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203-579: The storyline involves the destruction of the Marvel Universe and various other alternate universes (including those seen in the Ultimate Marvel and Marvel 2099 imprints, the " Age of Apocalypse " storyline, the Marvel 1602 universe, and the " House of M " storyline), with each universe's respective Earth combining with each other into Battleworld , a planet that exhibits the aspects of

406-529: A Multiverse resembling DC's parallel worlds ; this plot device allows one to create several fictional universes which normally do not overlap. What happens on Earth in the main Marvel Universe would normally not affect what happens on a parallel Earth in another Marvel-created universe. However, writers would have the creative ability to write stories in which people from one such universe would visit this alternative universe. In 1982, Marvel published

609-628: A humanoid species of water-breathers that live in Earth's oceans. Most of these races have advanced technology but existed hidden from humanity until recent times. More variants of humanity can be found in the Savage Land (see Places below). Most of the Savage Land races have their origin from a group of primitive ape-men who seems to have escaped the Celestial experiments and whose influence

812-530: A blast of energy. After Sheriff Strange's funeral, God Emperor Doom enters a realm located below the Doctor Strange statue and talks to the real Molecule Man, who lives there. It is explained that the Beyonders were the originators of reality, but eventually became harbingers of destruction. The Molecule Man was unique across the multiverse: a being whose presence in each reality represented a sliver of

1015-716: A boon. Pym asks Loki whether he would like to join his Mighty Avengers, as he had inadvertently helped form both teams, to the disgust of everyone present, resulting in his Avengers disbanding, and even Loki and Thor agreeing that Pym is "a lunatic". Even Emma Frost's relationship with Osborn was uneasy, being initially reluctant to become part of the Cabal due to her differences, and even when she accepted her place among them, she and Osborn were not seeing "eye-to-eye." Before Namor and Doom spoke together about their intended plans for Osborn, Namor and Frost telepathically communicated with each other, and agree to later meet privately to discuss

1218-468: A can't miss read! " Issue #2 received an average score of 8.5 out of 10 based on 40 reviews. Tony 'G-Man' Guerrero from Comic Vine wrote "There's so much to see here. It's not just hero fighting hero. The other areas of Battleworld are being set up but there's a deep story going on here as well. Hickman, like the 'god' character we see here is creating a fascinating story with the idea of Battleworld and how each area relates to one another. The more you see,

1421-471: A consequence, their acts are recurrently dangerous to mortals. When dire threats threaten the universe, it is not uncommon for these beings to gather together to discuss the threat and even act on it. Most conceptual entities are simply interested in furthering their essential function or to keep the balance with an opposing force. However, certain cosmic entities, such as Galactus , the In-Betweener ,

1624-469: A hamburger). Still shaken by the recent events, Miles goes on patrol with Peter as Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Valeria, Franklin, the members of Future Foundation, and Molecule Man work to restore the Multiverse one reality at a time. In Latveria, Doctor Doom removes his mask, reveals his face is no longer disfigured, and laughs with joy. Following numerous incursions across

1827-509: A higher realm known as Paradise, proving that some form of Heaven and Hell do exist in this Universe, seemingly like those in keeping with common real-world religious belief. Similarly, demons are evil magical beings who take affairs in the matters of the universe. Some of the most powerful are Blackheart , Mephisto , Nightmare , Satannish , Thog the Nether-Spawn and Zom . There are also powerful benevolent mystical entities such as

2030-576: A massive wall that protects God Emperor Doom's realm from outside horrors. Thor of Higher Avalon and Old Thor escort Baron James to the Shield, where he jumps into the Deadlands and dies fighting zombies . In the Kingdom of Utopolis, Minister Alex Power is brought to an object uncovered by an "earthquake": the life raft from Earth-1610. Valeria tells Sheriff Strange that the object is much older than

2233-469: A mist-like substance; some of the most powerful are capable of controlling the weather to a somewhat limited degree. All vampires must ingest blood to maintain their survival and physical vitality. So long as they do so regularly, they cease to age and are immune to diseases. They retain the well-known vulnerabilities common to vampires in other media interpretations, including sunlight, garlic, religious icons and weapons made of silver. Vampires can be killed by

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2436-536: A mysterious planet. A new Thor is shown joining the Thor Corps , a police force composed of different versions of Thor. The young Thor from the Battleworld domain of Higher Avalon tells the story of how God Emperor Doom created the Earth and the universe. The Thor of Higher Avalon and Old Thor travel to Bar Sinister to bring its baron Mister Sinister to Castle Doom, where Doom holds court from his throne on

2639-663: A new Cabal consisting of himself, Thanos , Maximus the Mad , Black Order members Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight , Terrax the Truly Enlightened and Black Swan to destroy the other worlds. Eight months later, having taken over the ruins of Wakanda as a base, the new Cabal has been given permission by Earth's governments to take down the incursions, though Namor admits his Cabal members are far more vicious and uncontrollable than he previously thought. Growing disgusted with their wholesale slaughter, Namor collaborates with

2842-629: A new Cabal, an organization he can control completely. Taskmaster and the Hood later both join Osborn in his Siege of Asgard, battling against the Avengers. Though the relationships of all of the other five Cabal members are filled with unease and tension, Norman Osborn himself is neither blind nor defenseless with his H.A.M.M.E.R. resources, Dark Avengers, Iron Patriot armor, and the mysterious shadowy figure (or "secret weapon") Osborn has used to threaten

3045-462: A new direction in human evolution, as he is born with superpowers even though his genetic profile said he was an ordinary human being. The majority of the public is unaware of what may cause superhuman powers. Other possible origins for superhuman powers include magic , genetic manipulation and/or bionic implants. Some heroes and villains have no powers at all but depend instead on hand-to-hand combat training or advanced technological equipment. In

3248-495: A new home, Doom has provided her with a small army of Doombots to help him kill his target, who is later revealed to be Donald Blake. Loki then goes to prepare his own gift for Doom, talking to an Asgardian named Endrik, casting a spell on him that makes him fall into a sleep. Loki used Endrik as a sacrifice for Doom so that he could try to use his organs to make himself immortal just like the Asgardians. Loki then spots Bill as he

3451-443: A new technological invention that disrupts even his powers and is capable of torturing him; Quicksilver especially is angry at Loki, demanding Loki divulge the current whereabouts of his sister, to which Loki claims he does not know, having merely taken her form. Loki manages to mystically contact his brother Thor, who arrives and, repulsed at Pym's machine and methods, has Loki freed, though allows Pym to pose one query to his brother as

3654-787: A possible manifestation/ avatar of the One-Above-All . The mentioned One-Above-All is believed to be the supreme, omnipotent being, who solely created the Marvel Multiverse , and possibly acted beyond. He also brought to life the Living Tribunal , an extremely powerful cosmic entity, who serves to maintain balance within the Multiverse. The Marvel Universe is part of a Multiverse , with various universes coexisting simultaneously, usually without affecting each other directly. Furthermore, each universe has various other dimensions associated with it, and one such group

3857-406: A possible new alliance; Doom is thus made aware of their own past and possible close relationship. In addition, due to their romantic past, Frost has made a secret deal with Namor, vowing to protect the latter psychically from Osborn and the other members of the Cabal, in exchange for Namor swearing to protect mutantkind as if they were his own flesh and blood, which Frost points out that they are. At

4060-717: A sacred vow not to intervene in events, though the Watcher assigned to Earth, Uatu , has violated this oath on several occasions. The Elders of the Universe are ancient aliens who have often had a great impact on many worlds for billions of years, acting alone or as a group. A power called the Power Primordial is channeled through them. Many other races exist and have formed an "Intergalactic Council" to have their say on matters that affect them all, such as interference from Earth humans in their affairs. Also abundant in

4263-497: A series of titles where events in one book would have repercussions in another title and serialized stories would show characters' growth and change. Headline characters in one title would make cameos or guest appearances in other books. Fantastic Four #12 is the first crossover comic book in modern Marvel continuity (first meeting of Fantastic Four and the Hulk). Eventually, many of the leading heroes (Ant-Man, Wasp, Iron Man, Thor and

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4466-617: A single inter-dimensional entity. The Beyonders would initiate the end of a particular reality by detonating that reality's Molecule Man. God Emperor Doom, Sheriff Strange, and the Earth-616 Molecule Man had gathered Molecule Men from across the multiverse and combined them into a bomb, which they directed towards the unsuspecting Beyonders. The detonation killed the Beyonders and allowed the Earth-616 Molecule Man to absorb their power and channel it to God Emperor Doom, who in turn created Battleworld. Valeria's Justice Division of

4669-543: A startling vision of a possible future, envisioned by Doctor Doom (possibly with the aid of his mystical abilities) to occur should Osborn not fall to his nature and implode, one year later after the first meeting of the Cabal, Norman Osborn's powers have only grown, and the Dark Reign is supreme; the Dark Avengers (Sentry, Daken, Venom, Bullseye, and Moonstone) are gathered with Namor, Osborn and Doom. Doom, bearing

4872-561: A temporal bubble that devolves him into an ape. Molecule Man intervenes, rescuing Mister Fantastic while splitting the Maker into meat slices. Back on the battlefield, God Emperor Doom realizes Black Panther's fight is a distraction, and teleports to the Molecule Man's statue to confront Mister Fantastic. God Emperor Doom tries to use his powers to destroy his rival, but he finds that Molecule Man has taken away most of his abilities so that

5075-456: A valuable asset to their covert group. Osborn also adds that whilst he and the Hood are "businessmen", Osborn recognizes Dr. Doom as a "megalomaniac" and Loki as one who regards them "little more than talking fruit flies", warning the Hood that one or both of them might soon turn against them due to Frost and Namor's betrayal destabilizing the Cabal. However, Osborn adds that he is prepared for such betrayals, and after dealing with them, he will form

5278-405: A wooden stake driven through the heart, though they return to life if the stake is removed. Vampires are highly allergic to silver and can be killed with it. While they normally heal rapidly, injuries inflicted by silver weapons heal at a much slower rate if the injuries are not fatal. Vampires can also be killed by decapitation or being burned with fire, with burning them to ashes and then scattering

