Nick Peron
Welcome to the website of comedian Nick Peron. It is the ground zero of his comedic writing.
Welcome to the website of comedian Nick Peron. It is the ground zero of his comedic writing.
As I have been compiling the Unofficial Index there have been moments where I’ve had to write notations to explain some of the stickier issues of Marvel Continuity. Some of these items are my own interpretations, others are officially considered part of continuity. I have scattered so many across my Index that I’ve decided to also collect them all in one place so that I don’t have to repeat myself quite so much. These are my opinions and theories and have no official standing unless otherwise stated. This is how my index chooses to interpret things, your milage may vary. Don’t e-mail arguing your points, I really don’t care.
I fucking hate using the word “canon” as a descriptor for the history of any kind of fiction. Canon has always been a strictly religious term for me, and it is a word of inflexibility. It’s a word used to argue against ideas. It’s a limiter. Whereas continuity is a what it means. It’s a continuation of ideas. A continuity is non-linear. It is flexible. It’s subject to change. With canon comes rigid dogma. Instead of considering multiple ideas, you are set by strict rules. These comic books are a work of fiction and should not be viewed in such a way. Fiction should always be flexible. It shouldn’t have a right or a wrong answer. It can have contradictions.
So fuck using the term canon to describe continuity. Also fuck people who use the term canon or any of its variations, especially fuck headcanon and the people who present their own interpretations by that idiotic word. I may have used it in some of my earliest index summaries and notes, but moving forward I will not be using it.
What I am referring to is the retcon, or retroactive continuity. To the most pedestrian, this word is bandied around whenever there is a change to established continuity. It should come as no surprise that I hate the use of this word. The people who use retcon are the same uninspired dullards who use the word canon as well. Half the time they use this word it’s not even being used correctly. I curse the name of Damian Cugley every time that word is uttered.
To me, a retcon has to completely replace something pre-established in continuity. This seldom happens in the Marvel Universe. In most cases where one calls something a “retcon” they are referring to additional material being added to pre-established continuity or a story that is told from a different perspective.
The Marvel Universe adds to existing continuity. Bucky didn’t die in World War II, but the fact that everyone thought he was dead for 50 years didn’t change when it was discovered he was alive. A retcon would have been removing Bucky’s “death” all together like it never happened.
What someone will simply wave as a “retcon” is too lazy to understand that these changes have an in story explanation that explains the change to the status quo.
By comparison, over at DC Comcis, Superman’s origin changing so that he was never Superboy in Smallville, that’s a retcon, because it is excising a huge chunk of character history without much explanation other than “Crisis happened so this doesn’t exist”. Comparing that to Bucky’s survival, it wasn’t that all the years Captain America and co believing Bucky was dead never happened. The Winter Soldier story arc didn’t just insert Bucky and called it a day. It provided an explanation how everyone was wrong about his death and then explained how he lived in the shadows for decades without anyone noticing.
To date, Marvel has only done one true Retcon — One More Day — in which Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s marriage was erased. However, even then it’s not entirely proper because all those past stories — unless recalled by Peter or Mary Jane in a flashback — still acknowledge the stories as they were originally told. Everybody hated it and for good reason. A retcon for the sake of retconning doesn’t work with the mythology of this fiction.
I despite the use of the word retcon and so should you.
My methodology for these interpretations are something I like to call the Gruenwald Method. Named after the late Mark Gruenwald. Gruenwald was incredibly knowledgable when it came to continuity. During his tenure as editor at Marvel he pushed for stories to respect continuity. If you were going to change something it wasn't a simple matter of retconning or ignoring past stories, but using past continuity to explain why past stories were no longer considered part of continuity. The Gruenwald Method is finding in-universe explanations for contraditary continuity in lieu of an official explanation. This of course all speculatory on my part, but I beleive that *all* continuity is valid and tossing out something because it doesn't work is lazy. Back in the old days, Marvel actually challenged readers to explain these blips in continuity, awarding No Prizes to the best answer provided by readers. My interpretations are in the spirit of the No Prize and the late Mr. Gruenwald's attention to detail to try and explain these conflicts in lieu of an official answer. As Marvel gets around to providing an official explanation for these conflicts I will make the necessary changes to my index. I base my interpretations on common themes, plot devices, and common interpretations based on reading the 80+ years of Marvel continuity. Your milage may vary.
The Marvel Universe operates on a Sliding Timescale. Meaning that while time moves slower in the publications it also "slides forward” so that the passage of time still stays somewhat “modern”. This affects every “present-day” story (otherwise referred to as the Modern Age or the Age of Heroes) told from Fantastic Four #1 (dated November 1961) to now. Per the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, the timescale follows a 3:1 or a 4:1 scale (meaning for every three or four years of publications one year of time passes in the Marvel Universe) For the purposes of this website, I measure on a strict 4:1 ratio as I have found that this works the best. By my measurements, the events of Fantastic Four #1 will have happened roughly 16 years ago in Marvel Time by the end of October 2021 it will remain 16 years old until the end of October 2025. This is not a precise measurement but a rough one as even though a sliding timescale exists it hasn’t been strictly observed by writers. It’s fiction and with fiction sometimes creative license will bend or break the rules for no other reason other than it is fiction and the imagination often flouts rules of logic so there are bound to be inconsistencies if you enjoy splitting hairs.
A common inconsistency is the depictions of major holidays such as Christmas. For example, there is a stretch of Spider-Man stories where there is a Christmas story every publication year in the 1990s. This goes against the Sliding Timescale as a Christmas story should only happen once every 3 to 4 years of publications. These are some of the unavoidable inconsistencies that happen and you’d have to be a grinch to do anything but overlook these kind of inconsistancies.
That said, what are topical references? These are references to real-life people, pop-culture references, specific dates appearing in Modern Age stories and other real-world references that would lock a story to a specific date and time, and/or prematurely age the character if the fiction were interpreted in a real-time basis. In every case, I’ve generalized these references in my summaries and gone into more detail about them in the continuity notes section. The only thing that are exempt from the topical reference rules are Marvel Comics creators who appear in stories. These creators all exist in the modern age in the relative prime of their lives. For example, in real life, Jack Kirby died 1994, he still makes appearances in comics (for example, at the time of this writing he most recently appeared in the pages of X-Force vol. 6 #9)
Marvel history can be broken into three different categories the “Modern Age” which accounts for every story set in the “present” from Fantastic Four #1 onwards. The “Pre-Modern Age” which are the years prior to Fantastic Four #1 that also adhere to the same rules. These are the years that account for the lives of individuals active in the Modern Age that were born before it that — generally speaking — have a normal human lifespan. For example, Peter Parker was 15 when he first got his powers in Amazing Fantasy #15, which takes place in the first “year” of the Modern Age. The 14 years of his life prior to Fantastic Four #1 are years that are part of the “Pre-Modern Age”. The third category are “Locked in Eras”, these are specific dates that cannot be considered topical references because they deal with specific real-world dates. Examples would be stories that take place in World War II, or the Old West, or the 1950s.
The trick is determining if a past era is a locked in date or if is a topical reference. Using Peter Parker as our example again can give you an idea. As of the 2017-2021 publication period Peter Parker is about 30 years old. A flashback from his childhood would likely be framed as though he was born in the early 1990s. The era-specific references of that flashback would be considered topical. Wolverine on the other hand is a different matter because his healing factor has gifted him with a slower aging process and he has been alive for over 200 years. If there was a flashback story about Wolverine set in the 1990s that does not feature any other character who has cheated the aging process it would be a topical reference, where as stories without those characters would be locked in. For example, Wolverine’s time with Team X would be assigned to a “Locked in Date” because all of the characters involved have slowed aging processes. Alternatively the events of Before the Fantastic Four: Ben Grimm & Logan, although appearing to take place in the 1980s, would not be a “Locked in Date” because the story features Ben Grimm, Tony Stark, and Carol Danvers all characters who have normal human life spans. As such any reference to a specific era of that story should be considered topical.
With all this in mind, and it bares repeating, my index adheres to a 4:1 ratio for Modern Age stories and goes as follows:
Sliding Timescale Measurement
Year 01: Nov 1961-Oct 1965 Year 02: Nov 1965-Oct 1969 Year 03: Nov 1969-Oct 1973 Year 04: Nov 1973-Oct 1977 Year 05: Nov 1977-Oct 1981 Year 06: Nov 1981-Oct 1985 Year 07: Nov 1985-Oct 1989 Year 08: Nov 1989-Oct 1993 Year 09: Nov 1993-Oct 1997 Year 10: Nov 1997-Oct 2001 Year 11: Nov 2001-Oct 2005 Year 12: Nov 2005-Oct 2009 Year 13: Nov 2009-Oct 2013 Year 14: Nov 2013-Oct 2017 Year 15: Nov 2017-Oct 2021 Year 16: Nov 2021-Oct 2025 Year 17: Nov 2025-Oct 2029
It should be noted that a “year” of Marvel time does not follow the Gregorian Calendar from January 1 to December 31. Instead, it counts 365 days to the anniversary of the Fantastic Four’s space flight in Fantastic Four #1. A specific date of the FF’s space flight has not been given but Human Torch (vol. 2) #1 has stated that it happened sometime in the summer of that year.
