The Incredible Hulk (2008) ends with Bruce having defeated the Abomination, but once more on the run as a fugitive, and unable to be with Betty, though it's implied that Bruce has gained a bit more control over the Hulk.
Thor ends with Thor putting a stop to Loki's plans, making amends with his father and regaining his powers. However the Bifrost Bridge has been destroyed and Thor is now separated from Jane and Earth indefinitely until she manages to open a bridge to Asgard. Also, Loki is alive and well on Earth and making a grab for the Cosmic Cube. But the ending credits tells the audience that Thor will be joining the Avengers.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, the world is saved from the Red Skull and World War 2 was won by the Allies, but Steve Rogers wakes up seventy years into the future with the people and the life that he knew gone, and he says with disappointment, "I had a date...".
The film ends with Tony Stark emerging victorious against the true Mandarin, Aldrich Killian, and saves Pepper (who saved Tony from Killian), but Tony destroys all his armored suits, has the arc reactor removed, and is Iron Man... no more. And his Malibu home is destroyed, too.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, HYDRA's plan is foiled, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is forced into dismantlement, Cap redeemed his best friend turned villain but Bucky still remains amnesiac, and The Stinger reveals a new villain who took the events that happened as an excuse to unveil his own evil plot in the second Avengers movie.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers defeated Ultron and saved the city with majority of its people. But Quicksilver was killed, Bruce Banner / Hulk left the team, for fearing to endanger innocent lives, including Natasha, and while Captain America and Tony departed as friends, despite their coming to blows in film, we know it won't last.
Captain America: Civil War splits the difference between this trope and "Ray of Hope" Ending. The good news: unlike the comic book event, Everyone Lives! The other five Winter Soldiers weren't unleashed on the world, everyone's back out of The Alcatraz, and the villain is in custody. The bad news: the Avengers really, truly did split up, and not in a simple misunderstanding way. The only active members left are Iron Man and Vision after the majority of the heroes in both lineups have had to go into hiding—and after Rhodey was paralyzed by a misaimed shot from Vision. Meanwhile in Wakanda, where Black Panther is hosting the now-former superheroes, Bucky is going back into cryostasis because no one knows how to remove what's left of his brainwashing, and Wakanda is risking a war by hosting them all. It's hard to say whether all of the former outweighs all of the latter. But at the very least, a young new hero is on the rise, and soon New York will truly have a protector all to its own.
Spider-Man: Homecoming: Peter has managed to grow a little more since his last outing—Vulture is bested and behind bars, the villain's weapons operation is shut down for good, Tony (who finally ties the knot with Pepper) and Happy are much more supportive of their young charge, and Peter feels he can be the hero New York needs, even if that means turning down a chance to join The Avengers. But it all came at the expense of losing Liz, who moves away to Oregon thinking that Peter just upped and left her, Toomes, though grateful that Peter saved his life to the point he denies knowing his true identity, is told a group is forming to take Spidey down (and, as ''Morbius (2022)' shows, he's the one who decides to act on making that group) and can never see his family again, and Aunt May finds out her nephew is the one behind the mask.
Black Panther (2018): Wakanda is safe from Killmonger's reign, T'Challa is restored to the throne, the bond with the Border Tribe is even stronger than before, and the nation is prepared to open its borders to the world so they can be a pillar for the black community, with both Shuri and Nakia being key figures towards their community outreach program. But Killmonger bleeds out rather than be imprisoned, it doesn't change the fact that many Wakandans sided with the would-be-king in his coup, many of their numbers are slain, and there are still those who undoubtedly seek the precious resources within. Nevertheless, the Black Panther stands firm, and his people will rise to the challenge.
Whoo, boy Avengers: Endgame goes above and beyond all of this! Thanos is dead - both the present day and a past iteration - and his army along with him and those snapped by Thanos are restored. However, the cost is quite high as Black Widow dies triggering the Soul Stone in the past similarly to how Gamora was killed in Avengers: Infinity War and Iron Man dies using the Infinity Stones to snap away Thanos and his army. Returning Mljonir and the Infinity Stones to their rightful place in time leads to Captain America deciding to return to the past, marrying Peggy Carter and living the life he missed. When he returns in the present day, he's an old man, but decides to give Sam Wilson the shield, letting him become the new Captain America. Heroes who perished by other means, such as Gamora and Vision, as well as places that were destroyed were unable to return to life or be restored. However, thanks to time travel shenanigans, a Gamora exists in the present, but she's pre-Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), thus leading the Guardians to try and find her with Thor tagging along to find other Asgardians. Meanwhile, things aren't exactly the same as they were prior to The Snap as everyone who was brought back has to deal with the fact they lost five years with their loved ones who survived and the changes that have taken place.
Spider-Man: Far From Home: Peter is finally able to overcome the pressures of being the next Iron Man and rise to be a hero free from his mentor's shadow, master his Spider-Sense, win over Michelle, and best Mysterio before he can use E.D.I.T.H. to make himself the hero he's desperate to be. But typical Parker luck strikes as Mysterious posthumously frames Peter for killing him and exposing his secret identity to J. Jonah Jameson, who broadcasts the story throughout the world. And it only gets worse from there.