5481-467: A world. The Marvel Universe was also notable for setting its central titles in New York City ; by contrast, many DC heroes live in fictional cities. Care was taken to portray the city and the world as realistically as possible, with the presence of superhumans affecting the common citizens in various ways. Over time, a few Marvel Comics writers lobbied Marvel editors to incorporate the idea of

5684-495: Is Stark Industries, owned by Tony Stark ( Iron Man ), but there are others. Advanced technology has also been given to humans by hidden races, aliens, or time travelers like Kang the Conqueror , who is known to have influenced the robotics industry in the past. In superhumans, the energy required for their superpowers either comes from within using their own body as a source or, if the demand of energy exceeds what their body

5887-506: Is a great catch-up to the upcoming event and it's great to see it all through the eyes of the Future Foundation." Issue #1 received an average score of 8.2 out of 10 based on 46 reviews. Jeremy Matcho from All-Comic wrote "This is how an event should start. Hickman blew the gates off of this issue and laid down the bar for every event issue in the future. Great writing mixed with great art and even better build up makes Secret Wars

6090-516: Is a member). The lords of the various pantheons sometimes gather in groups known as either the Council of Godheads or the Council of Skyfathers. The gods were forced to stop meddling with humanity (at least openly) a thousand years ago by the Celestials , and most people today believe them to be fictional. Other pantheons have been depicted in the Marvel Universe that is still actively worshiped in

6293-408: Is also cruel and conniving, willing to remove those she deemed possibly disruptive to her own plans, such as Cassandra Lang and Pietro Maximoff . When Wiccan cast a spell to bring Scarlet Witch to them, Loki appears as Scarlet Witch and states that Cassandra Lang sealed their fates, to be shortly ambushed by Ronin . Soon enough, he determines that she's not Wanda, just by kissing her and stating that

Secret Wars (2015 comic book) - Misplaced Pages Continue

6496-567: Is also revealed after Loki's death months later, that Loki had lured the Asgardians into Latveria for an opportunity to attain a shard of Kelda's pure soul, to use in his Eir-Gram weapon against the cannibalistic hordes of Dísir that threatened Asgard's dead. Some time after the drastic events of the 2009 " Utopia " storyline, but before the Siege of Asgard, after Loki releases the Absorbing Man to play out his own complex schemes against both

6699-461: Is attempting to sabotage Osborn and his forces, has also weakened his Cabal relationship with him, though the latter bond was from the secret plotting of the Atlantean elders to start a relationship and mate a long time ago as human/Atlantean hybrids are so powerful. Namor and Namora decide to part ways as they were unsure how much of their feelings for each other were genuine and how much was due to

6902-473: Is capable to deliver, comes from another source. Marvel tries to explain most superpowers and their sources "scientifically", usually through the use of fictional science-like concepts, such as: A degree of paranoid fear against mutants exists due to stories of mutants being a species or even a subspecies of humans ( Homo superior or Homo sapiens superior ) that is evolving and is meant to replace normal humans. This has caused organizations to form to deal with

7105-567: Is collectively known as a Reality. Often what is referred to in the comics as a Universe is actually a Reality . According to mythology, the Multiverse has been created by the omnipotent being One-Above-All . Even the Marvel Multiverse, however, is only a part of the Omniverse, which consists of all of fiction and reality combined, including all the works that are outside of Marvel's copyright restrictions. The action of most of

7308-630: Is destroyed. Meanwhile, the Kingpin hosts a viewing party of the incursion for villains. The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of the Punisher , who kills all the villains. Manifold begins teleporting heroes to the lifeboat. Cyclops merges with the Phoenix Force and destroys the Children of Tomorrow before being teleported onto the ship. Mister Fantastic and Black Panther pilot

7511-530: Is either restricted from use after the license expires or the characters redesigned or renamed to avoid copyright infringement. Within the fictional history of the Marvel Universe, the tradition of using costumed secret identities to fight or commit evil had long existed, but it came into prominence during the days of the American " Wild West " with heroes such as Carter Slade/the Phantom Rider . During

7714-606: Is his father. Ben realizes Franklin is the son of Susan and allows the Franklin-controlled Galactus to destroy him rather than fight the boy. Susan bursts into tears until Valeria asks Susan to come with her. In Castle Doom, Star-Lord is attacked by the Black Swan while he is repairing his ship. Star-Lord manages to prick his Groot 'toothpick' into the World-Tree, causing the toothpick to merge with

7917-586: Is his fault for bringing them to Latveria and asks for a fair trial before death. Later, after Thor intervenes in the battle against Doom, Loki tells him and the other Asgardians that from Doom had boasted, he believes that life could still be restored to Kelda if they succeeded in returning her heart to her body, later using his magic to help sustain Kelda as Thor struggles against the Destroyer-armored Doom and Balder attempts to find Kelda's heart. In

8120-575: Is known by various names and appearances in other cultures and among the various pantheons, but she is the same being. As a result, she is a member of every polytheistic pantheon of 'gods' worshiped by humans. Besides mythological gods, many deities made up by Marvel writers exist as well, such as the Dark Gods, enemies of the Asgardians . The Dark Gods are a race of 'gods' that have been worshiped by extraterrestrial races. Well-known alien races like

8323-869: Is located in the Andromeda Galaxy, the Kree Empire in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite of the Milky Way galaxy in which Earth, of course, is found, and the Shi´ar Empire is located somewhere between them in one of the smaller galaxies (perhaps the Triangulum Galaxy); frequently, these three empires are quoted as the main political powers "in the universe". Similarly, the Local Group seems to be

Secret Wars (2015 comic book) - Misplaced Pages Continue

8526-400: Is not the puppet of men, gods, or tricksters and that even if he was so inclined to place such trust in others, he understands that there are empty vessels in which trust should never be placed in, claiming that Loki was "false". It is revealed that Doom also desires to use the Asgardians as "an army of gods I can use as a first line of defense against my enemies." However, Doom later claims to

8729-652: Is one of the principal deities of Hindu religion, his defeat offended some followers of Hinduism. This battle was retconned later as having been the deity Indra , the Hindu god of thunder, who was posing as Shiva, that met defeat. To avoid offending the believers of still active religions, Marvel features such deities as characters in the background or who make very brief cameo appearances. Marvel's depiction of vampires has been heavily influenced by various interpretations of popular media, such as Bram Stoker 's Dracula . As with many other supernatural creatures, Marvel entwined

8932-730: Is present in all modern Homo sapiens . Other leftovers from the era when primitive humanoids walked on Earth still exist, such as the radiation-altered Neanderthal man known as the Missing Link , an enemy of the Hulk. The Marvel Universe also contains hundreds of intelligent alien races. Earth has interacted with many of them because a major " hyperspace warp" happens to exist in the Solar System . The three major space empires are: The three are often in direct or indirect conflict, which occasionally involves Earth humans; in particular,

9135-552: Is purely due to story conveniences (or a somewhat haphazardly shifting patchwork pattern of authors), and mainly that the fictional "continuity" has been maintained and expanded far beyond what Stan Lee and others originally planned or hoped for. Hence, the passing of time was more discernible in the very early years, such as the graduation of Spider-Man ; and what started as children or teenaged characters, such as Kitty Pryde , Franklin Richards , Valeria Richards , Power Pack , or

9338-741: Is revealed that as "every hero involved in the coming conflict desires vengeance on Doom for various reasons", Emma Frost and Namor, now both members in good standing of the X-Men, will also seek to make Doom pay for his treachery against them, in DoomWar , which indicates that for a variety of reasons, from Doom's capturing of the X-Man Storm to his deceptive attempt to convince Shuri that it was actually Namor who had assaulted her brother, has destroyed Doom's once-strong alliance with Namor. Furthermore, Doom has also claimed that he does not trust Namor, due to

9541-507: Is secretly fooling them into thinking that Namor was responsible for the brutal attack on T'Challa, not him. However, the Fantastic Four manage to intervene in time to stop Shuri and Namor's battle, revealing the deception both had been under, and Namor joins his new and old allies against his former fellow Cabal member as he begins to execute his master plan for the complete takeover of Wakanda. Loki, shortly before Thor released all

9744-535: Is unknown why this happens, though a warp known as the Nexus of All Realities exists in a swamp in the Florida Everglades of Earth-616. For the most part, this does not matter, as most beings are unaware that this occurs, or even that their universes were recently "born" from another. However, individuals and organizations exist that try to monitor or manipulate the various realities. These include Immortus ,

9947-536: Is working with him personally to counter the Asgard issue, his Green Goblin persona (later revealed to actually be created by Loki's magic) warns him that Loki is the God of Mischief and thus cannot be trusted as an ally, for he seeks to better only his own agenda. However, the Hood's own deals with Osborn, his new debt to Loki, and Namor's uncertainty that he should be of the Cabal at all, complicated matters even more; despite

10150-570: The Big Bang . 'The " Fulcrum " is a comparatively recent addition to the hierarchy, that "all" cosmic entities allegedly serve, of a level of raw power stated to far surpass the might of the Watchers and the Celestials. Unlike most other entities, it is capable of conscience, compassion, and even a sense of humor, and has stated that it wants other cosmic beings to develop such as well. He is

10353-661: The Captain Britain Corps , the Time Variance Authority , the Timebreakers / Exiles , and Kang the Conqueror 's forces. It is possible to travel through time without creating a new alternative universe, instead of altering events in the future, but this seems to have devastating and very far-reaching repercussions, as depicted in Marvel 1602 (it almost destroyed the whole multiverse, including

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10556-537: The Dark X-Men because of his romance with Emma Frost, who convinced him to join the Dark X-Men and psychically enters his mind, seeking to uncover the answers to some of her questions. Frost extended an invitation to Cloak and Dagger to join the true X-Men as they teleported to the newly created island base, Utopia. Both Frost and Namor's relationship with Osborn appear to be deeply strained at this point, with

