Timeline / Marvel Universe

This is a description of the Marvel Universe's major events in Chronological order.

(See also The Trope History of the Universe.)

Billions of Years Ago:

• Creation Of The Universe — A previous universe collapses into a “cosmic egg” that later explodes, creating the current universe. This is apparently a cyclic event, overseen by Cosmic Beings. There are actually two confirmed Big Bangs. The first was caused by a civil war amongst the Celestials, creating the second reality and the first Mutliverse. The second was caused by a collision between a ship of the sixth reality and a celestial object. This created the seventh reality: The current Marvel Universe. Established in The Ultimates² (2017) #6.
  • The last living man of the previous universe (Galan of Taa) is absorbed by the egg, and becomes Galactus billions of years later. Established in Thor #169 (1969), Super-Villain Classics #1 (1983) and Silver Surfer #10 (2017).
• The universe brings forth the Proemial Gods, semi-conceptual beings of immense power who are to prepare it for the arrival of more conventional life forms.
• Life arises in the universe and develops into a myriad of forms.
  • The first race of beings to attain intelligence becomes a great nation who seek the well-being of other, younger races, but this causes great tragedy when an act of kindness results in the death of a world; thereafter, they vow never again to interfere with the cause of events, and will only observe; thus, the eternal race of the Watchers is born. Established in '"Tales of Suspense'' (1964) #53.
• One Watcher observes the emergence of Galactus from his 'gestation unit', but does not interfere. Galactus soon joins the Proemial gods in establishing cosmic consonance.
• The races that will eventually produce the Elders of the universe evolve, grow old, and die out, ultimately leaving just one of their number to carry on. The group was first mentioned in Avengers #174 (1978), and their origin was recounted in Silver Surfer #4 (1987).
• The Proemial Gods realize that the end of their time is coming; while most of them accept this, some others refuse and instead try to establish their own universal order. Galactus stands against them and destroys some, while imprisoning others in the Klyn, gigantic, mysterious artifacts surrounding the Crunch, the very center of the universe.
• Life begins on Earth. The sentient life force of the planet manifests in the form of the Demiurge, who proceeds to create many different life forms, from microbes to gods.
  • The first gods appear, but eventually turn into demonic creatures after they begin eating each other for power. To stop them, Gaea the Earth Goddess gives birth to Atun the Sun-god who, in his own demonic form as Demogorge the God-Eater, destroys most of them. Some of them escape but become trapped.
    • One of them, Cthon, leaves behind The Darkhold, a set of parchments of evil magic that will cause many terrible events. The Elder Gods' history is established in Silver Surfer Annual #2 (1989)

Millions of Years Ago:

• The Nuwali, an alien race, begins preserving dinosaurs and other prehistoric species in what will becomeThe Savage Land (in Antarctica.) The Savage Land's origin is told in Ka-Zar the Savage #31 and #34 (1984).
• Set the Snake God, one of the Elder Gods, returns to Earth but is defeated and banished again by the Demogorge. Their battle kills most of the dinosaurs.
• Cosmic Beings called The Celestials interfere with the evolution of many species across the universe. Most notably they created The Kree and The Skrulls.
  • The Celestials eventually arrive on Earth, where they interfere in human evolution, creating mutants as well as two hidden races, The Eternals and The Deviants. Established in Eternals #1 (1977), Eternals #1 (2006), and What If? #23 (1980).

Pre-Historical times:

• Atlantis, humanity's first great civilization, arose. One of its most notable rulers was Conan the Barbarian's ancestor, King Kull. ^note Yes, this is still canon despite Marvel not having the rights to use the Conan characters between 2003 and 2018. They just didn't use the exact names again until they reacquired the rights in 2019.
  • Humanity spreads over Earth and develops several cultures (many of these become the ancestors of later civilizations eg. The Egyptians).
• The Darkhold -now bound into a book- was used in Atlantis to create Varnae, the first vampire. Established in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #11 (1989).
• Eventually, Atlantis developed technology even more advanced than present-day Earth's. Unfortunately, its use in a war with The Deviants' empire (on Lemuria, a similar island in the Pacific) led to their mutual destruction (when The Celestials got dragged into it.)
  • The Sorcerer Dakimh The Enchanter managed to escape Atlantis' destruction with his teacher's book of magic spells. He's still alive in Florida.
  • The sunken cities were eventually repopulated by Apparently Human Merfolk.
• A major space warp within our solar system brings many alien races to Earth. One of them was The Kree, who experiment on some primitive humans, creating what would (eventually) become The Inhuman race.

