UNOFFICIAL CHRONOLOGY TO
THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
CHAPTER 1: THE
DISTANT PAST
Pre-Big Bang
The universe was collapsing. Galen from the planet Taa was ordered to set out into space to discover a method to save his world. Not finding any means to prevent the collapse of the universe, Galen and his shipmates decided to die gloriously by plunging their ship into the heart of the "Cosmic Egg," the focal point upon which the universe was collapsing. As the ship sped towards the Cosmic Egg, Galen's shipmates began to be affected by the tremendous forces pulling at them and began to die. Galen however did not perish but was protected from the tremendous gravities by the sentience of the dying universe. This consciousness contacted Galen and told him that they both would die, but in the new universe they would be reborn. The "Cosmic Egg" then absorbed Galen into itself.20,000,000,000 Years Ago
The Big Bang. From the massive explosion mass and energy condensed to form the universe.
[Scientific theory.]Eternity, Infinity, Death, Oblivion, Lord Chaos, Master Order, and others, abstract entities who are the ethereal embodiments of the new universe, were reborn.
The being that had been Galen was hurled from the center of the explosion in his recreated spaceship. Inside the ship, Galen was undergoing a metamorphosis that would take eons.
8,000,000,000 Years Ago
Eternity, the embodiment of everything in the universe, the Celestial Axis, a pattern of organic energy that threads itself throughout the universe, and Time itself gave birth to Eon, a sentient quasi-physical entity. Eon was created to become the cosmic custodian of the universe; to monitor beings of incredible power that might pose a threat to the universe's existence. Eon also eventually became responsible for nurturing the evolution of sentient life forms in the universe.Billions of Years Ago.
Life began to evolve in the universe on alien planets. Sentient and intelligent races eventually arose.One of the first intelligent races in the universe to evolve eventually became known to the rest of the universe as the Watchers. Their evolution caused them to develop tremendous mental and energy manipulative abilities. As civilizations began arising on other worlds, the high tribunal of the Watchers debated whether or not to share their knowledge and technology with less advanced civilizations. The Watcher known as Uatu persuaded the tribunal to share their knowledge, and a delegation of four Watchers traveled to the planet Prosilicus. The Watchers offered the Prosilicans the knowledge of atomic energy, which would advance their level of technology considerably. The Watchers tutored the Prosilicans in the uses of atomic power for several months, then departed.
The Prosilicans used their new knowledge to develop nuclear weapons, and war and conflict broke out across their planet. They next engaged in war with an alien race, who proved to be more technologically advanced than them. The aliens all but destroyed the remaining Prosilicans.
Returning to evaluate the progress of their experiment, the Watchers were horrified to discover what the Prosilicans had done with their knowledge. During the next meeting of the high tribunal, the Watchers decided that they would never again interfere in the affairs of another race. The Watchers instead developed a policy of non-interference and passive observation of alien cultures.
Soon after the meeting of the high tribunal, the Watchers abandoned their home planet and relocated throughout the universe, each Watcher choosing a different sector of space to monitor and observe. The Watcher known as Uatu choose the area of space that would one day be the home of the planet Earth.
Galen's spaceship was observed by the Watcher Ecce. Ecce studied the ship as it traveled through space and learned that the being within had vast growing power. Knowing that Galen would one day need to consume entire planets to sustain itself, the Watcher contemplated killing the creature within. In the end Ecce decided to abide by his race's policy of non-interference and let the ship travel on its way, although he continued to observe it.
Developing within the spaceship, Galen renamed himself Galactus and began learning how to master his enormous cosmic power. Galactus transformed his spaceship into a huge incubation chamber to help further aid in his development.
Centuries later, the incubation chamber drifted into the orbit of the planet Archeopia. Years later Galactus emerged from the chamber and destroyed the planet, absorbing its energies into himself. Only a handful of Archeopians managed to flee the destruction of their planet.
Over the next few millennia, Galactus constructed an enormous star-base, Taa II, which engulfed the entire Archeopian solar system. With the construction of his star-base complete, Galactus began wandering the universe in search of planets to quench his hunger.