10759-713: The Earth-1610 and the Earth-616 versions, and many versions of Thor serve as a peace-keeping force. The stories depicted in the miniseries about each domain's characters' powers and personal histories vastly differ from the ones portrayed in the main Marvel universe(s). Following the events of this storyline Miles Morales , who originated within the Ultimate universe was integrated alongside his family (with his mother Rio and uncle Aaron being restored to life) and friends into

10962-844: The Frightful Four , the Lethal Legion , the Legion of the Unliving , the Black Order , the Annihilation Wave , and the Cabal . Most of the superhumans in Marvel's Earth owe their powers to the Celestials , cosmic entities who visited Earth millions of years ago and experimented on their prehistoric ancestors (a process they also carried out on several other planets). This resulted in the creation of two hidden races ,

11165-424: The Hulk , Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer , while the most recent incarnation of the team consists of street-level New York City heroes Daredevil , Jessica Jones , Luke Cage and Iron Fist . The Guardians of the Galaxy include Marvel's cosmic characters such as Adam Warlock , Star-Lord , Gamora , Drax the Destroyer , Rocket Raccoon and Groot , but the team has also introduced other heroes into

11368-608: The Inhumans (composed of Blackagar Boltagon , Medusalith Amaquelin-Boltagon , Crystalia Amaquelin-Boltagon/Crystal , Gorgon , Karnak Mandel-Azur/Karnak the Shatterer , Triton and Lockjaw ) and Alexi Shostakov/the Red Guardian . Other notable heroes from the Bronze Age and Modern Age from the early-to-mid 1970s to the early 1990s include James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine , Ororo Munroe/Storm , Piotr "Peter" Rasputin/Colossus , Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler , Luke Cage (also known as Power-Man), Danny Rand/Iron Fist , Misty Knight , Colleen Wing , Barbara "Bobbi" Morse/Mockingbird ,

11571-400: The Inhumans , another genetically unstable race (like the Deviants, but in their case, it is due to their use of a substance called the "Terrigen Mists") that was created by a Kree experiment long ago; the Subterraneans , a race of humanoids adapted to living below the surface, created by the Deviants (some Subterraneans were transformed into the 'Lava Men' by a demon); and Homo mermanus ,

11774-438: The Maelstrom , or the Stranger have demonstrated personality, motivations, or (except for the first one mentioned) even ambitions beyond their functions, but often maintain the perspective that morality is entirely relative, or that destroying civilizations of "lesser" beings is no eviler than if these beings destroyed an anthill. Others such as Uatu the Watcher , Eon, or the Celestials , Ashema and Tiamut are aberrations in

11977-424: The Maker (the Mister Fantastic of Earth-1610) make plans to survive the cataclysm with a small group of colleagues; Mister Fantastic selects heroes and important scientists, while the Maker intends to save himself and the Cabal . The Maker sends a doomsday weapon and the Children of Tomorrow to Earth-616. Black Bolt , Rocket Raccoon , Groot , Black Widow , Spider-Woman , and Beast are killed, and Stark Tower

12180-621: The New Mutants are all allowed to age at wildly shifting rates (in the second case even backward at times), whereas surrounding characters somewhat dependent on a certain age limit do not change at all. This recurrently creates inherently contradictory effects, as events are routinely described to have happened several years ago, even in cases when this would mean that some of the involved characters would have been toddlers. Different approaches also exist regarding allowing "second-generation" descendants of heroes or villains, full-grown over 18 years after an event (for example, Hulkling , other members of

12383-422: The New Warriors , David Haller/Legion , John Proudstar/Warpath-Thunderbird , Anna Marie LeBeau/Rogue and Jubilation Lee/Jubilee . Some of Marvel's more recent creations from the mid-to-late 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, such as Wade Wilson/Deadpool , Remy LeBeau/Gambit , Nathan Summers/Cable , Neena Thurman/Domino , Clarice Fong/Blink , the Thunderbolts , Yelena Belova (also known as the second Black Widow),

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12586-433: The Runaways , the modern Guardians of the Galaxy , the modern Defenders (based on the Netflix MCU version of the same name ), Laura Kinney/X-23 (a.k.a. the second Wolverine), Shuri , the Dora Milaje , Daisy Johnson (also known as Quake), Phil Coulson , Melinda May , Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier , Maria Hill , Miles Morales (the second Spider-Man of the Ultimate Marvel Universe), Hope van Dyne (also known as

12789-452: The Shi'ar and Skrulls also have beings they worship as 'gods', though little has been revealed about them. Many persons and beings have falsely pretended to be gods or demons during history; in particular, none of the ones claiming to be major figures from Judeo-Christian beliefs have turned out to be the real article, although several angels have appeared in recent years, as well as an apparent true rebellion and expulsion of angels from

12992-846: The Vision , Simon Williams/Wonder Man , Hercules , Kevin Plunder/Ka-Zar , Groot , Nick Fury , T'Challa/the Black Panther , Mar-Vell (the first Captain Marvel), Carol Danvers (also known as the first Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird, and the current Captain Marvel), Sam Wilson/the Falcon , Dane Whitman/the Black Knight , Norrin Radd/the Silver Surfer , Jane Foster (also known as the second Thor), Warren Worthington III/the Angel-Archangel , Hank McCoy/the Beast , Scott Summers/Cyclops , Robert "Bobby" Drake/the Iceman , Jean Grey (also known as Marvel Girl and Phoenix), Charles Xavier/Professor X , Lorna Dane/Polaris , Alex Summers/Havok , Sean Cassidy/the Banshee , Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic , Susan Storm/the Invisible Woman , Johnny Storm/the Human Torch , Ben Grimm/the Thing , Brunnhilde/the Valkyrie ,

13195-423: The Young Avengers , the Runaways , and the Secret Warriors ), whereas other books, such as Young Allies use the inherent contradiction to debunk similar claims. If a past storyline wherein a direct depiction of a then-current president or similar is referred to in a later era, it tends to become updated accordingly, sometimes with an "in-joke" acknowledgment. A more recent explanation was given by Galactus to

13398-425: The afterlife ). Also, time itself passes much differently within the confines of the Marvel Universe than it does in the real world. Despite various characters having appeared within company publications for decades, few, if any, have aged to any appreciable degree. For example, the patriotic hero Captain America was created in 1941 but stopped appearing in titles soon after the end of World War II . The character

13601-452: The prime Marvel Universe or Earth-616. The core limited series was originally to be eight issues long, but was later decided to extend to a ninth. The series ran for nine months. The miniseries are in three categories, which are Battleworld, Warzones, and Last Days. One of the core miniseries is Ultimate End which ends the Ultimate Marvel imprint after 15 years. Ultimate End was written by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley ,

13804-457: The 20th century, the tradition was reinvigorated by Steve Rogers/Captain America and the Invaders in the 1940s, who fought for the Allies of World War II . Unlike the DC Universe , few of Marvel's Golden Age characters have risen to prominence in modern publications; Captain America is one exception, and to a lesser extent, his contemporary, Namor the Sub-Mariner , primarily because both of these characters were reintroduced to readers and

14007-499: The Asgardians have been successfully moved to Latveria. Namor comments that though their alliance might be mutually beneficial for them, he fails to see how it might benefit the rest of the Cabal, to which Loki responds that a rising tide "raises all ships", which Namor objects, expressing his preference for a maelstrom that sinks all ships. Namor further expresses distaste for the Hood's presence, claiming that monarchs did not consort with criminals as equals, to which Osborn himself defends

14210-494: The Asgardians have returned to Oklahoma, back in Balder's favor for his role in saving Kelda, assures Doom that, despite full victory not having been theirs, both of them will profit from this day "in time". Later, when Osborn assaults Doom during the Siege Cabal meeting, Loki shows only amusement when his (apparently former) ally is being slain, yet neither does not seem troubled when Doom's nanites tear down Avengers Tower and brutally assail Norman Osborn himself. Additionally, it

14413-410: The Asgardians to Latveria, for unclear reasons (later revealed to apparently be the chance of stealing the power of immortality from the gods), with Loki promising to grant him the one thing he lacks, seeking to become absolute ruler over the divided Asgardians. Loki moves all the Asgardians through a portal she herself has conjured directly to Latveria, which the Asgardians all find to their liking. As

14616-406: The Atlantean military force were far away, "outside" of Latveria, implying that though his alliance with Osborn has been destroyed, his alliance with Doctor Doom in some form still exists. Norman Osborn, chooses Taskmaster as the fifth member of his new Cabal due to his part in driving off recent threats to Camp H.A.M.M.E.R., despite doubts from the Hood, and tells Robbins that he sees Taskmaster as

14819-724: The Avengers have included Marvel's major heroes as members at one time or another. The X-Men are a team of mutants led by Professor X and include many of Marvel's most popular characters, such as Wolverine and others. The Fantastic Four are viewed as "Marvel's First Family" of superheroes, usually consisting of Mister Fantastic , the Invisible Woman , the Human Torch and the Thing , as well as siblings Franklin and Valeria Richards . The Defenders were an ad hoc team usually brought together by Doctor Strange which has included

15022-619: The Barbarian Nyarlathotep and Set. Some deities or demonic beings that are original characters of Marvel have been heavily influenced by these mythologies, such as Shuma-Gorath . Most of the current generation of gods have been revealed to be the descendants of the Elder Goddess Gaea . The two most featured pantheons are the Asgardians (of whom Thor is a member) and the Olympians (of whom Hercules

15225-483: The Barbarian , Red Sonja , Kull the Conqueror , and Solomon Kane also have real-life existences in the Marvel Universe. The Hyborian Era of Conan and Kull is considered part of Earth-616 pre-recorded history. However, they rarely encounter modern Marvel superhero characters. This is most likely possible due to the uncertain legal status of Howard's works before 2006 when they became public domain. As of 2019, Conan

15428-684: The Barbarian, as well as Kull the Conqueror and Solomon Kane, have been firmly integrated, thanks to Marvel regaining the publishing rights to the characters. Other licensed works that have been incorporated into the Marvel Universe include Godzilla , the Transformers , the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (in the character of Machine Man ), Rom the Spaceknight , the Micronauts , and the Shogun Warriors . In most cases, such material

