Marvel Timeline Explained (since the beginning of time)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline can be quite confusing at times. So we decided to break it down for you by laying out the events of the Marvel timeline in chronological order from the very beginning. Starting with the Big Bang.

The Big Bang (13.8 Billion Years Ago)

• The Birth of the Universe.
• The creation of the six Infinity Stones – Time, Reality, Power, Soul, Space, Mind.

Vibranium Meteor Lands on Earth (2.5 Million Years Ago)

• A Vibranium Meteor Lands in Wakanda.
• Vibranium is a sound-absorbing mineral that is “stronger than steel and a third of the weight” according to Howard Stark.
• The Vibranium enriches the soil to give birth to the largest store of the mineral on Earth.

Tribes of Wakanda unite (Approx. 10,000 Years Ago)

• The tribes of Wakanda unite and agree to stay out of rest of the world events and to shield themselves.

Bor Burison defeats the Dark Elves (2988 B.C.)

• The Dark Elves leader Malekith tries to unleash the power of the Aether on the universe.
• Thor’s Grandfather Bor Burison defeats the Dark Elves in the first battle of Svartalheim.
• Knowing it would be too powerful to destroy, Bor orders for the Aether to be buried on a distant world where nobody would ever find it again.

Battle of Jotunheim (965 A.D.)

• Laufey and the Frost Giants of Jotunheim try to take Earth as their own.
• Odin and the Asgardians defend Earth and manage to push the Frost Giants back to Jotunheim.
• The King of Asgard Odin loses an eye but manages to defeat Laufey and his army.
• Odin takes the Frost Giants power source – The Casket of Ancient Winters.
• Odin also takes with him a Jotun baby that had been abandoned and left to die – who would later go on to become known as Loki.

Agatha Harkness is put on trial in Salem (1693)

• During the Salem witch trials, Agatha is caught practicing the darkest of magic.
• She is tied to a wooden post and the witches try to kill her with energy beams
• Harkness reverses the spell and kills all the witches (including her mother Evanora Harkness)

Captain America: The First Avenger (1943-1945)

• Steve Rogers, a skinny kid from Brooklyn, volunteers to be part of an experimental program turning him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America.
• Captain America fights against Hydra (the scientific branch of the Nazi Schutzstaffel) as well as the Red Skull in World War 2.
• Bucky Barnes is captured by Hydra and turned into The Winter Soldier.
• Red Skull is teleported to Vormir where he becomes the keeper of the Soul stone.
• Steve sacrifices himself by crash landing a plane that was headed for a civilian population and gets frozen in time.

The Winter Soldier vs. Isaiah Bradley (1950-1953)

• Supersoldier Isaiah Bradley fights against The Winter Soldier in the Korean war.
• Isaiah Bradley is imprisoned for the next 30 years and experimented on.

Hank Pym goes on a Cold War mission to Panama (1960s)

• Hank Pym travels to Panama with his Antman suit on a top secret mission.

Meredith Quill and Ego fall in love (1980)

• Ego brings Meredith to a forest in Missouri showing her a seed he had planted that he claims will soon spread across the Earth.
• Ego impregnates Meredith with a son who would grow up to be Peter Quill AKA Star Lord.

Isaiah Bradley gets out of prison after being declared dead (1983)

Red Guardian vs Captain America? (1984)

• 1984 is the year that Red Guardian claims he fought Captain America, although this hasn’t been verified there certainly could be some truth to it.

Janet van Dyne gets lost in the Quantum realm (1987)

• Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne (AKA The Wasp) attempt to stop a nuclear missile from hitting the USA.
• Janet sacrifices herself to disarm the missile by going sub-atomic.
• Janet is lost to the Quantum Realm.

Peter Quill is abducted by Ravegers led by Yondu (1988)

Carol Danvers gets her powers (1989)

• Carol gets blasted by the Space stone giving her Superhuman abilities and becomes Captain Marvel.
• Now known as ‘Vers’ Carol loses her memory and is brainwashed by the Kree into fighting for them.

Howard and Maria Stark are murdered by The Winter Soldier (1991)

• The Winter Soldier murders Howard and Maria Stark and steals the super soldier serum to be used in Hydra experiments.