Measuring the Pre-Modern Age is less specific because references to how long a character has been alive and how many years it predates Fantastic Four #1 is a murkier affair. For the purposes of my index, I use Aunt May as my working metric since she is probably the oldest living main cast member who has a normal human life span. Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #4 (published in 2004) states that Aunt May is about 70 years old at the time of that story. Per the Sliding Timescale, that was in “year 11” and she will have aged by 6 years when the Sliding Timescale moves into “year 16” in November 2021, making her about 76 years old (the key word being “about”, because it’s not clear) that means she was about 60 years old when she first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15, meaning she was born about 60 years prior to Fantastic Four #1.
My index would consider Aunt May’s birth as happening in year -60 of the Modern Age. It’s the same principal of the Gregorian calendar using BC And AD to mark the passage of years Before Christ and Anno Domini. I won’t provide a comprehensive list but here are some of the dates in the Pre-Modern Age that would be considered milestones:
-60 PMA: Aunt May is Born (Per Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #2)
-38 PMA: Reed Richards is born (per Fantastic Four #605)
-21 PMA: Sue Storm is born (per Marvel Knights: 4 #1)
-15 PMA: Peter Parker is born (per Civil War #2)
-8 PMA: Kitty Pryde is born (per X-Men #129)
-6 PMA: Alex Power is born (per Power Pack #1)
-4 PMA: Katie Power is born (per Power Pack #1)
-2 PMA: Jack Power is born (per Power Pack #1)
Year One: Katie Power is born (per Power Pack #1)
One day I’ll get around to trying to come up with an exhaustive list going, but you get the idea.
Generally speaking, the comics published during the Timely/Atlas era are considered part of continuity — to a fault. Many stories from this era are incredibly dated either by the standards of the era, a poor understanding of science, and any number of things. Many of these stories have been retold in later eras of the Marvel age (post-Fantastic Four #1) Sometimes these changes were due to impositions of the Comics Code Authority. Other times, older stories are re-written or retold to purge more dated concepts and attitudes (particularly ones considered racist by today’s standard)
The way that this is explained, in-universe, is that the Timely/Atlas era stories were “comic book adaptations” of real events that were changed due to legal reasons or artistic license. The idea of comic books being produced in-universe based on the adventures of the superheroes exists there has been part of the Marvel Universe dates back to Marvel Mystery Comics #34 or, more contemporarily in Fantastic Four #10.
This concept has been reinforced for Timely era comics in Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1, All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes #1-5, and Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1-3 for Atlas era works.
Marvel has since incorporated a number of golden-age comic book characters published by other companies that went out of business and their characters entered the public domain. These characters include the Amazing-Man (aka the Prince of Orphans from Iron Fist), Doctor Nemesis, the Human Meteor, the Strongman, Spider-Queen, Miss Fury, and Volton.
Are the original stories published by other companies considered part of continuity? Judging from profiles for Dr. Nemsis and the Prince of Orphans in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe suggests that they are not. Still, I have included them in my index for those who might be interested in learning more about these adventures. It’s a shame that the powers that be are choosing to ignore these early stories and the only place they can be found are in digital archives of public domain comics, which are only as good as the comic that is being scanned.
Just like the Timely and Atlas era stories about super-heroes, there are conflicting stories about its western characters. Westerns were quite popular in the 40s until the 60s and the types of stories told during this period were not historically accurate and squeaky clean. Starting in the 2000s, Marvel had started presenting western stories that present characters in a more historically accurate fashion, particularly the Apache Kid whose original stories are very problematic by today’s standards.
It was once explained in Two-Gun Kid #60 that Matt Hawk was inspired by time store novels about the original Two-Gun Kid, Clay Harder to become a hero. This “dime store novel” motif has later been used to reconcile the different tones of western stories that have been published more recently. Particularly Apache Skies, and Blaze of Glory limited series.
There are also a number of western characters whose in-universe existence is questionable. Clay Harder being one, also the original Rawhide Kid (who was later replaced by Jonathan Clay in Rawhide Kid #17) There are also a number of Timely own western heroes that appear to have been forgotten such as Blaze Carson, Tex Morgan, The Gunhawk, and Arrowhead, among others. Some of these characters were even rebranded before ultimately being canceled. I have included these characters in my index because they would otherwise be forgotten.
In the late 40s and early 50s, Timely Comics published Venus, about the modern day adventures of the Greek goddess of love Venus/Aphrodite. The series didn’t know if it wanted to be a humor mag, a romance comic, a super-hero book, or a horror anthology series. It was a hot mess. Also, it features the first appearances of Thor and Loki that predate Marvel’s “introduction” of the character in Journey into Mystery #83.
That friends is a really complicated story here. During the 2000s era publication of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (particularly the A-Z hardcovers) began incorporating as much Timely/Atlas era comics into continuity. This also including the appearances of Thor and Loki’s appearances in Venus. This stopped being the practice in the 2010s, when all further profiles of Thor and Loki now strictly set their first appearances as being in Journey into Mystery. Why is this? That’s a matter of speculation, but I’d wager it probably had something to do with the legal settlement between Marvel and the estate of Jack Kirby in 2010. Since Jack Kirby played a part in the creation of Marvel’s version of Thor (and all future comics featuring Thor need to acknowledge that creator base) I believe Marvel no longer points to those old Venus stories is because of the court settlement. The Venus stories pre-date Kirby’s interpretation of Thor and considering them separate entities to the Thor and Loki we all know and love probably also prevents further litigation from other estates or something. Who knows, I’m not a lawyer.
That said, I include these stories and I chose to list them as appearances of the Thor and the Loki where other resources do not (the Marvel Chronology Project does not for example) To me, these are such minuscule stories it doesn’t matter one way or the other.
As Marvel has continued to publish stories eventually they had to institute a Sliding Timescale as a means of slowing down the advance of time in the Marvel Universe over the length of publications in real time. This was to prevent aging their characters quickly as well as updating dated plot concepts, generalizing real-life events or dates that are mentioned in various stories.
Thus all such references to the purpose of the Fantastic Four’s space flight should be considered topical references. When Fantastic Four #1 was published in 1961, Reed's spaceship is specifically referred to as a rocket, and his intentions for his mission is to beat the Soviet Union in the space race. Contextually, the story was published during the height of the US/Soviet Space Race, which saw both countries competing to see which one could develop manned space flights. Since then, many retellings of the Fantastic Four's origin have changed the details of Reed Richards' space flight, updating concepts so that they were not considered dated more modern readers. Such as: Fantastic Four #2 states that Reed was attempting to reach Mars.
Other stories since then have generalized where his destination was supposed to be. Later in Fantastic Four #236, the origin of the Fantastic Four was updated, it was stated that Reed's experimental ship was intended to travel to the edge of the solar system and while it needed a rocket booster to reach escape velocity from Earth's atmosphere it relied on a Star Drive to reach its destination. This tale also goes on to expand on how the quartet was mutated. Fantastic Four #358 published in 1991 states that the "Star Drive" was intended to bring them into hyperspace in order to visit other solar systems. Fantastic Four #543 stated that Richards was testing faster-than-light space travel. Most recently, in History of the Marvel Universe #3, the purpose of the space mission is generalized so as to avoid further updating of the story.
In the early 2000s, writer John Byrne was given the task of updating the origins of both Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk. Reimagined origins of Spider-Man were told in Spider-Man: Chapter One #1-12 and Incredible Hulk Annual 1999. Both were supposed to be retcons of the established origin stories and, particularly in the case of Spider-Man, present a wildly different version of events.
Where this is most problematic is with the first 13 issues of the second volume of Amazing Spider-Man, which features stories that borrow plot elements from Spider-Man: Chapter One. Marvel has since relegated these “Chapter One” tales to another reality (Earth-98121) and the original origins have been (mostly) restored.
“Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all, and our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.” - Robert Nash, “Are Memories reliable", The Conversation - December 17, 2018
A number of events in this story are told differently when it is revisited in Avengers Origins: Ant-Man & The Wasp #1. There are three major differences, they are:
In the retelling of events, Henry Pym was depicted as being present when his wife was murdered. This contradicts events, particularly the revelation in All-New All-Different Avengers #9 that Maria gave birth while in captivity. No official explanation has been provided. However, the account in Avengers Origins is told via Henry Pym having a nightmare. Since this was a dream sequence, it could be assumed that Pym dreamed about being present when in reality he was not.
The second contradiction is that Avengers Origins states that Henry Pym knew the Van Dyne’s prior to developing his Pym Particles. In fact, it depicts Vernon Van Dyne denying Pym funding and Janet starting to date him to spite her father. Even though Hank starts dating Janet earlier in this accounting, he is still reluctant to make things official or display emotions because he is still dealing with the grief of losing his wife. Again, no official explanation. However, one could assume that Vernon and Janet’s introduction in the story above was more for the benefit of the readers since this was their first appearance and not them introducing themselves to Pym for the first time. This seems plausible since the whole grieving widow part of Hank’s backstory was also dropped in this story apropos of nothing as well.