15631-721: The Cabal (Doom's "new allies") would allow him to conquer the United Kingdom without interference before he began his assault. Loki (a personal ally of Doctor Doom around this time), as the Scarlet Witch, though agreeing to deliver a message from Hank Pym in outer space to the British intelligence agency, asking them to stop all international air traffic, was not willing to breach the mystical barrier Dracula had erected sealing in Britain for some reason; though Dracula himself

15834-559: The Cabal and the Maker are discovered by the Thor Corps. In Utopolis, the Thor Corps battle Thanos, the Cabal, and the Maker. On the Isle of Agamotto, Sheriff Strange explains to the life rafters that the Beyonders were the ones behind the universes crashing together and that he and Doctor Doom were able to kill them and take their power. A wild boar version of Thor teleports to Castle Doom to report his findings. Sheriff Strange arrives at

16037-535: The Cabal if they sought to betray him combined making him a formidable ally and enemy, revealed to be the dark side of the Sentry, the immensely powerful and deadly Void. In the major events of Siege: The Cabal , Norman Osborn, having succumbed to his Green Goblin persona and the fear that Asgard would pose a threat to the natural order and Earth itself, gathers the Cabal once again, with Doctor Doom arriving and arrogantly showing distaste for Taskmaster's presence among

16240-501: The Cabal to continue, and the six most powerful beings on Earth continue their discussion of various topics. Osborn promises to take care of the Mighty Avengers, and other issues are discussed, such as the unsuccessful hunt for Tony Stark, the pouring in of the Asgardians into Latveria (which Loki argues was in accordance to her agreement with Doom), the reinstating of Doctor Doom as monarch, the massing mutants from San Francisco,

16443-569: The Cabal wonders who ever suggested such a meeting place in the first place. Nevertheless, the Cabal meets again on the psychic plane with the aid of Emma Frost, prior to the events of Utopia , but after the Asgardians have been moved to Latveria. Doom tells the Cabal that he has already told Osborn how to storm the Baxter Building, to which Loki remarks that the events in America are always of interest, although admittedly less so now that

16646-403: The Cabal. Doom demands that Osborn at once reverse his course of action against his ally Namor, to which Osborn refuses, saying that he and Emma Frost had "crossed the line" with him. Doom, loathing Thor and the Asgardians all the more due to his recent defeat at their hands, claims that he will support Osborn's "madness" should Namor be returned to him, but Osborn refuses. Osborn's mysterious ally,

16849-645: The Cabal. T'Challa objects, saying that, as he even rejected a seat among the Illuminati, an alliance of honourable men, he finds no reason to affiliate himself with the villainous Cabal. T'Challa also expresses the belief that he believes that Osborn is too unstable to maintain his power for long, to which Namor agrees, claiming that when Osborn did collapse, there would be an opportunity for leveler heads to seize power. Namor left after telling him he had come out of respect for his friendship and that T'Challa's old allies were weak, shaking hands with him. Though Namor ends

17052-481: The Conqueror , Red Skull , The Kingpin , Doctor Octopus , Carnage , Apocalypse , Dormammu , Mysterio , Electro , and the Vulture . It also contains antiheroes such as Venom , Namor , Deadpool , Silver Sable , Ghost Rider , The Punisher , Elektra , and Black Cat . The Marvel Universe is further depicted as existing within a " multiverse " consisting of thousands of separate universes, all of which are

17255-617: The DC Universe. This is one method of explaining the various crossover stories co-published by the two companies. Pop culture characters such as Sherlock Holmes , Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster exist in the Marvel Universe. This is usually justified as a second-hand account of events as told to credited authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley , although the general public continues to believe them to be fictional. Robert E. Howard 's Conan

17458-546: The Dark Avengers, to evacuate. Osborn is rescued by the Sentry, who destroys the body. When Osborn contacts Doom, Doom tells him not to ever strike him again or he is willing to go further. Osborn later attempts to get the authority to lead an assault against Asgard from the President of the United States , but fails. Loki tells him that to begin his Siege successfully, he will require an "inciting incident", similar to

17661-777: The Destroyer , Peter Quill/Star-Lord , Gamora , Rocket Raccoon , Frank Castle/the Punisher , Marc Spector/the Moon Knight , the Eternals (composed of Ikaris , Thena , Ajak , Makkari , Kingo , Phastos , Gilgamesh and Sprite ), War Machine , Nova (Richard Rider), Adam Warlock , Power Pack , Betsy Braddock , Scott Lang (the second Ant-Man), Felicia Hardy/the Black Cat , Silver Sable , Katherine "Kitty" Pryde (also known as Shadowcat, Ariel, Sprite, Star-Lord and

17864-856: The Fixer) and Jolt , while the current incarnation of the team is made up of reformed supervillains/anti-heroes working for the government: Deadpool , the Punisher , the Red Hulk , the Winter Soldier and the Ghost . Although teams of supervillains are few and far between, notable examples include the Masters of Evil , the Emissaries of Evil , the Brotherhood of Mutants , the Sinister Six ,

18067-842: The Future Foundation prepares to hunt down the Earth-616 heroes and also the Cabal. Thor appears in Doomgard where the Thor Corps are located, Black Panther and Namor appear in Egyptia, Captain Marvel in Bar Sinister, and the Black Swan in Doomstadt. At the end of the issue, Thanos appears at the base of the Shield. Three weeks later, Battleworld is in disarray with several kingdoms in open rebellion. Someone called "the Prophet" has formed an army against God Emperor Doom, and has toppled

18270-629: The Galaxy , and many Marvel superheroes live in this universe, including characters such as Spider-Man , Captain America , Iron Man , Thor , the Hulk , Ant-Man , the Wasp , Wolverine , Black Panther , Doctor Strange , Daredevil , and Captain Marvel , Blade , Black Widow , Hawkeye , Mister Fantastic , among numerous others. It also contains well-known supervillains such as Doctor Doom , Magneto , Ultron , Thanos , Loki , The Green Goblin , Kang

18473-400: The Hood and Osborn's friction and different viewpoints, the latter did defend Parker when Namor questions the Hood's position in their secret group. Emma Frost and Parker Robbins have not met each other before the Cabal's first gathering, and their first encounter ended poorly, with Robbins threatening Frost, to which she responds with making the Hood redirect his gun into his mouth and detecting

18676-581: The Hood and his syndicate as reinforcements to help Osborn's forces against the Avengers, and when Thor asks Osborn where was Loki in all this, the unstable Osborn claimed that he was "dead", just like all of them, due to the Void fully released now. Loki, horrified by the terrible damage the Void and his own manipulations have caused, calls back the Norn Stones from the Hood (possibly aided by Odin), removing him of all power, and uses it to revive and empower

18879-481: The Hood's cloak, has fought and slain Robbins, and has imprisoned Emma Frost and Loki as half-naked slaves chained to his throne. The Cosmic Cube is in his possession, and, after teleporting the Dark Avengers to the other side of the universe, he and Namor defeat and kill Osborn. At the end, Dr. Doom fantasizes about the day where he will dispose of Namor as well, and take his place as ruler of the entire world, over both

19082-544: The Hood. Loki (still in her female form) also reveals to Osborn that she was responsible for granting the new Enchantress of the Young Masters her mystical powers, apparently because of the mischief such would cause. Far more sinister tensions were also brewing among the Cabal members. Norman Osborn had more potential enemies that even he could imagine. Namor and Doctor Doom were secretly working behind Osborn's back, aware that their plots against Osborn could erupt into

19285-571: The Hood. Loki visited the severely burned Robbins, revealing to him her desire to use him as an additional instrument to Osborn's collapse, and gave him a "second chance", thus indebting him to her; it is later revealed that Loki, Madame Masque and the Hood had journeyed together to Cuba and located the Asgardian Norn Stones to serve as a new power source for the Hood. In Siege: The Cabal , though Osborn appears to place trust in Loki and

19488-651: The Hulk) assembled into a team known as the Avengers , which debuted in September 1963. This was not the first time that Marvel's characters had interacted with one another— Namor the Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch had been rivals when Marvel was Timely Comics (Marvel Vault), under editor Martin Goodman — but it was the first time that the comic book publisher's characters seemed to share

19691-527: The Illuminati in a plan to destroy the Cabal by trapping them on the next Earth to be destroyed, but Black Panther and Black Bolt deliberately leave Namor behind to die with the Cabal for his past actions. Unbeknownst to the Avengers, however, that world ended up having two simultaneous Incursions, allowing Namor and the Cabal to escape to the third Earth, the Ultimate Marvel Earth , and upon arrival, meeting that universe's Reed Richards . When

19894-678: The Kree and Skrulls are ancient enemies, and the Kree-Skrull War has involved humans on several occasions. The Skrulls have also been known to be in a long and consistent war against the Majesdanians, who live on a milky planet named Majesdane. The war between the two had started after two Majesdanians, Frank and Leslie Dean of the Pride had been kicked out for criminal activities; the two traveled to Earth, where Frank and Leslie stopped

20097-471: The Lord and Messiah of Battleworld. To ensure all domains remain separate from each other, the Thor Corps have been formed (containing all alternate versions of Thor) and they act as a police force for Battleworld under the leadership of Sheriff Strange. Those who transgress the borders are sent to the Shield to work there whilst those who spectacularly break this rule are sent into exile over the Shield into one of

20300-471: The Maker team up to find the source of God Emperor Doom's power, and send Spider-Man and Miles to infiltrate Castle Doom. The Spider-Men meet Valeria, who chooses not to go with them. Valeria demands to know who killed Sheriff Strange and Peter confirms Valeria's suspicions that no one from the raft was responsible. After entering a trapdoor under the Molecule Man's statue, the Spider-Men are confronted by

20503-490: The Marvel Comics titles takes place in a continuity known as Earth-616 . This continuity exists in a multiverse alongside trillions of alternative continuities. Alternative continuities in the Marvel Multiverse are generally defined in terms of their differences from Earth-616. Continuities besides Earth-616 include the following (for a complete listing see Multiverse (Marvel Comics) ): One cannot normally alter