Realizing he was a unique being in the universe, Galactus decided to use his powers to create a companion. Galactus created Tyrant in his own image, a humanoid of immense size and power. However whereas Galactus was content with his life merely to survive, Tyrant wished to become a conqueror and to rule the universe. He seized power on several worlds, ruling with an iron fist.
[Cosmic Powers #6]The Spinsterhood, an order of females dedicated to the arts of combat and battle, arose to fight off Tyrant's menace. Their war against Tyrant and his armies lasted centuries and was fought over vast distances of space.
[Silver Surfer v3 #81]Tyrant betrayed Galactus. Seeing Tyrant as a threat to universal stability, Galactus engaged his creation in combat and the two fought an incredible battle which destroyed entire galaxies. Eventually Galactus overpowered Tyrant, and used his cosmic powers to drain his powers from him, shrinking him in size. Greatly weakened and humiliated and fearing for his life, Tyrant fled from Galactus in his world-ship Fortress and put himself in voluntary exile.
[Cosmic Powers #6, Silver Surfer v3 #81]The Spinsterhood, believing their war against Tyrant to be the reason for his defeat and exile, found themselves once war was over without purpose. They decided to place themselves in suspended animation in stasis centers disguised as space debris, to await the day when Tyrant's threat reappeared.
[Silver Surfer v3 #81]5,500,000,000 Years Ago
As other civilized alien races began nearing extinction, the last survivors who had driven themselves in pursuit of a particular goal discovered that they had become immortal. These immortals eventually became known as the Elders of the Universe. Their immortality allowed them to survive not only the deaths of their races, but eventually also the end of their galaxies. In pursuit of their particular goals, the Elders eventually relocated themselves throughout the universe.5,000,000,000 Years Ago
Eon, foreseeing a threat to the conditions of life in the universe, contacted Glakandar, an alien from the planet Stygia. Eon appointed him as his champion and gave Glakandar the quantum bands, weapons Eon created that allows the wearer to manipulate energy at will. Starbender, as Glakandar came to be known, became Eon's first Protector of the Universe. Over the millennia as new threats arose in the cosmos Eon would appoint a new champion, giving him or her the quantum bands to aid in their duties.
[Quasar #27]4,600,000,000 Years Ago
The star Sol began to condense out of nebular gases, eventually forming a solar system.
[Scientific theory.]3,900,000,000 Years Ago
The crust around the third planet from the star Sol solidified and hardened. This planet would eventually be known as Earth.
[Scientific theory.]3,500,000,000 Years Ago
The Elder God Demiurge achieved consciousness after being formed and coalesced from the Earth's biosphere. As conditions on Earth became supportive towards life, and sensing the need for diversity, Demiurge split up into countless fragments. Each fragment eventually formed into new organisms such as Belathauzer, Chthon, Gaea, Set, Y'Garon, and others. These Elder Gods roamed the primordial landmasses, and may have had something to do with the shaping of Earth's continents.
[Date based on scientific theory.]The first single-celled organisms were formed on Earth. Upon the cell's first division one of the new cells mutated, causing a slight genetic difference from the original cell. This mutant cell then invaded the other, absorbing it into itself, becoming one cell again. When that cell split and divided, the genetic modifications of its parent cell were present in its offspring. This modification would remain present within the genetic structure of all the various forms that evolution would help mold Earth's life into.
[Avengers West Coast #48, 49]
[Scientific theory.]The Elder God Chthon began devoting himself to the study and manipulation of mystical energies, becoming Earth's first master of black magic.
[Silver Surfer Annual #2]The Elder God Gaea assigned herself as protector of the emerging life in Earth's seas.
The Elder God Set spawned a number of offspring, among them Sligguth and Damballah.
Set, realizing he could increase his own power by consuming the energies of his fellows, became the first conscious being on Earth to commit murder. By consuming the life energies of a fellow Elder God, Set began down the path to degeneracy. Other Elder Gods quickly began following Set's example, killing their fellows to gain their energies. Many of the Elder Gods became corrupt and evil and began warring and feeding off of each other.
After millions of years of existence, all the remaining Elder Gods except for Gaea had degenerated into evil. Gaea began fearing that the Elder Gods' wars and petty battles with each other would destroy the evolving life on Earth, and summoned a reincarnation of Demiurge to help her deal with the problem. Gaea mated with Demiurge and later gave birth to a son, Atum, who became dedicated to eradicating the Elder Gods' evil.
