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120-743: Marvel Universe varieties of this virus include the Transmode Virus carried by the Technarchy , and Apocalypse's variant created or discovered by the fictional supervillain Apocalypse . The fictional Transmode virus is used by members of the Technarchy in Marvel Comics to turn other beings into techno-organic beings. The Technarchy can then feed upon the infected beings and drain their energy (visible as lights flowing through

240-529: 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

360-628: 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

480-588: A Babel Spire on Earth to signal the alien Technarchy. To oppose them, Mainspring destroyed himself along with Template, while Warlock and Wolfsbane managed to destroy the Babel Spire. Sometime later, Carol Danvers contacted the X-Men about the current whereabouts of the remains of Bastion/Template. The X-Men sent Shadowcat , Wolverine and Gambit to break into the government facility, intending to reclaim their stolen computer files. While there, Template showed

600-415: A Mutant Response Division, which is successful, despite X-Force's efforts. Bastion also had Pierce act as his mole inside the X-Men's headquarters, all the while building several structures that surround Utopia. During the " Dark Reign " storyline, Quasimodo analyzed Bastion for Norman Osborn . While claiming that Bastion's current programming makes him difficult to sway, Quasimodo states that would be

720-480: A Sentinel Supreme, but Machine Man and Cable were able to defeat him. He was returned to government custody, only to be killed by Apocalypse 's Horseman of Death. Bastion's remains were eventually found by former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Mainspring who headed a project called the Gatekeepers, whose goal is to study and destroy Phalanx technology. Bastion was, however, able to co-opt and integrate itself with one of

840-546: A beneficiary tool if they can find a way to bypass his Prime Director. Bastion is the primary antagonist in the X-Men: Second Coming storyline. He is seen with Lang, Hodge, Trask, Stryker and Creed, stating that their forces are assembled and at his disposal. Bastion tells them that the Mutant Messiah has returned and gives them orders to kill. Later, Bastion attempts to kill Hope on his own, but he

960-471: 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 ,

1080-411: A creature into a techno-organic creature within seconds. Only mutants have some resistance to the virus. For instance, Doug Ramsey was infected with the virus , but his infection only progressed very slowly and he was unaware he had been infected. This may have been caused by either his own mutant facility with computer code preventing the virus from infecting him at the usual rate, or a side-effect of

1200-472: A global scale. Bastion went with Havok to take control of an army of Prime Sentinels; since his programming was unrecognizable by them, they identified him as a threat despite his role in their creation. Bastion continued to survey the development and growth of the Mothervine to continue mutant repopulation, much to the chagrin of Frost. After Sebastian Shaw failed in his attempt to kill Magneto to gain

1320-509: 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

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1440-573: A loss of individuality , forming a hive mind with other Phalanx and the need to contact other techno-organic life (a safety precaution created by the Technarchy, which considers the Phalanx to be a plague and which exterminates them whenever it discovers them). Many mutants are soon apparently revived by a modified version of the virus in the Necrosha crossover by Selene and Eli Bard . Those mutants include Banshee , Caliban , Pyro , Cypher , and

1560-469: 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

1680-462: 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

1800-515: A person, although it can have sudden short bursts of activity, during which spikes of techno-organic matter form from the diseased body and the body's parts change their forms. Another difference with the Transmode Virus is that infection is very painful and can incapacitate a person. Humans infected with this virus receive increased strength and the ability to directly interface with machinery. While infected material can change its shape, it

1920-447: A position of power in over a dozen countries. Yet there was no evidence of his existence. To Jameson, this meant the greatest story to follow was Bastion himself. He also implied that Bastion was behind the disappearance of Bandouveris and this meant Bastion would kill to keep his secrets. Jameson then burned the data disk and ordered Bastion out of his office, warning that he would see Bastion charged with Nick's murder. After learning of

2040-846: 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

2160-513: A role in the Mothervine plot, Bastion was present to negotiate with and later fight the Master of Magnetism, simultaneously unleashing a wave of Prime Sentinels to finally release Mothervine under Havok's order; Magneto was able to escape by using a vial of Mutant Growth Hormone and throwing a lighthouse at the group, fleeing in the chaos. Thanks to Bastion's efforts, both humans and mutants began to experience accelerated mutations through exposure to

2280-717: 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

2400-497: 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

2520-405: 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

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2640-467: 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

2760-495: 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

2880-516: 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

3000-473: 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

3120-567: 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

3240-416: Is confronted by Rogue and then severely damaged when Nightcrawler sacrifices himself. When rebooting, Bastion takes on much of Nimrod's old appearance, but is finally destroyed when Hope manifests a variety of the current X-Men's mutant powers and obliterates him. Despite his apparent destruction, Bastion had survived the attack by activating, at the last second, his temporal drives and shunted himself into

3360-530: 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

3480-575: 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

3600-869: 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

3720-536: Is no terrestrial force in existence that could guarantee the elimination of the X-Men. However, he reveals that he has found something that could: Magus . It was later revealed that what Bastion discovered at the bottom of the ocean was not the real Magus, but one of his offspring in a mindless state. Bastion rewrote its programming and infected Donald Pierce and the Leper Queen , the recovered techno-organic remains of Cameron Hodge and Steven Lang , as well as