Lastly, Pilai is depicted as a mindless creature incapable of speaking when he appears in Avengers Origins. That story also replaced the shotgun scene with the Wasp using Hank’s neutralizer to destroy the monster on her own. He is also drawn differently, looking like something out of a Lovecraft story than whatever the fuck Don Heck was trying to scribble on the page back in 1963. I think we can assume that this was artistic license since the focus of the story was on Ant-Man and Wasp’s origins and not some random 60s alien creature that nobody gives a shit about. Obviously changing Pilai’s defeat where the Wasp defeated the creature on her own is to change the rather condescending way Ant-Man treats his so-called “partner” and mansplains everything. However, I’m not one of those fans who lazily excise things with retcons since that’s rarely really how Marvel works. Instead of eliminating one series of events, I would instead choose to combine them. My take is the moment where Janet uses her neutralizer to destroy the Kosmosian happens after they pumped him full of lead from the shotgun. One series of events is not mutually exclusive to the other in other words.
“Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all, and our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.” - Robert Nash, “Are Memories reliable", The Conversation - December 17, 2018
There have been multiple re-tellings of Iron Man’s origins and they have included a number of changes. This was primarily because the story, as it is originally presented, has grown more and more dated following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. These different accounts are as follows:
Iron Man #1 and #144: Reinforce the original origin story, stating that Iron Man’s origins are as they were originally told and took place during the Vietnam War.
Iron Man #267: This retelling states that Iron Man’s origins occurred in some undisclosed location in Southeast Asia. Further references to Iron Man’s origins also reinforce this vague placement of events.
Iron Man (vol. 4) #1: Changes the entire location, stating that Iron Man’s origin took place in the Afganistan during the War on Terror and that instead of Wong-Chu’s guerillas, he instead fought the al-Queda.
History of the Marvel Universe #2: Once again takes things back to the original location. The only change is that instead of the Vietnam War, Tony Stark was involved in the Sin-Cong Conflict, a fictional war created to explain the dated Vietnam War references that were present in early Marvel stories.
With the exception of the origin story is the account made in Iron Man (vol 4) #1. Writer Warren Ellis updated Iron Man’s origins to something more topical for 2005 (The War on Terror) without taking into consideration how intrinsically tied to Vietnam Iron Man’s origins were and changing the location from Southeast Asia to the Middle East created more problems with continuity particularly when it comes to the fact that Iron Man’s origins expand beyond just Tony Stark becoming Iron Man, but has connections to the Mandarin, or that Wong-Chu (omitted from the Ellis retcon) would resurface in later stories, nor did it take into account that Tony Stark’s first encounter with James Rhodes (later War Machine) happened in Vietnam after this story. (For more on these details see below)
In the end, it’s the retelling in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1 that should be ignored, as it always should have been. In the late 90s, and early 00s Marvel was attempting to update the origins of a number of its heroes (notably Spider-Man and the Hulk during John Byrne’s short-lived Chapter One stories) These retcons were ultimately rejected because more competent writers realized that you can modernize these origin stories without reinventing the wheel. Marvel’s fiction avoids major retcons unless they are absolutely necessary. Instead of retconning the actions of the character, it is often much simpler to retcon the external events surrounding the origin so that they can still be told in a modern setting without disrupting the basic events or negating later revelations.
Aside from the physical location of these events, other more specific details are depicted differently. Iron Man (vol. 3) #50 states that Stark actually set off an explosive from a long-forgotten conflict, while Iron Man #144 states that he stepped on a landmine. The Order (vol. 2) #9, states that Stark was actually in a military ATV that was hit by the enemy. While Iron Man (vol. 4) #1 states that an enemy bullet struck a Stark Industries manufactured landmine, causing it to explode. That all said, the tripwire explosion is reinforced in retellings of Iron Man’s origins in Iron Man #1, 244, 267, Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1, Iron Man: The Iron Age #1, and History of the Marvel Universe #2. As such, the most commonly referenced should be the accepted series of events.
Other accounts of these origins state that Stark wasn’t the only one caught in the blast. These others can be accepted since Tales of Suspense #39 clearly shows Tony Stark with a group of people when he hits the tripwire.
A number of details regarding the technical specifications of Iron Man’s chest plate have changed over the years. Likewise, has Ho Yinsen’s area of expertise changed with the times. In Tales of Suspense #39, Iron Man #1, and Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1, Ho Yinsen is identified as a brilliant physicist. Iron Man (vol. 4) #5 states that Yinsen was a medical expert and futurist. While most accounts state that it was one of Wong-Chu’s men who initially treated Tony Stark’s injuries (Tales of Suspense #39, Iron Man #1, Iron Man: The Iron Age #1, and Iron Man (vol. 3) #50), another account (Iron Man #267-268) states that Yinsen was the one who treated Stark. I choose to believe that neither of these facts is mutually exclusive.
The technology used in the chest-plate has changed over the years. In this story and others (Iron Man #1, 144, 244, 268) state that the device was a pacemaker. Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1 states that they invented a unique chest pump to keep the shrapnel out of Tony’s heart. Iron Man (vol. 3) #50 states that the chest plate used “energy cells” to keep his heart beating. Whatever the case may be, this would be an instance where the technology involved should be considered topical as it will change with different retellings to make it sound like advanced technology.
As a side note, in nearly every telling of Iron Man’s origins, the original armor is depicted as grey metallic. However, Iron Man: The Iron Age #1 presents the armor as always being gold in color. It is the only story to contradict the color of the armor. As seen in Tales of Suspense #40, Stark painted the armor gold to make Iron Man less frightening. I presume that this detail was left out of Iron Man: The Iron Age for narrative pacing since was fleshing out details of Iron Man’s early days but did not focus on the events if Tales of Suspense #40.
The Carter family tree, particularly as it applies to Captain America’s relationship with Peggy and Margaret Carter is an instance where a retcon is the only way to fix an issue with continuity caused by the Sliding Timescale. Peggy appears in Captain America’s wartime adventures starting back in Tales of Suspense #75. Later, Sharon was introduced into Cap’s modern adventures in that same issue. A connection is made but never established until much later. Peggy is reintroduced to readers in Captain America #161-162 as Sharon Carter’s older sister. Due to the nature of the Sliding Timescale and subsequent stories published about Peggy Carter in later years have created some stick continuity. My index chooses to interpret things as follows:
The Carter Family Tree
For years Peggy and Sharon were depicted as siblings until Captain America (vol. 5) #25, which marks the first time the Carter family tree underwent changes. In this story, Peggy was now identified as Sharon’s aunt. Captain America: America’s Avenger #1’s profile on Peggy also clarifies that Harrison was now her brother and Amanda her sister-in-law. However, nearly 20 years later even this distinction becomes difficult to explain. As early as 2016, people have already been retroactively amending the Carter family tree as evidenced in a recent interview with Emily VanCamp the actor who plays Sharon Carter in the MCU. VanCamp refers to Sharon as Peggy’s grand-niece. While she was referring to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it stands to reason that this distinction will make its way to the Prime Marvel Universe (if it hasn’t already, at the time of this writing I haven’t read any Captain America stories post-2015)
With respect to this index, I will always be referring to Peggy Carter as a relative and that Sharon is her descendant and eliminate any reference to the pair being immediately related. This will be to avoid having to go back and make changes every decade. Marvel has already done this in the past when adjusting the family backgrounds of other characters, such as General Ross and his family’s military background.
Peggy Carter’s Physical Age
As the Sliding Timescale makes the gulf between World War II and the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe larger with the passage of time creates more issues with Peggy Carter’s appearances in stories. Following her return in Captain America #161-162, Peggy regularly appears as part of Captain America’s supporting cast well into the 90s. In these appearances she is depicted as a middle aged woman with lightly greying hair. This becomes increasingly impossible as the rift between World War II and the Modern Age grows larger. Peggy would then be much older or dead as a result.
To date (June 2021), a specific explanation cannot be provided. However, a reasonable explanation can be inferred due to her associations with both SHIELD and Doctor Faustus. SHIELD agents (particularly Nick Fury and the former members of the Howling Commandos) and Faustus are both on record as having access to formula that slow the aging process. Since Peggy both worked for SHIELD and spent a prolonged period in the care of Doctor Faustus, it’s entirely possible that she was given access to one of these formula. This is the stance my index will take until an official statement.
In Captain America stories from the 70s, Peggy states that she is in her 40s. These references should be considered topical as her age will drastically change due to the Sliding Timecale. In leu of an official explanation, one could assume that Peggy is referring to her physical age due to some age-slowing process as opposed to her actual age.