The Time of Myths:

• Humans begin worshipping gods. If Loki's theory is correct, the stories they told and their belief in them shaped mystic energy into deities like the Asgardians and Olympians.
  • Many Eternals were mistaken for gods and other mythological figures. The Olympian Gods even explicitly arranged for some Eternals to represent them among humans in exchange for permitting them to keep their invisible city hidden in Mount Olympus.)
• Ancient Egypt is temporarily ruled by Pharaoh Rama-Tut, actually a time traveler from the future. He will later assume several identities, including Kang The Conqueror. (Note: none of the futures Kang comes from are part of the main Marvel Universe's timeline.)
• 2000 years ago, The Celestials returned to Earth and forced Earth's gods to stop interfering with humanity, which led to most people thinking they were only myths. (Note that most gods weren't aware of the reason for this, only the rulers of each pantheon knew.)

The Dark Ages:

• The Wizard Merlin helps King Arthur found the Kingdom of Camelot in Britian. Unfortunately it is eventually brought down by the sorceress Morgan Le Fay and her allies. Both Merlin and Le Fey survive until the Present. Note that there's more than one person going around claiming to be Merlin.
• People eventually stop believing that magic or supernatural creatures are real. They still don't, despite many supernatural heroes and villains acting openly.

19th Century:

• The first costumed heroes (and villains) appear in America's Wild West.

The 20th Century

• 1910: Kang The Conqueror establishes the small town of Timely, from which he shares his superscientific knowledge with certain individuals (such as the creator of the Human Torch android) for his own purposes.
• The first hero team, The Freedom's Brigade, forms to fight the Germans in World War I. Its most notable member is Britain's Union Jack.
• The Existence of superhumans has been known openly since the 1940s, since Namor the Sub-Mariner's first attack on New York city.
  • Unfortunately this led to hate mongers spreading fear about mutants that is still strong to this day.
  • The android Human Torch is the first superpowered hero.
  • Namor, The Torch, Captain America, Union Jack and other heroes join forces to battle Nazis as The Invaders. They become the All-Winners Squad after the war, but break up soon after.
• From the fifties and on, the American government tried to either take control of the costumed heroes or shut them down, for example the Agents of Atlas.
  • A secret team of heroes, The First Line , operates outside of public knowledge. They all die preventing a Skrull invasion of Earth during the 1980's. The public at large never finds out.
• Aliens are also known to exist since The '50s when many alien criminals tried (and failed) to invade Earth. Curiously the knowledge of the existence of alien life doesn't seem to matter to most people. Though there IS one agency (SWORD, a division of SHIELD) devoted to dealing with extraterrestrials.
• A war breaks out in the Southeastern Asian nation of Siancong. Among those who served in this conflict are the future Mr. Fantastic and Thing of the Fantastic Four, the Punisher, and War Machine.