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3840-652: 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

3960-730: 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,

4080-552: 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

4200-472: Is unknown whether a fully infected person is capable of shapeshifting (Apocalypse can, but he already had this power before being infected). The Techno-organic virus appears in X-Men '97 . Mister Sinister first used one to infect Nathan Summers under the belief that it will make the child invincible. The X-Men rescued Nathan, but were unable save the baby from the virus, so they sent Nathan with Bishop to

4320-535: 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 ,

4440-1031: The Avengers , the X-Men , the Fantastic Four , the Guardians of 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

4560-570: 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

4680-661: 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

4800-844: 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 ,

4920-571: The Hellions , eventually culminating in Bard using the virus to resurrect the entire deceased mutant populace of Genosha . It was believed that this strain of techno-organic virus was either created by Apocalypse or discovered by Apocalypse on board the Ship . This virus was actually created by Mister Sinister as a means of killing Apocalypse. This attempt failed due to Apocalypse's immense powers, and

Techno-organic virus - Misplaced Pages Continue

5040-603: 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

5160-839: 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 ,

5280-518: 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 ,

5400-549: 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

5520-680: 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

5640-542: 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),

5760-748: 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

5880-452: 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

6000-846: 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 ,

6120-455: The X-Men . Bastion also tried to buy off J. Jonah Jameson directly with all the available information he had managed to gather and decrypt on the outlaw X-Men and their associates. However, Jameson revealed that he had already been working on his own story for quite some time and invited Bastion to see what he had so far. When Bastion saw nothing, Jameson pointed out that Bastion had managed to ingratiate, intimidate, and dominate his way into

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6240-423: 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

6360-425: 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

6480-506: The time-displaced X-Men which confirm that Bastion's actual goal is simply to preserve mutants until their population rises to a level where he can destroy them all himself. The team try to fight him but Bastion instead just left them and retreat with his Sentinels. In the aftermath of Hydra takeover of the United States of America under the leadership of the Cosmic Cube-altered Captain America, Bastion seemingly started to work with Miss Sinister , Emma Frost and Havok to use Mothervine on

6600-457: 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

6720-550: 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

6840-419: 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

6960-426: 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

7080-442: 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

7200-427: 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

7320-486: 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

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7440-492: 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

7560-404: 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 ,

7680-444: The Gatekeeper's bodies and used it to attack the techno-organic hero Warlock and his allies, being eventually defeated. Mainspring was able to strip away the layers of Bastion's programming to reveal the original Master Mold's source code and, using the alien transmode virus he was infected with, rewrote Bastion's programming, transforming him into Template . The virus soon took complete control of Template and forced him to construct

7800-424: 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

7920-450: 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

8040-427: 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

8160-452: 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

8280-449: 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

8400-488: 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 ,

8520-599: 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

8640-414: 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

8760-569: 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

8880-531: 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

9000-530: The Mothervine. A group of mutants, led by Polaris , managed to infiltrate the Mothervine group's hideout once Mothervine was already active, with Bastion detecting their presence and alerting the rest of the group; Bastion incapacitated the daughter of Magneto when Polaris refused Havok's offer to join them, and they were imprisoned as a result. The traitorous Frost, disillusioned by the Mothervine plot, freed Polaris and her team after overseeing an experiment by Miss Sinister on Jimmy Hudson, and they made their way to

9120-656: The OZT base in New Mexico. As the OZT attempted to reconfigure the Sentinel force assembled by Project: Wideawake, Bastion deemed most of them outdated. Instead, Bastion was able to develop a new type of Sentinel called the Prime Sentinels . Graydon's death was the last ammunition needed to initiate Bastion's OZT, which attacked mutants everywhere. The operation soon targeted and succeeded in capturing some members of

9240-527: The Pentagon to learn more about the program and its leader Bastion, but did not come out with much. Jean could not read Bastion's mind, but he easily identified the two X-Men hidden among representatives of various foreign intelligence agencies interested in supporting OZT. When Professor X voluntarily turned himself in after the Onslaught event, Bastion confined Professor X in an OZT facility along with

9360-700: 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.

9480-550: The Prime Sentinels' nature, the President was convinced by Senator Robert Kelly and Henry Peter Gyrich to suspend Bastion's operations. Bastion was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. , with help from Iceman . While in government custody, more mysteries surrounding Bastion were discovered, but before a further investigation could be made, he managed to escape and return to the home of his mother figure Rose Gilberti . After

9600-521: The Purifiers attached the head to the body of the Nimrod unit recovered from Forge's Aerie, returning Bastion to life. Immediately after his activation, the mutant-hunting robot alerts the Purifiers to the presence of the new X-Force . After accessing Nimrod's database, Bastion concludes that the X-Men are the greatest mutant threat to the Purifiers' objectives in this timeline or any other and that there