Peggy’s Post-War/Pre-Modern Age Activities
The other issue that is raised, are these aforementioned involvement with SHIELD. Captain America #162 presents the idea that Peggy has suffered from mental health issues following the war and remained in that state consistently until the Modern Age. Later stories, such as Operation S.I.N. and Agent Carter: SHIELD 50th Anniversary #1, depict Peggy as being active in the 1950s and 60s. This was to bring her character more inline with her MCU counterpart. While a full explanation has yet to be explained, Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 sheds some possible light on the matter. In the Peggy Carter profile it states “Over the ensuing decades, Peggy’s mental health improved enough that she had extended periods of emotional stability and mental clarity, during which she fully remembers her past.” This handbook was published just prior to the Operation S.I.N. mini-series and I suspect that sentance was added to her profile in anticipation of that series.
Peggy’s lack of recollection to these events, in my opinion could be three fold: One could be spotty memory given her mental health issues. Characters who have lived extended lifespans in the Marvel Universe also seem to have issues with remembering things properly (Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Wolverine, Nick Fury etc. etc. etc.) However, another reason is probably because a lot of her activities with the 20th Century incarnation of SHIELD are likely classified due to their top secret nature. It could be that the mental health angle was a cover story or she is not at the liberty to speak about her past missions because they were top secret.
In this story, the Mandarin’s riches to rags story suggests that it took place during the communist revolution sometime between 1945 and 1950. Typically, a story like this would be considered topical. However, both Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1 (published in 2007) and Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 (published in 2010) both tie the Mandarin’s origins to the communist revolution, even the the “true” events about him being the son of an opium den whore. It is very difficult to just take these specific references and dismiss them as topical references. This would suggest that the Mandarin’s aging process has been slowed either by the rings or some other Makkulan technology. At the time of this writing (February 2021) the last profile for the Mandarin was included in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #7 confirms that the Mandarin was born in 1920. It does not, however, implicitly make any reference to the Mandarin’s aging process. Since he’s still depicted as being in his relative prime, one could assume that this is likely an omission of fact.
The length of time Captain America has been in suspended animation between 1945 and Avengers #4 continues to change as the Sliding Timescale pushes the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward. Below is a formula for figuring out how much time has passed at any point, if you like mental gymnastics.
Say today’s date was February 5, 2021 and you wanted to know how many years Cap spent in suspended animation between 1945 and Avengers #4 is. First, we would take a look at the Sliding Timescale. According to my Sliding Timescale table, the publication period of November 2017 to October 2021 is “Year Fifteen” of the Modern Age. Avengers #4 was published in March 1964. Per my table, that happened in “Year One”.
The formula would work like this: (Today’s Year) - (Modern Age Year relative to Today’s date) - 1945 = The number of years Cap has been in suspended animation. Or T - M - 1945 = N
2021 - 15 = 2006 (The year Avengers #4 now takes place in) 2006 - 1945 = 61 Years
To demonstrate how this will change, lets say you wanted to figure this out in February 8, 2025. Per my table that would be: 2025 - 16 - 1945. 2025 - 16 = Avengers #4 now takes place in 2010. 2010 - 1945 = Captain America had been in suspended animation for 65 years.
As you can see, the further the Sliding Timescale pushes forward the longer Cap was in suspended animation. As such, any reference that gives a specific time period should always be considered topical.
This is similar to computing the length of time Captain America has spent in suspended animation. “Locked in Eras” refers to events that are locked to a specific date in the past. This would be a date that is not considered a topical reference and exists outside the Modern Age or Pre-Modern Age of the Marvel Universe. For example, The activities of Yellow Claw featured in Yellow Claw #1-4 are set as taking place in the year that series was published, 1953. This is a locked in era. Alternatively, the year Reed Richards was born is part of the Pre-Modern Age as it is a milestone of a character that pre-dates Fantastic Four #1 and involves a character who exists in the Modern Age who — generally speaking — has an average human lifespan.
The length of time will always be subject to change, just like Cap’s time in suspended animation. As such, the results of the formula will always be different. In November 2021 the Modern Age (in universe) will have existed for about 16 years and will remain 16 years old until October 2025.
Lets say it is November 1, 2021 and you want to know how many years had passed between Yellow Claw’s appearance in Yellow Claw #4, which is locked in as occurring in the year 1957 and when he resurfaced in Captain America #164 published in August, 1973.
November 2021 is year 16 and August 1973 is year 3. 16 - 3 = Captain America #164 took place 13 years prior to November 2021. 2021 - 13 = 2008. 2008 - 1957 = 51 years has passed between the events of Yellow Claw #4 and Captain America #164.
To demonstrate how drastically changes, lets take a look at things from the start of “year 17” of the Modern Age which will start on November 1, 2025
17 - 3 = 14 years. 2025 - 14 = 2011 - 1957 = 54 years. As you can see the gulf of time between Yellow Claw #4 and Captain America #164 has increased by 3 years.
“Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all, and our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.” - Robert Nash, “Are Memories reliable", The Conversation - December 17, 2018
Presently, there are conflicting and varied accounts when it comes to the origins of Spider-Woman. In Marvel Spotlight #32, Spider-Woman #1, and the Evolutionary War back-up stories on the High Evolutionary all point to Spider-Woman’s parents working with the High Evolutionary. In this version of events, Miram Drew is killed by a werewolf. Jessica gets radiation poisoning and is put in suspended animation while a cure made of spider-venom works its magic. Her father later left and ended up getting murdered by a company called Pyrotechnics, Inc. Moreover, it states that the Drew family worked with the High Evolutionary in the 1930s. This origin story is intrinsically linked to the origins of nearly every character tied to Wundagore Mountain (the Puppet Master, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Werewolf by Night etc.)
In the early 2000s, Brian Michael Bendis wrote Spider-Woman: Origin, a limited series that told a vastly different version of events. The Drews were Hydra agents from the get-go. Jessica was bombarded with spider DNA in utero. Miriam Drew is apparently murdered in a hotel room. Jonathan Drew continued to work with Hydra until his death aboard a Hydra science platform. Bendis went on to recount this origin in the 5th volume of Spider-Woman.
Adding to the mess, is the seventh volume of Spider-Woman written by Karla Pacheco. She has incorporated elements from both origin stories. Although this storyline is still in publication as of this writing (February 2021) the storyline involves Jessica Drew returning to the High Evolutionary’s citadel and discovering a clone of her mother. Then, borrowing from the Bendis story, by incorporating that version’s account of Miriam’s death. See Spider-Woman (vol. 7) #3-5.
How does one account for these different origins? Well, Marvel has yet to provide an explanation, and Karla Pacheco’s run is still on-going and will hopefully tie up loose ends. I can only offer speculation.
One of the major plot points to Spider-Woman: Origin is that Jessica was mentally conditioned by Mentallo so she was loyal to Hydra. Another plot point is that Miles Warren is stated as working with the Drews in that series before leaving. It’s my opinion that the High Evolutionary story is the true events and reveals the true fate of Jonathan and Miriam Drew. I believe that Hydra not only mentally conditioned Jessica to be loyal but planted false memories about her past that gives her stronger ties to Hydra. The Jonathan and Miram Drew that appear in that story are actually clones. This is not impossible to consider becuase (a) Miles Warren did work for the High Evolutionary (per Scarlet Spider Unlimited #1), (b) Spider-Woman (vol. 7) #3-5 has Jessica meet a clone of her mother, putting this in the realm of possibility.
There are many conflicting issues with the Carnage symbiote in the pages of various Spider-Man stories. Primarily, that the Carnage symbiote is the offspring of the Venom symbiote. While this was true, that is no longer the case.
The Venom symbiote gave birth to the Carnage symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #345. This same symbiote was later consumed by Venom in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10. Later, Cletus Kasady was drawn into the Negative Zone where he found a nearly identical symbiote.
In many stories after the fact, Carnage is still referred to as the “son” of Venom.
A certain crowdsourced website claims that traces of the original symbiote still existed in Cletus Kasady’s blood and merged with the new symbiote. This is an assumption based on a Tweet written by Cullen Bunn on the issue. However, a Tweet should never be considered part of continuity because another writer, later on, could write something very different.
Moreover, the most recent profile on Carnage in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2 makes a clear distinction between the two symbiotes.
At any rate, even if one Carnage symbiote absorbed the other, that doesn’t mean one is dead and the other is still alive. As demonstrated when the Venom symbiote tried consuming its clone (see Venom #1-18) This clone still managed to separate itself and it late became the Mania symbiote in Venom (vol. 2) #38.
That said, there is a simpler explanation for people still calling Carnage the “son” of Venom. The only people who were present when Kasady obtained the symbiote were Spider-Man, Blastaar, Kasady himself. To date, the people who have referred to Carnage as Venom’s “son” were not privy to the change of the symbiote. Cletus still calls himself Venom’s “son” because he’s batshit insane.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
UPDATE MARCH 3, 2021: Marvel just published The King in Black Handbook today. It features a profile on Carnage and it confirms what I have been saying all along. It makes a distinction between the symbiote birthed by Venom and the one found in the Negative Zone. Despite what the dipshits at the Garbage Database thought, one did not absorb the other. This is exactly why you don’t use a Twitter account as a source, morons.
