History HarsherInHindsight / MarvelUniverse

* The Marvel Civil War was painfully cringe-worthy, to begin with. Now, let's just say that it starts with a disturbed individual attacking an elementary school in Connecticut and leave it at that.

* More fun with 9/11 in the 1995 Marvel Comics tie-in novel ''ComicBook/SpiderMan: The Octopus Agenda'' by Creator/DianeDuane: the book's climax features Spidey's attempts to foil the plans of Doctor Octopus, who's planted a bomb in the World Trade Center.

* The scenes in ''[[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]]'' #101 where the space shuttle breaks up on re-entry and crashes in New York and the similar sequence from the 1990s' ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' was intended to be merely dramatic when they were created, but some find it difficult to watch them without thinking of the Columbia tragedy. The ''Spider-Man'' episode is the most similar to the real disaster, which makes it REALLY creepy.

* In ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'', mutants are more discriminated than ever before and can be held without a trial even if they didn't do anything wrong, and you can even legally kill them. At the time when it was written, it was meant to show how Comicbook/UltimateMarvel is different from Earth-616. And then the National Defense Authorization Act came.
* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' #111, 1973. Comicbook/{{Magneto}} had captured the X-Men and several Avengers, turning them into PeoplePuppets. Only 3 Avengers were still free, [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]], Comicbook/TheVision and Comicbook/BlackPanther. So sure about his [[IAmLegion strength in numbers]] over the Avengers, and with the Comicbook/ScarletWitch dancing under his control, he said [[http://www.collectededitions.com/marvel/mm/xmen/images/AVEN111002_col.jpg "But they are decimated, Piper - DECIMATED!"]] (bolded in the original). He would surely come to regret those words: in ComicBook/HouseOfM the Scarlet Witch, mad and with reality-warping powers, turned all mutants except 192 into normal people without powers, including Magneto. The name of the near-extinction of mutants? "Decimation".

* Speaking of which, ''Comicbook/NewMutants'' #42 had a scene where Cannonball was told by his mother that his little brother Josh would "wither and die" if he ever had to leave Kentucky to attend the Xavier Institute like Cannonball did. Years later, Josh actually did end up attending the Xavier Institute, where he was KilledOffForReal in the aftermath of the aforementioned ''Decimation'' storyline.

** Issue 34 of Mar-Vell's solo series marked the debut of Nitro and boasted that he'd be "the man who killed Captain Marvel". While Mar-Vell didn't die in that exact issue, he was exposed to a deadly gas as the result of fighting Nitro, thus starting the chain of events that ''would'' lead to his death, meaning the cover was right about [[HeroKiller Nitro]], but didn't specify ''[[ExactWords when]]'' Mar-Vell would die.

* In an 80s issue of ''Comicbook/NewWarriors'', Speedball and Night Thrasher have this conversation about Speedball's powers. ''This'' side of ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' and "[[FanNickname/ComicBooks Bleedball]]", his spiky, masochism-themed new identity, it's not so funny:

* In an issue of ''Comicbook/UncannyAvengers'', ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} goes to Tokyo to offer the Japanese hero Sunfire membership in Comicbook/TheAvengers. When Sunfire asks why he was considered, Wolverine responds by calling him a "walking atomic bomb." Quite a few people online pointed out that the line is either incredibly dickish or very insensitive depending on whether or not the writer was aware of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Especially when you consider that in his first appearance, it's established that Sunfire's mom was an innocent child who eventually died of radiation poisoning she received at Hiroshima. This has been {{Retcon}}ned of course due to ComicbookTime.

* A scene in ''Comicbook/AvengersAcademy'' had Hazmat noting that [[CListFodder due to their relative obscurity]], the students were far more likely to die than the actual Avengers. It was meant to be funny at the time, but then came ''Comicbook/AvengersArena''...
** Another scene has Mettle lamenting, "I feel like a black dude in a slasher movie." In ''Comicbook/AvengersArena'' the first victim is [[BlackDudeDiesFirst Mettle.]]

* An in-universe example for the MarvelUniverse. One issue of the late 90s ComicBook/CaptainAmerica comic had Cap foiling a plot by a Skrull to impersonate him and cause widespread chaos in the United States. What does he say upon defeating the Skrull?:

** At July 2005's ''San Diego Comic Con'', in response to the question the [[ComicBook/SpiderMen Ultimate & 616 universes]] crossing over, Creator/JoeQuesada stated that he'd rather close down one universe than have them cross over because it meant they were officially out of ideas. Fast forward to 2012, and Marvel announced that they will be having 616!Peter crossing over to the Ultimate universe to meet Miles. Then the 2015 ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}'' event came along and both worlds -- along with the rest of TheMultiverse -- get destroyed. At the end of the event, [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] starts rebuilding the multiverse, but for two years, it appeared that the Ultimate Universe was gone for good (with Ultimate characters such as Miles and the Maker now living in the Marvel Universe)... until ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMen Spider-Men II]]'' revealed that the Ultimate Universe is back as well.

** At July 2005's ''San Diego Comic Con'', in response to the question the [[ComicBook/SpiderMen Ultimate & 616 universes]] crossing over, Creator/JoeQuesada stated that he'd rather close down one universe than have them cross over because it meant they were officially out of ideas. Fast forward to 2012, and Marvel announced that they will be having 616!Peter crossing over to the Ultimate universe to meet Miles. Then the 2015 ''ComicBook/{{Secret Wars|2015}}'' event came along and both worlds -- along with the rest of TheMultiverse -- get destroyed. At the end of the event, [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] starts rebuilding the multiverse, but for two years, it appeared that the Ultimate Universe was gone for good (with Ultimate characters such as Miles and the Maker now living in the Marvel Universe)... until ''Spider-Men II'' revealed that the Ultimate Universe is back as well.