9720-527: 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

9840-661: 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),

9960-641: 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

10080-526: 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

10200-854: 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

10320-481: 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

10440-550: The artificially-created mutant Mannites, taking control of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning . It also allowed Bastion to gain possession of the Xavier Protocols , a list of files containing information on killing the X-Men. Bastion also killed Daily Bugle reporter Nick Bandouveris who was going to report on Graydon Creed 's history and later Bastion himself succeeded in capturing Jubilee to take to

10560-412: 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

10680-489: The authorities accidentally killed Rose, Bastion flew into a rage and returned to the former OZT facility. There he found Cable fighting Machine Man who had lost touch with humanity. Bastion made contact with the version of Master Mold that helped created the Prime Sentinels and drained the unit's energy which transformed him into a unit resembling Nimrod. This transformation allowed Bastion's memories to be unblocked, revealing that he had not been born human at all and instead

10800-584: The corpses of Bolivar Trask , Creed, and Reverend William Stryker with the Technarch transmode virus, declaring them to be the future of humanity and the end of mutantkind. His first move was to capture several mutants and inject them with a strain of the Legacy Virus to cause their powers to go berserk and kill themselves and thousands of humans. This would compel the United Nations to form

10920-484: 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

11040-516: 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

11160-560: The fact he was not infected in the usual manner; rather, he picked it up after repeatedly fusing his body and genetic code with that of the Technarch Warlock . An infected creature also gains the ability to shapeshift . They can quickly restore themselves when damaged and can interface directly with machinery. While Technarchs feed by draining other techno-organic beings, Phalanxes have the ability to directly absorb matter (both organic and inorganic). The Phalanx also experience

11280-627: 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;

11400-408: The future in the hopes that a cure would have been invented. Bastion next used it on a grander scale to turn humans into the Prime Sentinels , as part of a plan to wipe out all mutants. 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

11520-477: The future. However, Bastion had suffered catastrophic damage from Hope's assault and the time-shift had corrupted and compromised his systems. Arriving when mutants were being faced with extinction due to the Terrigenesis cloud, Bastion decided to re-dedicate himself to protecting mutants, assembling, and reprogramming a wave of standard sentinels. He eventually returned to the present and was soon confronted by

11640-623: 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

11760-434: 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

11880-436: The infected creature). Once the energy has been drained, all that remains of their prey are brittle statues. If an infected creature is not drained of its energy, it becomes a Phalanx . Transmode-infected creatures are usually black and yellow, although they can change their color. The fictional Transmode Virus is highly virulent . It can transmit via skin contact (though a Technarch can prevent transmission) and will transform

12000-407: The inner circle's meeting room. At this point, Magneto had discovered the mutant Elixir who was capable of reversing the Mothervine mutations and was taken across the world to stop the rampancy, to the notice of Havok and Bastion. Emma and Polaris managed to break into their meeting, and Bastion began fighting them off. Ultimately, he was caught off-guard by the arrival of Xorn who absorbed him into

12120-427: 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

12240-418: 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

12360-597: 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 Bastion (comics) Bastion is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character was created by Scott Lobdell and Pascual Ferry , and first made a cameo appearance in X-Men #52 (May 1996) while his first full appearance

12480-912: 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

12600-413: 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

12720-513: 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

12840-552: 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

12960-563: 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

13080-409: 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

13200-460: 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

13320-530: The three X-Men false holograms of events and lies about their teammates. The X-Men eventually got their files, but they were left with doubts and fears about their teammates. Following the events of the Messiah Complex event, the fundamentalist Purifiers assaulted a heavily defended S.H.I.E.L.D. installation, breaching the tight security with the aid of several double agents within the organization and recovered Bastion's head. At one of their churches,

13440-464: The two Sentinels into a single being with no memory of his past, Bastion was eventually found by Rose who took him in and taught him human kindness. Bastion began to hear about America's mutant problem and his mutant-termination directives were re-activated. He abandoned Rose and sought out the high-profile Friends of Humanity . After regaining his identity as a Sentinel, Bastion attempted to lead another crusade against mutants by turning Machine Man into

13560-401: The virus fell into Apocalypse's hands. Apocalypse later used the virus to infect the infant Cable. The virus has many similarities to the Transmode Virus and the two may be closely related. Techno-organic matter of this kind usually appears as blue/grey metal. This strain of virus is less virulent than its counterpart, needing blood contact to transmit, and usually taking a longer time to infect

13680-509: 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

13800-781: 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

13920-543: Was in The Uncanny X-Men #333 (June 1996). Bastion is introduced as Sebastion Gilberti , a mysterious man who had risen to power in a relatively short time in the U.S. Government and began assembling the international anti- mutant strike force Operation: Zero Tolerance (OZT). When the X-Men learned about the existence of OZT some months before the operation became public, Jean Grey and Gambit (acting on information) snuck into an OZT meeting being held at

14040-528: 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

14160-579: Was originally two separate beings: the lead Sentinel Master Mold and the highly advanced Sentinel Nimrod from an alternate future . A fused Sentinel where Master Mold's programming co-opted Nimrod's had a conflict with the X-Men, ultimately resulting in the X-Man Rogue using the Siege Perilous which was capable of judging any who pass through it and reincarnating into a new life commensurate in quality with their previous life. The merging of

14280-553: 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

14400-499: 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

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