Marvel Universe

The Marvel Universe is the fictional shared universe where most of the comic stories published by Marvel Comics take place. Note that in context, Marvel Universe is usually used to refer to the main Marvel continuity known as Earth-616. Occasionally, Marvel Universe will be used to indicate the entire Marvel Multiverse; the collection of all continuities within Marvel Comics publications.

(Marvel Universe is also the title of a limited series, also produced by Marvel Comics, that featured the Monster Hunters.)

History

Though the concept of a shared universe was not new or unique to comics in 1961, writer/editor Stan Lee, together with several artists including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, created a series of titles where events in one book would have repercussions in another title and serialized stories would show characters grow and change. Headline characters in one title would make cameo or guest appearances in other books. Eventually many of the leading heroes assembled into a team known as the Avengers. 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 in Marvel's "Golden Age"—but it was the first time that the comic book publisher's characters seemed to share a world. The Marvel Universe was also notable for setting its central titles in New York City. 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 a Multiverse; this plot device allows one to create several fictional universes which normally do not overlap (see below or Multiverse (Marvel Comics) for more information). What happens on Earth in the main Marvel Universe would normally have no effect on what happens on a parallel Earth in another Marvel-created universe. However, storywriters would have the creative ability to write stories in which people from one such universe would visit this alternate universe. When characters from one universe meet characters from another universe that they normally do not interact with, this is termed a crossover.

In 1982, Marvel published the mini-series 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 the heels of Contest of Champions.

In 1986, in honor of Marvel Comics' 25th anniversary, then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter launched the largely unsuccessful New Universe line of comics. The New Universe was intended to be a more realistic, self-contained superhero universe, but due to a combination of a lack of editorial support and a general disinterest on the part of the readers, the line was cancelled after three years.

Over the years, as the number of titles published increased and the volume of past stories accumulated, it became increasingly difficult to maintain internal consistency and continuity. But, unlike its main rival DC Comics, Marvel has never engaged in a drastic reboot of their continuity. Minor attempts have been made in recent years to produce stories more accessible for neophyte readers such as the Heroes Reborn titles, which occurred in a pocket universe where many of the major Marvel heroes were exiled for a year. A greater attempt has been made with the Ultimate titles; a series of titles in a universe unrelated to the main Marvel continuity and essentially starting the entire Marvel Universe over from scratch. Ongoing "Ultimate" comics now exist for the X-Men, Avengers (in the form of the Ultimates), Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four. Sales of these titles are strong, and indications are that Marvel will continue to expand the line, effectively creating two Marvel Universes existing concurrently.In fact The Ultimate titles have done so well they have been the basis for several video games (Ultimate Spider-Man and the X-Men Legends games) and two animated movies: Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2.

In 2002, a study was done of the interactions among characters in the Marvel Universe (Alberich, R., Miro-Julia, J. & Rosselló, F. Marvel Universe looks almost like a real social network. [1][2]) which revealed that the Marvel Universe shares some non-random features with the social networks of collaborating scientists or co-starring movie actors. This pattern developed without deliberate coordination among the various writers over the years. The most socially networked character in the Marvel Universe is Captain America.

Concepts

The central concept of the Marvel Universe is that it is just like the real world, except that superheroes (and supervillains) exist. It is more than just that, however. The Marvel Universe includes examples of most major science fiction and fantasy concepts, and writers keep adding more continuously. Furthermore, these concepts are often (though not always) developed in ways that do not contradict each other, but instead forms a unified background. This concept is fairly rare; another example of a fictional universe that seeks to use all types of fantastic elements is the DC Universe.

Reality: Earth in the Marvel Universe has all the features of the real one: same countries, same personalities (politicians, movie stars, etc.), same historical events (World War II, the Vietnam War, 9/11, etc.), and so on. However, it also adds fictional ones, such as countries like Wakanda or Genosha, and organizations like the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D and its enemy, HYDRA. Since Marvel doesn't want to allow the characters to age, the setting of the stories has to be updated every few years; Marvel's major heroes were created in the 1960s, but the heroes have only been allowed to age about a decade in that time (a recent issues of The Thing advanced this number to thirteen years). Unlike DC Comics, who uses the idea that interference with time by villains caused reality to reboot a few times, Marvel simply assumes that the stories happen in the space of years instead of decades; this is known as a floating timeline. Thus, the events of previous stories are considered to have happened within a certain number of years prior to the publishing date of the current issue. For example, Spider-Man's high school graduation was published in Amazing Spider-Man #28 (Sept 1965), his college graduation in Amazing Spider-Man #185 (Oct 1978), and his high school reunion in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #7 (Dec 2004). Where stories reference real-life historic events, these references are later ignored or rewritten to suit current sensibilities. For example, the origins of Iron Man and Professor X were recently changed to refer to armed conflict in Afghanistan, where they had originally referred to southeast Asia and the Korean War. However, there are a few exceptions to the sliding timescale policy. This is usually when characters are tied inextricably to a certain time period. The most notable example of this is Captain America. Captain America has remained a World War 2 hero for his entire existence. Marvel has devised several different ways to get around him aging, but openly admits he's been an adventurer for over sixty years. Another example is The Punisher, who like Captain America, is tied to a real historic event (in this case, the Vietnam War).