Thanos wipes out half of the population of Zen-Whoberi, Carol Danvers returns to Earth and Nick Fury starts the Avengers Initiative (1995)

• Thanos wipes out half the population of Gamora’s home planet of Zen-Whoberi and takes Gamora to be raised as his own daughter.
• Captain Marvel returns to Earth and fights with the Skrulls against the Kree.
• Captain Marvel leaves Earth with the Skrulls.
• Nick Fury starts The Avengers Initiative.

Olek and Iryna Maximoff are killed (1999)

• Wanda and Pietro’s parents are killed in Sokovia by Stark missiles

Tony Stark becomes Iron Man (2009)

• Tony Stark is captured by the Ten Rings Organisation but escapes by building the Iron Man mark 1 suit and fighting his way out.
• On his return to the USA he gains a new found purpose in life and builds more advanced Iron Man suits to fight against injustices.
• Tony Stark utters the famous words “I am Iron Man” for the first time.

Iron Man defeats Whiplash, The Hulk defeats The Abomination & Thor defeats Loki (2010)

• Iron Man defeats Whiplash and Justin Hammer.
• Tony Stark gets a new heart and starts working as a consultant for SHIELD but is deemed not suitable for the Avengers initiative due to his personality type.
• Bruce Banner unsuccessfully looks for a cure to The Hulk while also defeating The Abomination.
• Thor is deemed not worthy and banished to Earth without the use of his hammer Mjolnir before eventually becoming worthy again and defeating Loki.

Captain America is thawed from the ice (2011)

• Captain America is thawed from the ice after almost 70 years and joins the Avengers initiative led by Nick Fury.

Battle of New York & AIM (2012)

• Loki invades New York with the Tesseract and the Chitauri army.
• The Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and The Hulk) team up for the first time to defeat Loki.
• Adrian Toomes AKA Vulture and his crew harvest alien technology in the aftermath of the battle to use for themselves.
• Tony Stark suffers anxiety attacks following the battle of New York.
• Iron Man defeats a super-powered Aldrich Killian, the CEO of AIM and saves Pepper Potts.

Malekith and the Dark Elves return (2013)

• Jane Foster finds the Aether and accidentally awakens the Dark Elves and their leader Malekith.
• Frigga (Thor’s mother) is killed by the Dark Elves.
• Thor defeats Malekith’s army in battle on Earth.
• Loki fakes his death and takes the form of Odin to rule Asgard.

Captain America and The Winter Soldier (2014)

• Steve Rogers meets Sam Wilson for the first time.
• Bucky Barnes returns to fight Captain America as the Winter Soldier.
• HYDRA infiltrate SHIELD and attempt to control the world using SHIELD technology.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are formed and save the universe…twice (2014)

• Peter Quill picks up the Power stone on Morag and attempts to sell it on Xandar before being captured by the Nova Corps.
• Star Lord, Groot, Rocket, Drax and Gamora work together to escape from Kyln prison.
• The Guardians defeat Ronan the accuser by teaming up with the Nova Corps and The Ravegers led by Yondu.
• 1 month later The Guardians of the Galaxy team up once again to stop Peter Quill’s Father Ego the living planet from expanding across the universe.

Hydra expose Wanda and Pietro to the mind stone (2015)

• Hydra experiments lead to Wanda and Pietro Maximoff to gain their superhuman abilities.
• Wanda has visions of herself as the Scarlet Witch in the future

Ultron comes online and Scott Lang becomes Ant-Man (2015)

• While attempting to create a protective shield around the planet Tony accidentally creates Ultron, a super intelligent android with a mind of it’s own hell bent on wiping out humans for good.
• Vision is created.
• Wanda Maximoff joins the Avengers.
• Quicksilver is killed while protecting Hawkeye.
• Sokovia is destroyed.
• Hulk leaves Earth on the Quinjet.
• Avengers HQ is relocated in upstate New York away from a densely populated area.
• Scott Lang uses the Ant-Man suit while teaming up with Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne to defeat Darren Cross AKA Yellow Jacket.

Black Widow destroys the Red Room (2016)

• Natasha Romanoff links up with her sister Yelena Belova.
• Black Widow defeats Taskmaster.
• Black Widow and Yelena destroy the Red Room.