There are many conflicting accounts of when the spy agency SHIELD was first formed. Originally, Strange Tales #135 states that SHIELD was founded in the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe, with the assistance of Tony Stark. This is reinforced in Fury #1, and Marvel: The Lost Generation #10.
SHIELD #1-6, (vol. 2) #1-6 and Secret Warriors #24-28 suggest that SHIELD is a spin-off of the Brotherhood of the Shield an ancient organization that was formed by Earth’s greatest minds, including Leonardo Da Vinci.
Original Sins #5, Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #1-5, and Agent Carter: SHIELD 50th Anniversary all depict SHIELD had existed in the 1960s.
History of the Marvel Universe #2 offers some vague answers. It states that the modern-day version of SHIELD was the “next incarnation of the Brotherhood of the Shield” formed to deal with the threat of Hydra.
My interpretation of this is that the SHIELD we see prior to Strange Tales #135 was a covert organization that was still part of the Brotherhood. Post-Strange Tales SHIELD was a different organization given its very public presence. The covert nature of the previous version explains why it is never mentioned when the new version of SHIELD was formed by the UN.
In early Marvel stories, some characters who is tied to the modern age were stated as having fought in World War II. Notably, Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, aka Mister Fantastic and the Thing of the Fantastic Four. This was first referenced in Fantastic Four #11. The pair also make guest appearances in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #3 and Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #7. Marvel Two-in-One #77 shows a World War II story where Ben Grimm fought alongside the Howling Commandos as well.
Worse, in a number of Marvel books published in the 60s and 70s make direct reference to the Vietnam War as though it was happening in the Modern Age. There are stories where characters visit Vietnam during the War: Thor gets involved in Journey into Mystery #117, Iron Man’s origins are rooted in it circa Tales of Suspense #39 and so on. Most notably, the Punisher’s origins are steeped in the fact that he fought in the Vietnam War (noted in Punisher (vol. 2) #77). Other characters that were linked to the Vietnam War are Spider-Man’s biggest fan Flash Thompson, who was depicted as getting drafted into the war in Amazing Spider-Man #43 and James Rhodes (later War Machine) rescuing Tony Stark during Vietnam in Iron Man #144.
With the Sliding Timescale, this becomes impossible for these characters to be involved in the conflicts referenced above without drastically aging the characters in question. This issue was resolved in History of the Marvel Universe #2, which states that instead of World War II/the Vietnam War, these characters took part in the Sin-Cong Conflict, a fictional war created to resolve this issue.
The principles of this rule are pretty simple: Generally speaking, any character who exists in the Modern Age (post Fantastic Four #1) that has a normal human life span that references being involved in World War II or the Vietnam War were instead involved in the Sin-Cong Conflict. Any references to these conflicts in the present-tense or the immediate past of a Modern Age story should also be considered the Sin-Cong Conflict.
Obvious exceptions are characters who have managed to live prolonged lives due to slowed aging, suspended animation, immortality, or time travel. Such characters are Captain America, Bucky, the Black Widow, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, the Red Skull to name a few. These characters have existed in earlier time periods outside of the Modern Age. The only thing that changes is the length of time between the Modern Age and those eras.
Update May 4, 2021: In last month’s The Marvels #1, there is a sequence that featured Daredevil entertaining the troops at a USO event to support the troops. This adapts a scene from Daredevil #47. In the original version of the story, Daredevil was entertaining the troops during the Vietnam War. In The Marvels #1, instead of the Vietnam War it is now the Sin-Cong Conflict. This confirms that the Sin-Cong Conflict extended beyond the Pre-Modern Age and was still an active conflict in the early days of the Modern Age.
On September 11, 2001 terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and America has been in a seemingly endless war with Islamic extremists in the Middle East ever since. The attack and subsequent “War on Terror” is prolific and comparable to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1945. As you have probably seen, 9/11 and the War on Terror were major inspirations for Marvel stories post-2001 and for about 15 years afterward.
These references should be considered topical references because they are no incredibly dated 20 years later. In that time, the rubble of the original Twin Towers went from being “Ground Zero” to being cleaned out and replaced with the Freedom Tower.
The interesting thing about the WTC, in particular, is that it has had a life cycle in Marvel books. It was depicted as being under construction in Daredevil #82 in 1971. It later became a visible landmark across many Marvel books in the coming decades as part of the New York City skyline. The 9/11 attacks were depicted in Captain America (vol. 4) #1, and Ground Zero (as the ruins came to be known) were depicted in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #36. Eventually, the Freedom Tower made its first appearance in Deadpool (vol. 3) #14.
Marvel has not provided any official statement on how these stories should be interpreted, but they should be considered topical references.
On my Index, I refer to all references to the War on Terror and the wars in Iraq, Afganistan, and the current conflict with ISIS in general terms, citing that they are conflicts taking place in the Middle East. Terrorist groups are generalized as well.
Likewise, all references to the WTC are generalized as though there has always been a World Trade Center site, but I never specify if it is the original twin towers or the new Freedom Tower. Times when the WTC was under construction or destroyed, I generalize them as being construction sites, or scenes of a terror attack, but not specifically the WTC.
If I were to hazard a guess, I can see Marvel coming up with another fictional war to explain away these dated references. If I were to guess, they’ll probably use Trans-Sabal, the made-up Middle Eastern nation that was first seen in Incredible Hulk #390. That’s speculation on my part, so we’ll have to wait and see if I’m right or wrong.
“Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all, and our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.” - Robert Nash, “Are Memories reliable", The Conversation - December 17, 2018
Over the years the Black Panther’s origins has been subject to change in attempts to modernize and turn away to some of the more problematic elements of that origin.
The first origin story first was told in Fantastic Four #53. In early accounts, such as Avengers #87, T’Chaka is not depicted wearing the Black Panther garb during the fight. This and the addition of Zuri to the story wouldn’t be seen/mentioned until Black Panther (vol. 3) #1. In earlier tales Wakandans were depicted wearing tribal clothing that is based on the stereotype perpetuated by jungle adventure films that were popular in the 1950s and 60s. These accounts were told to the Fantastic Four and the Avengers by T’Challa himself. Per Black Panther (vol. 3) #8, this was during a period where he did not trust the outside world and he joined the Avengers in order to spy on them. So it could be assumed that he was telling them a version of events that was mostly true but kept salient facts out.
Another version of events were told in Black Panther (vol. 3) #5. This version of tells mostly the same story and updated some elements. Here, it is stated that he tricked T’Chaka and his people into thinking they were ivory hunters. Whereas the original story, Klaw was going after Vibranium without any pretenses or deception. The ivory hunting cover story should now be considered topical as the practice has been banned since 1989. It was possible that the flashback took place prior to that date when this story was first published, however due to the Sliding Timescale pushing the Modern Age forward in time, this becomes less likely if not impossible to be true now. That said, this is a version of events presented by Mephisto. One could assume that it is different from the later accounts below because this is how Mephisto choses to depict events. Creating false memories and tricking people into believing them to be true is something he has done in the past, notably in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #22-25.
An alternate origin told in Black Panther (vol. 4) #3 states that Klaw was an assassin who attacked T’Chaka and his family while they were attending a Bilderberg meeting in Switzerland. In this accounting, T’Chaka was killed there and that he was the one who severed Ulysses’ hand. This story has since been refuted by other origins told that lean more toward the original origins of these characters. An explanation for this aberration has yet to be provided. My theory is that this version of events was made up by Klaw (since he’s the one telling it) to oversell his credentials.
A Marvel Legacy primer for the Black Panther featured in Black Panther #166 tells a truncated version of the original origin story. It distills everything down to the basics you could pigeon hole it with literally any origin except for the told by Klaw in the example above.
In Rise of the Black Panther #1, Klaw isn’t a hunter at all, but in league with Hydra. In this version of events, Klaw just shows up with his army. The battle is much short, but I think this is more for narrative pacing than anything else. Additionally, in this version of events the massive sonic cannon that T’Challa has used in prior stories is replaced by a hand-held one wielded by Klaw. In this version of events, the weapon falls into T’Challa’s hand after Zuri impales Klaw through the forearm with his spear. This injury makes it easier for T’Challa to blast Klaw’s hand clean off with the sonic weapon. This account is taken from the diary of Ramonda, and one could assume that this is how she remembers events occurring.
Black Panther Legends #1 tells the story slightly differently. In this version of events, Klaw and his associates are posing as delegates from the United Nations and have a meeting with T’Chaka. In this version of events, when T’Chaka refuses to mine Vibranium, Klaw and his men pull their weapons. In this version of events, Zuri chops off Klaw’s hand holding his sonic weapon (now condensed to a wrist mounted blaster instead of a gun). T’Challa then picks it up and uses it to blast Ulysses out of the office they are meeting in. This version features no invasion of Wakanda or clash with its people. It’s a sneak attack. This is the first time that this story was told in the third person, and perhaps it is one that is the most accurate as a result, at least for the time being.
There is some question as to if X-Men First Class, Uncanny X-Men First Class, Wolverine First Class, and Weapon X First Class are considered part of continuity. There is a whole discussion about it at the Marvel Chronology Project here.