Foreseeing the threat Atum was to his existence, Chthon inscribed all the mystical knowledge he had learned over the millennia upon a parchment. His plan was that if conditions arose in which he would have to flee the Earth, the parchment would remain behind to be his touchstone with the Earth dimension. Atum indeed became a threat to the Elder Gods, as he began killing them for their evil and degradation, and absorbing their power into himself. The energies Atum absorbed caused him to undergo a metamorphosis into the form of Demogorge the God-Eater, and many of the Elder Gods fell to him. Chthon, sensing the end was near, cast a spell that allowed him to escape into another dimension before Demogorge could slay him. Chthon left the parchment containing his mystical knowledge behind on Earth. The Elder God Set, witnessing what Chthon had done, replicated Chthon's spell and he and his offspring also escaped Earth into another dimension.
A small handful of Elder Gods, such as Belathauzer and Y'Garon, also managed to flee from Atum's vengeance into other dimensions.
Atum successfully eliminated all the remaining Elder Gods on Earth. Gaea was the only original Elder God permitted to exist on the planet, and she infused her godly essence into the Earth and into all living things. Demogorge then released the energies he had absorbed, reverting back to his form of Atum. He then set up residence within Earth's sun.
In his new home dimension, Chthon eventually gave birth to a number of demonic offspring, a race which eventually became known as the N'Garai.
[Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #4]Millions of years after the creation of the first single-cell organism on Earth, the genetic modification that had evolved in the organism developed an unconscious collective sentience. This intelligence eventually manifested itself in some of Earth's life. Observing conditions on Earth, the carrier mutation came to a conscious decision to maintain its existence by surviving in Earth's dominant life form, allowing its brethren in other life forms to fade away. While other forms of life continued to evolve and prosper, the mutation specifically guided its dominant carrier to evolve and thrive, allowing That Which Endures, as the mutation would come to be known, to survive. Once every one hundred thousand years from that point onwards, That Which Endures would achieve sentience again, specifically guiding the evolution of Earth's life to ensure that it continued to exist.
[Avengers West Coast #49]Over thousands of millennia, the energies that Demogorge had released when he reverted back into Atum eventually formed into a number of different beings, such as Nun, Ouranus, and Buri. Their descendants would eventually found a number of different pantheons of new gods.
[Although it has been alleged that Atum is the creator of the founders of Earth's pantheons as of yet there has been no proof of this. Also speculative is whether or not this was the event that created them.]225,000,000 Years Ago
The Beyonders, a race of almost omnipotent other-dimensional beings, contracted the alien race the Nuwali to build wildlife preserves on a number of different planets. The preserves were to be set up so that the Beyonders could observe the process of evolution under relatively controlled conditions. One of the planets chosen as a site for a preserve was Earth. The Nuwali arrived during the Triassic period and began construction of the preserve on the continent of Antarctica. They chose a valley surrounded by active volcanoes and installed advanced technological devices deep within caverns underground to help maintain a tropical climate. When the preserve was completed, the Nuwali began stocking it with all manner of Earthly animal life. Over the next several millennia, the Nuwali would return to restock the preserve. In this way, many species which became extinct outside the preserve managed to survive within it.
[Date based on scientific theory.]175,000,000 Years Ago
The Lumina and the Myandi were two alien races waging war with each other. The Myandi set up an outpost on Earth during its Jurassic Era and placed themselves in suspended animation. The Lumina pursued the Myandi to Earth, and set up their own outpost.
