TheMadFapper

Last thing I read was Civil War. Is ithat still considered in continuity. I know there was osmething about everyone on earth being exposed as Skrulls or something, but didn't even read any of it. I know about Spiderman's brand New Day thing and think it's beyond lame. So what have I missed?

The Valeyard

After Civil War, Captain America was assassinated (a plot set up by the Red Skull). Tony Stark (Iron Man) took over Shield and became the "Top Cop" of all super humans. He was seen as a quasi-villain to many of the other heroes and some of them went underground (New Avengers) while Iron Man started his own Mighty Avengers.

When Peter Parker revealed himself to the world as Spider-Man, Kingpin took a hit out on him. The result was Aunt May getting shot. Peter scoured the Marvel Universe to find a way to save her. In a stupid turn of events, he turned to Mephisto who offered Aunt May's life for Peter & Mary Jane's married life. This led to Aunt May being saved, Peter & Mary Jane not married and the past several years of continuity obliterated. Peter was now back to square one, living at home with Aunt May and no one knowing he's really Spider-Man. Oh, and Harry Osborn came back to life as well (?!?!).

Over in the Thunderbolts, Norman Osborn was put in charge of the team. This will play out later on during the Dark Reign storyline.

WORLD WAR HULK - Right before Civil War, the Illuminati (Stark, Richards, Strange, Black Bolt) sent Hulk to another planet to live out his days. Hulk fought in gladiator games and eventually became the king of that planet. The ship he was sent in exploded and wiped out most of the planet including the alien he took as a wife who was pregnant with his child. Bent on revenge, Hulk returned to earth with an army of aliens. He captured most of the heroes and forced the Illuminati to fight in gladiator games to the death. It's ultimately revealed that the Illuminati was not involved in the explosion and Hulk is captured.

Thor returns and is pissed that Stark would create a clone of him (during Civil War). He vows never to work with Iron Man again. Bucky becomes the new Captain America and left alone because Stark feels guilt over Steve Roger's death.

Stark was hoping a crisis like World War Hulk would bring the renegade heroes over to the registration side and all the in-fighting would stop. It doesn't. During a New Avengers run, Elektra is revealed to be a Skrull in hiding. Everyone begins to wonder who is a Skrull and who isn't. Distrust begins and everything begins to fall apart.

A Red Hulk emerges and causes problems around the Marvel U. He has his own agenda that puts him at odds with everyone including Bruce Banner/Green Hulk. Meanwhile, Skaar (the Son of Hulk) comes to earth to kill Hulk.

SECRET INVASION - The Skrulls invade earth. Those in hiding (Spider-Woman, Hank Pym, Jarvis) reveal their plans of taking over the human race. They have new tricks that allow them to remain undetected (from Wolverine's senses, mind probe, Reed Richards) and send a virus into Stark Tech that wipes out the planet's defenses. Heroes and villains team up against the invaders and Norman Osborn takes the winning shot that kills the Skrull Queen. Also Wasp is killed or sent into limbo or something.

Everyone turns their back on Tony Stark. His old friends don't trust him and the government outcasts him. Stark Industries is ruined. He's totally alone now.

DARK REIGN - Norman Osborn (the "hero" of the Skrull Invasion) is given the "Top Cop" position. He disbands Shield and creates Hammer. He creates his own Illuminati (The Cabal). It's members include Dr. Doom, Loki, The Hood, Namor & Emma Frost. He also creates a new identity (The Iron Patriot) and his own Avengers (the Dark Avengers). The Dark Avengers are villains disguised as heroes: Bullseye (Hawkeye), Spider-Man (Venom), Mr. Marvel (Moonstone), Wolverine (Daken), Ares, Sentry and Captain Marvel (Marvel Boy). The world thinks he's a hero but he does exactly what you expect him to do - Making the heroes lives miserable.

He starts a manhunt for Tony Stark because Stark has the identity of every hero in his head/hard drive (Worlds Most Wanted). Tony sends a virus into his own brain that deletes everything, including his mind.

Cyclops is now in charge of the X-Men. He moves them all to San Francisco because it's friendlier to them.

Red Hulk drains the gamma energy out of Bruce Banner and he can never become the Hulk again...... for about a year or so. Banner takes Skaar (his son) under this wing and begins to train him on how to kill the Hulk when he eventually returns.

Throughout the year long-ish storyline, Osborn goes after Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Punisher (becoming Franken-Castle), Hulk (restarts his gamma genes), Avengers (captures Hawkeye), X-Men (for Namor & Emma's betrayal). Osborn also creates a Dark group of X-Men for some reason. Besides Osborn, the other members the Cabal had their own fun with other heroes. Dark Reign pretty much ran through the entire Marvel Universe.

Spider-Man reveals his secret identity to the Fantastic Four and his fellow Avengers members. Once he reveals his face to them, they sudden remember everything pre-Brand New Day.... except him being married because that never happened because Joe Quesada is a jerk.

CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN - It's revealed that Cap wasn't assassinated, only sent through time waiting for the Red Skull to pull him out of the time stream to take over his body. The Reborn mini pretty much involves EVERYONE. Cap is reborn and given a full pardon for his part in the Civil War. Steve Rogers retires the shield and tells Bucky to remain Captain America.

Iron Man downloads a back up of his memories (outdated and pre-Civil War).

SEIGE - Loki manipulates Osborn to invade Asgard.....for some reason. Cap and Iron Man take the Avengers to help out Thor and overthrow Osborn and his Avengers. Yay!

THE HEROIC AGE - Steve Rogers becomes the new "Top Cop" and overturns the Super Human Registration Act. He now runs Shield and sets up each team of Avengers (Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers).

X-Men are being attacked by Vampires. Spidey's Brand New Day ends in a couple of months. Red Hulk (and Red She-Hulk) identity has been revealed. Green Hulk has returned.

And that's that. Welcome back to the Marvel Universe.


Did I miss anything?

fujishig

Yeah, can you do a summary of Annihilation, War of Kings, etc?

Great job! There's also a whole bunch of convoluted stuff with the X-men and the first mutant born post M-day, but maybe that's better left forgotten...

fumanstan

Wow, that was bad ass. I'm only somewhat familiar with some of the stories, so that was a nice catch up. I'm sure that was fun for you to write too.

I like the Messiah storyline though in X-Men

Bronkster

Dayum, Valeyard - that was a nice job! Thanks for taking the time to jot that all down. I dropped everything a year and a half ago but still have that curiosity about what's going on.

TheMadFapper

Thanks, a lot of that seems to have been ripped off/lifted from the various "X" maxiseries from back in the late 1990's early 2000's Universe X, Paradise X, Earth X.

I do have one more question, which Nick Fury is consdiered to be "in" current Marvel continuity, the Samuel L. Jackson one from Ultimates or the white dude?

ivelostr2

that was an awesome summary...good job.

fujishig

The white dude. I'd think that'd be a hard change to justify, even in comic books, in the regular Marvel Universe (although didn't they make Frank Castle black at one point?)...

Bob_Bobbson

What? How...oh yeah, magic.

The Valeyard

Thanks for the compliments everyone! It's my pleasure helping out a fellow fan(s). My family gets tired of hearing me bitch about what's going on in the comic world each month so it was a chance to apply my "knowledge."

I didn't pick up the Annihilation/War of Kings stuff and was never really an X-fan. I was aware of stuff happening in those titles but unsure of where they fell in the "grand scope" of things so I left them off.


It was a blast! As I typed, I would remember something and geek out "Oh yeah! That happened between this and that!" and type it out.


I read way too many comics.

sinned

Great job Valeyard! Much appreciated! By the way, I've stopped buying DC comics since Crisis on Infinite Earths. Can you let me know what has happened since then?

Timber

Is it bad that I read all that and couldn't be more disinterested? Some of that stuff just sounds terrible. It's been 4 plus years of nothing but endless crossovers?

The Valeyard

fujishig

Barry Allen is Flash again. Everything else will be changed back to pre-crisis status eventually. Go watch JLU instead.

rider555

Since SHIELD is no more,what is Nick Fury doing?
Ho-lee-geez.I have never been a fan of Spider Man,but reading what happened to him makes me realize why so many readers have given a big "FUCK YOU"to Joe Quesada.

The Valeyard

Shield is around again but Fury is currently running his own team - The Secret Warriors. He created this team in anticipation of the (then) upcoming Skrull Invasion (Secret Invasion).

Sonny Corinthos

I second that! I quit buying comics in the mid 90's. I'm kind of glad I did now. Sounds like a trainweck.

Vlyger

Same here. I started losing interest in modern age comic books in 1995 when the X-Men's "Age Of Apocalypse" series was out.

fujishig

In all honesty, reading a text summary of multiple years of any Marvel/DC title, no matter what the era, would sound wonky (unless the creative team remains the same or retains creative control, or in the even rarer case actually respects what has gone on before, like Brubaker following Bendis on Daredevil).

Vlyger

Absolutely. I have followed along myself the last few years by watching Blair Butler doing reviews on Fresh Ink (http://www.G4tv.com/freshink) just to know what is happening in the world of comic books. But for some reason that special magic seems to be missing, if you know what I mean. I just don't feel it in today's comics (post-1995). Maybe it has to do with my age and the era in which I grew up.

On a side note, I like Wonder Woman's NEW outfit. I don't have a problem with it.

TheMadFapper

Not at all true, espceically when talking about DC from the 1950's on through the 1970's as there was little if any thought ot keeping things straight continuity wise, the majority of issues were stand alone with no threads linking them from issue to issue. Not saying that's good or bad just the way it was.

fujishig

So reading a text summary of those issues would make sense? If they didn't care about continuity, I'd think it would read even worse. I know there were some wonky stories that DC were doing, standalone or not...