TL;DR version: The series was considered part of continuity as it was referenced later in various Marvel Handbooks. The books themselves also were from specific periods of time and included references to past X-Men stories. Of the series, the original X-Men First Class (and it’s 2nd volume and Finals mini-series) played it a little fast and loose with continuity.
The Chronology Project states that an editorial mandate came down that the First Class books were to no longer be considered part of continuity, right around the time the various series were axed. Nobody can point to a specific publication that dictates this, and I have yet to find one myself. Most people tend to accept that as fact even though there is no evidence to back up that claim both in the fiction or in any official statement or in any handbook. If I’ve somehow missed that, shoot me an e-mail.
That said, these stories can be easily added to continuity and since none of this material has been explored any further in the decade since the last First Class comic came out, I think it’s safe to assume that nobody cares one way or the other.
However, as I said, these stories can fit into continuity with little disruptions if they are placed somewhat liberally. A lot of the discrepancies come from the esthetics of characters and things (the depictions of the X-Men’s costume and Cerebro being modernized compared to the original stores). Also if you try to tie First Class in a linear issue-to-issue fashion there are some hiccups. That said, the esthetic choices can be tied to characters deciding to wear different costumes or certain elements in the original X-Men comics (such as the technology used for Cerebro) being considered Topical References. The janky continuity can also be explained if you make First Class fit with the original run of X-Men and not the other way around.
My index includes these stories as part of Earth-616 continuity because they can fit if you stop trying to measure time in the Marvel Universe as literal but rather topical. The amount of times they go back and add to Spider-Man’s history in-between issues of Amazing Spider-Man is evidence enough that these First Class stories can be included. Space can be made for them.
Again, it’s the distinction I make between continuity and canon. It’s no surprise that everyone who is against First Class being part of continuity uses the term canon, a term I absolutely hate.
As for how I choose to interpret First Class, someone did all the legwork (at least for the original series) here and this is the guideline I go by. You may have a difference of opinion and if so don’t bother e-mailing me about it, I don’t fucking care about your opinions on “canon”.
Two recent stories told in Spider-Woman: Origin #1-5 and Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #1-5 have created some contradictions to previously established stories that, as of this writing (April 2021) have yet to be answered, clarified, and explained in an official capacity. The details regarding Spider-Woman are detailed above.
In Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 reveal that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch aren’t mutants but were experimented upon by the High Evolutionary and that they are the children of Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified man. This refutes previous “revelations” that they were the children of Magneto and his first wife, Magda, a “fact” that was established in Avengers #186 and Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4.
In those tellings and Classic X-Men #12, Magda Lehnshire left her husband when she witnessed him use his powers to murder people. She ended up at Wundagore Mountain and gave birth (allegedly) to Pietro and Wanda, she then fled to hide her children from her husband.
Obviously, leading the Maximoff twins to believe they were Magneto’s children helped sell the idea that they were mutants and helped hide the Evolutionary’s experiments upon them. However, it raises some questions that are still unanswered.
Like: Did Magda ever show up at the Citadel of Science? If so, was she actually pregnant? If she was, what happened to her children? Also what happened to Magda after she fled to hide her children?
A lazy way to resolve this issue is to say that Magda also had stillborn babies, but these are a dime a dozen in the Marvel Universe (See Mary Jane, the Invisible Girl, and so on) it also seems really unlikely that stillbirths would be that rampant at a place literally called the Citadel of Science.
If it were up to me, this would have some story telling potential for a big reveal of Magneto’s real children and how their DNA was somehow used to help the High Evolutionary fake out Pietro and Wanda’s “mutantness”, there is a great return/revenge story where Magnetos real kids go after Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch for stealing their lives or heritage or something to that effect.
It has been a longstanding fact that Ned Leeds has been dead for years after he was murdered in Spider-Man Versus Wolverine #1. This death acted as a catalyst that pushed Betty Brant from mild-mannered secretary to hard boiled reporter. The character was later cloned during the Clone Conspiracy story-arc. That clone survived until it was murdered in Amazing Spider-Man #816.
In the summer of 2021, Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #67-68 revealed that the real Ned Leeds is, apparently, still alive. The reason provided was that he consumed the goblin formula before his death and this allowed him to come back from the dead due to the formula’s healing properties. This is not an impossible idea as this was how Norman Osborn cheated death many years ago after he was impaled with a Goblin Glider in Amazing Spider-Man #122, as revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.
However, the resurrection story in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #68 seems all too pat and in the previous issue readers were reminded of a warning about Betty given by the clone of Ned when he died. There are also many details that the “real” Ned has left out of his story. Such as where he has been in the years since his “death” and who he has been working with. Also there is the issue of how he knew to break into one of Norman Osborn’s European homes when he was operating at the Hobgoblin. There are many unresolved questions in this story.
So, unlike certain websites that will jump to the conclusion that Ned Leeds is alive, I will not accept this at face value. Particularly because this plot development is still on going and could turn out to be a massive deception. This is not an outlandish assertion in the world of Spider-Man with dead characters apparently coming back from the dead only to be revealed to be some kind of deception. The Clone Saga, Peter Parker’s parents, and other stories have taught readers not to believe everything at face value.
As such, my index will not be updating any continuity notes that reference the murder of Ned Leeds until this story resolves itself and all of the facts are provided.
In Captain America #186 introduced a development about the Falcon that has since become problematic. The character was revealed to have been a criminal nicknamed Snap who was brainwashed by the Red Skull using the Cosmic Cube to alter his personality so he would be an ideal candidate as Captain America’s new partner. This became problematic in later years because the whole idea perpetuates a lot of negative stereotypes about African-Americans. Recently, writers tried to do away with the whole idea in All-New Captain America #3, which kind of tosses the notion away with the Sam (then Captain America) rejecting this version of his past, deciding that the Red Skull fabricated Snap Wilson to make Sam doubt himself.
The intention of tossing the Snap Wilson stuff makes sense. Marvel has been making real efforts to be as inclusive as possible to all readers. That said, the cavalier dismissal doesn’t take into account other stories that reinforce the whole Snap Wilson thing. First, Captain America #191 where Sam is made to stand trial for the crimes he allegedly committed as Snap Wilson. He’s found guilty and released on probation due to his time as the Falcon.
Even more egregious, the Falcon back-up stories that deal with Snap in Captain America #276-278. The plot involved Sam running for congress. The pressure of the campaign caused him to start reverting to his “Snap” persona. Here, the persona is explained as being an split personality that Sam created to deal with the trauma of his parents being murdered. These issues are detailed by Sam’s sister and Reverend Garcia in this story arc. In the end, Sam’s loses the election because he reveals the truth about his criminal past to the public.
All of Sam’s profiles in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe up to his most recent profile (as of this writing in June 2021) in Avengers Now! #1, make mention of Snap Wilson and list Sam as having a criminal record in his statistics. Mind you, even Avengers Now! #1 pre-dates the events of All-New Captain America #3.
Marvel has yet to explain all of these discrepancies.
In lieu of an official explanation, I think that there is an event that can explain how other people remember Sam’s time as Snap Wilson even though that past does not exist. The answers come from the Secret Empire event of 2017. Readers may remember the catalyst behind this story was the Captain America was secretly a Hydra agent the entire time. The event later reveals that this happened when the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to change Steve Rogers history. Sound familiar? In the end, the real Steve Rogers was restored and his fascist counterpart became part of a parallel reality wherein Steve was a Hydra sleeper agent (designated Earth-61311 by the Appendix)
Until an official explanation for these specific discrepancies can be explained, my index will choose to interpret these events as having happened. If Sam’s past wasn’t physically altered then, at the very least, people’s memories of events were altered. This idea is no without precedence.
In the graphic novel Spider-Man: Family Business, Peter Parker worked with a spy who might be his long lost sister, Teresa Parker. As of this writing this is still an ongoing mystery. It appeared that the truth was revealed in Spectacular Spider-Man #302, when a photo of Mary Parker with Teresa as a baby was dug up by Nick Fury. However, more recently in Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man: The Chameleon Conspiracy #1, this was thrown into question when the Chameleon and the Finisher attempted to convince Teresa that she was one of many Chameleons that operate under deep cover and that her memories of the past are fabrications to sell his current identity.
As of this writing (June 2021), Teresa has rejected these claims as she continues to hunt the man who killed her parents. That said, these recent revelations have not been confirmed or denied and as such, what references to Teresa Parker that are made on my index (which are few since I haven’t gotten into anything post 2015) will reference these revelations as speculative for the time being until the absolute truth (such as it can be in fiction) is revealed.
Hawkeye has had a long and confusing history of hearing problems. The first time he obtained a hearing issue was explored in Hawkeye #4, when he used one of his sonic arrows to counteract the effects of one of Crossfire’s sonic weapons. This damaged his hearing, although this plot point was routinely ignored for years. Later, after Heroes Reborn, in Avengers Annual 2001, it was revealed that Hawkeye’s hearing was healed by Franklin Richards when during that whole fiasco.
