UNOFFICIAL CHRONOLOGY TO
THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
CHAPTER 10: 1958
- 1980
A.D. 1958
The Skrulls, having been monitoring the Earth solar system for centuries, became aware that mankind was on the verge of space flight. Believing another space-faring race to be a threat to their existence, the Skrulls began actively investigating the Earth, hiding their existence using ships equipped with anti-detection shields.
[Marvel Premiere #35]American test pilot Chuck Chandler was assigned to pilot the new XF-13, an experimental jet plane. Chuck invited his younger brother Hal out to the desert near Los Angeles to witness the XF-13's maiden voyage. During its flight the Skrulls intercepted the jet and used their technology to transport it aboard their saucer. The Skrulls planned on probing Chandler's mind to learn how close humanity was to achieving space flight. However Chandler broke free and threw one of the Skrulls against a sensitive piece of machinery, causing it to overheat. Racing to his jet, Chandler escaped from the Skrulls' ship just as it exploded. However his plane was caught in the shock wave of the explosion and the forces unleashed caused Chandler to begin mysteriously glowing. The jet crash-landed close by the spot where his brother Hal had been observing the test flight. As Chuck raced towards Hal, he vanished in a burst of light. Hal was momentarily stunned but upon recovering his glasses he discovered twin images of Chuck on the lenses. Hal soon learned that by concentrating on the images Chuck could be returned to life, three times stronger and faster than before. As the 3-D Man, Chuck and Hal became a successful crime-fighter, stopping a number of Skrull espionage attempts.
[Marvel Premiere #36]Late A.D. 1950s
Paul Destine emerged from suspended animation. Using his increased powers given to him by the Serpent Crown, Destine, now calling himself Destiny, sensed the presence of the city of Thakorr off the coast of Antarctica. The Elder God Set, realizing that the Atlanteans were nearby and wishing revenge on the Atlantean god Neptune, mentally compelled Destiny to destroy the city. Believing himself acting as a test of his new powers, Destiny triggered a number of undersea earthquakes. Prince Namor journeyed to the surface to investigate the causes of the earthquakes and confronted Destiny but was defeated by him. To punish Namor Destiny destroyed the city while psychically showing Namor its destruction. Although most of the Atlanteans escaped harm Emperor Thakorr and Princess Fen were killed. As a further test of his powers Destiny rendered Namor amnesiac and commanded him to fly to New York city. Destiny then returned to suspended animation to further increase his psychic powers.The surviving Atlanteans decided to emigrate from the destroyed city of Thakorr and resettle in the ruined city of Atlantis. However the location of their former home was lost to them and they spent decades roaming the sea looking for its location. Krang, one of the greatest leaders in the Atlantean militia wished to rule his fellow Atlanteans, but the pressures of undersea living such as barbarian and predator attacks forced him to quell his ambition. Lady Dorma and Krang eventually became engaged to be married. Namora, cousin to Prince Namor and also half Homo sapiens and half Homo mermani, left the Atlanteans to search the world for the missing prince. Namora searched for Namor unsuccessfully for months before finally returning to her fellow Atlanteans.
For the next few decades Namor wandered the surface world with none of his memories, living as a derelict.
Birth of Crystalia Arnaquelin to Quelin and Ambur in the Inhuman city of Attilan, Tibet.
Anya Lehnsherr born to Erik and Magda Lehnsherr.
[Classic X-Men #12]An alien entity encountered American Harris Moore. The entity, which was gaseous and resembled a comet, mutagenically altered Moore, giving him the ability to project energy blasts and to fly. Calling himself the Comet, Moore used his new powers to become a costumed crime-fighter.
A.D. 1959
Walter Charles, working as a janitor in the Mount for the Pantheon, finally reached a boiling point after being taunted by his Pantheon brothers Jason and Perseus. Charles attacked them with his mop handle, poking out Jason's left eye. His training was then taken over by Achilles.
