Marvel Universe

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The Marvel Universe is a fictional

The Marvel Universe is further depicted as existing within a "multiverse" consisting of thousands of separate universes, all of which are the creations of Marvel Comics and all of which are, in a sense, "Marvel universes". In this context, "Marvel Universe" is taken to refer to the mainstream Marvel continuity, which is known as Earth-616 or currently as Prime Earth.

History

Some of Timely Comics (the 1930s and '40s predecessor to Marvel Comics) characters coexisted in the same world was first established in Marvel Mystery Comics #7 (1940) where Namor was mentioned in Human Torch's story, and vice versa. Later several superheroes (who starred in separate stories in the series up to that point) met each other in a group dubbed the All-Winners Squad.

Though the concept of a

Concepts

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The Marvel Universe is strongly based on the real world. Earth in the Marvel Universe has all the features of the real one: same countries, same personalities (politicians, movie stars, etc.), same historical events (such as World War II), and so on; however, it also contains many other fictional elements: countries such as

Most importantly, the Marvel Universe also incorporates examples of almost all major science fiction and fantasy concepts, with writers adding more continuously. Aliens, gods, magic, cosmic powers and extremely advanced human-developed technology all exist prominently in the Marvel Universe. (A universe incorporating all these types of fantastic elements is fairly rare; another example is the DC Universe.) Monsters also play a more prominent role with east Asian origins of magical incantation, outlandish sorcery and manifesting principle in the Marvel Universe. One such case is Fin Fang Foom arising from the ashes of tantric magic. Thanks to these extra elements, Earth in the Marvel Universe is home to a large number of superheroes and supervillains, who have gained their powers by any of these means.^{[citation needed]} The general public is so familiar with such concepts that Empire State University has a scholarship for "aliens, dimensional travelers, clones, independent machine intelligences and other students outside the norm",^[8] businesses and residences have superhero property insurance^[9][10][11] and bookmakers take bets on their battles' outcomes,^[12] and New York air traffic controllers handle starships landing at local airports.^[13]

Comparatively, little time passes in the Marvel Universe compared to the real world, owing to the serial nature of storytelling, with the stories of certain issues picking up mere seconds after the conclusion of the previous one, while a whole month has passed by in "real-time". Marvel's major heroes were created in the 1960s, but the amount of time that has passed between then and now within the universe itself has (after a prolonged period of being identified as about 10 years in the mid-to-late 1990s) most recently been identified as 13 years.

Marvel Comics itself exists as a company within the Marvel Universe, and versions of people such as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have appeared in some of the stories, whereas characters like Steve Rogers, (Captain America's alter ego), have worked for Marvel.^{[volume & issue needed]} The Marvel of this reality publishes comics that adapt the actual adventures of the superheroes (except for details not known to the public, like their secret identities); many of these are licensed with the permission of the heroes themselves, who customarily donate their share of profits to charity. Additionally, the DC Comics Universe is also said to exist in the Marvel Universe as one of the many alternative universes. The reverse may also be said concerning the DC Universe. This is one method of explaining the various crossover stories co-published by the two companies.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Pop culture characters such as

Unlike the DC Universe, few of Marvel's Golden Age characters have risen to prominence in modern publications; Captain America is one exception, and to a lesser extent, his contemporary, Namor the Sub-Mariner, primarily because both of these characters were reintroduced to readers and the Marvel Universe during the 1960s.^{[citation needed]}

Marvel's most prominent heroes were created during the

• Energy absorption (the battery effect); the cells in the body have the same function as batteries, being charged with energy that comes from an outer source. This is most often seen in gamma ray-exposed individuals such as the Hulk, who get their powers from this stored energy. The powers will remain as long as the energy is present, and can even be increased by filling the "batteries" even more. If the energy is emptied, the powers will fade away.
• The
  Power Primordial is a leftover force from Big Bang and is controlled by the Elders of the Universe
  .
• The Phoenix Force is an immortal, indestructible, and mutable manifestation of the prime universal force of life. Born of the void between states of being, it is the nexus of all psionic energy which does, has, and ever will exist in all realities of the Multiverse. It has been shown to favor
  telepaths like Jean Grey
  .
• Psionic energy is a form of magic associated with the Astral Plane, which is assumed to be an invisible, unknown form of energy generated by living brains that can manipulate other forms of matter and energy. Apparently, it creates the universal psionic field, which is present everywhere in the universe, but only those with abilities to connect to it can make use of its energy.
• The Enigma Force is suspected to be connected to the Microverse and is also the source of its counterpart on Earth the Uni-Power, which transforms an individual into Captain Universe.
• Extradimensional space that can be tapped to pull mass from (to add to objects on Earth) or taken away from those objects and be stored in "pocket dimensions" to be retrieved later. This is how characters like the Hulk can grow and shrink with no visible absorption of mass. A type of subatomic particles called Pym particles can be used for these effects (Note: many giant-sized characters have a limited ability to manipulate gravity to handle their increased weight). The change in mass can be in the form of a density change instead, allowing a character to become harder or
  incorporeal. Some characters can seem to "transform" themselves (or others) into unliving substances, or even pure energy, by storing their bodies in extradimensional space and replacing them with bodies made from matter or energy from that dimension, while their souls remain on Earth, controlling their new body. Travel into other dimensions can also be used as a way to "teleport
  " by re-entering the Earth dimension at a different point.
• The
  Quagmire (of the Squadron Supreme
  Universe). Cloak seems to be the prime 'portal' to the Darkforce, however.
• The
  Dagger seems to be the Lightforce's main avatar
  .
• The
  heralds
  .
• Brother Voodoo, but most recently has been reinstated to Doctor Strange.^[17]