20706-452: The Marvel Universe are legendary creatures such as gods, demons and vampires . The 'gods' of most polytheistic pantheons are powerful, immortal human-like races residing in other dimensions who visited Earth in ancient times, and became the basis of many legends. However, all of these 'gods' share a common ancestry and connection to Earth due to Gaea, the primeval Elder Goddess that infused her life essence into all living things on Earth. Gaea

20909-634: The Marvel Universe comes to an end in Secret Wars, "Warzones" would focus on the individual domains, and "Battleworld" would be concerned with the infrastructure of the Battleworld as a whole. As Doctor Doom , Doctor Strange , and the Molecule Man confront the Beyonders in a last-ditch attempt to save the Multiverse, the final Incursion of Earth-1610 and Earth-616 begins. Heroes from each universe confront one another. Mister Fantastic and

21112-449: The Marvel Universe compared to the real world, owing to the serial nature of storytelling, with the stories of certain issues picking up mere seconds after the conclusion of the previous one, while a whole month has passed by in "real-time". Marvel's major heroes were created in the 1960s, but the amount of time that has passed between then and now within the universe itself has (after a prolonged period of being identified as about 10 years in

21315-606: The Marvel Universe during the 1960s. Marvel's most prominent heroes were created during the Silver Age of Comic Books in the 1960s to early 1970s, including Peter Parker/Spider-Man , Tony Stark/Iron Man , Thor , Bruce Banner/the Hulk , Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange , Matt Murdock/Daredevil , Ant-Man and the Wasp (Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne), Natasha Romanoff/the Black Widow , Clint Barton/Hawkeye , Pietro Maxmioff/Quicksilver , Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch ,

21518-599: The Marvel Universe is home to a large number of superheroes and supervillains , who have gained their powers by any of these means. The general public is so familiar with such concepts that Empire State University has a scholarship for "aliens, dimensional travelers, clones, independent machine intelligences and other students outside the norm", businesses and residences have superhero property insurance and bookmakers take bets on their battles' outcomes, and New York air traffic controllers handle starships landing at local airports . Comparatively, little time passes in

21721-414: The Marvel Universe's history; if a time-traveler should cause an alteration to the established flow of events at some point in the past, a divergent universe will simply "branch out" from the existing timeline, and the time-traveler will still return to his or her unaltered original universe. Those realities can also spawn realities of their own. There exist hundreds, probably thousands of such realities. It

21924-569: The Marvel Universe, technology is considerably more advanced than in the real world; this is due to unique individuals of genius-level intelligence, such as Reed Richards ( Mister Fantastic ) of the Fantastic Four. However, most of the advanced devices (such as powered armor and death rays ) are too expensive for the common citizen, and are usually in the hands of government organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D., or powerful criminal organizations like A.I.M. One major company producing these devices

22127-531: The Marvel Universe. (A universe incorporating all these types of fantastic elements is fairly rare; another example is the DC Universe .) Monsters also play a more prominent role with east Asian origins of magical incantation, outlandish sorcery and manifesting principle in the Marvel Universe. One such case is Fin Fang Foom arising from the ashes of tantric magic. Thanks to these extra elements, Earth in

22330-571: The Mighty and Dark Avengers, Osborn attempts to call together the Cabal, but Namor and Frost have defected, Doom refuses to answer his call, and the Hood cuts him off and demands that they do this "later" when he finally contacts him; however, Loki appears to him, and, while Osborn demands that they use the full force of their alliance to crush Pym until not a single Pym Particle remained, Loki instead persuades Osborn that doing so against one called "the Wasp"

22533-648: The Pride . The Midnight Sons consist of supernatural heroes such as Blade , Ghost Rider , Moon Knight , Elsa Bloodstone , Hellstrom , the Werewolf and the Man-Thing . The Thunderbolts' original incarnation were supervillains disguised as superheroes consisting of Citizen V (a.k.a. Helmut Zemo ), MACH-IV (a.k.a. the Beetle), Songbird (a.k.a. Screaming Mimi), Moonstone (a.k.a. Meteorite), Techno/the Ogre (a.k.a.

22736-520: The Reality Gem to recreate and teleport himself to Wakanda. There, he finds three Wakandan prodigies (the same he talked to in New Avengers #1) to whom he tasks with granting wisdom to the stars. Miles Morales awakens on the restored Earth-616, now known as Marvel's Earth Prime, along with his friends and his mother (who was brought back to life by the Molecule Man as gratitude for giving him

22939-527: The Red Queen and the second Wasp), Cassandra Lang (also known as Stature, Stinger, Ant-Girl and Giant-Girl), the Stepford Cuckoos , Amadeus Cho (also known as the second Hulk), Kamala Khan (also known as the second Ms. Marvel), Kate Bishop (also known as the third Hawkeye), Lunaella Lafayette/Moon Girl , America Chavez (also known as the second Miss America), Robbie Reyes (also known as

23142-665: The Red Queen), Emma Frost (also known as the White Queen), Jennifer Walters/the She-Hulk , Tyrone Johnson/Cloak and Tandy Bowen/Dagger , Brian Braddock/Captain Britain , Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl , Elektra Natchios , the New Mutants (composed of Illyana Rasputin/Magik , Xi'an Coy Minh/Karma , Danielle Moonstar/Mirage , Sam Guthrie/Cannonball , Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane , Doug Ramsey/Cypher , Warlock and others),

23345-520: The Shield (a giant alternate version of Ben Grimm), and convinces him to reject God Emperor Doom and rise, causing the Shield to fall down. The Prophet, who is revealed to be Maximus , marches his troops to Castle Doom. Baron Sinister takes the chance to turn against Baroness Pryor, but is subsequently struck down by the former Baron Apocalypse. The Thor Corps joins the battle against God Emperor Doom, as Jane Foster has managed to convince her fellow Thors to fight against their god. Former Baron Maestro joins

23548-585: The Ultimates, namely that some important events – for instance, the creation of the Fantastic Four or the Avengers – have a 'gravity' all their own and warp time around them, causing the timeline to subtly change to accommodate this. While the Marvel Universe is presumably as large as the non-fictional universe comic book readers inhabit, for all intents and purposes the Local Group is the universe; practically all action takes place in it. The Skrull Empire

23751-526: The Vishanti; or amoral and malevolent entities who are not truly demonic, such as Dormammu and the Octessence, or ones heavily drawing upon the mythologies of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard . Some supernatural beings, entities and human characters created by Lovecraft and Howard, who were friends and influenced each other's work, have been adapted by Marvel and include Abdul Alhazred , Conan

23954-444: The Void, violently attacks Doctor Doom, and an apparently amused Loki tells the Hood that he should go, as there is nothing here for either of them, which the Hood, now loyal to Loki due to his hand in the restoration of his mystical abilities, agrees. However, it is revealed that "Doom" is actually an upgraded Doombot, which releases swarms of Doombot nanites against the Cabal, tearing down Avengers Tower and forcing its denizens, such as

24157-854: The White Tiger (Hector Ayala), Shang-Chi , Greer Grant Nelson/Tigra , Jessica Drew (also known as Spider-Woman), the Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Daimon Hellstrom , Satana Hellstrom , Theodore "Ted" Sallis/the Man-Thing , Eric Brooks/Blade the Vampire-Slayer , Michael Morbius/Morbius the Living Vampire , Howard the Duck , Monica Rambeau (also known as Photon, Pulsar, Spectrum and the second Captain Marvel), Moondragon , Drax

24360-408: The World Tree. Sinister is charged with secretly aligning with Baron Hyperion of Utopolis in opposition to Higher Avalon. Sinister chooses to face his accuser Brian Braddock in battle and defeats him. Before he can deal the killing blow, God Emperor Doom intervenes. To save his brother, Baron James Braddock confesses to crimes against God Emperor Doom. God Emperor Doom banishes James to the Shield,

24563-439: The X-Men and battling alongside the mutants through the events of Second Coming and beyond, Loki physically destroyed but his spirit not bound to Hela, and Doctor Doom remaining ruler of Latveria and attempting to further his ambitions by seizing Wakanda's vibranium to amplify his mystic powers to levels untold and to build an unstoppable army, thus allowing him to conquer the world. Emma Frost, Namor, and Doom are not involved in

24766-429: The X-Men was not one of them, also saying that they could not count upon her. Meanwhile, Frost contacts Osborn through a secure channel, reminding him that they "had a deal" and asking him to call Daken off, to which Osborn, protected by state-of-the-art psychic shields and flanked by Ares and Venom, asks her why would he comply, as well as claiming that though he knew nothing about Daken's activities, now that his curiosity

24969-438: The X-Men. Emma Frost promises to help him as he has helped her and her team, and the entire team of X-Men immediately work to investigate the Atlantean casualties, evacuate the survivors, and aid Namor against this mysterious new marine threat, the Marrina-Monster. Namor is forced to kill his former lover to stop her, but soon confronts Osborn over his controlling her to get revenge on Namor, vowing to kill him for his crimes. Though

25172-413: The actual adventures of the superheroes (except for details not known to the public, like their secret identities); many of these are licensed with the permission of the heroes themselves, who customarily donate their share of profits to charity. Additionally, the DC Comics Universe is also said to exist in the Marvel Universe as one of the many alternative universes. The reverse may also be said concerning

25375-433: The actual confrontation is unseen, later Namor's name is seen crossed out on Osborn's List. Elsewhere, Namor and Reed Richards reach the tomb of Captain America, but discovers no dead body of their fallen comrade, to the shock of both men. Despite Doom's displeasure at Osborn's moving against Namor in Siege: The Cabal and his demanding Osborn stop his course of revenge (which led to the destruction of their own alliance), it

25578-412: The ashes being the most effective means of ensuring their demise (scattering the ashes is done so that the vampire cannot be mystically resurrected). The cosmic entities are beings of unbelievably great levels of power (the weakest of whom can destroy entire planets) who exist to perform duties that maintain the existence of the universe. Most do not care at all about "lesser beings" such as humans, and as