[Incredible Hulk #409]A.D. November 1960
Xemnu the Titan, an intergalactic ruler and conqueror, arrived on Earth. Xemnu used his immense powers to hypnotize the entire population of the world, and then ordered the humans to begin work on an enormous spaceship which would be able to return him to his home world. However one Earthman was able to resist Xemnu's hypnotic control, and using an ordinary mirror was able to turn Xemnu's hypnotic gaze back at the alien. Somehow this resulted in Xemnu being transformed into a gaseous state, which was hurled into outer space by the pressures of Earth's atmosphere. Once free from Xemnu's influence human beings lost their memories of the alien and what he had made them do for him.A.D. February 1961
Soviet sculptor Boris Petrovski had finished work on an colossal, 100 foot tall granite statue when he witnessed the crash-landing of an alien vessel outside of his Moscow studio. Investigating, Petrovski was horrified when he witnessed the crab-like alien pilot emerge from its craft. Petrovski learned that the alien, a member of the Kigor race, intended him no harm but was merely attempting to find a means to survive in Earth's atmosphere. When it spotted the colossal statue, the Kigor transferred his consciousness into it, granting it mobility and a semblance of life.When Soviet officials arrived the next day to view Petrovski's work they observed the huge moving statue. Believing it to be a weapon created by Petrovski to take over the government, the officials called in the army to destroy the statue. Despite the army's attempts the Colossus was not destroyed. In retaliation against the attack, the Kigor used the Colossus to rampage through Moscow. The alien's rampage was finally stopped when a Kigor rescue party arrived. The Kigor removed its consciousness from the Colossus and returned with its fellows to its home-world.
Lifeless and inanimate once again, the Colossus was then used by the Soviet government for propaganda purposes.
A.D. August 12, 1961
Rise of the Berlin Wall. On the night the Wall was being built the Nazi scientists which monitored the conditions of Warrior Woman, the Nazi super-agent who had been placed in suspended animation during the final days of World War II, were forced to abandon the laboratory in which her body was stored so that they could flee to the West. The location of the laboratory was secret, and the East Berliners never discovered it.Years later the automated systems which kept Warrior Woman in stasis malfunctioned. Although she remained alive and in suspended animation, Warrior Woman suffered slight brain damage.
[Namor the Sub-Mariner #10]
[Date based on historical accounts.]A.D. October 1961
Chan Liuchow, a Taiwanese student of ancient Chinese history, had read the legends of Fin Fang Foom, a gigantic dragon that had been known to the ancient Chinese. Wishing to fight the Chinese communists who were about to attempt an invasion of Taiwan, Chan journeyed to mainland China and discovered the lair where Fin Fang Foom had slept for centuries. Awakening the dragon Chan led it to the coast where Fin Fang Foom destroyed the Chinese invasion force. Chan then led Fin Fang Foom back to its lair where he managed to place the dragon back into the sleep it had been in.Early A.D. 1960s
Multimillionaire Howard Stark expanded the operations of Stark Industries to include manufacturing and assembling completed aircraft, missiles, guidance systems, and other high-tech equipment.Victor Creed, a mutant with an enhanced healing factor, was working for a top secret Central Intelligence Agency covert operations team. Creed was assigned to East Berlin to assassinate a scientist who possessed information that worried his superiors and to bring back a fellow spy. Creed arrived to find that the spy, Leni Zauber, had killed the scientist herself. The two fled from East Germany, crashing through the Berlin Wall at Checkpoint Charlie. Creed and Zauber then began an affair, and Creed did not report to his fellow agents for a month and it was feared that he had gone rogue. In actuality Leni Zauber was a shape-changing mutant named Raven Darkholme, who had taken the form of Zauber as a convenient method to disappear when such means were called for. Such a situation arose when Darkholme discovered plots against her life. The mutant arranged for the death of the real Zauber. Darkholme had never told Creed that she was not the true Leni Zauber, and did not inform him that she was still alive. Creed, believing that his lover was dead, returned to his unit and teammates Logan, Wraith, and Maverick. Nine months later Darkholme gave birth in America to a son, Graydon Creed. The shape-shifter had no interest in raising a child and treated him coldly, rarely seeing or visiting him as he grew up.
[Sabretooth #3, 4]
[Date based on historical accounts]Mid A.D. 1960s
News reporter J. Jonah Jameson bought the New York newspaper "The Daily Bugle" and appointed himself publisher and editor-in-chief.A.D. August 1965
Agamemnon ordered Jason, his personal assassin within the Pantheon, to kill Ulysses. However Jason refused. Agamemnon offered his son Achilles power and control in return for performing the deed, and Achilles accepted the assignment.
[Incredible Hulk #424, 425]
[Date based on historical accounts]Walter Charles and Ulysses were assigned by Agamemnon to "recruit" a young empath, Nathan Taylor, into the Pantheon. They tracked Taylor and his parents to the Watts section of Los Angeles on the same night that racial riots broke out. Taylor's parents were killed during the riots when their car exploded, and Taylor blamed Charles and Ulysses for not allowing him to save them. During Taylor's recruitment Ulysses was killed by Achilles without Charles' knowledge of who the true killer was. Upon return to the Mount Charles took on Ulysses' name and weapons.
