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View Full Version : Warning: The Marvel Universe - did they lose you?



Standing Wolf
11-15-2015, 12:22 PM
It occurs to me that just as the cinematic Marvel Universe has pretty much taken over the world, the comic publishing side of that enterprise has made a move that may end up alienating a great many older fans and, at best, seriously confusing the younger ones.

For those non-comics-geeks among us who might not be familiar with the history - in the late '50s, D.C. comics revived some of the costumed superheroes from the '40s and '50s, the rights to which they owned, and gave them new secret identities, life histories, etc., and of course set their stories in the present day. Beginning in the '60s, they hit upon the idea of having the older versions of Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, etc., meet their modern counterparts, and the "Earth One"/"Earth Two" concept was introduced. (I can still remember the two-issue "Justice League of America" story arc where the JLA and Justice Society first met in 1963, which blew my nine-year-old mind.) Put simply, they were establishing the existence of alternate universes in the comics - something Marvel, as they were gearing up at about the same time, would eventually adopt as a plot device, as well.

Both companies have, over the years - in an effort to increase interest and readership - periodically destroyed or merged or seriously pruned their various universes. This has usually taken place within the context of a 6, 8, 10 or 12-issue "miniseries", with parts of the story emanating out into all of their regular titles. A few characters will inevitably die - for awhile, anyway - but then things usually go back to some semblance of normalcy, and writers and editors continue to crank out new alternate universe stories until the next cataclysmic, multi-issue event or company-wide reboot makes them start over. (As I recall, D.C. combined Earth One and Earth Two in the mid-'80s, but since they rebooted everything a few years ago, I think they're back to being separate places again.)

About fifteen years ago, Marvel came out with the Ultimate Universe, and it was very cool. The Avengers were the result of a government project. Nick Fury was Black and looked like Samuel L. Jackson, and other elements of the Ultimate Universe were later incorporated into the films, as well. However, in the recent Secret Wars miniseries and associated story lines in the regular Marvel titles, the Ultimate Universe has been destroyed, along with the "mainstream" Marvel Universe and all the others. All that is left is something called "Battleworld", which is comprised of pieces - albeit world-sized pieces - of the former realities, into which the surviving Marvel characters are divided. The Ultimate Universe Nick Fury, in this reality, is actually Nick Fury, Jr., the out-of-wedlock son of the original Nick Fury. (From a purely cinematic perspective, this makes Samuel L. Jackson the illegitimate son of David Hasselhoff, which is just too weird to contemplate.)

Personally - and yeah, I know, they're just comics, but this is the Geek Out Zone, so you must understand - this idea of the entire Marvel Universe - which I've been reading about and inhabiting in my imagination since I bought copies of both Avengers and X-Men #1 off that squeaky circular grocery store comic rack in the Spring of '63 for twelve cents each, and yes, I still have them - being destroyed just sort of bums me out and has made me re-think whether I even want to continue reading titles that I've bought, read and collected for decades. I suspect that younger readers - by which I mean those just discovering comics now, whether they're ten or thirty-five - will not be bothered by such things, but I have to confess that I am.

Green Arrow
11-15-2015, 01:19 PM
As you said, the Marvel universe will return to some semblance of normalcy. New characters are just getting the spotlight, like Falcon taking over the shield of Captain America, X-23 becoming the new Wolverine, Jane Foster as the Blasphemy Thor.

AeonPax
11-15-2015, 02:37 PM
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The "Marvel Cinematic Universe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Cinematic_Universe)" is still part of the "Marvel Multiverse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse_(Marvel_Comics))." It was writer/Editor Mark Gruenwald (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gruenwald), during his many stints at Marvel, who started addressing the problems inherent to comic books (continuity) by coining the term and idea of an omniverse (http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Omniverse), to address this and other problems. While from the beginning, Marvel always had story arcs and cross-overs that spanned over multiple issues (unlike DC). A few Marvel writer, such as Jack Kirby for example, spun off characters and plots apart from the Marvel continuity, such as with "The Eternals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternals_(comics))". Gruenwald sought to incorporate loose ends and tie them back into the Marvel Multiverse. He did tie in the Eternals/Celestials in Thor comics.

With the MCU, there are different problems such as directors, budgets and technical limitations. A black Heimdall and black Nick Fury doesn't bother me but if you look at Fury's origins, (who Jack Kirby introduced originally in the Marvel comic book series, "Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos" during WWII) like with the original Captain America (who did come out as a comic during WWII), had to be worked into this more modern time period. Capt being frozen works in the comic book sense but Fury? Not so much. Fans went ape shit when Joss Whedon killed off the popular Phil Coulson character in Avengers 1 and even though Coulson was miraculously resurrected to appear in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Whedon refused to bring him back in the Avengers Ultron movie. He will not be directing the next two Avengers movies, the two-part "Infinity War" where Coulson is expected to return.

Now I'm babbling.....

Carlsen
11-15-2015, 03:31 PM
As you said, the Marvel universe will return to some semblance of normalcy. New characters are just getting the spotlight, like Falcon taking over the shield of Captain America, X-23 becoming the new Wolverine, Jane Foster as the Blasphemy Thor.


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This is semblance of normalcy also that new character in spotlight in Marvel universe. this is SUPEROBAMA :)

http://iranian.com/main/files/blogimages/super obama.jpg



General warning to please stay on topic.

Hal Jordan
11-15-2015, 05:26 PM
The Marvel Universe will be brought back after the events of Secret Wars. They'r not completely getting rid of it. Elements of the Ultimate Universe (like Miles Morales) will be folded into the regular Marvel Universe (as well as some other alternate universe things).

Also, AeonPax, the Nick Fury thing has been explained in the event Original Sin. The Nick Fury we've dealt with has been a series of LMDs. He was actually out in space fighting threats the whole time and is really old.