It must be noted that the Marvel Comics company itself exists within the Marvel Universe, and versions of people such as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have appeared in some of the stories. The Marvel of this reality publishes comics that adapt the actual adventures of the superheroes (except for details not known to the public, like their secret identities).

Super Heroes and Villains: The tradition of using costumed secret identities to fight (or commit) evil had long existed in this world (for example, with the medieval Black Knight) but it came into prominence during the days of the American 'Wild West' with heroes such as the Phantom Rider. During the 20th Century, the tradition was reinvigorated, first by Captain America in the 40s (not the first costumed hero of the time, but the most influential) and then by the Fantastic Four in modern times.

Marvel's major heroes (the ones who get involved in most of the important events) are the ones created from 1961 to 1963, during Marvel's "Silver Age": Spider-Man, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Thor, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director, Nick Fury. Unlike the DC Universe, few of Marvel's 1940s characters have become major characters in modern publications; Captain America is a major character, and to a lesser extent his contemporary, the Sub-Mariner, is as well, primarily due to the fact that both of these characters were reintroduced to readers and to the Marvel Universe during the 1960s. The Avengers and the X-Men are also major players, although the memberships of both groups have often changed to include otherwise minor characters. The Avengers have included most of Marvel's major heroes as members at one time or another. The X-Men contains some of Marvel's most popular characters, such as Wolverine, though individually they are not as influential and did not come into prominence until the 1980s (except for Professor X). Dr. Strange has often formed an ad hoc team of heroes called The Defenders to help him deal with major menaces to the world, often including the Hulk, the Submariner and/or the Silver Surfer, as well as other heroes.

Origin of superhuman powers: 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 our prehistoric ancestors (a process they also carried out on several other planets). This resulted in the creation of two hidden races, 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 it in others will cause superhuman abilities to manifest. With the exception of psionic abilities, these powers are usually random; rarely do two people have the exact 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 called Earth X explored one possible reason: that superhumans are meant to protect a Celestial that is "growing" inside Earth; but this series repeatedly contradicts previously established Marvel continuity). An X-Men villain known as Vargas claims to be a new direction in human evolution, as he is born with superpowers even though genetic profile said he was an ordinary human being. The majority of the public is unaware of what may cause superhuman powers. The humanity has a great evolutionary potential, the Supreme Intelligence of Kree once informed that it had the latent ability to reach supreme powers as "the Destiny Force".

Other possible origins for superhuman powers include magic, genetic manipulation 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 the Marvel Universe, technology is slightly more advanced than in the real world; this is due to unique individuals of genius intelligence, such as Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) of the Fantastic Four. However, most of the really 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 is Stark International, owned by Anthony 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 is capable to deliver, comes from another source. In most cases, this other source seems to be what is called the universal psionic field (UPF), which they are able to tap into. Sometimes they are connected to another source, and more rarely they are even a host for it.