[Incredible Hulk #410 - 412]
[Date based on historical accounts.]Birth of Delphi to Andromeda, the Pantheon's seer.
[Incredible Hulk #412]
[Date based on historical accounts]Jason was labeled a renegade by Agamemnon and forced out of the Pantheon. Jason wandered the world, waiting for the day Agamemnon journeyed out of the Mount.
[Incredible Hulk #412]
[Date based on historical accounts]Nathan Taylor eventually took on the name of Paris.
A.D. 1966
Chinese scientist Doctor Sun was working on a project to keep human brains alive and functioning with the aid of computers after being surgically removed from their bodies when he incurred the wrath of one of his superiors. As punishment for his alleged crimes, Sun's superior decided to use him as his own test subject. Sun underwent surgery whereby his brain was removed from his body and placed in a receptacle which would provide it with oxygen and sustenance. However Sun's brain remained conscious and used his life support's electricity to take over the computers which kept him alive. Attacking the scientist that kept him alive with psychic force, Sun forced him and the lab's assistants to serve him. Sun managed to keep his status from the Chinese authorities for years.
[Date based on historical accounts.]A.D. 1967
The Howling Commandoes were reformed under Colonel Nick Fury for a special mission in Vietnam. Most of the Howlers were now civilians, and went on the mission on a volunteer basis.A.D. 1968
Colonel Nick Fury underwent training with the United States Green Beret Special Forces.J. Jonah Jameson purchased the Goodman Building on 39th Street and Second Avenue, New York. Renaming it the Daily Bugle building, Jameson moved his entire editorial and publishing facilities there.
Late A.D. 1960s
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr and his family moved from the Carpathian Mountains to the city of Vinnitsa in the Ukraine, Soviet Union. Lehnsherr hoped to gain acceptance into the local university, but in order to survive was forced to work as a manual laborer. When one of his foremen tried to extort part of his pay from him, Lehnsherr's anger caused his mutant powers to re-emerge, the first time they had done so since he was a child. Frightened, the foreman went to the local police. Lehnsherr returned to the inn where his family was staying only to discover that it had caught fire, trapping his daughter Anya upstairs. Before he could rescue her the police attempted to arrest him on charges of extortion and assault. While they detained Lehnsherr the fire consumed Anya, killing her. Taunted by the foreman who tried to extort him, and furious that the police had stopped him from saving his daughter, Lehnsherr's magnetic powers burst forth, killing everyone in the immediate vicinity. When his wife Magda saw what her husband had done, she was horrified not only at his powers but at his casual disregard for the lives he had just taken. Horrified, she fled from Lehnsherr, who was too weak to follow. When more police arrived, Lehnsherr was forced to hide to stay alive.
[Classic X-Men #12]Unknown to either of them, Magda Lehnsherr was pregnant when she fled from Erik. When she discovered her condition she decided not to return to him, believing that he would be a threat to her child.
Erik Lehnsherr spent years looking for his wife before finally abandoning his search and moving to Israel.
Believing that the Elder God Chthon would be able to free him from the curse of being a werewolf, Gregory Russoff brought the Darkhold with him to Wundagore Mountain and cast a spell to try to free the Elder God from his imprisonment.
Magda Lehnsherr, near the end of her term, wandered on Wundagore Mountain, looking for shelter. Fainting at the sight of one of the New Men, Magda was taken in by the High Evolutionary. Magda had started her contractions when Magnus sensed the presence of Chthon, who was breaking free from his imprisonment beneath Wundagore Mountain. The presence of the Elder God caused a terrible storm around the mountain. Magnus, the High Evolutionary, and the Knights of Wundagore fought the Other, an embodiment of Chthon. During the battle Magda gave birth to two twins, Wanda and Pietro. The battle against Chthon caused heavy damage to the ranks of the Knights, resulting in the death of seventeen of the New Men. Magnus forced Russoff to cast a spell to force Chthon back into his imprisonment. However before Chthon was banished he struck Russoff from behind, killing him. Before he was banished, Chthon also managed to impart a bit of his essence into Wanda, one of Magda's newborn twins.
