Though collectively under the "superhero" and Science Fiction genres, each hero's movies skew towards their own genre:
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Marvel Studios - The Infinity Saga
Phase One
- Iron Man is Military Science Fiction, plus Tony and Pepper's relationship was noted to resemble a Screwball Comedy.
- The Incredible Hulk is a Monster Movie.
- Iron Man 2 is Military Science Fiction just like the first.
- Thor is a Fish out of Water Urban Fantasy.
- Captain America: The First Avenger is a War Movie.
- The Avengers falls under Science Fantasy.
Phase Two
- Iron Man 3 has been described as
a Political Thriller. - Thor: The Dark World repeats the Fish out of Water Urban Fantasy approach while adding Space Opera elements.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a Conspiracy Thriller.
- Guardians of the Galaxy is a combination of Space Opera and Space Western, with a large comedic streak.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron repeats the Science Fantasy approach.
- Ant-Man is a Criminal Procedural, specifically a heist movie.
Phase Three
- Captain America: Civil War is also a political thriller, but in a different style from The Winter Soldier.
- Doctor Strange is an Urban Fantasy. Unlike Thor's Heroic Fantasy, Strange's fantasy elements are Lovecraft Lite.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 repeats the comedic Space Opera and Space Western approaches.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming is more lighthearted than the rest of the franchise, being a Coming of Age Story focusing on High School and Comedy aspects — essentially the movie equivalent of Kid Com.
- Thor: Ragnarok exchanged its the previous Thor films' Urban Fantasy genre for a Planetary Romance with elements of a Buddy Picture and a heaping helping of outright Comedy (similar to the comedic irreverence of Guardians), and then funneled all of this through the 1980s.
- Black Panther is another mashup - Afrofuturism, Feudal Future, Spy Fiction, Science Fantasy - as it attempts to analyze what an Advanced Ancient Acropolis would actually be like.
- Avengers: Infinity War fall under Science Fantasy and Epic Movie.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp is again a Criminal Procedural, this time with Romantic Comedy elements.
- Captain Marvel is Military Science Fiction, but with a greater emphasis on cosmic elements.
- Avengers: Endgame fall under Science Fantasy and Epic Movie like Infinity War, while also featuring elements of a heist movie.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home combines the High School, Comedy and Coming of Age Story aspects with those of a spy film not unlike James Bond and a teen Romantic Comedy.
Marvel Studios - The Multiverse Saga
Phase Four
- WandaVision is a Subverted Sitcom, with a Dom Com on the surface and Surreal Horror beneath.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier keeps the political thriller genre from Civil War, as well as adding Buddy Cop Show elements.
- Loki is Science Fiction heavily involving concepts like other worlds and Alternate Selves, and also mixes in parts of a Buddy Cop Show and Criminal Procedural.
- Black Widow is Spy Fiction. While in some ways it's Marvel's take on a James Bond-style film, it's more of the Stale Beer variety than Bond's Tuxedo and Martini since it involves the damage caused by the Red Room's human trafficking.
- What If...? is an animated Elseworld anthology series — and a genre roulette in of itself. While some episodes mimic the genre of the movie that inspired them, there are some exceptions. Said exceptions include "What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?", Marvel's first-ever murder mystery; and "What If... Zombies?!", which has a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a Martial Arts Movie—with some Wuxia elements thrown in as well.
- Eternals is a millenia-spanning Epic Movie with Ancient Astronauts. It's also described by the creators as being in large part a Paranormal Romance between Sersi and Ikaris.
- Hawkeye is a Buddy Cop Show — while also being the MCU's very own Christmas Episode.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home is an epic superhero film.
- Moon Knight is described by its creators as a Psychological Thriller (with it also including some Psychological Horror).
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the first Horror movie in the MCU, specifically the very campy and over-the-top Horror Comedy Signature Style of Sam Raimi.
- Ms. Marvel is a Coming of Age Story not unlike Spider-Man, along with having aspects of a Generational Saga as it involves Kamala's family history back to her great-grandmother.
- Thor: Love and Thunder takes the same Comedic Planetary Romance approach as Ragnarok, with the addition of Thor's ex-girlfriend adding a Romantic Comedy angle.
- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a Sitcom (a genuine one, as opposed to WandaVision); specifically a legal comedy. It has Deconstructive Parody elements for the MCU as a whole, too.
- Werewolf by Night is not just Gothic Horror, but a Retraux Genre Throwback to the '40s-style films like Universal Horror.
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a Drama — part geopolitical drama as the royal family tries to navigate Wakanda's relationships with other nations, part more personal drama as the cast tries to process losing a loved one.
- The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a Christmas Special.
Phase Five
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania drops the "heist movie" genres of the previous Ant-Man films in favor of a straight Space Opera.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shifts its genre away from the Space Opera and Space Western genres of the first two films (though doesn't abandon them entirely) and becomes more of a Sci-Fi Drama as Rocket is dying and his Dark and Troubled Past is explored.
- Secret Invasion is another Conspiracy Thriller.
- The Marvels is, at its core, a Buddy Picture starring two estranged friends and a hyperactive teenager tagging along.
- Echo is Gangster Fiction, as Maya tries to escape her life in organized crime and start over.
- Deadpool & Wolverine is set to follow the previous non-MCU Deadpool films as an action-comedy, though the title and advertising also present it as a Buddy Picture.
Marvel Television
- Both Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter are Martini-flavored Spy Fiction. A proposed spin-off of the former called Marvel's Most Wanted was being set up to be more of the Stale Beer flavor, with two ex-agents actively hunted and without support. Agent Carter also had some Stale Beer mixed into its first season, due to the constant sexism Peggy deals with.
- Daredevil is some combination of City Noir and Fantastic Noir.
- Jessica Jones is a Psychological Thriller.
- Luke Cage is a modernized, less racially offensive take on Blaxploitation.
- Iron Fist is a modern-day Wuxia.
- The Defenders is a Crime Drama with Supernatural elements.
- The Punisher is a Conspiracy Thriller.
- Runaways is a Teen Drama.
- Cloak & Dagger is a Paranormal Romance.
- For canceled and discarded projects, Helstrom is Supernatural Horror and New Warriors and Damage Control would have been Sitcoms; the latter specifically a Work Com.