Marvel tries to explain most superpowers and their sources scientifically, usually through the use of pseudoscientific concepts, such as:
*The battery effect; the cells in the body have the same function as batteries, being charged with energy that comes from an outer source. Most often seen in gamma exposed individuals as the Hulk, who gets their powers from this stored energy. The powers will remain as long as the energy is present, and can even be increased by filling the "batteries" even more. If the energy is emptied, the powers will fade away.
*Power Primordial is a leftover force from Big Bang, and is controlled by the Elders of the Universe.
*Psionic energy, which is assumed to be an invisible, unknown form of energy generated by all living brains that has the ability to manipulate other forms of matter and energy.
*Universal psionic field is a force present everywhere in the universe, but only those whith abilities to connect to it can make use of its energy.
*Enigma Force is suspected to be connected to the Microverse, and is also the source to the Uni-Power, which transform an individual into Captain Universe.
*Extradimensional space: dimensions that can be tapped in order to pull mass from them (to add to objects on Earth) or taken away from those objects and be stored in those "pocket dimensions" to be retrieved later. This is how characters like the Hulk can grow and shrink with no visible absorption of mass. A type of subatomic particles called Pym Particles can be used for these effects. (Note that many giant-sized characters have the secret ability to manipulate gravity to handle their increased weight.) The change in mass can be in the form of a density change instead, allowing a character to become harder or incorporeal. Some characters can seem to "transform" themselves (or others) into unliving substances, or even pure energy, by storing their bodies in extradimensional space and replacing them with bodies made from matter or energy from that dimension, while their souls remain on Earth, controlling their new body. Travel into other dimensions can also be used as a way to "teleport" by re-entering the Earth dimension at a different point from the exiting one.
*The Darkforce is an unknown, dark substance from another dimension (known simply as the Darkforce Dimension) that can be summoned and manipulated in many ways: to create impenetrable darkness, to solidify it in various forms, and (most notably) to absorb the "life energy" from living beings (not all users can use all these effects). The Darkforce can also be used to travel to and from its home dimension, but this is dangerous to all except those with Darkforce powers. Some believe that the Darkforce is sentient and sometimes has an evil influence on those who use it. Various heroes and villains have versions of Darkforce powers, including Darkstar, the first Blackout, the Shroud, Cloak and Quagmire (of the Squadron Supreme Universe). Cloak seems to be the prime 'portal' to the Darkforce, however.
*The Living Light is the opposite of the Darkforce: a form of energy that resembles light and also comes from its own dimension, but has healing effects on living beings (except ones made of darkness or Darkforce.) It is unknown if it might be sentient. Cloak's partner, Dagger seems to be the Living Light's main avatar.
*The Power Cosmic is a force that can alter reality, allowing the user to do whatever he or she wants (including breaking the laws of physics), only being limited by how much cosmic energy the character can tap at a time. It seems to be part of the universe itself and it can be linked directly to Galactus as its primary wielder or even source. The Heralds of Galactus, including Silver Surfer and Nova are imbued with the Power Cosmic.
*Magic also appears to be like a form of energy, except that it can defy the laws of physics naturally. However, it does have rules of its own to follow, which vary with the method of invocation, usually in the form of spoken spells. It appears to be present in everything, even living beings. All humans in the Marvel Universe have the ability to use magic, but only if properly trained. Most people are unaware that magic actually works. In addition, powerful magical beings from other dimensions have created specific, extremely powerful magical spells that they allow to be used (often indiscriminately) by those sorcerers who invoke their names; one example is the trinity of beings called The Vishanti, who serve as patrons to heroic sorcerers. At any given time, there is a sorcerer on Earth whose task is to protect the universe against extradimensional mystical invaders; this sorcerer is known as the Sorcerer Supreme, an office currently held by Doctor Strange.
*"Hellfire" is a magical force that resembles fire, but is cold and hurts the soul rather than the physical body; it is used mostly by demonic beings.

Nonhuman races: A degree of paranoid fear against mutants exists due to stories of mutants being a race or even a species (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 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 the robots known as Sentinels as weapons. Certain species are regarded as subhuman like the Morlocks who lurk beneath New York City and have been discriminated by the outside world because of their mutant deformities. Although they 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: The Inhumans, another genetically unstable race (like the Deviants, but in their case its due to their use of a substance called 'Terrigen') 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 'Lava Men' by a demon); and Homo mermanus, a humanoid race of water-breathers that lives 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 whose influence is present in all modern Homo sapiens. Other leftovers from the era where primitive humaniods walked the earth still exists, like the altered Neanderthal(?) known as Missing Link, an old enemy of the Hulk.

Alien races: The Marvel Universe also contains hundreds of intelligent alien races. Earth has interacted with many of them due to the fact that a major "hyperspace warp" happens to exist in our solar system. The three major space empires are:
* the Kree, who rule the Kree Galaxy (actually the Greater Magellanic Cloud)
* the Skrulls, who rule the Skrull Galaxy (the Andromeda Galaxy)
* the Shi'ar, who rule the Shi'ar Galaxy (no known real-world counterpart)The three are often in direct or indirect conflict, which occasionally involve Earth people; in particular, the Kree and Skrulls are ancient enemies, and the Kree-Skrull War has involved humans on several occasions.

Another prominent alien race is The Watchers, immortal and wise beings who watch over the Marvel Universe and have taken 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 great impact on many worlds, for billions of years, acting alone or as a group. A power called 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.

Supernatural creatures : Also abundant in the Marvel Universe are legendary creatures such as gods, demons and vampires. The 'gods' of most polytheistic pantheons are actually powerful, immortal human-like races from other dimensions who visited Earth in ancient times, and became the basis of many legends (obviously not all such legends can be true, since they contradict scientific facts, as well as each other.) Besides mythological gods, many deities made up by Marvel writers exist as well, such as the Dark Gods, enemies of the Asgardians. Note that many persons and beings have falsely pretended to be gods or demons during history; in particular, none of the ones claiming to be figures from Judeo-Christian beliefs (such as Satan, God, or the Angels) have turned out to be the real article (this is obviously a conscious decision from Marvel Comics to keep to they mythical framing of religions in general.)