Later, in Hawkeye (vol. 4) #15, Hawkeye is made deaf when he is stabbed in the ears by a villain calling himself the Clown. Issue #19 of that series then goes even further by stating (in a flashback) that Clint had hearing problems as a child from the constant beating he suffered from his abusive father and that he learned sign language.
This latest change, if left alone, doesn’t account for the fact that up until Hawkeye #4, there were 20 years worth of Hawkeye stories where he doesn’t have any apparent hearing problems. At the time of this writing (August 2021), Marvel has not cleared this up. The last time Hawkeye received an update to his profile in the Official Handbook was in 2012’s Avengers: Roll Call #1, published 2 years prior to the 4th volume of Hawkeye.
So how do you reconcile that? My position is that Hawkeye being hard of hearing or deaf as a child does not negate any past stories. I’m always one to find ways around problems rather than being lazy and “retconning” things out.
Particularly when the writers who have written the stories in 2014 did not go into any clinical detail about Clint’s past hearing problems. You also have to remember that this is the Marvel Universe, a fictional world and that the real world has made huge advancements on hearing loss treatments in the 6 years that those stories were published.
So this presents two possibilities to me:
1) Clint’s childhood hearing problems were severe, but not severe enough that they couldn’t be reversed by some breakthrough in medicine that exists entirely in the realm of fiction (Remember these are comics that featured stories in the 1960s that had cures for blindness, as seen in Daredevil #9 and Fantastic Four #19), this idea is not outlandish.
2) Clint always wore a hearing aid, which was small enough that it could not be visibly seen while he was wearing it and kept his handicap a secret. Probably fearing some kind of stigma over his disability affecting his membership in the Avengers. When he encountered Crossfire in Hawkeye #4, it didn’t damage his hearing, but his hearing aid and since he was already well cemented on the Avengers by that point, he decided to not hide his disability anymore.
Both of these are viable ideas in lieu of an official explanation. Personally, I like the second idea because it opens up a lot of story telling potential around a character hiding a disability due to societal stigma and I hope that a future writer will take that approach whenever they get around giving an answer of some kind.
At the time of this writing (September 9, 2021), Amazing Spider-Man #73 just came out and reveals that, apparently, the Stacy twins from J. Michael Strazynski’s controversial Sins Past story arc were all part of some grand deception created by Harry Osborn to fuck with both Peter Parker and his father. If this turns out to be true, it will impact a number of the Spider-Man stories I currently have in my index (notably the Sins Past issues as well as the American Son arc from Brand New Day)
However, I always err on the side of caution when a change is just announced. Although the events of Amazing Spider-Man #73 goes into some of the details, all of them have not been explains — namely the apparent duplicity of Harry Osborn and the full details of Mephisto’s deal with Norman Osborn among other lingering questions. As such, in order to make an accurate update to these entries I will be refraining from adding anything until the Kindred story arc has concluded. A good researcher always waits for all the relevant facts to come out.
Update October 7, 2021: Following the conclusion of the Kindred story arc it has been confirmed that the a number of the facts behind the Stacey twins and Harry Osborn have changed. This will require updates to index pages dating back to the 1990s. I am aware of these changes to established continuity. Currently, I am slowly working on updating pages on my index and will get to updating the affected summaries as soon as possible. I’m only one person so this will take some time.
“Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all, and our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.” - Robert Nash, “Are Memories reliable", The Conversation - December 17, 2018
The stories of Thor’s past have been told and retold in various publications. Some of these retellings contain various contradictions. Some events are said to have happened earlier or later in history, while one account will tell the same story in a very different way. An example of these contradictions surround Thor’s relationship with Sif with respect to when the first met and when her original blonde hair was cut off and replaced with the black hair created by Loki.
In universe, there aren’t really many specific explanations for all these contradictory accounts, at least at the time of this writing (October 2021). The semi-official Marvel Chronology Project doesn’t favor one version of these events or the other, but rather places the stories in the best chronological order (despite the contradictions). I suppose the intent is that people’s mileage may vary and they can choose whatever version of the events they wish to subscribe to.
This index chooses to accept this method of accounting for these events in continuity until such a time a specific explanation can be made. However, it could be that Marvel intends to keep these looks into the past murky in order to fully embrace the nature of the ancient Norse mythologies which are rife with multiple and contradictory versions of stories.
That all said there are three possible explanations for these differing accounts:
1) Thor #294 details how during the last Ragnarok cycle Odin created the Asgardians as adult versions of themselves around the time Jesus Christ was born. He then filled their minds with a version of Norse mythology so that they had “memories” of the past.
2) Thor (vol. 2) #83 explains that every Ragnarok cycle has the Asgardians reliving their lives and that each iteration is slightly different than the last. This has been shown in a series of Thor one-shots: Ages of Thunder #1, Trial of Thor #1, The Rage of Thor #1, Man of War #1, and Reign of Blood #1.
3) Thor: God of Thunder #3 states that the Asgardians have a limited capacity for memories in their brains and that over time newer memories overwrite older ones. The older memories growing dim or forgotten entirely.
My index tends to accept all accounts as equally valid (just as in every other case where events have contradictory accounts), as usually the accounts are told from different perspectives and different characters. Their motivations for telling a story a certain way may be colored by their perception of self, their needs, or how they wish to appear to others (just like in real life)
In the case of the Asgardians, a lot of their stories are told in a third person perspective and as such one could assume that the differing accounts are not any different than the recordings of Norse mythology themselves which, as I’ve stated above, contain many contradictory accounts in and of themselves. These stories have been told and reinterpreted many times even before they were ever written down. Even the process of translating these old stories into a language you can understand can fundamentally change them.
This is in reference to Luther Manning, the original Deathlok who first appeared in Astonishing Tales #25. His exists in an alternate timeline that has been indexed as Earth-7484.
When he first appeared, the original Deathlok’s future was supposed to be the future of the mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth-616) as evidence when Spider-Man ended up in that future in Marvel Team-Up #46. Deathlok’s future has always been depicted as happening in the “future” year of the early 1990s in all of the original texts, where it is stated that the Modern Age of heroes came to an end in 1983. Subsequent Marvel Handbooks, even up to Luther Manning’s most current profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 continue to repeat this original narrative.
However, in the texts, Deathlok’s future has always been stated as being a possible future to the Earth-616 Universe and that the realities diverged when Captain America prevents Nth Command from wiping out Earth’s heroes in the present day in Captain America #289.
There is a divide between individuals who believe that Deathlok’s future is locked to key dates and that others that believe it exists on a Sliding Timescale. This is a debated issue even over at the The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, with regular contributors being unable to come to a census on the matter. I suspect that Marvel’s Official Handbooks continue to use static dates is because the Luther Manning profiles were taken directly from the Appendix since the contributors there had a hand in writing the current run of Official Handbooks.
To understand things, let me first go into the arguments about Deathlok’s timeline:
The Arguments For Fixed Dates
The example used to argue that Deathlok’s timeline is set in fixed dates is the MC2 Universe (aka Earth-982). This universe chronicles the “next generation” of Marvel heroes, particularly Spider-Girl — aka Mayday Paker — the daughter of Spider-Man (Peter Parker) and Mary Jane Watson. In the beginning of this line of stories, May is about 15 years old, placing the “present day” of the Marvel Universe has happening 15-20 years in the past. However, the way the Handbooks interpret this reality is that Earth-982 is set in the “present day” that runs on a Sliding Timescale. We aren’t seeing the “future” per-se, but a “present day” when the Age of Heroes happened and came to an end around a decade or two prior.
The arguments for Deathlok’s future being set to fixed dates is that Deathlok must come from a similar timeline, where Deathlok’s “past” is a version of the Earth-616 Modern Age that happened and ended about a decade earlier and that Luther Manning’s “present day” is what adheres to a Sliding Timescale.
The Argument Against
The main argument against this idea is that for a number of years, Deathlok has been involved in time travel incidents where he interacts with Earth-616 characters and even (prior to this Captain America story) spent a prolonged period of time in the present day of Earth-616.
All of these stories frame Deathlok as coming from the future and any time a present-day Earth-616 is told what year Deathlok comes from they are all shocked to learn what happens in the future. Case in point, in this Captain America story arc, Deathlok tells Cap the year in which his future begins is the year 1983, Captain America exclaims “It is the year 1983!”. If Deathlok’s explanations of the future were of a year that had already passed in the Modern Age, then Captain America wouldn’t have reacted that way. More over, Captain America’s actions in Captain America #289 causes the divergence that separates Earth-616’s timeline from a future where Deathlok’s dystopia exists.
This idea puts it more in line with other time travel storylines like Days of Future Past (Earth-811) which was given static dates in the original story, where the “present day” took place in 1980 and the Days of Future Past events beginning in the year 1984 and the future Kitty Pryde coming from sometime in the early 21st Century. Marvel no longer considers these affixed dates, rather that the DOFP timeline runs on a Sliding Timescale as well as this nightmare future regularly pops up as a possible threat but changes as the possible future is influenced by the actions taken in the present day.