25781-405: The battle with his army of Worldbreakers. The two Reed Richards use the fight ensuing on the steps of Castle Doom as cover to infiltrate the building and steal "the most valuable thing that's left from the Multiverse" from God Emperor Doom. The Black Panther and Namor travel to the Deadlands for reinforcements and the Black Panther uses his title as the King of the Dead to convince the zombies to join

25984-469: The battle with the raft survivors. God Emperor Doom also teleports to the battle and unleashes his power against the Cabal and the surviving members of the life raft. Cyclops, powered by the Phoenix Force, confronts God Emperor Doom and temporarily gains the upper hand. God Emperor Doom recovers, snaps Cyclops' neck, and orders the invaders to surrender. Sheriff Strange teleports the surviving members to safety. Enraged, God Emperor Doom kills Sheriff Strange with

26187-495: The believed age of Earth. Strange tasks the Thor of Higher Avalon and Old Thor to enforce a quarantine around the discovery site. One of the Moloid diggers on site inadvertently opens the craft, and Old Thor is killed by weapons thrown from within. The young Thor flees to tell Sheriff Strange what has happened. As he leaves, the Cabal and Maker emerge from the lifeboat. Thanos is told by a Moloid that they are in Battleworld. Sheriff Strange informs God Emperor Doom of recent events in

26390-575: The collision, or what is referred to as an inter-dimensional "incursion", of the Marvel 616 Universe with the Ultimate Marvel 1610 Universe; which destroys both. Pieces of the two universes are mysteriously saved and combined with other post-collision universes, creating the "Battleworld." Numerous tie-in miniseries and ongoing titles fleshed out the event with many of them revisiting previous Marvel storylines such as " Civil War ", " Age of Apocalypse ", " Days of Future Past " (renamed, in this 2015 event, to "Years of Future Past") and " Armor Wars ". All of

26593-427: The confrontation between the two will be fair. Mister Fantastic and God Emperor Doom face off. God Emperor Doom, exclaiming of how it always comes down to him and Mister Fantastic like this, begins gaining the upper hand by mocking Mister Fantastic for, as the genius that he is, not having been able to find a way to save the entire Multiverse. Mister Fantastic counters by calling God Emperor Doom out for his insecurity, as

26796-413: The creations of Marvel Comics and all of which are, in a sense, "Marvel universes". In this context, "Marvel Universe" is taken to refer to the mainstream Marvel continuity , which is known as Earth-616 or Prime Earth . Some of Timely Comics (the 1930s and '40s predecessor to Marvel Comics) characters coexisted in the same world was first established in Marvel Mystery Comics #7 (1940) where Namor

26999-441: The domains of Battleworld. Before a statue of the Molecule Man, they reminisce how God Emperor Doom had battled the Beyonders and managed to salvage various fragments of the Earths that were being destroyed. Sheriff Strange is summoned to Utopolis by the Thor Corps to examine the Cabal's life raft. A group of Thors are sent to apprehend the Cabal. Once all the Thors, aside from the Thor of Higher Avalon, have left, Sheriff Strange tells

27202-463: The end of the battle, Thor manages to best Doctor Doom and the Destroyer by holding his own against it until its finite energy supply was depleted. However, it is revealed that Loki and Doom had also been orchestrating the battle as well, with Loki teleporting Doom from peril at the battle's end and Doom having procured some of Loki's own genetic code to create a clone of the Trickster deity, which he dissects and eagerly experiments upon; Loki, after he and

27405-456: The espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and its enemies, HYDRA and A.I.M. In 2009 Marvel officially described its world's geography in a two-part miniseries, the Marvel Atlas . Most importantly, the Marvel Universe also incorporates examples of almost all major science fiction and fantasy concepts, with writers adding more continuously. Aliens, gods, magic, cosmic powers and extremely advanced human-developed technology all exist prominently in

27608-399: The events of Utopia begin to unfold, Loki, having been restored back to his male form after abandoning Sif's body, and Doctor Doom together watch the mutant situation heat up, pleased that things are now getting "interesting". His daughter Hela later indirectly but knowingly agrees to help the X-Men dispel Osborn's forces from Utopia. It is revealed that in exchange for giving the Asgardians

27811-421: The events of Siege and the downfall of Norman Osborn and his already-crippled Cabal, with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men joining forces with their ally T'Challa against Doctor Doom. During the reborn Illuminati's quest to save Earth from the incursions (multi-dimensional planet crashes), the moral cost begins to overwhelm the members, except Namor. When the Illuminati decides to give up, Namor brings together

28014-401: The events of the actual Siege , though some of the X-Men are depicted as observing as Osborn is unmasked on live television. Maria Hill later attempts (apparently unsuccessfully) to persuade the President and his Cabinet to contact the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to aid the Avengers against the Hood's forces. All three are heavily involved in the events of DoomWar , taking place shortly after

28217-430: The fact that Doom would betray Osborn onto the latter, to Osborn's apparent lack of concern due to his Iron Patriot suit. Namor and Osborn's own disagreements also arose from the Cabal meeting of the Atlantean terrorists, and the former had departed the Dark X-Men , aiding Frost in her apparent betrayal of the Dark X-Men, due to their romantic relationship. Namor's other love with his cousin, the Agent of Atlas Namora , who

28420-427: The final incursion occurs, the Cabal manage to escape the destruction in a specially-designed 'life-pod', unaware that they have been 'followed' by the new Spider-Man of the Ultimate Earth , who sneaked into the pod while invisible. An alternate universe variant of the Cabal from Earth-2099 appear in Marvel 2099 , consisting of Norman Osborn , Bruto Olafsen, Manfredi, Chief Woland, Crossbones , and Carnage . In

28623-405: The first thing that God Emperor Doom did when he obtained the Beyonders' powers was to steal Mister Fantastic's life and family, making God Emperor Doom confess that Mister Fantastic would have done a better job with the Beyonders' power. Hearing this, the Molecule Man transfers the Beyonders' power to Mister Fantastic, which destroys Battleworld. In the wake of the destruction, the Black Panther uses

28826-492: The forces opposing God Emperor Doom. Chaos continues on the outskirts of Castle Doom. Mister Fantastic, Maker, and Star-Lord fly to Castle Doom, but a Hulk causes their ship to crash. The Maestro calls God Emperor Doom out to face him, but is met instead by the giant Ben Grimm who is destroying everything in his path. Susan, Valeria, and one of the Black Swans save God Emperor Doom. Grimm continues his rampage until Franklin and Galactus arrive. Franklin reveals God Emperor Doom

29029-472: The former Green Goblin telling the Dark Avengers and Dark X-Men to bring him Namor's head and Emma Frost's heart and that Summers sees them do it. Emma Frost and Namor both officially quit the Cabal, to be replaced with two new members, "without the other remaining Cabal members having any say in the matter" in Siege: The Cabal . However, an enraged and vengeful Osborn now unhesitatingly strives to destroy Namor and his people as payback for his betrayal and joining

29232-442: The fourth Ghost Rider), Riri Williams/Ironheart and Spider-Gwen ( Gwen Stacy of Earth-65) have become popular characters in their own right. Prominent teams of superheroes include the Avengers , the X-Men , the Fantastic Four , the Defenders , the Inhumans , S.H.I.E.L.D. , the Howling Commandos , the Guardians of the Galaxy , the Runaways , the Midnight Sons and the Thunderbolts . All these groups have varying lineups;

29435-480: The goddess Kelda when she demands Loki come forth to suffer her wrath, that "The trickster is here no longer. Doom and he have parted ways." Loki later returns to Balder just before he leads his Asgardians to launch an assault against Doom in vengeance for his crimes against them, apparently trying to warn them of what Doom is up to: experimenting on their people. Balder doesn't believe him at all and declares that he share die for his deceit, to which Loki admits that it

29638-623: The godlike Eternals and the genetically unstable Deviants , in addition to giving some humans an "x-factor" in their genes, which sometimes activates naturally, resulting in sometimes superpowered, sometimes disfigured individuals called mutants . Others require other factors (such as radiation ) for their powers to come forth. Depending on the genetic profile, individuals who are exposed to different chemicals or radiation will often suffer death or injury, while in others it will cause superhuman abilities to manifest. Except for psionic abilities, these powers are usually random; rarely do two people have

29841-440: The greatest battle their dimension has ever seen should all not go to plan, having formed a mutual alliance some time after the Civil War, involving Namor and his people moving to Latveria, with Steve Rogers fallen, the Illuminati fraught with chaos and mistrust, with both Stark and Xavier having failed to provide sufficient support for him, and the entirety of S.H.I.E.L.D. hunting him. Morgan le Fay desperately attempted to convey

30044-409: The group was formed in the " Dark Reign " storyline very shortly after the Secret Invasion event. The Cabal first appeared in Secret Invasion #8 and was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu . During a presentation shown by Bendis during the 2008 convention season, a picture was made public of a second Illuminati group consisting of villains and former villains. Presented in

30247-434: The heels of Contest of Champions . The Marvel Universe is strongly based on the real world. Earth in the Marvel Universe has all the features of the real one: same countries, same personalities (politicians, movie stars, etc.), same historical events (such as World War II), and so on; however, it also contains many other fictional elements: countries such as Wakanda and Latveria (very small nations) and organizations like

30450-629: The hidden Miles Morales that he may come out of hiding. Miles reveals he snuck on to the ship just before the Incursion destroyed his planet. On the Isle of Agamotto, Sheriff Strange explains Battleworld to Miles, then reveals he has found the other life raft. The Thor of Higher Avalon opens the vessel and the survivors of Earth-616 exit stasis. Sheriff Strange realizes the heroes are from his timeline when he sees his fellow Illuminati Black Panther and Mister Fantastic. Sheriff Strange reveals they have been in stasis for eight years and that God Emperor Doom saved them all when he created Battleworld. In Utopolis,