The Marvel Universe also contains hundreds of intelligent alien races. Earth has interacted with many of them because a major "

• the
  Greater Magellanic Cloud
  )
• the Skrulls, who rule the Skrull Empire (in the Andromeda Galaxy)
• the Shi'ar, who rule the Shi'ar Empire (no known real-world counterpart for its galaxy, but it might be in the Triangulum Galaxy^[19])

The three are often in direct or indirect conflict, which occasionally involves Earth humans; in particular, the Kree and Skrulls are ancient enemies, and the

The Skrulls have also been known to be in a long and consistent war against the Majesdanians, who live on a milky planet named Majesdane.^[20] The war between the two had started after two Majesdanians, Frank and Leslie Dean of the Pride had been kicked out for criminal activities; the two traveled to Earth, where Frank and Leslie stopped the war against Earth in exchange for giving the Skrulls the location of Majesdane, which was hidden behind the corona of a white dwarf. The war had gone on for 16 years minimum; it ended abruptly after the Skrulls shot a barrage of missiles at Majesdane, who retaliated.^[20]

Another prominent alien race is the Watchers, immortal and wise beings who watch over the Marvel Universe and have taken a sacred vow not to intervene in events, though the Watcher assigned to Earth, Uatu, has violated this oath on several occasions.

The Elders of the Universe are ancient aliens who have often had a great impact on many worlds for billions of years, acting alone or as a group. A power called the Power Primordial is channeled through them.

Many other races exist and have formed an "Intergalactic Council" to have their say on matters that affect them all, such as interference from Earth humans in their affairs.

Supernatural creatures

Also abundant in the Marvel Universe are legendary creatures such as gods, demons and

The cosmic entities are beings of unbelievably great levels of power (the weakest of whom can destroy entire planets) who exist to perform duties that maintain the existence of the universe. Most do not care at all about "lesser beings" such as humans, and as a consequence, their acts are recurrently dangerous to mortals. When dire threats threaten the universe, it is not uncommon for these beings to gather together to discuss the threat and even act on it.^[volume & issue needed]

Most conceptual entities are simply interested in furthering their essential function or to keep the balance with an opposing force. However, certain cosmic entities, such as

The Phoenix Force first received personification in Jean Grey. The Phoenix Force is composed of the psionic energy from all living beings' past, present, and future, and is an embodiment of rebirth and destructive transformation through "burning away what doesn't work", and helped to restart the universe before the Big Bang.^{[volume & issue needed]}

'The "Fulcrum" is a comparatively recent addition to the hierarchy, that "all" cosmic entities allegedly serve, of a level of raw power stated to far surpass the might of the Watchers and the Celestials. Unlike most other entities, it is capable of conscience, compassion, and even a sense of humor, and has stated that it wants other cosmic beings to develop such as well. He is a possible manifestation/

The Marvel Universe is part of a

Even the Marvel Multiverse, however, is only a part of the Omniverse, which consists of all of fiction and reality combined, including all the works that are outside of Marvel's copyright restrictions.^[32]

The action of most of the Marvel Comics titles takes place in a continuity known as Earth-616. This continuity exists in a multiverse alongside trillions of alternative continuities.^[33] Alternative continuities in the Marvel Multiverse are generally defined in terms of their differences from Earth-616.

Continuities besides Earth-616 include the following (for a complete listing see Multiverse (Marvel Comics)):

Time

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One cannot normally alter the Marvel Universe's history; if a time-traveler should cause an alteration to the established flow of events at some point in the past, a

Also, time itself passes much differently within the confines of the Marvel Universe than it does in the real world. Despite various characters having appeared within company publications for decades, few, if any, have aged to any appreciable degree. For example, the patriotic hero Captain America was created in 1941 but stopped appearing in titles soon after the end of World War II. The character was revived more than 20 years later, explained as having been frozen in a block of ice though believed to be dead, to lead Marvel's latest team of superheroes the Avengers. This first Avengers team featured several characters that would go on to be some of the company's most famous and most popular. Although the characters would be portrayed in hundreds and even thousands of adventures over the decades, they have been portrayed as having aged little or not at all.^{[citation needed]}

Naturally, this tendency is purely due to story conveniences (or a somewhat haphazardly shifting patchwork pattern of authors), and mainly that the fictional "continuity" has been maintained and expanded far beyond what

A more recent explanation was given by Galactus to the Ultimates, namely that some important events – for instance, the creation of the Fantastic Four or the Avengers – have a 'gravity' all their own and warp time around them, causing the timeline to subtly change to accommodate this.[34]

Space

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While the Marvel Universe is presumably as large as the non-fictional universe comic book readers inhabit, for all intents and purposes the

Other media

Four role-playing games have been set in the Marvel Universe:

• Marvel Super Heroes (TSR, 1984)
• Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game (TSR, 1998)
• Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game (Marvel Comics, 2003)
• Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (Margaret Weis Productions, 2012)

See also

• Features of the Marvel Universe
• List of Marvel Comics alien races
• List of Marvel Comics characters
• List of Marvel Comics superhero debuts
• List of Marvel Comics teams and organizations
• Marvel Animated Universe
  (MAU)
• Publication history of Marvel Comics crossover events

References