I thought about this question for a couple minutes

Not sure I can answer it without making it worse.................LOL

the 22 films you are referring to belong to the MCU , which stands for Marvel Cinematic Universe

but not all Marvel movies belong to the MCU

it has to do with character movie rights

The X-men and the Fantastic Four movies have nothing to do with the MCU


both you and your grandkids are both right

yes , most all the 22 films are independent story lines of each other , meaning , you don't have to watch Iron Man 2 to know whats going on in Captain America 2

but........

think of these 22 films as a sound wave

there is a common theme thats runs through all of them , which is basically the Infinity Stones , but all the solo films self contained stories ,


and all these characters know each other , and even interact with each other in their solo films , not all at once mind you

some more the others , like Samuel L Jackson's Nike Fury , he shows up in just about all the 22 movies , not ever single one , but just about.....lol

but like Iron Man will make a guest appearance in the Spider-man solo film , and the Hulk has a good size appearance in the last Thor solo movie

alot of the movies will reference characters and events that happened in other movies

below is the list of the 22 films we speak of

notice , no X-men movies , no Deadpool and Wolverine movies , no Fantastic Four movies , or even the first 5 Spider-man movies

those movies are owned by different movie studios and having nothing to do with the MCU

The MCU films are the ones produced by Disney