Often, but not always, the starring lead will feature heavily in a superhero movie's opening scene, immediately setting up their personality and heroic journey from the onset of the plot. Other times, packed crossover movies will introduce highly-anticipated new characters halfway through in a manner that's threatening, exciting, or ominous, depending on the specific needs of the narrative. While every superhero series needs snappy, engaging introductory scenes for its characters, Marvel in particular has gotten quite proficient at them.

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10 Star-Lord Jams Out To Redbone

Guardians of the Galaxy

Going into their first film, the Guardians of the Galaxy were quite an obscure bunch of comic book characters to stake a Marvel release on. With so little audience familiarity to rely on, the MCU had to be especially careful to nail the introductory moments of all five original Guardians, especially their leader, Star-Lord. Luckily, James Gunn's first entry in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise was able to effortlessly do so with (adult) Peter Quill's first scene.

Star-Lord summarizes both his own personality and the general tone of the Guardians of the Galaxy films with his debut, in which he gleefully trapses across an alien planet while singing Redbone's Come and Get Your Love, the first of the series' many iconic needle drops. The scene is made even better when it shows up in the MCU again during the time-travel adventures of Avengers: Endgame, making for one of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy in general.

9 Spider-Man Meets Tony Stark

Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War had the difficult job of introducing two important new characters to the MCU while also balancing an expansive crossover story featuring plenty of familiar faces. Because of this, it was even more important for the film to nail both Spider-Man and Black Panther's first scenes, with the former standing out as particularly well-done. In a single impressive tracking shot, the film follows just over Peter Parker's shoulder as he makes his way back into his apartment, only to find Tony Stark waiting for him.

This brief, easily-overlooked introduction works so well for a variety of reasons. It instantly conveys Parker's values, world, and personality without directly explaining them, as he makes his way into a cramped Queens apartment while carrying old electronics to fiddle with in his spare time. There's an immediate chemistry in the first conversation between Holland's Peter Parker and Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, setting up a phenomenal mentor relationship that the films would later pay off.

8 Don Cheadle's War Machine Takes Over

Iron Man 2

It's hard enough to introduce a new character, but re-introducing them with a new actor behind the wheel can be just as challenging. The MCU is no stranger to recasts, and one of their earliest and most prolific was the decision to replace Terrence Howard's Colonel James Rhodes in Iron Man with Don Cheadle's version in Iron Man 2. This new version of Rhodes, who finally becomes War Machine in the sequel, is first introduced during a courtroom hearing surrounding Tony Stark's use of Iron Man armor.

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Cheadle quickly sells returning audiences on the recast by addressing his presence with a line that all but breaks the fourth wall to acknowledge the change, saying "Look it's me, I'm here, deal with it. Let's move on." In the following scene that plays out in the high-strung courtroom, Cheadle quickly proves himself as having more chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. than Howard ever did, making for a more than worthy War Machine replacement. To this day, War Machine is one of the most active heroes in the MCU.

7 Ultron Comes Online

Avengers: Age of Ultron

It isn't just heroes that need great introductory scenes in comic book movies. While the MCU has historically struggled to craft engaging villains, Avengers: Age of Ultron saw one of the series' best villainous entrances with the activation of the titular robotic antagonist. When Ultron is activated, the movie shifts into a strange, meta-physical digital space to play out Ultron's conversation with J.A.R.V.I.S., the near-sentient A.I. that later becomes the hero Vision.

There's something inherently comedic about Ultron immediately becoming bent on the extinction of humanity after spending five minutes on the internet, but James Spader's buttery smooth voice work keeps him threatening even as a disembodied program. The abstract way he "kills" and absorbs J.A.R.V.I.S., who had been with Tony Stark for several movies now, quickly sold the threat of Ultron. Even if the rest of the film couldn't maintain the hype of Ultron's introduction, there's no denying it was a powerful way to debut him.

6 Killmonger's Museum Heist

Black Panther

One of the most beloved villains ever in the MCU, Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger had a fittingly hype-worthy introduction in his first appearance. In Black Panther, Killmonger first appears as a simple museum guest, iring the artifacts of an African tribe at a stuffy museum. When his presence attracts the attention of a curator, he quickly reveals his true intentions, taking off his social mask to don a literal one while stealing a valuable Vibranium weapon.

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Killmonger's speech about the theft of his culture's priceless history hits quite close to home in this scene, and easily establishes him as a Marvel villain that's technically in the right. Nevermind Jordan's amazing performance as the bloodthirsty Wakandan usurper, which only gets stronger as the film progresses. Intense, chaotic, and making a good point, Killmonger's museum heist is hard to beat in of strong first scenes for Marvel villains throughout the MCU.