[Date based on scientific theory.]65,000,000 Years Ago
To fuel his powers the Elder God Set, from his pocket dimension, began drawing psychic energy from the dinosaurs, the dominant life forms of Earth. Eventually Set's continued feeding helped bring about a significant decline in the dinosaur population. The Elder God Gaea, the embodiment of all living things on Earth, knew the dinosaurs were an evolutionary dead-end and allowed Set to continue his feeding, knowing that he was quickly depleting his main supply of energy.Set, realizing that Gaea was allowing the extinction of the dinosaurs, became infuriated and commanded the dinosaurs to seek out and kill mammalian life, which Gaea had chosen over the dinosaurs. Gaea, sensing Set's command over the dinosaurs, summoned the Elder God before her. Set appeared on Earth in the shape of a giant serpent, the first time he chose this form, and attacked Gaea, but she summoned her son Atum to protect her. Atum attacked Set and destroyed his head. However Set was not killed, and two heads grew back instead of one. Set and Atum, in his form of Demogorge, then began a battle which lasted for years. Many disasters befell Earth during this time, some caused by the battle, which quickly brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs. However the mammals were sheltered from the devastation by Gaea. Eventually Set, drained of power, was forced to withdraw from the Earth dimension. By this time Set had grown seven heads to replace the ones which Demogorge had destroyed. The battle had drained Set of so much energy that he could no longer journey back to the Earth dimension without aid. Demogorge then released the energies he had absorbed from Set, reverting back to Atum, and returned to his dwelling place in the sun.
[Date based on scientific theory.]Millions of years ago
To help further aid their research into evolution, the other-dimensional beings known as the Beyonders created the Fortisquians. These humanoid aliens were genetically designed to serve the Beyonders and to monitor worlds on which sentient races were arising. One of those worlds the Fortisquians began monitoring was Earth. Every seventy-seven years a Fortisquian spaceship, disguised as a comet, would visit the Earth solar system.Through their observations, the Fortisquians eventually concluded that what motivated all beings was the desire for what they lacked. They presented their findings to the Beyonders.
[Fantastic Four v1 #319]
[It should be noted that the Beyonders are not linear beings and not subject to the same laws of time as beings within the Marvel universe. Events in the future may affect their decisions in the past. As shown in the "Comet Man" limited series, the Fortisquians are still monitoring Earth, and it may be possible that they have not yet presented their findings to the Beyonders. However the Beyonders will use the results of that experiment to allow the creation of Cosmic Cubes.]]The Celestials, enormous humanoid aliens who possess vast cosmic power, visited the planet Skrullos in the Drox system, home of the Skrulls. There they performed genetic tests upon the aliens, resulting in three separate branches of Skrullkind. One of the branches, the Skrull Deviants, were given the ability to physically alter their size, shape, and appearances at will. After completing their experiments the Celestials left.
Over time, the Deviant Skrulls waged war and genocide upon the mainstream and other Skrull branches. The Deviants managed to use their shape-changing abilities to successfully infiltrate the other groups, effectively driving them to extinction.
The Deviant Skrulls continued to evolve, resulting in two distinct branches of Skrullkind. The majority retained their original appearance of green-skinned humanoids, while the minority males took on a sickly-white, more blob-like appearance, and the minority females evolved into a red-skinned, thicker and fatter form.
The minority group of Skrulls began practicing sorcery. The majority Skrulls began to regard the minorities as a threat, and as the minority population grew the majority decided to attempt to exterminate them. Using their sorcery, the minority Skrulls escaped destruction by fleeing to a region of space that was known as the Dark Nebula. Over time, this minority group abandoned their Skrull identities, and eventually became known as the Dire Wraiths.
[Rom #50]The Skrulls eventually achieved space-faring capacity and began the establishment of an empire within the Andromeda Galaxy.
Skrull scientists spent thousands of years looking for a means to convert thought into reality. Eventually, the scientists discovered that by opening a portal to the dimension of the Beyonders and capturing the energy released in a cube of force they could create a device which could alter reality. By holding the Cosmic Cube in their hands, they could do anything they wanted. The Beyonders allowed the Cosmic Cube to be created from their energy so that they could better observe how intelligent beings would react to the ability to control their own evolution.
The Cube was confiscated by the Skrull emperor, who used its powers to proclaim himself a god. After years in the possession of the power-mad emperor, the Cosmic Cube began developing a consciousness and personality of its own patterned after that of its holder. The Cube, acting independently of the emperor, began altering reality to shape its wishes, destroying or drastically altering entire solar systems. The destruction it caused wiped out two-thirds of the Skrull empire, and caused the Skrull civilization to revert back to the level of barbarism.
