What are the eras of The Marvel Universe?

[DrNewGod]

With DC, it's pretty easy to sort superheroics into eras. Just look for the reboot. Marvel's a different story.

Note: I'm not talking about publishing here, but the in-universe Marvel history; so the Timely, and Atlas time-periods might coincide with some of the distinctions, but don't necessarily define them. I'm also not talking about a cosmic calendar, but the history of Earthly super-adventurers.

If we look at the acknowledged MU history, there are obvious event horizons in 1939 and shortly after WWII, and another on the debut of The Fantastic Four. If you were going to sort the MU History of Earth Superheroes into eras, what would they be?

[Ptrvc]

Depends how detailed you want to go

You could say Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Dark Age (hate that term personally) Crossover Era (Alloy Age?) and Modern Era.

You could subdivide each of those though. Golden Age could be split in Pre-WW2 WW2 and Gap Period for example.

[Digifiend]

He's asking about the Marvel universe, not the real world comics. Golden Age corresponds to the 1940s, when they were originally published, but everything from the silver age onwards is in fact modern, post 9/11. That's referred to as the Marvel Age.

[DrNewGod]

Depends how detailed you want to go

You could say Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Dark Age (hate that term personally) Crossover Era (Alloy Age?) and Modern Era.

You could subdivide each of those though. Golden Age could be split in Pre-WW2 WW2 and Gap Period for example.

Why? What was going on in Marvel that makes those divisions make sense?

[Digifiend]

Nothing - he thought you meant publishing eras, that's obvious.

[U.N. Owen]

Marvel's sliding timescale causes there to be really only two eras: the pre-Age of Marvels and the Age of Marvels with only the debut of the Fantastic Four to be the great divider.

[jackolover]

With DC, it's pretty easy to sort superheroics into eras. Just look for the reboot. Marvel's a different story.

Note: I'm not talking about publishing here, but the in-universe Marvel history; so the Timely, and Atlas time-periods might coincide with some of the distinctions, but don't necessarily define them. I'm also not talking about a cosmic calendar, but the history of Earthly super-adventurers.

If we look at the acknowledged MU history, there are obvious event horizons in 1939 and shortly after WWII, and another on the debut of The Fantastic Four. If you were going to sort the MU History of Earth Superheroes into eras, what would they be?

You could say Marvel are split into 3 eras

The Golden Age - antiquated simple stories
The Stan Lee Age - adult targeted stories
The Modern Age - diversified stories

[WebLurker]

Marvel's sliding timescale causes there to be really only two eras: the pre-Age of Marvels and the Age of Marvels with only the debut of the Fantastic Four to be the great divider.

Thought that the original Human Torch was the dividing marker.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Pre historic era with Kull and Conan. Wild west era with the 50s to 70s western comics. The super hero era starting with the Golden age and ending in WW2. The atomic era, or post super hero era in the silver age. The Lost Generation era. The Marvel Age starting with FF...or maybe the minus issues from the 90s.

[Electricmastro]

While it's easy for me to talk about eras in terms of the real world, for some reason I have trouble diving up eras in terms of in-universe. I suppose I'll just list the notable events from Supermegamonkey's website from 1961-1994 (in a separate post because it got too big) to see if you guys can make something of it: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/

[Electricmastro]

1961 - Formation of the Fantastic Four.

1962 - Skrulls are introduced.

1963 - The Sub-Mariner searches for, and eventually finds, his lost kingdom and takes control of it.
Ant-Man becomes Giant Man.
Formation of the Avengers.
Formation of the X-Men.

1964 - Some super-villain teams and partnerships form this year: the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Masters of Evil, Cobra and Hyde, the Sinister Six.

1965 - Significant events this year include the death of Baron Zemo I, the first major change in the Avenger's line-up, Peter Parker's high school graduation, the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl, the discovery of the Savage Land, the formation of the Frightful Four, and the discovery of the Inhumans.

1966 - Introduction of Savage Land vibranium, the creation of the Cosmic Cube, the first sightings of the Negative Zone, and the coming of Galactus.

1967 - The Inhumans finally free themselves.
Peter Parker moves out of Aunt May's house into his own apartment.
Flash Thompson is drafted into the Vietnam war.
Hercules joins the Avengers, first unofficially and then for real.
Crystal unofficially joins the FF.
The concept of the Kree as an ancient alien race is introduced, although we only see Ronan, the Supreme Intelligence, and a Sentry so far.

1968 - Franklin Richards is born.
Henry Pym becomes Yellowjacket.
The Serpent Crown (first the Power Helmet) appears for the first time. At this time it is merely a long running but ultimately throwaway plot in Sub-Mariner, but the significance of the artifact will increase as it is re-used in later stories.
We meet the first Badoon, a second tier alien race in the Marvel Universe.

