Read chronologically

1. Chronological order is the wrong way to watch this. It is the right way to understand it.

These films were written assuming you'd seen what came out before them, not what happened before them in-universe. Captain America: The First Avenger is set in 1943 but was made for an audience who already knew Nick Fury. Captain Marvel is set in 1995 but spoils mysteries three earlier films treat as reveals. If you watch chronologically as a first pass, you will detonate roughly a dozen surprises early.

This document exists to solve a different problem: you want the story to make sense as a story. So the spine here is in-universe chronology — the actual history of this fictional world, told forward. Where the release order matters, I flag it.

2. Confidence tagging. Following your rule, everything here carries a tag:

• — depicted on screen, or officially stated
• — strong inference from what's depicted, or well-sourced reporting
• — filling gaps, theory, or unreleased material

3. My knowledge has a hard edge at roughly May 2026. Everything from mid-2026 onward — Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the Doomsday trailer, VisionQuest — I know only from checking sources today, not from deep familiarity. Those sections are shorter and more heavily hedged. That's a limitation, not a stylistic choice.

4. In-universe dates are contested. Marvel's own official timeline book has retconned dates that contradict on-screen captions. Where a date is disputed, I say so rather than pretending precision I don't have.

5. Every section names its sources. Where something is established across several films, the entry says which. Films are marked FILM and Disney+/Netflix shows SERIES wherever ambiguity is possible.