5 Spider-Man 2099 Takes On The Vulture

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Miguel O'Hara serves as an antagonist, mentor, tragic hero and deuteragonist in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. His first true appearance in the film somehow manages to encom all of these fronts at once, being threatening, somber, and heroic all at the same time. A powerful variant of Spider-Man from a futuristic dimension, Miguel O'Hara became the first Spider-Man to reach out to other dimensions and establish a multiversal network of web-slinging heroes.

When a renaissance-era version of the Vulture wreaks havoc on Gwen Stacy's world, Spider-Man 2099 shows up to take down the dimension-hopping error, appearing in a dramatic burst through one of his signature web-portals. As his eerie techno theme plays, Spider-Man 2099 makes for an ominous figure as the rain pours down around him, unfazed by Gwen's quips regarding his appearance. His subsequent beatdown on the Leonardo DaVinci-esque Vulture says more than enough.

4 Tony Stark Goes For A Ride In Afghanistan

Iron Man

The film that started it all, Iron Man had the very first hero introduction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and to this day, manages to be one of its strongest. While on his way to a demonstration of his latest weapon in war-torn Afghanistan, Tony Stark is crammed into a tiny Humvee alongside some U.S. soldiers. Before this attack that changes his life forever occurs, Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark quickly conveys exactly who he is with just a few short lines.

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The scene reveals the extent of Tony's fame by having one of the soldiers ask for a picture with him, which he agrees to on the condition that it doesn't appear on a "MySpace" page. It also demonstrates his vices, such as alcoholism and misogyny, all to the tune of AC/DC's Back in Black, setting the tone for Iron Man's hard rock soundtrack going forward. This scene alone just might make the MCU debut film the strongest of the Iron Man movies.

3 Nick Fury Opens Up The Marvel Universe

Iron Man

Speaking of the first Iron Man, the titular superhero wasn't the only important Marvel Cinematic Universe character to be introduced for the first time in the film. In a post-credits scene, Iron Man also teased the formation of the Avengers, as well as the MCU as a whole, with the introduction of Nick Fury. While returning home to his penthouse, Tony Stark finds a mysterious new visitor waiting for him, none other than Nick Fury.

Here, Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury tells Tony that he's "become part of a bigger universe", hinting at the years of cinema to come with Iron Man as a foundation. Not only does this scene expertly show off what Nick Fury can do, disabling J.A.R.V.I.S. and sneaking into the home of someone as high-profile as Tony Stark, but it also chillingly predicts the series that would define a generation of pop culture for years to come. 16 years later, Samuel L. Jackson is just as convincing as Nick Fury now as he was back in 2008.

2 Wolverine's Cage Match

X-Men

It's important to pay respects to the efforts of Marvel movies prior to the MCU. On the topic of superhero introductions, few of these earlier superhero films showed off their flagship character quite like the original X-Men. Kickstarting the Fox X-Men movie universe, the film introduced audiences to a whole host of mutants, including Hugh Jackman's iconic Wolverine. The first glimpses the film reveals of Wolverine are in the throes of a brutal underground cage match.

A fight scene is a fitting way to debut the feral character, even if he does refrain from using his claws. That's not to say that his powers don't give him an advantage here, with Logan's adamantium skeleton making his fists sound like an aluminum baseball bat against the skull of his opponent. Perfectly encapsulating his powers, toughness, and fearsome attitude, this opening cage match tells the viewer nearly everything they need to know about the one and only Wolverine.

1 Blade Shuts Down A Vampire Rave

Blade

Both the first scene of the film and the first scene to feature its titlar character, Wesley Snipes' very first moments on-screen in Blade are a true visual marvel. At first, the scene follows a clueless partygoer who s some women on the dance floor, only to be horrified when the sprinkler system douses the vampiric crowd in blood. Just before he can become a snack, the daywalker Blade wordlessly appears, instantly terrifying the entire crowd of undead bloodsuckers.

Blade proceeds to slay every single last one of the clubgoing vampires, all to the sound of a driving techno beat. Wesley Snipes' impressive martial arts skills and hilarious touches of physical comedy send what would otherwise be a visually-interesting introductory action scene into one of the most iconic opening acts of all time. Blade's first moments on-screen easily make for one of the best Marvel films to precede the MCU.

MCU Movies

• Captain America: Brave New World

  Release Date

  February 14, 2025

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• Thunderbolts*

  Release Date

  May 2, 2025

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• The Fantastic Four: First Steps

  Release Date

  July 25, 2025

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• Blade (2025)

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• Avengers: Doomsday

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• Avengers: Secret Wars

  Release Date

  December 17, 2027

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