Doctor Strange becomes Master of the Mystic Arts, Avengers Civil War, Black Panther vs Killmonger and Spider-man vs. Vulture (2016)

• Doctor Strange crashes his car causing seemingly irreparable damage to his hands.
• Doctor Strange seeks out the Ancient one for healing but instead receives training in the Mystic arts.
• Dormammu is forced to retreat by Doctor Strange who uses the time stone to cause a never ending time loop.
• The Avengers debate the Sokovia accords leading them to split up and fight.
• Zemo frames Bucky for a UN bombing that killed T’Chaka.
• Black Panther defeats Claw and Killmonger to remain King of Wakanda.
• Spider-man defeats Vulture and receives the Iron Spider suit from Tony Stark.

Ragnarok: Asgard is destroyed (2017)

• Thor meets Doctor Strange.
• Odin dies.
• Hela returns to rule Asgard.
• Thor fights Hulk on Sakaar before returning to Asgard with the Revengers to defeat Hela by unleashing Surtur and destroying Asgard.
• Loki steals the Tesseract before fleeing Asgard.

Janet van Dyne returns & Thanos snaps (2018)

• Scott Lang helps Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne rescue Janet from the Quantum realm while also defeating Ghost.
• Thanos kills Heimdall and Loki.
• Gamora is sacrificed by Thanos for the soul stone.
• Vision is killed by Thanos.
• Thanos gains all six Infinity Stones.
• Thanos snaps wiping out half of all life in the Universe.
• Nick Fury signals Captain Marvel before getting dusted.
• The remaining Avengers regroup to locate Thanos and Thor decapitates him after learning the stones have been reduced to atoms.

The Blip (2018-2023)

• Hulk becomes Smart Hulk

Avengers Assemble (2023)

• Tony Stark creates a time machine allowing the Avengers to travel back in time and retrieve the Infinity Stones from different points in history.
• The Avengers manage to collect all six infinity stones and The Hulk snaps to bring back everyone that had been dusted 5 years previous.
• A version of Thanos from 2014 arrives in 2023 with his Army to destroy the Avengers campus.
• Captain America says “Avengers Assemble” before battling Thanos army with the newly returned heroes.
• Tony Stark sacrifices himself to defeat Thanos and his army by snapping his fingers while wearing the Nano Gauntlet.
• Steve Rogers returns all of the Infinity Stones to the correct timelines before living out his life with Peggy Carter.

WandaVision (2023)

• Wanda tries to reclaim Visions body from SWORD
• Wanda creates a Hex over the entirety of Westview to create a fantasy world where Vision is alive again.
• Agatha Harkness reveals herself to be a Witch and fights against Wanda.
• Wanda becomes the Scarlet Witch and defeats Agatha.
• Vision fights against white Vision before the latter flies off to somewhere unknown.
• Monica Rambeau receives superpowers when her cells react with the Hex.
• Monica leaves Earth with the Skrulls

Sam Wilson becomes Captain America (2024)

• Sam and Bucky defeat the Flag Smashers
• John Walker takes the super soldier serum and becomes as US Agent.
• Sam Wilson officially becomes Captain America.

Spider-man defeats Mysterio (2024)

• Peter Parker receives the EDITH glasses after Tony Stark’s death but hands control over to Mysterio without realising that he is evil.
• Spider-man defeats Mysterio but his true identity is revealed to the public by Quentin Beck posthumously.

Alternate Timeline – Loki’s Travels

• When the Avengers go back in time to 2012 it leads to an alternate version of Loki escaping the timeline to the TVA.
• The TVA recruit Loki to help them find a variant who is trying to destroy them.
• Loki visits Pompeii in 79 A.D.
• He visits a renaissance fair in 1985 in Wisconsin.
• Loki visits Haven Hills in the year 2050 before a Hurricane hits.
• He also visits Lamentis-1 in the year 2077.
• All of this happens before Loki and Sylvie meet He Who Remains when Sylvie finally kills him leading to the creation of the Multiverse.

Well, there you have it. Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comment section below or over on any of our social media channels @geeksgonnageek. As Always, thanks for reading.