Every Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show, ranked

polygon.com:

Since Iron Man launched in 2008, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have tried to change how superhero stories work on screen, making them more accessible and more compelling. Over time, that approach developed into a standard Marvel Studios formula. But the franchise’s TV series have never followed suit. The many different TV networks trying to tap into the MCU’s massive fandom have taken different approaches and tones, from single-season miniseries events to long-running network adventures.

When Disney Plus started releasing its own MCU shows, they moved back toward the film formula — these series tend to feel like hyper-extended MCU movies. But are they actually better than the MCU shows produced in the Wild West days where everyone was trying to crack the Marvel formula in their own ways? We sat down with every MCU-integrated TV series to date to rank them and find out.

[Ed. note: Shows are included on this list if they were MCU-compliant in their day, regardless of whether they’ve since been or will later be retconned out of existence. Not included on this list are pre-MCU Marvel shows like Blade, or never-MCU-canon Marvel shows like the excellent mind game Legion, the X-Men spinoff The Gifted, or the animated series Guardians of the Galaxy. Latest update: May 2022, to include Moon Knight.]

2020’s Helstromwas the last of the live-action MCU shows released on Hulu before the launch of Disney Plus, and it was canceled after one nearly universally panned season. The show is borderline unwatchable, a dour procession of exorcist and paranormal tropes with only the loosest connection to the comic book characters it’s based on. Following a pair of siblings with demonic blood that gives them superpowers, it lacks likable