With the opening of the Avengers: Infinity War superhero movie today, The Straits Times has published the ultimate guide for fans - an illustrated interactive graphic detailing who's who in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Fans can click on any of the more than 180 characters in the 360-degree graphic to read a short biography and find out how the character is linked to other characters.

For example, clicking on Tony Stark reveals his full name, alias, species as well as his connections to other characters, from love interest Pepper Potts to former Hydra leader Wolfgang von Strucker.

Go to str.sg/MarvelWhosWho for more.

The online graphic, which took about a month to complete, was the passion project of Marvel fan and ST digital infographic journalist Billy Ker, who worked on it with Web developer Chee Wei Xian and senior executive content producer Denise Chong.

"It's a one-stop guide for all MCU movie characters, since the 19th film is coming out," Mr Ker, 30, said. "We intend to add characters from the TV series in the future."

He said the graphic demonstrates how expansive the MCU is.

The team grappled with the best graph structure to present such a big data set, eventually finding a 3D solution that worked both on desktop and mobile browsers, said Ms Chee, 23.

Mr Ker has been with Singapore Press Holdings for about six years, previously working with The New Paper and then with ST's art department.

He had the idea for the graphic for some time, but could accomplish it in its current scale and complexity only now, with ST's digital team.

"Because the graphic is interactive, it is easier to see the relationships among characters on a larger scale and you can search for the characters you like, which you can't do in print," he said.

ST Digital also created a graphic (str.sg/GuessAvengers) for readers to guess which characters would make an appearance in the film, which is set to be the culmination of all the Marvel films released so far.

• Avengers: Infinity War opens in cinemas today.