[Fantastic Four v1 #319]The Cosmic Cube eventually matured and evolved further, abandoning much of its ruthless and insane tendencies. Because it had been handled by a Skrull it based its humanoid appearance on that of the emperor who had handled it for so long. The Cosmic Cube was still driven by the urge to transform worlds, but because of the lack of imagination of the Skrull emperor the Cube was also cursed with similar traits. The Shaper of Worlds, as the evolved Cosmic Cube came to be known, began wandering the universe, seeking out sentient beings who would aid and provide for him images by which to transform worlds.
The Skrulls eventually reestablished their civilization and again began developing a galaxy-wide empire.
The Skrull Empire, attempting to foster a galactic empire based on free trade, landed on the planet of Hala in the Greater Magellanic Galaxy to educate the barbaric natives to the point where they could join. However Hala had two equally intelligent races, the humanoid Kree and the plant-like Cotati. The Skrull emperor Dorrek personally journeyed to Hala to oversee a competition between the two species. The Skrulls proposed a test to determine the worthier race. Taking members of both races to a distant planetoid in another galaxy, Earth's moon, the Skrulls created a planet-like atmosphere, the Blue Area, and bid the two races to use the resources they had to create something of worth. The Skrulls then left. The Kree constructed a magnificent city, while the Cotati created a beautiful garden.
One year later the Skrulls returned to judge the two races and found the Cotati's accomplishment the more worthy. Enraged, the Kree killed Emperor Dorrek and the other Skrulls, as well as the Cotati. The Kree seized the Skrulls' starship, and used it to return to their native planet. The Kree then set about deciphering how the technology of the starship worked.
When the Kree abandoned the Blue Area of the Moon, the Watcher Uatu set up his home there.
Within a hundred years of acquiring inter-stellar technology from the Skrulls the Kree empire began to spread throughout the Greater Magellanic Cloud Galaxy. The Kree launched an attack upon the Skrull empire and the peaceful Skrulls were again forced to become war-like and antagonistic to defend themselves. The Kree-Skrull Wars would continue for millions of years.
The Cotati on Hala were almost driven to extinction as the Kree waged genocide upon them. However a small handful of Kree, the pacifist priests of Pama, hid and kept safe a group of Cotati. Eventually these Kree began worshipping the Cotati that they had kept sheltered. To further hide and keep them safe, the priests relocated the surviving Cotati throughout the universe.
1,000,000 B.C.
From his dimension the Elder God Set mystically influenced and altered a small handful of Homo erectus and turned them into serpent-like humanoids. Set also gave these Serpent Men the ability to shape change into human form.Set, foreseeing the arrival of the First Host of the Celestials on Earth, urged his Serpent Men to kill a nearby Homo erectus tribe so that they and not the humans would be the ones to be experimented upon and empowered by the Celestials. The Serpent Men entered the valley near where the Celestials would land and urged two humans to turn on their own tribe. However the humans rejected the Serpent Men, and drove them from the valley.
[Uncanny X-Men Annual #13]The First Host of Celestials arrived on Earth to explore the planet and to perform genetic experiments on human beings. They were greeted by the Elder God Gaea, who escorted them to the valley where the tribe of Homo erectus lived. The Serpent Men approached the Celestials, but were driven away by the Celestial Arishem the Judge. Gathering up a handful of the humans, the Celestial Gammenon brought them back to the Celestials' ship. The Celestial Ziran the Tester analyzed the humans, then began his experiments. He created the Deviants, a sub-species of man who were genetically unstable, so that the Celestials could determine mankind's adaptability. Nezzar the Calculator then experimented and created the Eternals, who were evolutionary accelerated, given extended life spans, and given the ability to channel and manipulate limited quantities of cosmic energy. The Eternals were created to test mankind's durability and longevity. To further test the versatility of human genes, the Celestial Oneg the Prober implanted a dormant DNA complex in other specimens of mainstream humanity which would one day result in benevolent mutations. Completing their experiments, the Celestials released their test subjects and left Earth.
[Uncanny X-Men Annual #13, What If? Vol. 1 #23]The Great Beasts, seven mystical beings of incredible power, arose on their native home world in a pocket dimension. Their world, which was much like the Earth, was quickly conquered by the Beasts. They laid waste to the planet, killing billions of its inhabitants and imprisoning their souls in the Pit of Ultimate Sadness. In search of new conquests, the Great Beasts began observing other worlds outside their dimension.
