Marvel Comics has had several major event series over the years, and it has gotten to the point where many of them don’t change anything about the universe. That said, there have been several significant events that changed everything about both the characters in the Marvel Universe as well as comic books in general. This all started back in the 1980s when the major events began with things like Secret Wars and Contest of Champions, and then the mutants set the template for how to really shake things up, with the mutants creating a lot of different Earths in the multiverse.
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From mutants changing everything about the future to cosmic events, like the recent Imprtial series, changing everything in space, here is a look at seven moments that fundamentally changed the Marvel Universe.
7) Days of Future Past
The very first time that the mutants changed everything about the Marvel Universe was in the storyline, Days of Future Past. This arrived in 1981 and only ran for two issues, in The Uncanny X-Men #141-142. What this did was unprecedented in anything out of What If…? stories. This showed an alternate future, one where Sentinels killed most significant Marvel heroes and locked surviving mutants away in concentration camps. This changed everything about X-Men comics, and it led to events like Age of Apocalypse and the recent Age of Revelation. There are countless apocalyptic mutant futures, and it all started with Days of Future Past.
6) Annihilation
Annihilation changed everything about the Marvel Cosmic universe. For years, Marvel used its cosmic characters limitedly, and usually just with Earth’s heroes in things like The Infinity Gauntlet. However, Annihilation took the cosmic universe and made it one of the most essential parts of the Marvel Universe. Nova put it simply when he said that while Marvel’s Civil War had heroes senselessly fighting each other, billions died in the Annihilation Wave, and that showed the scope of this war. This brought the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy to the Marvel Comics world for the first time and changed what everyone knew about the Kree, Skrulls, Shi’ar, and more. This is the series that fundamentally changed everything about Marvel’s cosmic heroes.
5) Civil War
Marvel Comics’ Civil War did something polarizing with the heroes. While things like the original Secret Wars and Contest of Champions pitted heroes against each other, Civil War took it one step further. This has heroes who have fundamental disagreements and go to war with each other instead of trying to protect the world. This wasn’t something they were forced to do, and it showed that the Marvel heroes were often vindictive and morally blind when angered. It led to Civil War II, Avengers Vs. X-Men, and more events where heroes would rather fight each other than he heroes.
4) Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion was a massive series because it shook up the Marvel Universe in ways that would actually change things for several years. While many Marvel event series do nothing but have a giant Earth-threatening event that no one talks about a year later, Secret Invasion was actually extremely important for the future of Marvel. This led to the problems later with the Illuminati, who were partially responsible for the invasion’s start. It turned Norman Osborn into a national hero, which led to the Dark Avengers and the eventual Siege event. It ended all the conflict that remained from Civil War, and it reset the Marvel Comics Universe for the 2010s.
3) Secret Wars (2015)
Secret Wars did something that had never been done in Marvel Comics before, but it seemed similar to something that happened in DC in the 80s with Crisis on Infinite Earths. This had the Incursions destroying all the Earths in the multiverse, which didn’t end until Earth-616 and the Ultimates Earth were destroyed, and Doctor Doom found a way to create a new Earth called Battleworld. This created a fun series of comics on Battleworld, but when it ended, Marvel rebooted most of the Marvel Universe. This brought Miles Morales to Earth-616, ended the Ultimate Universe, reset most of the comics, and helped the comics have a fresh restart that it so desperately needed.
2) Krakoa Era
The Krakoa Era brought the most significant fundamental change to the mutants in Marvel Comics in the show’s history. This allowed Professor X to create a new utopia for mutants on the living island of Krakoa, and it separated the mutants from the humans who hated them. However, Xavier wasn’t content with that, and he created a new autonomous government and wanted admission to the United Nations. It created an entire government on Krakoa, forgave every mutant villain who agreed to change for the better, and even created a resurrection process to bring any dead mutant back to life. It resulted in some of the best mutant stories in Marvel Comics in years, and it lasted for several years before things returned to the status quo.
1) Imperial
Imperial resulted in the most significant fundamental changes in Marvel’s cosmic corner of the universe since the Annihilation wars. This was an all-out war between different alien races thanks to a devious plan concocted by Black Bolt and his brother Maximus that tricked the alien governments into believing they were being betrayed. By the end, there was a new form of government in the cosmos, the Skrulls and Kree were enemies again, the Shi’ar were seeking revenge, and Black Panther was making his own plans. Imperial is supposed to set up a new widespread Marvel Cosmic Universe of stories, and it changed everything readers knew about the far reaches of space.
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