1969 - Marriage of Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne.
Galactus fights Ego the Living Planet
Rick Jones becomes Bucky and becomes Captain America's sidekick for a while
Dr. Strange starts dressing like a superhero.
Adamantium is invented.
Captain Marvel changes his costume and powers, and then Rick Jones becomes his sidekick.

1970 - Death of Captain Stacy

1971 - The Kree-Skrull War
Formation of the Defenders
Sub-Mariner's long time love interest Lady Dorma is killed

1972 - More female protagonists start rising up, namely The Cat, Shanna the She-Devil, and Night Nurse.

1973 - Thanos War
Death of Gwen Stacy

1974 - Steve Rogers gives up being Captain America.
Dr. Strange becomes Sorcerer Supreme with the death of the Ancient One.
The Cat (Greer Nelson) becomes Tigra
Marriage of Crystal and Quicksilver
The Defenders sort of solidify as a real super-hero team consisting of Dr. Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie, and Nighthawk
Harry Osborn very briefly becomes the second Green Goblin
The Wrecker forms a very durable super-villain team called the Wrecking Crew. The new members are Piledriver, Bulldozer, and Thunderball.
The Punisher debuts

1975 - Bill Foster becomes Black Goliath
Beast and Moondragon join the Avengers
The original clone story in Spider-Man, involving the Jackal and a cloned Gwen Stacy, as well as the clone that would eventually become Bill Reilly/Scarlet Spider
The reappearance of the zany Headman, who previously appeared in one-off Monster Age stories
Formation of a new X-Men team

1976 - First Shi'ar (in the form of Eric the Red and some off-panel appearances by others)
Marriage of Betty Brant and Ned Leeds
Formation of the Champions
Return of Wonder-Man, not seen alive since 1964
Death of Jarella
Introduction of the Eternals, Deviants, and Celestials. The more well known characters include: Ikaris, Sersi, Thena, Makkari, Gilgamesh, and Kro.
Jean Grey 'becomes' the Phoenix

1977 - Warlock epic with Thanos concludes this year
Ms. Marvel debuts.
Spider-Woman also debuts.
The X-Men go off into Shi'ar space for the first time.

1978 - Captain Britain starts appearing in the US
The Champions break up
Professor Xavier leaves Earth
Ms. Marvel gets her classic blue-black costume
Spider-Man teams up with the original cast of Saturday Night Live to fight the Silver Samurai
Nova begins a cosmic adventure involving a war between the Xandarians and the Skrulls.

1979 - Tony Stark's alcoholism is introduced
The Eternals are brought into the mainstream Marvel Universe
ROM debuts

1980 - Death of Jean Grey
Ms. Marvel's Oedipus rape baby incident with Marcus, the son of Immortus
Bobbi Morse becomes Mockingbird.

1981 - Hank Pym's mental breakdown, which includes him getting kicked off the Avengers after hitting his wife

1982 - Many heroes meet at the Contest of Champions
Bruce Banner's mind gains control of the Hulk
Fight with Galactus.
Frankie Raye becomes Galactus' herald Nova
Professor X regains the ability to walk
Death of Elektra

1983 - Johnny Blaze is freed of the curse of the Ghost Rider.
Thor's Donald Blake identity is removed.
Tony Stark succumbs to alcoholism again, and James Rhodes becomes Iron Man.
Introduction of the Morlocks.
The founding members of the Defenders are all forced off the team.
Dr. Strange destroys all vampires on Earth.
The Fantastic Four have an extended romp in the Negative Zone, come back with new costumes, engage in a crossover with the Avengers, and then participate in the Trial of Galactus.
Storm undergoes a personality change complete with new wardrobe and hairstyle.
Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor are married, as are Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil.
Female Dire Wraiths are introduced

1984 - Secret Wars
The Casket of Ancient Winters
Spider-Man find a symbiote costume
She-Hulk joins the Fantastic Four while the Thing adventures on Battleplanet
Marriage of Black Bolt and Medusa
Storm loses her powers
Beginning of a big Wraith War

1985 - The Thing returns from Battleplanet, but wanders the country instead of joining the FF.
The Vision tries to take over the world
The Serpent Society forms, led by Sidewinder and consisting of a number of existing snake themed super-villains plus some new ones, notably Diamondback.
The Baxter Building is destroyed when Dr. Doom's replacement, Kristoff, launches it into space.
The Savage Land is destroyed.
Tony Stark returns to the Iron Man armor, in a red and silver suit.
Susan Richards makes the name change from Invisible Girl to Invisible Woman.
All Skrulls lose their shape-shifting ability.
The Hulk returns to Earth.
Dani Moonstar joins the Valkyries.