Magda, fearing that her husband would track her down and corrupt her children, abandoned the twins and left the citadel, wandering out into the storm. She left a note to Bova to care for her children. Bova took them to the High Evolutionary, who assigned one of his New Men, Porga, to search for suitable guardians. Porga encountered Robert and Madeline Frank, who had been wandering Europe for years, and invited them back to the citadel. Madeline Frank was pregnant and close to labor, and it was Porga's plan to drug her while she was delivering her child and place Magda's twins with Madeline's own so that she would believe that she had given birth to triplets. However the strain of the pregnancy killed Madeline, and the radiation in her body caused her to give birth to a deformed stillborn. Bova presented Robert Frank with the twins, but upon learning of his wife's death he fled from Wundagore.
The High Evolutionary, learning that Jessica Drew's treatment had taken effect, released her from stasis. Although she had been in suspended animation for decades she had only aged a few years and was physically a young teenager. Bova told the High Evolutionary of the death of Madeline Frank and that Robert Frank had fled. The High Evolutionary placed Jessica in Bova's care.
Days later the High Evolutionary learned of a nearby camp of Gypsies. A Gypsy couple, Django and Marya Maximoff, had lost their children in the Second World War and were unable to have others. Learning this the High Evolutionary presented the Gypsy couple with Wanda and Pietro. The couple eagerly accepted the twins and raised them as their own.
[X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4]Monitoring Jessica Drew's condition, the High Evolutionary discovered that the treatment which cured her of radiation poisoning had mutated her cellular structure. Drew now had tremendous physical strength, immunity to toxic substances and to radiation and the ability to generate bio-electric energy.
Baron Gregory Russoff's estate and property were purchased by an American, Miles Blackgar. Among his purchases was the Darkhold. The rest of Russoff's possessions were shipped to his ex-wife Laura in America.
Robert Frank, overcome with grief, spent the next few decades as a vagabond, wandering all over the world.
Using his mental abilities, the Inhuman Maximus caused three Alpha Primitives to gain near-human intelligence. Convincing them that their roles as servants had been unjust, Maximus convinced the three to break into the Terrigen chamber and to expose themselves to the Terrigen Mists. The three Alpha Primitives were transformed into the Trikon, energy beings of tremendous destructive power. The Trikon then urged the other Alpha Primitives to revolt against Inhuman rule. The Alpha Primitives freed Maximus from his imprisonment, while the Trikon caused destruction and havoc throughout the city.
While members of the Royal Family fought off the Alpha Primitives Medusa, cousin and betrothed to Black Bolt, realized that the Trikon were the true enemy and attacked them in her sky-sled. When her aircraft crashed far outside the city Medusa was stricken with amnesia. Black Bolt and the Inhuman dog Lockjaw managed to drive the Trikon through a dimensional portal into the anti-matter universe known as the Negative Zone. Maximus and his soldiers managed to kidnap members of the Royal Family and other prominent members of Attilan society and held them hostage. When Black Bolt and his cousins confronted Maximus he used the threat of violence upon their loved ones to get them to withdraw their attack. Realizing that lives were at stake, Black Bolt decided to give in to his brother's wishes and renounced the throne and crowned Maximus as king of the Inhumans. Driven into exile, Black Bolt and his loyal cousins in the Royal Family decided to seek out and find their cousin Medusa.
Under Maximus, Attilan became a police state. Fearing a revolt against his rule Maximus ordered that his conspirators in the civil war, the leaders of the Alpha Primitives, be rounded up and killed. Suffering from amnesia, Medusa wandered through Asia to Europe, stealing to survive. After years of wandering Medusa finally arrived in Paris, France, where she was taken in by the thief Paul Dumas. Dumas, seeing the potential for wealth that Medusa offered, trained her in the art of pick-pocketing and safe cracking.
[Inhumans Special #1]Early A.D. 1970s
The Inhuman Grigon, cousin to Black Bolt, was troubled over the effect that exile was having on his young cousin Crystal. Believing that life under Maximus would be better for Crystal than living in exile among the humans, Grigon left his cousins' search for their cousin Medusa and journeyed back to Attilan to make an arrangement with Maximus. Maximus had been in love with Medusa, and upon learning that she may still be alive decided to use Grigon to get her back to Attilan. When Grigon discovered that his father had been killed after he had attempted to flee from house arrest, he was knocked unconscious before he could retaliate. Maximus had a transmitter placed in Grigon's headband, then had him thrown outside Attilan's walls. When Grigon awoke, Maximus ordered him to return to Attilan with Medusa, or else his mother would be killed.Forced to obey Maximus, Grigon eventually found the amnesiac Medusa in Paris, France. At the time Medusa was fleeing from the police, and panicking, attacked Grigon. Although she had no conscious memory of him, she associated him in her mind with beings she feared, the Trikon. Fleeing from her cousin, Medusa eventually made her way to a tiny Mediterranean island where she tried to establish for herself a new home.
