Top 10 Smartest Decisions Made By MCU Characters

Top 10 Smartest Decisions in the MCU

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Smartest Decisions in the MCU.

For this list, we’ll be looking at decisions characters from within the MCU made that had a dramatic effect on the course of the franchise. Entries will not be based on decisions made by the studio itself.

What MCU character made a decision that altered the franchise’s history for good? Let us know in the comments.

#10: Using a Nuke to Win

"The Avengers" (2012)
What do you do when a god, a green rage monster, an egotistical man in a red suit, and a supersoldier can’t beat the bad guys? If you’re the US government, you drop a nuke on New York City. Thankfully, Tony Stark opted to use his brains, and take that missile and point it in a different direction. By destroying the Chitauri mothership beyond the wormhole, it renders all of the enemy warriors inert. Despite what Cap said earlier in the movie, Tony was prepared to give it all to save the city. Thankfully, this brilliant decision saved the city, and ultimately himself and our heroes as well.

#9: Recruiting Peter Parker

"Captain America: Civil War" (2016)
This entry is marked by both a smart decision via the characters of the MCU, and the creators themselves. Tony Stark bringing in Spider-Man helped level the playing field in his conflict with Captain America. It also added a level of wonder from the web-slinging hero as he discovered what it’s like out in the wild. From the creators perspective, it was perhaps one of the single greatest things to happen to the MCU. Given the character’s history outside of this franchise, fans were more than happy to see him finally join such a huge family of films.

#8: Building the Iron Suit

"Iron Man" (2008)
Let’s just get this out of the way right now. Had Tony Stark not been captured, we’d have no Iron Man suit. As awful as his ordeal may have been, it feels like his destiny had been written to end up in that cave. By having him decide to go against his captors wishes and build something other than a missile, it opened doors for both the franchise and for Tony himself. When he returns and decides to start working on the next version of the suit, it’s clear he has a new path and passion he wishes to pursue. It’s an event that alters him forever.

#7: Quill's Outburst at Thanos

"Avengers: Infinity War" (2018)
Doctor Strange made it clear that there was only one possible way to win out of 14,000,605 possible outcomes. So when Quill finds out what Thanos had to do for the Soul Stone, his anger is unleashed. The outburst results in Tony and Peter’s efforts to remove the gauntlet being thwarted. Thanos breaks free and ultimately defeats the entire group. As much as we may have wanted our heroes to get that gauntlet off early, we now know it wasn’t in the cards. Quill’s angry assault on Thanos ultimately allowed events to unfold as they needed for the Avengers to

#6: Letting Captain America Lead

"The Avengers" (2012)
Tony Stark may be a brilliant human being, but he’s also someone with a massive ego. It wouldn’t have been hard, and easily within his personality, to simply take over and be the one to bark orders at the rest of the Avengers. But in the midst of the New York attack, those three words to Steve Rogers showed both his peers, and the audience, that Stark knew his place. Captain America himself is literally designed to be the hero and although Tony loves the attention, he’s smart enough to know Steve is the one who should be calling the shots.

#5: Having Surtur Kill Hela

"Thor: Ragnarok" (2017)
Odin’s words to Thor about the true nature of what Asgard is are what allow him to become a true hero. They’re also the reason why Thor is finally able to find a way to defeat Hela. Given the nature of her power, she was always going to be stronger. When the movie opened, Thor knew of Surtur’s destiny but was still bound to this idea of his home being a planet, and not a people. Since he now understood the true nature of his countrymen, he knew Surtur could take care of Hela, and the Asguardians would live on with him. That’s what we call true leadership.

#4: Creating Vision

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)
Despite the destructive events of “Age of Ultron”, it did yield us several new characters into the Avengers, including Vision. Without Bruce and Tony’s ingenuity, we would never have heard one of the greatest lines spoken about grief ever, “What is grief, if not love persevering.” Emotional gravity aside, by having Jarvis move from a virtual self to a fully formed, sentient being, he ultimately was the one responsible for relieving the world of Ultron’s madness. Without his intervention, there may not have been a world for our heroes to live in for very long.

#3: Escaping the Quantum Realm With a Pym Disc

"Ant-Man" (2015)
Although Janet van Dyne may have been stuck in the Quantum Realm, Scott Lang used a small piece of Pym tech to help him escape. Hank had created small discs that would either shrink or expand things it encountered. Stuck in the quantum realm, Scott used an expansion disc to return to the normal world. The implications of this little choice cannot be understated. Not only did it allow Hank Pym to reunite with his wife, but the same technology was then used in “Avengers: Endgame” to retrieve the Infinity Stones. Just think, if Scott hadn’t returned, Thanos’s first snap would never have been undone.

#2: Trapping Dormammu in a Time Loop

"Doctor Strange" (2016)
“Doctor Strange” was the MCU’s first real head-on dive into the mystic arts. We learned a lot about a Dark Dimension which threatened the existence of life in ours. Dormammu’s life as an interdimensional being has seen him on a quest to conquer all dimensions, and even Earth itself. How exactly are a handful of mystic arts masters supposed to conquer a being of that power? Doctor Strange uses the Time Stone to trap our bad guy in an endless loop until he surrenders. Similar to our previous entries, it’s a case of a single decision that pushed things forward, versus the all-out destruction of life as we know it.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Stopping Weapons Manufacturing, “Iron Man” (2008)
What Does a Weapons Manufacturer Do If They Don’t Make Weapons?

Using Drones to Set Up Attacks, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019)
Some Quick Thinking Gets Spidey Face to Face With Mysterio

The Dance-Off, “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014)
So Absurd & So Genius All at Once

#1: Using the Infinity Stones Against Thanos

"Avengers: Endgame" (2019)
After the events of “Avengers: Infinity War,” audiences were stunned. How exactly were they going to fix this? Many suspected the use of time travel would help, but no one foresaw how it was all going to play out. Since Scott Lang had found a way to return from the Quantum Realm, a place where time works differently, that opened the door to what we saw in “Endgame.” It would have been pretty bold to leave half the universe gone. However, given the chance to save so many, the decision to retrieve the stones from different points in time, and pull a snap on Thanos himself, seemed like the greatest way to defeat an undefeatable enemy.