Navigating Marvel's Secret Path to "Secret Wars"

[DrTraveler]

Glad they mentioned Hickman's FF run. Everything after the "Forever" arc was set up for his Avengers run and there are enough clues prior to "Forever" to make you wonder if this started as a Fantastic Four arc that just grew into an Avengers event.

Funny aside: I was actually rereading Age of Apocalypse and 1602 and realized that while they probably aren't seeds for Secret Wars, they do both have a theme that leads into Secret Wars. Namely the Marvel Multiverse has a long history of being very fragile. They almost lost the whole Multiverse in AoA and in 1602 because of actions taken by time travelers originating from Earth itself. There's even a diagram in the M'Kraan Crystal that looks like it's the beta version of an Incursion showing how the destruction of one universe imperils those around it and eventually the whole of the multiverse.

Once you go back and read that stuff, it becomes a lot easier to understand that someone could possibly start the Incursions in Hickman's run. It doesn't seem that hard to really put the multiverse in danger.

[pmpknface]

I can't believe this article left out the murder of the Living Tribunal. Which is quite possibly the biggest piece of the puzzle.

I agree that I don't like the Beyonder as an Inhuman and it doesn't really jive with what happened between Secret Wars I & II.

I forgot all about this image of the Living Tribunal! However I just found under his entry on Marvel's wiki:

Uatu and Iron Man found the Living Tribunal on the Moon, apparently deceased, but possibly just unconscious.

So there's that. I gotta go get a recap of this issue as I barely remember what happened there.

This column was great! But I do think it should be updated with information from Hickman's SHIELD books (soon to be finished, how convenient is that?). I'm also wondering if House of M and Age of X have anything to do with this, as they are both reality shaping stories. I think the Age of Apoclypse Earth was wiped out at the end of Lapham's recent series, but there may be a tie in there too...?

[Darkhawk]

Apologies if this has already been posted (slow internet here), but there is a glaring - and to my mind, somewhat offensive, given their impact - oversight here:

What about everything Abnett and Lanning did for the Cosmic U?

Sure, we can perhaps leave out Annihilus encroaching from the Negative Zone (even though that carried over into Fantastic Four and the Death of Johnny Storm).

But what about all of the Thanos Imperative? The Cancerverse? This is pretty much a direct quote from one of those comics: "All the incursions between realities over the years have weakened the barriers between realities. Black Bolt's bomb finally ripped the seams, and the Fault has opened."

Of course, it's not atypical for Marvel to ignore DnA (even though they, y'know, gave us Guardians of the Galaxy). So many intriguing plot threads developed over so much time, then totally chucked out the window when cosmic characters became a hot property and Bendis! and co. take over. So yeah, probably there will be no mention of Cancerverse or the Fault in Secret Wars, and that's a real shame.

[danielb]

Interesting thought. Disco_Magic. If they were to do that, it would probably mean retconning everything post-Dissasembled.

[DrTraveler]

Apologies if this has already been posted (slow internet here), but there is a glaring - and to my mind, somewhat offensive, given their impact - oversight here:

What about everything Abnett and Lanning did for the Cosmic U?

Sure, we can perhaps leave out Annihilus encroaching from the Negative Zone (even though that carried over into Fantastic Four and the Death of Johnny Storm).

But what about all of the Thanos Imperative? The Cancerverse? This is pretty much a direct quote from one of those comics: "All the incursions between realities over the years have weakened the barriers between realities. Black Bolt's bomb finally ripped the seams, and the Fault has opened."

Of course, it's not atypical for Marvel to ignore DnA (even though they, y'know, gave us Guardians of the Galaxy). So many intriguing plot threads developed over so much time, then totally chucked out the window when cosmic characters became a hot property and Bendis! and co. take over. So yeah, probably there will be no mention of Cancerverse or the Fault in Secret Wars, and that's a real shame.

It's possible that will factor in too. Bendis makes a reference in the opening arc of New Avengers Vol 2 about how outside our reality wait terrible things trying to get in... and now the barriers are weak enough for that to start to happen. I'd always seen that as a sly reference to the DnA work over in the Cosmic books, but maybe its' more.