[Inhumans Special #1]Frank Castle (formerly Castiglione,) a captain in the United States Marine Corps, served for five years in the Vietnam War. For his heroism Castle was twice decorated with the Bronze star and the Silver Star and four times with the Purple Heart.
Forge, a Cheyenne Indian trained from birth to be the shaman of his tribe, rejected his people's beliefs and became a soldier in the United States Army. During the Vietnam War Forge's command was wiped out by enemy troops. Grief stricken and anguished, Forge used his mystic training to tap the souls of his fallen squad, using their energy to open a portal into another dimension. The demons that emerged from the portal slew the enemy soldiers. Horrified at what he had unleashed, Forge successfully cast the demons back into their own dimension and sealed the portal.
Sometime during the Vietnam War Forge lost his right hand and right leg in a B-52 attack.
A platoon of six American soldiers, led by Sergeant Andrew Chord, were searching northern Cambodia for possible landing sites for American aircraft to launch invasions into North Vietnam. The platoon discovered the Temple of the Dragon's Breadth. Attacked by the sorceress Tai, the soldiers were told of the Dragon's Breadth's plan to create super-human children by mating genetically bred Cambodian women with Western men. The soldiers were asked by Tai to mate with the six women, and in return they would receive wealth and power. Tai spent three weeks teaching the men about the destiny of the Dragon's Breadth, that they were an ancient cult who sought to create children which could access the power of the Well of All Things. However Lieutenant Daryl Taylor, a married man, refused to accept Tai's offer. The other five men accepted her offer, and after their service was up they returned to America. Six months after their return, their new wives were sent to them.
[New Warriors #22-25]Canadian citizens Madison Jeffries and his brother Lionel, both mutants with transmutative powers, enlisted in the United States Army. Madison became an army mechanic and Lionel became a medic. The brothers were serving in the same unit in Vietnam when most of their squad was killed in an explosion. Lionel attempted to use his powers to bring the dead back to life, but such a task was beyond the scope of his powers and his sanity snapped. Madison used his powers over metal to restrain his brother. Lionel remained mad, and upon return to Canada Madison had him placed within the insanity ward in Montreal General Hospital.
Abraham Kieros, a mutant serving as a soldier in the Vietnam War, was severely injured during battle and became paralyzed from the neck down. Returning to the United States, Kieros was admitted to the Veterans Administrative Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was confined to an iron lung in order to survive.
Peter Van Zante, an American soldier in the Vietnam War, was injured in battle and airlifted to a hospital during a storm. Van Zante was placed in an experimental device that would keep him stable and alive while being airlifted. While in transit the aircraft was struck by lightning, creating a power surge in the experimental device. Van Zante quickly recovered from his injuries and was discharged from the army. He soon discovered that he had gained mental control and power over water. Van Zante spent years experimenting with his powers, discovering what he was capable of, and wondering what he should do.
1973
Colonel Nick Fury underwent training with the United States Black Beret Special Forces.Mid A.D. 1970s
Graydon Creed reached puberty. His mother, Raven Darkholme, realized that he wasn't a mutant. On one of his rare visits to his mother from boarding school she discovered him spying upon her. She revealed her mutant powers to him and showed him the appearance of his father, Victor Creed. Horrified, Graydon fled from her and Darkholme decided to let him go. Graydon spent the next few years abandoned in Europe, crawling his way out of poverty. Hatred began building within Graydon towards his parents for being unnatural freaks and for abandoning him.
[Sabretooth #4, X-Men Unlimited #4]Circa A.D. 1980
Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, reaching adolescence, discovered they had strange and wonderful abilities when their mutant powers emerged. Pietro discovered he had the ability of super-speed, while Wanda discovered that when she was in a particular frame of mind and performed certain gestures she had unpredictable powers. With times becoming hard for the Gypsies, Django Maximoff was forced to steal food to feed his family. Discovered by local villagers, the Gypsies were pursued and captured. Pietro, using his superhuman speed, escaped with his sister. They wrongly believed their adopted father to be dead, and wandered Eastern Europe, stealing to survive.
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