Anyone who’s ever picked up a Marvel comic knows that whole fictional universe revolves around one location in particular: New York City. So what better place to fight off alien invaders in a battle that would go on to define the following decade’s worth of blockbusters? The battle of New York had personality in a way that no previous MCU installment had; here you can see Thor blast Chitauri dragons with lightning from atop the real-life Chrysler building. These characters have New York in their souls, making midtown Manhattan the perfect setting to cap off a movie about people from different walks of life bickering and fighting before learning how to work and live with each other.

The MCU will never be able to replicate the feeling of seeing The Avengers for the first time, and neither will anybody else. At long last, the joy of reading comics — and following the intersecting adventures of characters who lived separate lives but could come together as needed — had been replicated on screen, thanks to director Joss Whedon’s masterful storytelling and the supergroup cast’s unexpectedly dynamic chemistry. No wonder every studio executive apparently walked out of The Avengers intent on creating their own interconnected fictional universe. Every attempt to replicate the magic has brought diminishing returns (R.I.P. the Dark Universe), but hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? —C.H.