A superhero mockumentary, a missing god, and MCU storylines fans thought had been forgotten — all
told in 15 minutes or less! These are the Marvel One-shot films, ranked worst to best.
The Consultant, coming out with the home video release of Thor,
is basically just Agent Coulson and Agent Sitwell talking in a restaurant booth for three minutes.
Plus, there's the mid-credits scene from The Incredible Hulk sandwiched in for context.
That scene, featuring Tony Stark approaching General Thunderbolt Ross about a new hero
joining the Avenger Initiative, is the basis of the entire short film. It seems that the World
Security Council thinks Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. the Abomination, would be a worthy addition to the
team of heroes they're assembling. But, Coulson and Sitwell disagree. They need someone to pitch
Blonsky's recruitment who Ross will probably refuse. Enter Stark, a.k.a. "The Consultant."
This One-Shot barely justifies its existence and finds itself at a point in the MCU timeline where
anyone unfamiliar with the franchise likely won't get it. One could argue that this is
the very purpose of the One-Shot program; to expand the MCU by filling in gaps with smaller
stories that don't have to appeal to the masses. Still, the script of The Consultant is bogged down
with fast dialogue and name-drops that only hardcore fans will be able to follow. Plus,
at barely three minutes, it hardly has time to make that much of an impression. Regardless, as
the first time up to bat for the One-Shot program, it's a perfectly acceptable proof of concept.
Item 47 was revealed on the Blu-ray and digital release of The Avengers. Taking
place immediately after the events of the film, this Marvel One-Shot is the tale of a couple,
Bennie and Claire, who steal a Chitauri weapon in the aftermath of the big Battle of New York.
Using the weapon as leverage, they scour the East Coast and rob bank after bank to rack up cash.
Agent Sitwell makes it his mission to track them down;
but rather than punishing them, he gives them jobs at SHIELD instead.
At 11 minutes, Item 47 has time to flesh out its story and two main characters.
They both make their Marvel debut here, but are subsequently never seen again in
any further MCU production. Director Louis D'Esposito shares in the book The Story of
Marvel Studios that the Disney CEO Bob Iger liked the pitch for Item 47 so much that he suggested
it be expanded into a television series. This led to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC. Oddly,
though, Bennie and Claire never appeared on that show. Item 47 constantly feels like it's building
toward something, but never really arrives anywhere. However, that feeling might only be
because most Marvel projects have trained viewers to expect everything to lead into the next film.
This mockumentary is a fun twist on the typical tone of the MCU and feels more like an episode
of The Office. Team Thor: Part One was released alongside the home video debut of Captain America:
Civil War, but was also widely circulated on an official Marvel YouTube channel. The majority of
MCU superheroes at the time were divided into either Team Iron Man or Team Captain America.
Because, if you remember, the two Avengers faced off against each other in Captain America:
Civil War. This One-Shot attempts to explain the absence of Thor, and subsequently Hulk,
from the Civil War action. It turns out Thor has settled down in an apartment in Australia,
living a relatively subdued life in comparison to his heroic feats of yore.
"I’ll just start my own team. Team Thor, of course. It would be me… and Darryl."
Directed by Taika Waititi, who would later take on Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder,
this One-Shot is an irreverent deviation from the norm of a Marvel story in style,
technique, and narrative.
With an appearance by Mark Ruffalo, the story of Team Thor might break the continuity of
Hulk's arc, depending on if Marvel considers this One-Shot canon. At the end of Avengers:
Age of Ultron, Hulk blasts into space and seems to stay there until the events of Thor:
Ragnarok. This One-Shot takes place between those films, but features Hulk on Earth.
The second One-Shot ever made, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor's Hammer
came out with the home video release of Captain America: The First Avenger.
It takes place just prior to the events of Thor.
Agent Coulson travels to the middle of the American desert to examine Thor's hammer,
which at this point in the story had just dropped from the sky with unexplained mystical properties.
Mjolnir's owner had not yet arrived on Earth, and Agent Coulson's team was managing its care.
On the way to the hammer, Coulson stops at a gas station, where he inadvertently breaks
up a robbery in true SHIELD fashion. While brief, this One-Shot features a fun action
scene for Agent Coulson. It's an example of something that works within the context of
the MCU timeline while simultaneously making for an enjoyable, low-stakes short film. It's even
fun if it's viewed by someone detached from any familiarity with Coulson or even Marvel itself.