1986 - Return of Jean Grey and the formation of X-Factor.
The death of Jean DeWolff.
Magneto becoming headmaster of the New Mutant's school.
The end of the second Secret Wars
The birth of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch's twins.
The birth of Nathanial Summers, the baby that will go on to become Cable.
Thor becomes the Frog of Thunder
Sharon Ventura becomes the new Ms. Marvel.
The marriage of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross.
The Hulk's transformation to his original grey form.
Psylocke joins the X-Men cast.
Dakota North debuts
Daredevil's Born Again incident

1987 - Hank Pym attempts suicide, but is stopped by Firebird
The Avengers and Fantastic Four go up against fights with the X-Men
Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's wedding
Kraven and his last hunt
The Human Torch and Alicia Masters are also married.
Steve Rogers gives up being Captain America again.

1988 - SHIELD is disbanded.
The Thing and Sharon Ventura mutate, with Ventura becoming a She-Thing.
The "death" of the X-Men, the real death of Cypher, and the revelation of Angel as Death.
Iron Man concludes his Armor Wars.
The Evolutionary War.
The Beast returns to his blue and fuzzy form, albeit now with super-strength.
The Hulk gains a new status quo as an enforcer in Las Vegas.
Reintroduction of Madripoor
Introduction of Genosha.
Demonic invasion of New York City
Major line-up overhauls the Avengers
Crystal leaves the FF.

1989 - Jean Grey's memories merged with Phoenix and Madelyne Pryor's.
Madelyne Pryor revealed as the Goblyn Queen and killed.
Magik reverted to infancy.
Hydrobase (Avengers Island) sunk.
Psylocke becomes an Asian ninja.

1990 - Acts of Vengeance, The Terminus Factor, Lifeform, Spidey's Totally Tiny Adventure, Days of Future Present, and X-Tinction Agenda.
Thanos returns in Silver Surfer and acquires the Infinity Gems
Code: Blue, a police force dedicated to dealing with super-villain threats, is introduced.

1991 - Hulk's three personalities are combined into a new merged Hulk.
Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor's baby son is infected with a techno-virus and is sent into the future.
The Avengers get a new charter under the United Nations.
Thanos loses the Infinity Gauntlet to Adam Warlock, who has returned from the "dead" along with Gamora and Pip the Troll.
The New Mutants become X-Force.
Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Madrox the Multiple Man, Strong Guy, and Quicksilver form the new X-Factor.
The X-Men divide into Blue and Gold teams.
Magneto is seemingly killed.
Korvac Quest, Kings of Pain, Von Strucker Gambit, Vibranium Vendetta, and Subterranean Wars.
The Kingpin's criminal empire is torn down and he becomes a fugitive.
It's revealed that a Skrull has been posing as Alicia Masters since 1984.

1992 - A Kree/Shi'ar War ends with some Avengers seemingly killing the Supreme Intelligence and the Shi'ar taking over the Kree empire.
The Marvel heroes face Warlock's dark side, the Magus, in Infinity War.
Peter Parker's parents seemingly return.
Revelations about Cable and Stryfe are given (or at least hinted at) in X-Cutioner's Song, and the Legacy virus is released.

1993 - Return of Elektra.
Cable is revealed to be the son of Cyclops (and not the clone).
Magneto returns, pulls out Wolverine's adamantium, and is put in a coma by Professor X.
Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom are seemingly killed.

1994 - Marriage of Cyclops and Jean Grey
Marriage of Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler
The West Coast Avengers are disbanded, replaced by Force Works.
Fantastic Force is formed.
The Phalanx Covenant, which introduces new mutants as part of the lead up to Generation X.
Beginning of the second Clone Saga

[Revolutionary_Jack]

This website has a good insight:
http://zak-site.com/Great-American-N..._universe.html

To me Marvel has two great "eras". There's the 60s with Lee-Kirby-Ditko, and then there's the 80s under Jim Shooter. Every other period between and after these periods is based on one or two of them. There's no third great era for Marvel Comics in my opinion, though some people might contest that. I think you could say Bendis' time at Marvel, his influence and so on was another era. But to me it's not as set in stone as the first two.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I like Marvel's 70s era of martial arts, werewolves and vampires.

[Sandy Hausler]

You could say Marvel are split into 3 eras

The Golden Age - antiquated simple stories
The Stan Lee Age - adult targeted stories
The Modern Age - diversified stories

No love for the Lost Generation Age?