The Present:

• About 13 years ago, the Fantastic Four make their debut, heralding a new age of superheroes.
• The Avengers form soon after.
• As do the X-Men.
• And The Defenders.
• As does Spider-Man.^note Quoting his speech from Civil War (2006) II: "My name is Peter Parker, and I've been Spider-Man since I was fifteen years old."
• Bruce Banner is exposed to Gamma Radiation from a bomb test. Thus, when under extreme stress or anger, he transforms into the Hulk. Unfortunately, this also makes him a fugitive from conventional law. Fortunately, he would find sanctuary with other hero teams.
• As heroes rise though, so do supervillains. While at first unprepared to deal with all these superpowered beings, an intergovernmental agency called S.H.I.E.L.D., lead by the non aging Nick Fury rises to deal with larger threats while other heroes would fight more local supervillains.
• The X-Men lose one of their own. As Jean Grey is possessed by the Phoenix Force, destroying galaxies, and through a series of events, eventually killing herself to keep the force from causing more destruction.
• The first Secret War happens. A great being called the Beyonder assembles several X Men, Avengers and other heroes to fight various villains in order to grant their wishes.
  • However, he leaves without truly giving the reward as Dr. Doom through a series of circumstances manages to steal The Beyonder's power temporarily. After recovering it, the Beyonder leaves.
• The X-Men, Daredevil, and Thor get involved in the Marauders' destruction of the Morlocks.
• Thanos the Mad Titan recovers all the infinity gems as part of his quest to fulfill Death's needs. Namely, after being resurrected by her, he intends to assemble the infinity gems onto a gauntlet in order to kill much of the universe's beings to satisfy Death's wishes. Unfortunately, on getting the gauntlet, Death recognizes that Thanos is now her superior in power, and so still spurns his affections.
  • After prolonged conflict between Marvel's Gods, heroes, celestials, and others, eventually Thanos is defeated. The Gauntlet passing to Adam Warlock.
• The Scarlet Witch accidentally brings about the original dissolving of the Avengers due to her grief, then temporarily creates a new reality by rewriting history into creating the House of M. A world where mutants are the dominant force. Unfortunately, upon reversing the spell, a side effect leads to the elimination of millions of mutant genes.
• Following a tragedy in America, a superhuman registration act is enacted. Unfortunately, due to differing views on service, freedom and government participation, this leads to a Civil War between heroes, only ending when Captain America surrenders and is subsequently killed. (temporarily)
• The Skrulls have been conducting a Secret Invasion of earth, trying to weaken its defenses before taking it for strategic purposes. Unfortunately, when their main invasion force arrives, the heroes band together and drive it off, killing the skrull queen. Unfortunately, as a side effect of the victory, villains begin taking control of SHIELD.
  • It takes their failed attack on Asgard to finally uproot them.
• Fighting off Beyonders with godlike power, Doctor Doom becomes the God Emperor of Battleworld by smashing all the multiverses together to save what's left of them. It takes a resistance lead by Reed Richards to finally stop his tyranny, allowing Reed and his immediate family to get to work rebuilding the Multiverse.

The Future

(note: The Marvel Universe has multiple possible futures; these are just the most likely to happen)

• About two decades into the future: The sons and daughters of many heroes — most notably Spider-Man's daughter Spider-Girl — carry on with their parent's legacy as heroes.
• At some point in the 21st century: the space portal in Earth's solar system is closed, isolating it from the rest of the universe.
• 2099: Earth falls under the control of tyrannical corporations.
  • A resurrected Doctor Doom conquers the world, to save it from the megacorps.
  • By the end of the year, the space portal has been reopened.
• Centuries into the future: the solar system is colonized, by humans who have been genetically engineered to survive the harsh environments of the planets Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto (rather than Terraforming those worlds.)
• 31st Century: An attack by the alien race called The Badoon destroys Earth's colonies and conquers the planet. The (single) survivors of the colonies join together to fight the invaders, as the Guardians of the Galaxy.
  • The Badoon are eventually defeated... by the females of their species, who demand that they return to their homeworld. The Guardians then expand their activities to the whole galaxy.
• The End of the Universe: The last leader of the Time Variance Authority (an organization that monitors time) creates The Time Keepers, the TVA's ultimate members. In turn they manipulate Kang's future self, Immortus, for the purpose of eliminating alternate timelines that could prevent their existence. They are eventually killed by Kang.
  • The universe dies (and most likely will be reborn; Galactus, The Phoenix, and/or other Cosmic Entities will likely be involved.)

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