A similarly styled follow-up to the original, Team Thor: Part Two is a mockumentary showing Thor
biding out his time on Earth during the events of Captain America: Civil War. In a way, this proves
that Thor could have thrived in the laid-back atmosphere of New Asgard we see him in during
the middle of Avengers: Endgame. The scenarios in that film and this One-Shot are the same:
Thor grounding himself in non-hero living. The difference is whether he chooses to put mind over
matter. In Team Thor, he seems to thrive. In Avengers: Endgame, he wallows in self-pity.
Given the straight-laced mockumentary format of Team Thor, it's fascinating
to see the intellectual property of Marvel and the A-list talent of Chris Hemsworth
at the center of a short film that could, with the right equipment, be produced by any of us
in our own apartments. This gives Team Thor a homegrown, indie quality that's quite the contrast
to the typically action-packed, effects-heavy Marvel stories, even among the One-Shots.
In this second installment, which came out alongside the Blu-ray and digital releases of
Doctor Strange, Thor is having trouble keeping up his end of the rent alongside his roommate,
Darryl. After all, Thor only has Asgardian money. So Thor hires an assistant,
who he pays in Asgard gold, to go out and get a job so that he can pay Darryl. Nailed it.
The last of the mockumentary-style One-Shots, Team Darryl stars Jeff Goldblum reprising his
role as Grandmaster from Thor: Ragnarok. It's a wonderful creative exercise in showing a Marvel
character that's somehow even crazier than Thor grounded in everyday life. He's presented without
the fanfare or spectacle that most big-budget MCU projects have. Goldblum is terrific and completely
committed to the part. Given that Ragnarok was his first and only appearance in the MCU thus far,
it's fun to have another opportunity to see him shine as this character.
Grandmaster has decided to take over Earth, and as luck would have it, his first stop is Australia,
where he moves in with Darryl, Thor's former roommate from the Team Thor One-Shots. Amusingly,
Darryl never makes the connection that Grandmaster is an enemy of his former roommate,
nor does Grandmaster realize his new home was previously occupied by Thor.
Directed by Taika Waititi, Team Darryl came with the home video release of Thor: Ragnarok.
With streaming services on the rise by then, many fans were no longer
purchasing physical copies of movies when this film was released, making
Team Darryl tantalizing new content for those who have yet to discover this gem on Disney+.
Starring Sir Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, All Hail The King
bridges the gap between Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Of course, in true Marvel fashion, this came out seven years before Shang-Chi debuted.
Marvel presented this One-Shot alongside the home video release of Thor: The Dark World,
and it might just be better than the feature film it was attached to.
After pretending to be the Mandarin, leader of the terrorist group the Ten Rings, actor Trevor
Slattery is in jail, where he's something of a celebrity among his fellow prisoners.
Eccentric and nostalgic, Trevor isn't above reciting lines he made famous
as the fake Mandarin or reflecting back on failed television pilots.
"Fletcher. It's not something I can just turn on."
To Trevor's surprise, the real Mandarin actually exists, and he'd like a word with the man who
culturally appropriated and shamed his image. His accomplices pose as documentary interviewers and
break Trevor out of prison — not to free him, but to deliver him to the Mandarin himself.
With a dedicated performance from Kingsley and some fantastically elaborate cut-aways,
All Hail The King stands on its own as more than just supplemental material.
It even has a fun cameo from Sam Rockwell, reprising his role as Justin Hammer,
a villain from Iron Man 2, living out his sentence in the same jail as Trevor.
The longest One-Shot to date at 15 minutes, Agent Carter gives Hayley Atwell the opportunity
to shine as she carries Peggy Carter beyond the confines of a supporting character and into the
role of a protagonist. Agent Carter came with the Blu-ray and digital release of Iron Man 3.
One year after Steve Rogers crashed his plane and supposedly died, World War II is over and
Peggy Carter works as the only female agent in the office of the Strategic Scientific Reserve.
Though her male colleagues are sent into the field to complete missions, all of her assignments are
boring work. But when an emergency calls for immediate action, Peggy accomplishes a mission
completely on her own. Howard Stark takes notice and invites Peggy to come run SHIELD
alongside him. This comes much to the dismay of Peggy's sexist boss John Flynn, played by Bradley
Whitford in his MCU debut, further proving the credibility of the One-Shot program.
"And Flynn, let her know that you're honored to bring her the news."
This One-Shot served as a precursor to the Agent Carter television series,
which premiered on ABC in 2015 and ran for two seasons. It's legitimately entertaining,
even for those with no familiarity with Marvel, and delivers in spades for fans who love Peggy.