Similarly, demons are evil magical beings who take affairs in the matters of the universe, one of the most notorious being Mephisto. Others include Nightmare, D'Spayre, N'Astirh, Dormammu, Azazel and Shuma-Gorath.

Most of the current generation of gods have been revealed to be the descendants of the Elder Goddess Gaea. The two most prominent pantheons are the Asgardians (of whom Thor is a member) and the Olympians (of whom Hercules is a member). The lords of the various pantheons sometimes gather in groups known as the Council of Godheads and 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.

Cosmic entities: Above all other beings in the Marvel Universe are the cosmic entities, beings of unbelievably great levels of power (the weakest can destroy 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 a consequence their acts can occasionally be 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. The greatest of these is the Living Tribunal, a the cosmic mediator of all universe within the Marvel Multiverse.

Above all pantheons of gods, cosmic entities and even the Tribunal there exists one, ultimate supreme being known as the One-Above-All (not to be confused with the Celestial of the same name). Indicated to be the creator of all life, this being presides over a realm referred to as "Heaven" populated by angels, to which the souls of the virtuous deceased are committed (such as Ben Grimm) - as such, the One-Above-All is effectively synonymous with the Judeo-Christian God. When the One-Above-All finally appeared on-panel in a 2004 Fantastic Four storyline, he appeared in the form of Jack Kirby, who 'sketched out' reality on a comic book storyboard. He professed to communicate with a partner (implied to be Stan Lee), though exactly where this Lee-based being would be fall in the cosmic heirarchy is undivulged.

Cosmology

The Marvel Universe is really a multiverse, with various universes coexisting simultaneously without affecting each other directly.

Universes/Earths/Continuities

The action of most Marvel Comics titles takes place in a continuity known as Earth-616. Note that in Marvel Comics, the concept of a continuity is not the same as "dimension" or "universe"; for example, characters like Mephisto and Dormammu hail from alternate dimensions and the Celestials from another universe, but they all nevertheless belong to the continuity Earth-616 (where all the dimensions and universes seems to be connected to the same main timeline). A continuity should also not be confused with an imprint; for example, while the titles of some imprints, such as Ultimate Marvel, take place in a different continuity, some or all publications in other imprints, such as Epic Comics, Marvel MAX, and Marvel UK, take place within the Earth-616 continuity.

Other continuities besides Earth-616 include the following (for a complete listing see Marvel Comics Multiverse):
* Age of Apocalypse
* Alterniverse
* Amalgam
* The various alternate conitinuities visited in Exiles
* Marvel Age
* What If
* What The--?! (formerly Not Brand Echh)
* X-Men Adventures - Originally based on the X-Men animated series, this universe went on to feature more original stories, and in its final issue, revealed itself to be the universe which existed prior to the current 616 reality, when it was destroyed by the fracturing of the M'Kraan crystal. The current edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe corroborates this.
* X-Men: Evolution (based on the X-Men Evolution animated series)
* The movies: each live-action adaptation of classic characters serves as its own continuity, and to add to this Marvel has adapted each one as a comic.

Dimensions

Within and sometimes between continuities, there exist a variety of dimensions, sometimes called pocket dimensions which typically are not depicted as separate continuties, but rather part of one, typically Earth-616. There are a score of such dimensions, ranging from the Earthlike to the totally alien. Some are magical in nature and others are scientific; some are inhabited and others are not. These include realities like the Microverse, the Darkforce Dimension, Limbo, the Mojoverse, and many more.

Time

A noteworthy feature of the Marvel Universe is that one cannot alter history - if a time-traveller 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-traveller will still return to his or her unaltered original universe. Those realities can also spawn realities of their own. There exists hundreds, probably thousands of such realities. It is unknown why this happens, though a warp known as the Nexus of All Realities exists in a swamp in the Florida of the main Marvel Universe (known as 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, organizations exist that try to monitor or manipulate the various realities. These include the Captain Britain Corps, the Time Variance Authority, and Kang the Conqueror's forces.

Sources

* Concepts segment: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (various entries in various volumes)

External links

*Marvel Entertainment official site
*Marvel Comics Marvel Universe wiki
*Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
*Master List of Marvel Characters
*Knightmare6, A Comic Book FAQ for different companies (including Marvel)

Marvel Universe: Encyclopedia BETA

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