Black Widow (2021): Natasha has destroyed the Black Widow program, Taskmaster and the other Widows are finally free of their programming, and she's properly reconciled with her Family of Choice. Unfortunately, she's still a fugitive, and destined to die down the line, there's still more of a mess to clean up that Dreykov left behind, and when events come to pass, Yelena is left in this world without a sister—and a new target.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: The Dweller in Darkness is stopped before it can consume the souls of everyone on the planet, Shang-Chi is able to reconcile both sides of his family, and the village from where his mother hails from is saved. But many souls were claimed in the battle, including his father—a very conflicted, but still caring man—his sister (to his lack of knowledge) has taken the Ten Rings for herself to rebuild Wenwu's empire under her watchful eye, and The Avengers have come to his aid for a threat from beyond all understanding that seems to have taken notice of Earth.
Eternals: The Eternals were able to stop the Emergence, but Ikaris feels guilty for his actions and flies into the sun to kill himself. After a few weeks, Thena, Druig, and Makkari leave the Earth to find other Eternals to tell them the truth of their purpose, but Arishem comes to Earth and takes the remaining Eternals off the planet and tells them he'll spare the Earth for now but will return for judgement for the planet, and he takes them away. Now the other Eternals have a mission to rescue their missing comrades, with the unexpected aid of Starfox, brother of Thanos, and his drunken aid Pip the Troll. And Dane Whitman has his own story to tell, as he seeks to pick up a sword he just discovered to rescue his beloved Sersei...only for the Daywalker himself to enter the fray.
Spider-Man: No Way Home: Possibly the most bittersweet across all the Spider-Man movies, which is saying something. Peter Parker is able to redeem the supervillains with the help of his alternate selves, who return to their home dimensions with their respective Spider-Men, and his Secret Identity is once again restored. However, our hero loses everything in the process — Aunt May is dead, meaning Peter's emotional rock is gone and he has no means to financially support himself, the entire world forgets that Peter Parker exists, including MJ and Ned, and Peter has to get a GED because he had to drop out of high school, now living alone in an empty apartment. Nonetheless, Peter soldiers on as he continues his journey as a superhero, starting all over again. As for everyone else? The villains, though still forced to live with the guilt of their actions, are able to return home to their dimensions and live out their lives in an altered timeline—Norman can be with his son, Otto can finally have clean energy available like he always wanted, Flint can be with his daughter, Connors is free of the Lizard and will not have killed Captain Stacey, and Max knows he's not alone in this world anymore. Even their respective Peters can find peace knowing that Peter-2 has cured Norman like he always wanted, and Peter-3 can move on from Gwen's death at long last for being able to save Michelle Jones. But it still doesn't take away any of the pain they've experienced.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: In general, both Stephen and Wanda lose their loved ones with little chance of getting them back. Stephen and America are able to convince Wanda to free herself from the Darkhold's influence and accept her children can never be brought back nor should variants of them be stolen from their own mothers, but the despair and remorse she feels is too great and she collapses a mountain on top of herself, seemingly ending a grief-filled character arc. Stephen also has to accept that he can't be with Christine, but admits that he still and will always love her. On a global scale, the Darkhold and the Tomb of the Damned are destroyed by a repentant Wanda, eliminating a huge mystical threat from all universes. However, The Masters of the Mystic Arts and Kamar-Taj suffer heavy losses, and the Avengers (or a comparative superpowered protector group) have yet to reform, leaving Earth's defenses weakened (and down one more powerhouse after Wanda took herself out). Earth-838 also loses its greatest defenders, the Illuminati. But on the "sweet" side, America trains at Kamar-Taj and has obviously bonded with Wong and Stephen, who is moving on from Christine. Stephen has more adventures to go on with Clea.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Shuri succeeds in saving Riri Williams, recreates the Heart-Shaped Herb, allowing the legacy of the Black Panther to continue and maintain Wakanda's greatest protector, and is able to let go of her vengeance over Ramonda's death at the very last second and make peace with Namor, who accepts her truce offer, and the conflict between Wakanda and Talokan is stopped before it escalates into an all-out war, giving Wakanda an ally that would be capable of helping them against the onslaught of the powers of the world after their Vibranium. However, the alliance is ultimately one of convenience and may well have consequences for the wider world: As Namor states, the rest of the world are still focused on Wakanda as it's still barely recovering country that is now at its weakest state due to the loss of all but one of its royal family members. Wakanda has no other allies but Talokan, and with Talokanians tendency for violence and extreme ways, while Wakanda would be protected, it could potentially cause many innocents on the opposing countries to die. That said, M'Baku assumes the throne, meaning Wakanda will have a strong leader along with Shuri as it's greatest protector, so there is still hope that Wakanda can recover. In addition, Shuri is also able to finally accept T'Challa's death and it's revealed that Nakia has a son with T'Challa before his untimely death who is now living a normal life free from the conflicts of the world, giving them both peace.
Live-Action TV
WandaVision: Wanda finally drops the Hex covering Westview, finally overcoming the grief that she dealt with. Agatha is forced to be a "noisy neighbor" thanks to Wanda and Hayward is arrested for his actions as Monica takes her first steps into superheroism. However, dropping the Hex meant that Wanda might have lost her family again for good, the citizens of Westview hate Wanda for what she did and both Wanda and Vision have disappeared with Wanda going into hiding and studying up the Darkhold book while Vision's whereabouts are unknown.
