MCU Timeline Issues
Findings: The harder you look, the more messed up it is. It’s not entirely Homecoming’s fault, although it certainly didn’t help. If you go all the way to the bottom, you’ll see what I believe is the best we can get to an official timeline. Analysis: First, let’s assume each movie takes place in the year it came out. Which movies can that be backed up by concrete textual evidence (meaning that year - and ONLY that year - appears on screen)? - Iron Man definitely takes place in 2008. There’s a Wired magazine cover dated January 2008, the Mad Money episode is dated May 4, 2008, and Happy says he’s been carrying the ring since 2008 in Homecoming. - The Avengers has a SHIELD computer screen with the date “12.02.2012”. (We’ll come back to this one.) - Iron Man 3 shows a newspaper dated December 23, 2013, and shows a file from earlier dated 2/31/13. (We’ll also come back to this one.) - Thor: The Dark World shows Selvig being signed out of the hospital on November 4, 2013. - Gu...