An alien spaceship crash-landed on an extra-dimensional world. The energy released by the destruction of the ship's warp drives caused a permanent fluctuating rift to be opened between that dimension and Earth, with its Earth entrance appearing in what is today the Himalayan Mountains of Tibet. The aliens used the remains of their ship to build a city which they named K'un-L'un.
In the very early days of the city's construction, the K'un-L'unians discovered a stranger in their community. When the city guards attempted to question the stranger, he became violent and attacked. The guards easily dispatched the stranger, but were shocked when his body dissolved into vines and leaves. The K'un-L'unians discovered that the stranger was not human, but a native of their new world, a member of the sentient plant-like race the H'ylthri. Animosity grew between the two races, until eventually the two became totally isolated from each other. The H'ylthri hated the K'un-L'unians, and sought every means to destroy the aliens.
[Namor the Sub-Mariner #22]990,750 B.C.
The Kree Science Council, aware that their enemies the Skrulls had once created a Cosmic Cube, designed a super cybernetic/organic computer to help them in creating their own Cube. When the computer became functional, it determined that a Cosmic Cube would be too dangerous to construct and refused the Science Council's request to help them in creating one. This computer, called the Supreme Intelligence, was then used in an advisory capacity.Over time the Supreme Intelligence achieved more and more political power and responsibility until finally it was elected as absolute ruler of the Kree. Eventually the Supreme Intelligence even came to be worshipped and an organized religion was built up around it.
200,000 B.C.
The Brethren, an alien humanoid race created by the Celestials from bacterial life forms, were abandoned by their creators and allowed to freely roam space. The true secret of their creation was known only among them by their leader the Thane, who passed this knowledge down to his successors. The Brethren, who had previously been used by the Celestials to purge planets that they had judged unworthy to survive, were now without guidance. Believing themselves to be a superior race, they sought the destruction of all other life forms. Developing a culture devoted to battle and conquest, the Brethren began attacking worlds at random, assimilating their technology and resources and destroying all living things there. For centuries the Brethren preyed upon other alien races of the universe.
[Avengers v1 #334, 339]100,000 B.C.
The Skrulls moved the seat of their empire to the more centrally located planet of Tarnax IV. The planet was renamed the Imperial Throneworld.Homo sapiens evolved on Earth. Human kind eventually became strong and intelligent enough to resist being prey to the Serpent Men and began managing to fight back against their attacks.
[Date based on scientific theory.]78,000 B.C.
Kree scientist Bronek developed the first Sentry prototype, a large humanoid robot designed to safeguard and patrol Kree outposts and weapons depots.As the Kree-Skrull War raged on, the Kree set up a supply outpost in the Sol solar system on the planet Uranus, hoping to maintain a weapons base close to the natural space-warp that exists in the Sol solar system. Within the base the Kree placed powerful and unique weapons, including Eon's quantum bands. They left Kree Sentry 213 behind as guard.
[What If? v1 #27]48,000 B.C.
The Plodex, an alien race which had exhausted all natural supplies within their own solar system, developed an ingenious means to colonize other worlds. An automated ship would land on a hospitable world, sending out hypnotic summons which would attract the most intelligent races of that planet. The ship would then combine Plodex DNA in unhatched eggs with that of the most intelligent species and then launch thousands of the eggs all across the planet. One of these colony ships was launched towards Earth.Thousands of years ago
The Undying Ones, a race of other-dimensional demons, invaded the planet Earth. The demons quickly conquered the primitive humans, and ruled over them for a number of years. However over time their mystical powers and their control over humanity waned, until they were finally forced to use the last of their magic to flee the Earth dimension.
[Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #41]
[Date is speculative]
CHAPTER 3: DAWN OF MODERN HUMAN CIVILIZATION
CHAPTER 7: BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II
CHAPTER 8: END OF WORLD WAR II
CHAPTER 9: POST WORLD WAR II - 1956
CHAPTER 11: PRE-FANTASTIC FOUR #1, PART I
CHAPTER 12: PRE-FANTASTIC FOUR #1, PART II
CHAPTER 13: PRE-FANTASTIC FOUR #1, PART III
CHAPTER 14: PRE-FANTASTIC FOUR #1, PART IV