Ranking All of The Marvel Studios Post-Credits Scenes From Best To Worst

Post-credits scenes have been around for ages, but very rarely did they do more than have Ferris Bueller tell you to go home or an extra gag at the end of a Pirates of The Caribbean movie. Today though, they're a major part of the moviegoing experience for numerous films, particularly ones coming out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To date, all ten of their films have had a stinger of some kind, and three of them even managed to have two. Now, I've taken it upon myself to rate all 13 of these Post-Credits scene in order from Worst to Best. Join me won't you, for this exciting voyage into mystery!

Obviously, tons and tons of spoilers for all the Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Avengers and Guardians of The Galaxy movies ahead.


 13. The Incredible Hulk: This one's kind of a cheat, considering it happens at the very end of the movie instead of the credits, but I'll allow it since it functions like a normal post-credit scene. This one was fun to watch back in 2008, with its fun Robert Downey Jr. cameo being especially neat considering how massively successful Iron Man had been. Still, the scene doesn't really fit into the continuity to the movie (it was so out of place Marvel even made a short film that retconned the meaning behind the bit) and, like The Incredible Hulk, remains more of an oddity than anything else.

12. Thor: The Dark World (Post-Credits Scene): This one puzzles me, since it's actually a fine scene in and of itself. Thor just returns to Earth, kisses Jane Foster and then we cut to a giant ice beast wrecking havoc in London. Aside from the bit with the monster though, this bit should have been in the actual movie though. This isn't some tease for a future Marvel movie, but rather a nice way to wrap up one of the films central themes (Jane and Thor's relationship) Why they saved this for the post-credits scene instead of playing it over Thor's final speech about not wanting to be king is truly beyond me.

11. Thor: Man, the God of Thunder just doesn't get his due when it comes to post-credits scenes. This one has a clever idea at the center of it (Nick Fury recruits Erik Selvig to help figure out how to use the Tesseract as an energy source) but it's kind of perplexing in hindsight. Loki appears to be controlling Erik in this scene, which is cool, but he doesn't actually get control over him until The Avengers. This is the last time Marvel really made a blunder in their expanding continuity, but it is one of the more noticeable ones nonetheless.

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Post-Credits Scene): This is isn't really a bad one (from here on out, all the post-credits scenes pretty much range from awesome to life-changing), but it is kind of slight. Sure, Bucky is looking for his past, but coming on the heels of that amazing mid-credits scene, it feels lacking. Still, it does pose some nice questions for the third Captain America film and the payoff to an early Stan Lee cameo is amusing.

9. Iron Man 2: It's a super short scene (and also only one of two post-credits scenes to use actual footage from another Marvel Studios movie), but man if this wasn't one of the coolest things you saw in a movie theater in 2010. Phil Coulson arrives in Arizona to investigate...HOLY CRAP ITS THORS HAMMER!! in that brief moment, the Marvel Cinematic Universe just got a whole lot larger, and one massive step closer to that Avengers adventure.

8. Iron Man 3: There was an insane amount of anger over this scene, as many felt gyped by "only" getting this actually pretty amusing gag as their end credits scene. The problem with Iron Man 3 though was it was coming at a time of transition for Marvel Studios, since Robert Downey Jr. didn't have any more Marvel movies on his contract at the time, the Thor sequel already had a full trailer, negating the need for a post-credits teaser and the Guardians of The Galaxy hadn't even started filming yet. Considering all those challenges it faced, this is actually a great scene. Quick fan fact: this scene made Mark Ruffalo the first actor to portray Bruce Banner in more than one theatrical film.

7. Thor: The Dark World (Mid-Credits Scene): This was actually a terrific scene, giving us our first glimpse at the world James Gunn was conjuring up with Guardians of The Galaxy. Depicting Sif and Volstagg visiting The Collector, this scene introduced Infinity Stones to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an extremely notable achievement. The best part about this scene though was watching it in a theater filled with non-Comic Book geeks and watching their bewildered reactions. "What the hell? Why is Benicio Del Toro acting like that?" Ah, good times.

6. Captain America: The First Avenger: This doesn't quite have the replay value of the other post-credits scenes since it's essentially a trailer for The Avengers. But see, that's why it's so glorious; it was the very first time us moviegoers got to see what The Avengers looked like. It blew my mind then, and even three years later, it still gets me pumped up.

5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Mid-Credits Scene): HYDRA has had a tremendous resurgence by the end of Captain Americas second solo adventure. In fact, their presence is now big enough that this mid-credits scene reveals long time comic book baddie Baron Vna Strucker has been experimenting on people with Loki's scepter. I'm usually in the know when it comes to what's happening in comic book films, but I had no idea Loki's scepter would be returning to future Avengers adventures, so you can imagine my surprise in this scene. Plus, our first look at Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch is a terrific one, as the two are stuck in two cells that are still sufficient enough to demonstrate their unique powers.

4. Guardians of The Galaxy: Would these cosmic a-holes first post-credits scene tease a sequel, Doctor Strange, Avengers...the possibilities seemed endless. If you had left me to my own devices for a week to come up with a post-credits moment for the movie, I doubt I would have ever come up with the excellent one we wound up with, where Howard the Duck returns to cinema screens for the first time in 28 years. I love how people seem to actually remember Howard and get excited when he pops up, and hopefully that kind of positive reception means Howard will soon go on further fun adventures.

3. The Avengers (Mid-Credits Scene): The first Marvel Studios movie to have not one, but two post-credits moments, this one really shook things up by tossing Thanos into the mix. Many didn't know who he was (I remember having to explain to my pals who the big purple dude was), but for us comic book fans in the know, we all knew the worst foe possible was yet to come for The Avengers. His memorable appearance in Guardians of The Galaxy furthered his presence in exciting ways, but even it couldn't match this particular spectacular post-credits scene.

2. The Avengers (Post-Credits Scene): I love how the finale scene of the third biggest movie of all-time simply depicts its protagonists sitting and eating shawarma. Such a small, but perfect scene. the best part is how each of the characters have separate actions that nicely reflect their own personalities; Tony looks disappointed after hyping up the confection, Thor is chowing down on this Midgard food, Captain America shows how tired he is after commanding The Avengers during the epic battle, while Hawkeye (one of only two humans on the team) his resting his wounded foot. Superb stuff.

1. Iron Man: Just like how PIXARs first movie is till their greatest, the very first post-credit scene is still Marvel Studios most accomplished. In just one simple scene, depicting the first appearance of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, who has come to tell Iron Man about The Avengers Initiative, the entire world of cinema was forever altered. To quote the villain of another Summer 2008 superhero film "You've changed things...forever. There's no going back." Indeed there wasn't. This tiny scene paved the way for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe by demonstrating how much creativity they could put into this cross-over moments.