was a Daredevil — a movie that flopped so hard its follow-up Elektra didn’t feature even a cameo from Matt Murdock. So when Iron Man started the MCU tradition of having an after-credits teaser for another film, fans were cautious. After all, they’d been burned before, and while it was cool seeing Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, they had no reason to believe they would ever see the character again outside of that one brief cameo.

The Incredible Hulk, though, was a different story. When the credits ended and fans were treated to an appearance by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, it finally started to sink in that an interconnected movie universe like the one from the comic books might really happen. The quick scene where Stark tells Ross he’s “Putting a team together” not only hints at the Avengers but lays out a blueprint for the MCU itself. Iron Man crossing over into the Incredible Hulk universe was proof that a modern cinematic universe could work. The rest, as they say, is history.

Do you agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments!

MCU movies are streaming on Disney+.