New Avengers and the Great Society Earth-4290001 – Was it inhabited?

[WayneLW]

Hi, all,

So, I just read New Avengers # 16.NOW to # 22, and I noticed something interesting. Other than the flashbacks to the past of the Great Society's Earth, there are never any other people than the Great Society members shown on Earth-4290001, are there? That, and the mention of the one incursion that was stopped by some method that they don't talk about, makes me wonder whether there were any inhabitants of Earth-4290001 when the Illuminati destroyed it. Is it possible that they only killed the members of the Great Society, and no Earth-4290001 humans at all?

Am I mad for noticing this, or is it significant?

[megaharrison]

It was an analogue for the DC Universe. It was inhabited, which is why everybody flipped their **** when Namor blew it up.

[Mr MajestiK]

The other inhabitant of that planet were all off panel.

[Wellman]

Hi, all,

So, I just read New Avengers # 16.NOW to # 22, and I noticed something interesting. Other than the flashbacks to the past of the Great Society's Earth, there are never any other people than the Great Society members shown on Earth-4290001, are there? That, and the mention of the one incursion that was stopped by some method that they don't talk about, makes me wonder whether there were any inhabitants of Earth-4290001 when the Illuminati destroyed it. Is it possible that they only killed the members of the Great Society, and no Earth-4290001 humans at all?

Am I mad for noticing this, or is it significant?

It was inhabited but by a much smaller population, due to some bad bad stuff that went down in that world's past that killed most of the previous population and its original generation of heroes, the Great Society is effectively the only set of heroes there and the population I think they mentioned that during the talk before the fight, the Great Society's world had a smaller population.


Edit: Oh, the event that killed most of their world's previous heroes was a unified Kree -Skrull invasion where they experimented on and subjugated the population after killing off previous heroes that looked like Marvel's.

[dzub]

It was inhabited but by a much smaller population, due to some bad bad stuff that went down in that world's past that killed most of the previous population and its original generation of heroes, the Great Society is effectively the only set of heroes there and the population I think they mentioned that during the talk before the fight, the Great Society's world had a smaller population.


Edit: Oh, the event that killed most of their world's previous heroes was a unified Kree -Skrull invasion where they experimented on and subjugated the population after killing off previous heroes that looked like Marvel's.

which issue is this in?

[Wellman]

which issue is this in?

I want to say 19 because I think 20 was the big fight issue before the conclusion in 21.

[WayneLW]

Thanks for all the replies, everybody.

From what I can see, though, they are all interpretations, none of which are backed by anything shown or stated in the comics. Although Earth-4290001 is clearly an analogue for the DC Universe, it's also clearly not a very direct one, as in # 16.NOW, during the invasion flashbacks, both Wolverine and Namor are shown as the heroes of the world before the Great Society comes into existence. Thus, there's no saying that the analogy doesn't differ in other ways as well.

Of course, the inhabitants may all be off-panel, but one can equally infer that there are no inhabitants at all.

Finally, I cannot find the reference that Wellman refers to anywhere – please point it out to me if you find it, but I see no stated reference to the fact that the "Great Society's world had a smaller population." His information about the invasion is in 16.NOW, but I cannot find a clear statement about the population anywhere else in the issues. (I will reread them tonight.)

As well, there is still the unexplained reference to the fact that the Illuminati were only able to observe two incursions on Earth-4290001 but the Great Society stated that there had been a third that was stopped by means that they don't talk about.

Given that Hickman tends to be careful in the details of his plots, I'm really wondering whether there is something here.

[Kieran_Frost]

Hi, all,

So, I just read New Avengers # 16.NOW to # 22, and I noticed something interesting. Other than the flashbacks to the past of the Great Society's Earth, there are never any other people than the Great Society members shown on Earth-4290001, are there? That, and the mention of the one incursion that was stopped by some method that they don't talk about, makes me wonder whether there were any inhabitants of Earth-4290001 when the Illuminati destroyed it. Is it possible that they only killed the members of the Great Society, and no Earth-4290001 humans at all?

Am I mad for noticing this, or is it significant?

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! INTERESTING!!!! I bet you're right!!! (or Hickman at-least gave the next writer a get out clause)

[TresDias]

There would have been no real reason for the Great Society to fight to protect that Earth if its people were all dead. They would have just migrated to the 616 and pushed for blowing up their own planet.

Also, as I recall, when Beast was talking about the necessity in making a decision to destroy one Earth, Sun God said that he had made the best argument for becoming a mass murderer in history.

[sammy_hansen]

I believe it was inhabited. In issue #21 Reed says "I know it's a necessary evil. I know I would be saving hundreds of trillions of lives at the cost of mere billions." I think Reed and the Illuminati would've noticed other people on the planet. But I do agree it is curious we don't see anyone else. Maybe Reed's machine was faulty?

[TresDias]

I think it's just a case of only showing us what was necessary for the story being told.

I mean, we didn't see anyone from the 616 but the Illuminati and the handful of folks waiting back at the Necropolis for a while as well. Not because those 14 people are all that exist on the 616 Earth, but because they're the only ones relevant to what was going on.

It may have been a deliberate choice on Hickman's part to emphasize the isolation as well.

[MindofShadow]

I really want to know what the thing GS woudln't talk about was... really really want to know.