30653-443: The lands and the seas. Two incarnations of the Cabal appear in Avengers Assemble . The Cabal appears in the comic book prequel for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds , consisting of Doctor Doom, Magneto , MODOK, the Super-Skrull , and Taskmaster as well as Capcom characters Albert Wesker and Akuma . Wesker proposes that the Cabal aid him in conquering his Earth as it lacks superheroes, but they are unable to find

30856-406: The meeting and leaves the Panther without conflict, T'Challa is shortly assaulted by Doctor Doom and his Doombots, resulting in his near-demise, to be replaced with his sister Shuri . The Wakandans, especially Shuri, poorly regard Doctor Doom, but Namor as well, with Shuri clashing with him directly in retaliation for his part in her brother's fall from majesty and power, not knowing that Doctor Doom

31059-427: The mid-to-late 1990s) most recently been identified as 13 years. Consequently, the settings of some events which were contemporary when written have to be updated every few years to "make sense" in this floating timeline . Thus, the events of previous stories are considered to have happened within a certain number of years before the publishing date of the current issue. For example, Spider-Man 's high school graduation

31262-456: The middle of a football field. The ensuing conflict is so colossal that the entire football field is obliterated, and Loki and Osborn have successfully created the inciting incident they had sought, beginning the Siege of Asgard. Loki later warns Balder at Asgard that Midgard is mobilizing against Asgard, claiming (falsely) that he tried to reason with and stop Norman Osborn. Loki, when Osborn called out to him for their aid, later apparently sends

31465-418: The miniseries Contest of Champions , in which all of the major heroes in existence at the time were gathered together to deal with one threat. This was Marvel's first miniseries. Each issue contained biographical information on many major costumed characters; these biographies were a precursor to Marvel's series of reference material, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe , which followed shortly on

31668-408: The more you want to see. Hickman makes it hard not to be excited. Esad Ribic's art and Ive Svorcina's colors gives this a great vibe. If you are craving more big fights, it looks like you'll be getting some of that as well as Hickman continues to set the stage for big things" Issue #3 received an average score of 8.6 out of 10 based on 34 reviews. Chuck from Chuck's Comic of the day wrote "The slam on

31871-466: The mortal and immortal heroes struck down by the Void. However, the Void soon discovers that it is he who is responsible for saving the heroes, and brutally slaughters him in moments, despite Thor and Iron Man 's combined efforts to reach him, causing the heroes to lose all their power. However, Loki's actions and sacrifice had managed to weaken the Void, and enrage Thor enough to savagely assail it, with such force and brutality, that, aided by Iron Man and

32074-402: The multiverse, the remains of various realities have been fused together to create a new Battleworld . Each domain is the incursion point from that reality's destruction, as this is all that remains from each one. All of these realities are known as domains and have the ability to interact with each other, except for three: the Deadlands, Perfection and New Xandar. These domains are separated from

32277-462: The oceans under Namor's rule, Namor makes it clear that the Atlantean military is still residing in Latveria, when he proposes for an Atlantean mutant to move to Latveria with them, though no such military force was seen when Doom was assaulted by Morgan le Fay or when the Asgardians moved into Latveria. However, Namor, after the events of Utopia , reveals to the X-Men upon Osborn's schemes causing hundreds if not thousands of his people to perish, that

32480-404: The one which started the Civil War . Loki and Osborn observe Volstagg , seeking to start his adventures like Thor, make his way to Chicago. Volstagg forcefully stops the car of a wild gunsman trying to escape, but is at once engaged by four powerful members of the Hood's crime syndicate, the U-Foes , with Loki having arranged with Parker Robbins to send them to attack Volstagg, who is blasted into

32683-407: The only affected area when the Annihilation Wave cut its bloody swath "across the universe". Four role-playing games have been set in the Marvel Universe: [REDACTED] Category Cabal (comics) The Cabal is a secret society of supervillains and antiheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . As a more villainous counterpart to the Illuminati ,

32886-787: The origin of vampires with aspects of the mythologies created by Lovecraft and Howard. They were created by magical rites performed by priests of Atlantis before the Great Cataclysm that destroyed much of the world, with Varnae becoming the first vampire. Marvel would depict vampires as frequent antagonists during the Hyborian Age to Howard characters such as Kull and Conan. In recent years, Marvel's depiction of vampires has altered greatly by creating various subspecies of vampires that exist in clans that greatly differ in appearance and belief. All vampires are depicted with varying degrees of superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and accelerated healing. Many are capable of transforming into animals such as bats or wolves; some can transform into

33089-401: The original Secret Wars maxi-series was that the story was simplistic. You'll find no such complaints here." Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Superhero teams such as the Avengers , the X-Men , the Fantastic Four , the Guardians of

33292-499: The other Avengers, along with the Sentry's own desperate plea for himself to be slain, he was able to repel and eventually annihilate the Void, and with it, the Sentry. The Dark Reign is thus forever ended after the failed Siege of Asgard, with Norman Osborn, the Hood, and Taskmaster all eventually apprehended and placed in custody (with Osborn's Green Goblin person mocking him as he says that had it not been interfering, he would not have failed so miserably), Frost and Namor remaining with

33495-399: The other way around. The third celestial body is Knowhere, which orbits Battleworld as its "Moon". Apart from these celestial bodies, there were no other stars, until Singularity, a mysterious young girl who actually represents a pocket universe that gained sentience during the multiversal collapse, appeared to give her life to save the citizens of Arcadia from a horde of zombies, which returned

33698-587: The poisonous toxins placed in her food, and Doom's attempts to incinerate her, at the meal, claiming to Doom it meant he was taking her seriously. It is revealed that the Doom Loki had first met with at the dinner was but a robotic duplicate, and Doom was testing her to see if she was the genuine Goddess of Mischief. Loki assures him that Odin is gone and Balder is weak and easily manipulated to her purposes, as well as addressing Doom's concerns for Thor by promising to personally deal with her adopted brother. The meeting ends with Doctor Doom agreeing to Loki's terms of moving

33901-405: The presence of Dormammu, though their relationship seems to be milder the second time they have interacted. Some time after the formation of the Cabal, Namor privately meets with T'Challa, the Black Panther of Wakanda , attempting to recruit Wakanda's monarch into the secret Cabal, confiding in him that Norman Osborn had made deals with him and four others, as well as revealing the identities of

34104-504: The problem of Mister Negative , the Punisher 's assault on the Hood, the dismantling of Camp Hammond , and various other issues. Loki seeks to use her own Avengers to weaken and break Osborn, a goal shared by Doom and Namor, and gathers all of them once more in her previous guise as the Scarlet Witch. At the issue's end, it is decided never to again meet thus, due to the psychic plane's revealing nature, as shown when Osborn's face shifted to that of his Green Goblin persona's, Loki smiling when

34307-413: The problem, who can be divided into three camps: those who seek peaceful coexistence between mutants and normal humans (the X-Men and their affiliated groups), those who seek to control or eliminate humans to give mutants safety or dominance ( Magneto and his followers, as well as other mutants such as Apocalypse ), and those who seek to regulate or eliminate mutants in favor of humans. The latter often use

34510-415: The real Molecule Man. Meanwhile, Namor and Black Panther arrive at the Isle of Agamotto. Using the Key of Agamotto given to them by Sheriff Strange, they are given access to powerful items Sheriff Strange had collected over the years including the Siege Courageous and an Infinity Gauntlet that works only in Doomstadt. Thanos, who had been captured by the Hel-Rangers, talks to the sentient structure that forms

34713-459: The real Scarlet Witch would've used her power to revive Cassandra's father. Afraid of exposure due to Wiccan's magic threatening to reveal her true form, Loki was forced to leave swearing all their deaths. At the first Cabal meeting, Loki says that she wants Asgard, back in the heavens where it belongs, when asked by Namor of her own desires. The Son of Satan, Doctor Strange and Doctor Voodoo joined forces to magically purge Dormammu from his vessel,

34916-403: The real world, including those worshiped by the Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, the gods of Hinduism , the Shinto gods and the gods of Zoroastrianism . These deities are rarely depicted, however. One such appearance generated a good deal of controversy as the depiction involved a fight between Marvel's incarnation of Thor and the Hindu god Shiva , a battle which Shiva lost. As Shiva

35119-406: The rest by a giant wall called the Shield because they contain threats that, if set loose, would destroy all the others: zombies , Ultron drones, creatures that make up the Annihilation Wave , and an alternate reality version of Thanos trying to reconstruct the Infinity Gauntlet . Each domain has an appointed leader called a Baron, who runs their domain with permission from God Emperor Doom ,

35322-441: The robots known as the Sentinels as weapons. Certain species are regarded as subhuman , like the Morlocks , who lurk beneath New York City and have been discriminated against by the outside world because of their mutant deformities. The Morlocks have recently joined the terrorist organization Gene Nation. In addition to mutants, Eternals, and Deviants, several other intelligent races have existed secretly on Earth. These include

35525-448: The roster such as Kitty Pryde , the Silver Surfer, the Thing and Nova . The Inhumans are a royal family consisting of Black Bolt , Medusa , Crystal , Gorgon , Triton , Karnak and Lockjaw , who rule the city of Attilan. The Runaways are a group of teenagers and a dinosaur consisting of Alex Wilder , Nico Minoru , Karolina Dean , Chase Stein , Molly Hayes , Gert Yorkes and Old Lace who rebel against their evil parents known as

35728-438: The same pose as the cover of Illuminati #1, this group was revealed to include Namor , Doctor Doom , Emma Frost , Loki , The Hood , and Norman Osborn . The Sub-Mariner is thus revealed to be affiliated with two different Illuminati groups simultaneously allied with both heroes and villains. Uncanny X-Men writer Matt Fraction mentioned in an interview that the Uncanny X-Men annual in January will explain how Emma Frost

35931-409: The same set of powers. It is not clear why the Celestials did this, although it is known that they continue to observe humanity's evolution. A Marvel series titled Earth X explored one possible reason for this: that superhumans are meant to protect a Celestial embryo that grows inside Earth against any planetary threats and have done so for eons. An X-Men villain that is known as Vargas claims to be

