MCU Phase 1 Guide: Captain America: The First Avenger

Viewing Order Placement

Some fans will argue that Captain America: The First Avenger should be the first movie in this guide. That’s because the majority of the film takes place during World War II. But, watching it first doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. There are framing sequences that take place in the present day after the events of the previous films, and the post-credits scene is actually a teaser trailer for The Avengers, the next movie on the list.

easter eggs and references

Norway: The opening scene in this movie takes place in Tønsberg, Norway, which was also featured in the beginning of Thor, and later in Avengers: Endgame.

The World Tree: Johann Schmidt talks about Odin and aspects of Norse mythology depicted in Thor. Also, Yggdrasil, the World Tree that is said to connect all Nine Realms, is depicted on a wall in this scene.

Hydra’s Power: The Red Skull’s plan involves harnessing the power of the Tesseract, a powerful energy cube that was shown to be in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody at the end of Thor.

Early Expo: Steve and Bucky visit the World Exposition of Tomorrow, an early version of the Stark Expo. Here we meet Howard Stark—Tony’s father—who shows off a prototype of a flying car. Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. will later have a modern day version of this vehicle nicknamed Lola.

Comic Book Hero: We see someone selling a stack of Captain America comic books. Not only do these comics have the same cover as the real world issue Captain America #1, but one of these is shown among Howard’s belongings in Iron Man 2.

Vibranium: Howard explains that Cap’s shield is made out of Vibranium, the strongest metal on Earth. This fictional material hails from the African nation of Wakanda and is central to the plot of both Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther.

Portal to the Stars: While Captain America is fighting the Red Skull at the end of the film, a portal appears above the Tesseract that seems to suck the Red Skull into space, a plot point that will be important in later films.