1) Avengers Assemble – The Avengers
For the best superhero movie crossover of all-time, we have to turn to The Avengers. As we’ve seen, previous attempts at linking superhero franchises had been throwaway at best. Not so with The Avengers – instead, it was a glorious adaptation of the comic book mentality of shoving all your stars together.
The greatest moment naturally comes in the money shot at the film’s climax, where Iron Man, Cap, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye all join forces to defeat Loki’s alien hordes. With Alan Silvestri’s thumping theme playing over it, there is a real celebratory feel to the scene. Finally, the first proper superhero movie crossover had arrived.
While Civil War’s alternative version – all the heroes fighting rather than conjoining – was on another scale entirely, this was the original and therefore the most powerful. You just can’t beat the assembling of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.