36134-450: The same time, with the X-Men, tensions have risen between her and Scott Summers, as is evident when the X-Men, led by Cyclops, is on a mission searching for Daken and the Muramasa Blade; Scott claims that Emma might have been able to give them a specific location, but she simply does not, with Hisako asking whether the two of them agreed to the merits of the mission, but Cyclops countered that though he and Emma shared many things, leadership of

36337-467: The scenes through the " Dark Reign " storyline. The Cabal parallels the original Illuminati and Bendis has said "[t]he idea was, in the original pitch, that there was a secret group, a cabal, that got put together that was the mirror image of the Illuminati, with five or six characters who almost mirrored the other group." The Cabal are acknowledged by other villains as an extremely powerful group - even Dracula himself sought an agreement from Doom that

36540-470: The secret plotting by the elders. The Agents of Atlas, when visiting his kingdom, suggested that Namor cut his connection with Osborn, to which he responded that if he ignored Osborn, his people would be affected still. Loki had been preparing to place "cracks" in Osborn's mental armor to hasten his eventual fall from power, using the Mighty Avengers for such a purpose, and scheming to set the Mighty Avengers against his Dark Avengers eventually. However, Loki

36743-404: The sense of sympathizing with, and occasionally coming to the defense of, humanity. The Phoenix Force first received personification in Jean Grey . The Phoenix Force is composed of the psionic energy from all living beings' past, present, and future, and is an embodiment of rebirth and destructive transformation through "burning away what doesn't work", and helped to restart the universe before

36946-424: The ship to the center of the Incursion. A hull breach occurs, separating the part of the ship carrying the Invisible Woman , the Thing and most of the young Future Foundation . They are destroyed by the Incursion before Mister Fantastic can rescue them. The world fades to white as the two Earths collide. Doctor Doom's mask appears out of the white void, before the white turns to black. The life raft comes to rest on

37149-433: The stars to its universe. The reality where Battleworld was fashioned has since been dubbed as Earth-15513. According to review aggregator Comic Book Roundup, Issue #0 received an average score of 7.9 out of 10 based on 5 reviews. Mat Elfring from Comic Vine wrote "If you're a Marvel fan, this book is a must have, for the SECRET WARS part. Sure, the ending doesn't feel like it works as smoothly as everything else, but this

37352-490: The team that began the Ultimate Marvel universe with Ultimate Spider-Man . The series was released to positive reviews, with critics praising the storyline, characters, action, and art styles. The series was introduced with two issues in May 2015, then ran monthly until December. The series began with a nine-issue miniseries (plus a Free Comic Book Day issue #0) and came out of the current Avengers and New Avengers "Time Runs Out" storyline. The basic premise involves

37555-424: The three dangerous domains. Battleworld is one of the three celestial bodies in its universe. The second celestial body and Battleworld's source of light is revealed to be the Human Torch himself who acts as the "Sun" after being lifted into the sky during the early days of Battleworld's creation and where he still remains trapped as punishment for acting against God Emperor Doom. The Sun orbits Battleworld instead of

37758-414: The tie-ins were aligned into one of three subtitles during the event consisting of Last Days , Battleworld , and Warzones . Warzones, Battleworld and Last Days made Secret Wars one of the most expansive crossovers to date. Marvel's executive editor Tom Brevoort revealed that "Last Days" would show several characters from Captain America and Ms. Marvel to Loki and Magneto in their final adventures before

37961-445: The trapped Asgardians from their mortal vessels, contacted Victor von Doom mystically through her spirit and struck a bargain, later revealed to be that of offering the Asgardians a home in Latveria after having banished Thor. Loki is shown visiting Doom in secret meetings and dinners and proposing a more personal relationship between the two of them, separate from the Cabal, which Doom considers more of an association, showing amusement in

38164-407: The tree to form a giant Groot . Susan and Valeria head to the statues of the Molecule Man and Sheriff Strange, but stop when they see the Mister Fantastic and Maker. God Emperor Doom arrives on the battlefield and gives Thanos a chance to be a Baron. Thanos refuses the offer as he believes he is already a god. God Emperor Doom rips out Thanos' skeleton. The battle continues until Captain Marvel spots

38367-434: The two of them having clashed after they allied against common foes in the past, and should his alliance with Namor fail, with Namor turning on him, he would be willing to join forces with Attuma , an arch-enemy of Namor's, and one he believes could serve as a "counter" to Namor. At some point into the Dark Reign after the formation of the Cabal, though it is depicted that a large portion of Atlantean civilians still reside in

38570-478: The upper and lower kingdoms of Egyptia. God Emperor Doom orders his most loyal Barons ( Mister Sinister , Maestro , Apocalypse , and Madelyne Pryor ) to deal with the threat of the Prophet. Of the other Cabal members, only Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive have been captured, while the Black Swan offers help to God Emperor Doom. The Foundation find the source of God Emperor Doom's power and inform Valeria, who has become suspicious of her father. Mister Fantastic and

38773-407: The various universes. The planet itself is divided in many territories that are mostly self-contained and where a "pocket universe" composed of a specific storyline or universe reside and evolve. Various versions of individual Marvel characters can be present multiple times on the Battleworld. For example, there is a Tony Stark present in many of the territories where the Kingdom of Manhattan has both

38976-399: The war against Earth in exchange for giving the Skrulls the location of Majesdane, which was hidden behind the corona of a white dwarf . The war had gone on for 16 years minimum; it ended abruptly after the Skrulls shot a barrage of missiles at Majesdane, who retaliated. Another prominent alien race is the Watchers , immortal and wise beings who watch over the Marvel Universe and have taken

39179-604: The zombies coming from the remains of the Shield. Black Panther (with the Infinity Gauntlet) and Namor arrive, declaring to God Emperor Doom that his reign is over. Namor and Black Panther battle with God Emperor Doom wielding the power of the Beyonders and the Black Panther wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. Susan does not recognize Mister Fantastic and accuses him of being one of the "murderers" of Sheriff Strange. Mister Fantastic reveals that God Emperor Doom killed Sheriff Strange. Mister Fantastic and Maker meet with Molecule Man, after which Maker betrays Mister Fantastic by trapping him in

39382-440: Was beneath him, and openly outshining Pym would be more to his favor; the two teams of Avengers soon gather as one to confront the Absorbing Man, the conflict ending with Loki giving Osborn an enchanted sword to defeat the villain and Loki using subtle magics to help restore Osborn's media popularity. Shortly before events of the Siege of Asgard, Loki was captured by the new Scientist Supreme Hank Pym and his Mighty Avengers using

39585-561: Was changed in a 2004 storyline to refer to the War on Terror in Afghanistan , whereas the original Iron Man stories had referred to the Vietnam War in Vietnam ; similarly, The Punisher 's backstory has also been changed as well. Marvel Comics itself exists as a company within the Marvel Universe, and versions of people such as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have appeared in some of the stories, whereas characters like Steve Rogers, ( Captain America 's alter ego ), have worked for Marvel. The Marvel of this reality publishes comics that adapt

39788-403: Was invited into the team. Loki was revealed to have dealings with Doctor Doom in recent issues of Thor and Namor was shown to have formed an alliance with Doctor Doom at the end of his last limited series. Namor had previously been aligned with Doom in the 1970s series Super-Villain Team-Up . A past connection between Emma Frost and Namor was presented in Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 , where it

39991-402: Was mentioned in Human Torch 's story, and vice versa. Later several superheroes (who starred in separate stories in the series up to that point) met each other in a group dubbed the All-Winners Squad . Though the concept of a shared universe was not new or unique to comic books in 1961, writer/editor Stan Lee , together with several artists including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko , created

40194-473: Was piqued, he insisted Emma enlighten him. As the X-Men and Dark X-Men prepared to face off, Emma revealed her role as a double agent, hardened through her discovery of Xavier's torture and Osborn's lack of concern for her people, defeating the Dark X-Men with Namor's assistance. It is primarily because of their growing mistrust of Osborn, with Namor's discoveries of the Sentry slaying the Atlantean terrorists but initially containing his rage but later joining

40397-407: Was published in Amazing Spider-Man #28 (September 1965), his college graduation in Amazing Spider-Man #185 (October 1978), and his high school reunion in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #7 (December 2004). Because of the floating timeline, where stories refer to real-life historic events, these references are later ignored or rewritten to suit current sensibilities; for instance, the origin of Iron Man

40600-426: Was revealed that Emma and Namor shared a brief romance while attempting to recruit Namor into the Hellfire Club as the new White King. The group, referred as the Cabal in certain interviews and in Marvel Spotlight: Dark Reign , first appeared at the ending of Secret Invasion #8 when Norman Osborn greets the villains after he was awarded control over the entire Fifty State Initiative program and will work behind in

40803-499: Was revived more than 20 years later, explained as having been frozen in a block of ice though believed to be dead, to lead Marvel's latest team of superheroes the Avengers . This first Avengers team featured several characters that would go on to be some of the company's most famous and most popular. Although the characters would be portrayed in hundreds and even thousands of adventures over the decades, they have been portrayed as having aged little or not at all. Naturally, this tendency

41006-634: Was uncertain why this was so, he claimed that he predicted that this would be so. However, ultimately Doom chooses to betray Dracula and free his captive, Meggan. The Cabal are gathered for the second time since their first meeting (after the banishment of Thor), projected upon a psychic plane by the willing Emma Frost , who reminds them to set up psychic shields. Doctor Doom scoffs arrogantly that he has no need of such things, and Loki cautions him otherwise, as they are all of dubious trustworthiness. Doom asks Loki to peer into his naked soul, claiming it holds "a force to be reckoned with." An impatient Osborn orders

41209-436: Was watching them talk about their plans, sending three rogue Asgardians after him. Bill tries to fight them off, but he is stabbed in the gut by one of the superior Asgardian warriors. Doom also prepared three modified Doombots to finish off Donald Blake for Loki, but this assassination attempt is thwarted, however narrowly. Loki questions Doom's not placing his trust in him even after all these months, but Doom warns him that Doom

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