[kevinism]

Glad they mentioned Hickman's FF run. Everything after the "Forever" arc was set up for his Avengers run and there are enough clues prior to "Forever" to make you wonder if this started as a Fantastic Four arc that just grew into an Avengers event.

Funny aside: I was actually rereading Age of Apocalypse and 1602 and realized that while they probably aren't seeds for Secret Wars, they do both have a theme that leads into Secret Wars. Namely the Marvel Multiverse has a long history of being very fragile. They almost lost the whole Multiverse in AoA and in 1602 because of actions taken by time travelers originating from Earth itself. There's even a diagram in the M'Kraan Crystal that looks like it's the beta version of an Incursion showing how the destruction of one universe imperils those around it and eventually the whole of the multiverse.

Once you go back and read that stuff, it becomes a lot easier to understand that someone could possibly start the Incursions in Hickman's run. It doesn't seem that hard to really put the multiverse in danger.

I blame Hank McCoy

[vitruvian]

Good question. Surprised I haven't thought of that possibility yet.

It wasn't supposed to be an alternate Earth or timeline, though, it was supposed to be the actual past of the 616 universe, with causal connections to the present maintained, e.g., with Tyclops' near-death experience causing Cyke to start to vanish and the universe overall to fritz.

[vitruvian]

Don't forget Hickman's run of SHIELD, the quote "This is not how the world ends" was used extensively and Galileo sent Galactus to another Earth so he would not devour his Earth.

It was a decoy Earth created within the same universe, though, so more like an early Counter-Earth than one of these alternates.

[Bl00dwerK]

Reading this just now, I wonder... has the earth/timeline of the all new xmen been destroyed? And that is why they cannot go back?

Sounds reasonable...

[vitruvian]

That would make sense, but Bendis has said that the kids are actually the past versions of the original 616 X-Men, not alternate reality versions of them--which doesn't make sense at all. We saw how adult Cyclops almost ceased to be when his younger self almost died, but we haven't seen any of the living adult versions recalling events that have happened to their younger selves.

Presumably, if they are actually from the same timeline and eventually return, they need to get mindwiped and all their character development in the present day eliminated. Which may argue against that really being the case, I suppose.

Except for the Fantastic Four scenes listed in the article, we haven't heard much about Franklin's role in this. He can create universes and has been said to be the most powerful mutant on the planet. Since his parents have such big roles in the upcoming story, I hope he isn't forgotten.

Future Franklin has been kind of important to the New Avengers/Avengers/Time Runs Out storyline that likely leads up to this, though.

[vitruvian]

All the x-men 2015 covers suggest to me that the x-men timeline of the past will get destroyed. In others words no more DPS as it never existed/never happen since the O5 never went back.

Since they got pulled from before Phoenix and the X-Men saving the M'Kraan Crystal, that would mean no more universe exists at all.

[Cmbmool]

I can't believe this article left out the murder of the Living Tribunal. Which is quite possibly the biggest piece of the puzzle.

Either that or they don't know how important the Living Tribunal is to all of this.

[rdman]

Love how all this will play out

[The Big Texan]

Incursions have been part of the Marvel: Avengers Alliance game since about June 2013. It is interesting because the game seems to be partly a test market where Marvel can gauge the response to certain ideas, and partly a synergistic exercise with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Doctor Strange is getting a big push in the game right now, for example. But also, Blade has just been introduced, so I wonder if Marvel is trying to gauge the fan response to Blade or if Blade will have a role in the Doctor Strange movie. I wonder if incursions will play a part in Avengers: Age of Ultron?

[pad]

Well that would be because his mutant power is his wings and flight. Everything else is due to being a human/atlantean hybrid.

Then why not a change in his flight like being able to fly faster or higher? Or not being able to fly at all? The real world reason is that Namor left the X-Books and other writers didn't want to touch the Phoenix stuff, but there isn't an in-world reason given. The same thing is happening to Colossus now. His current writers have seemed to drop Peter's problems with his powers. Also, it's not just mutant abilities that were affected. Magik got a power boast in her sorcery as well and has been training with a past version of Doctor Strange to control it.