The commonality between Days of Future Past and Deathlok’s timeline are time travel interactions with the “present day” of the Prime Marvel Universe with the intent of changing the future and preventing certain events from occurring.
The Unofficial Index Position
That all said, it is my opinion that the idea of Deathlok’s future being affixed to a static date does not make sense. The narrative of the stories always state that Deathlok comes from a/the future that is years ahead of the present day Marvel Universe. Due to the Sliding Timescale, the concept of Captain America traveling to Deathlok’s time which is in the future but — thanks to the Sliding Timescale — is now (as of this writing) 30 years in the past and no longer in reasonable synch with the Modern Age.
Deathlok’s future was connected to the Marvel Universe until the divergence point in Captain America #289. As such, it too must exist on the Sliding Timescale. It is the position of this index that at this juncture in the fiction Deathlok’s future can no longer exist in a fixed date but in a Post-Modern Age Sliding Timescale which pushes forward in time much as the Modern Age itself.
How This Index Interprets Deathlok’s Timeline:
Trying to figure out a reasonable timeline on this Sliding Timescale model is not quite as straight forward.
Per the fiction, the end of the Heroic or Modern Age of the Marvel Universe happened in 1983. The first Deathlok story was published in Astonishing Tales #25, published in 1974. The idea was that from the perspective of publication dates, the “present day” of the Marvel Universe as in 1974 and Deathlok’s future began 9 years in the future and that Deathlok’s “future” of 1990 was 16 years in the future from the present day in the publications.
Looking at the Sliding Timescale, the 1974 publication year falls under “Year 4” of the Modern Age. Thus, by this logic, Deathlock’s future was to happen start in “Year 14” with Dethlok being created in “Year 20”.
However, Captain America #289 is the story where Deathlok’s future diverges from the Prime Marvel Universe, the inciting incident being the Nth Command wiping out Earth’s heroes. Captain America #289 was published in 1983 which is “Year 6” of the Modern Age. “8 years” earlier than if you measured time based entirely on the original publication dates.
That said, it appears that the timeline was mapped out before the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 was firmly established. Earth-616’s timescale operates on a 4:1 ratio, meaning for ever 4 years of publications, 1 year of time passes in the fiction. If you apply this logic to Deathlok’s timeline, by condensing the dates giving by 4, things start fitting better.
The 4:1 ratio for the “14 year” period between Astonishing Tales #25 and Captain America #289 you get 3.5 years. Adding that to “year 4” you get “year 7.5” which is a lot closer to the length of time between the in-universe passage of time between the 1974 and 1983 years of publications. “Year 20” now reduces down to “Year 16”, making everything fit a lot better. They aren’t perfect but all measurements of the Sliding Timescale should always be taken as approximations rather than exact dates since there will always be inconsistencies when trying to account for all the continuity.
That all said, it is the view of this index that Deathlok’s timeline begins around “Year 6”, the “year” of the divergence point and that Deathlok’s creation happened in “Year 16”. From the perspective of Captain America #286, modern readers should interpret Deathlok’s future has happening 10 years in the future from that point, which matches issue #288, which titles the story “Revolution: 1993!”, 10 years after 1983, the story’s publication date. Thus, my Sliding Timescale theory surrounding Deathlok’s future works.
In the limited series Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) the story mostly follows the couple as Wanda becomes pregnant and gives birth to her children. Writer Steve Englehart has gone on record as saying that he wrote that series in “real time” with a month passing between each issue.
This puts it at odds with the Sliding Timescale that governs the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe. Generally speaking, for every four years of publications one year passes within the fiction. This series was published between 1986 and 1987, which fall under the category of publications that detail the “seventh year” of the Modern Age. If strictly adhered to, that would mean that Wanda’s pregnancy would have lasted 2.5 months instead of the average 10 months.
This is one of those few cases where the timeline of a story would not logically fit the Sliding Timescale without some kind of external explanation. As of this writing, the most complete profile for the Scarlet Witch can be found in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #10. while it details the events of Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2), it only uses a paragraph to detail these events and is vague about the passage of time.
However, since the entire pregnancy was based on magic, one could assume that magical circumstances were involved. One could assume that the magic involved sped up the pregnancy, but that doesn’t really fit the narrative of the story where calendar events and seasons pass and Wanda appears to go through a normal pregnancy. There is no way to “speed things up” without characters being aware of the accelerated passage of time. That kind of awareness does not happen here.
Slowing time in general — across all Marvel books — during this period would also greatly affect the Sliding Timescale in many unforseen ways. As of this writing (February, 2022) Marvel has not provided an official explanation for this discrepancy.
I believe the Disney+ series Wandavision (which was partially inspired by this series) and the House of M limited series gives us a possible explanation for all of this. As you may recall, in Wandavision, Wanda uses her powers to reshape the entire world around her to suit her whims, affecting time and space to turn the entire town into situational comedies from various different eras. This sort of reality altering power is not unique to the MCU either. In House of M, Wanda uses her powers to restructure all of reality into a world of her own suiting.
It’s my theory that this is the case here in this series. That Wanda’s powers somehow affected the flow of time around Lenora (maybe all over) so that — for a brief moment — time passed slower so that while her pregnancy did take 10 months, the passage of time outside of her life remained at its usual pace. The change of seasons, the passage of holidays all happened in this localized pocket where Wanda is going through her pregnancy. When characters from outside Leona (basically every guest star) come into her world, their thoughts and memories are also affected by this localized pocket of “real time”, hence how their views adhere to the story narrative.
It’s my view that this “pocket of real time” occurred between Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 (when Wanda finds out she’s pregnant and decides to stay in Leona) and issue #12 (when she gives birth to her children)
Under this theory, Wanda’s pregnancy happening in “real time” and the consistency of the Sliding Timescale can both be true at the same time.
Up until the late 2010s, the Star Brand was a power source unique to the New Universe (Earth-148611) line of Marvel books from the mid 1980s. However, this all changed in Avengers (vol. 5) #13, circa 2013, when the Star Brand was introduced into the Marvel Universe proper. In that storyline it was revealed that the Star Brand comes from the Superflow that exists between dimensions and it is released into a given reality when it is deemed worthy of that power. However, there have been some contra dictatory statements both before and after.
Prior to the Brand’s introduction into the Prime Marvel Universe proper, the New Universe version had been imported to Earth-616 in the page of Quasar. From issues #31 to 60 in that series, the Star Brand is treated as something from a universe so far removed from the Prime 616 that it is unknown to everyone. The New Universe was believed to be from a separate multiverse that is part of a greater omniverse that includes the Marvel Universe and its alternate reality counterparts. Everyone from aliens to cosmic beings treated it like something totally foreign and unseen before. By Quasar #60, the New Universe Earth is brought into the Earth-616 universe and locked away by the Stranger so it and the Star Brand cannot further pollute that reality and is never heard from again (at least as of this writing in 2022).
This wouldn’t create any problems with the later introduction of a Earth-616 version of the Star Brand appearing in Avengers (vol. 5) #7. Where problems happen is later revelations in Marvel Legacy #1 and Avengers (vol. 8) #26 that reveal that the Star Brand had been seen on Earth billions of years in the past.
If the Star Brand previously existed in prehistoric times, how could near omnipotent cosmic beings like the Watcher and the Stranger, who profess to not have had any prior knowledge of the Star Brand in their Quasar appearances if it pre-existed on Earth-616. So how does one explain this?
I have a few possible theories regarding this:
The first, is simply the fact that the Watcher sees all but doesn’t necessarily share all. There is information he keeps to himself because of his oath of non-interference. I think the simplest explanation is usually the easiest. Uatu didn’t all of a sudden go “Oh hey, there was a Star Brand in this reality as well” because knowledge of this great power could adversely affect the people of Earth. A lot of later Quasar stories involve people going after the New Universe Star Brand, so this would make some kind of sense.
The same can be said about the Stranger, who is pretty enigmatic like many cosmic beings in the Marvel Universe. Perhaps he did know about the Star Brand previously and is just playing along with everyone. The Stranger is not above deception or lying by omission. Such as when he lied about being the total sum of the Gigantans.
Another possibility comes from the Star Brand series itself. One of the primary antagonists in that title was the bizarre Old Man, who torments the title hero Kenneth Connell for control of the Brand. In issue #19 of that series, it was revealed that the Old Man was actually Kenneth Connell sent back in time 500 years into the past.. One could assume that the Star Brand seen in Avengers (vol. 5) #7 gets sent into the distant past in some as yet untold story, hence why it appears 65 million years in the past in Avengers (vol. 8) #26.
But this wouldn’t necessarily explain how it could have existed in the past without being detected or remembered by various omnipotent cosmic entities.
A possible explanation of this is something said in Untold Tales of the New Universe #1. In that story, a multiversal observer named Arden notes that the Star Brand breaks the rules of a given universe because its power comes from a source outside of the multiverse. It exists to break the rules.
Perhaps all of these contradictions can be explained away by this last point. Its contradictions exist because the Star Brand can break the rules that govern a universe. That makes about as much sense to me as anything else.
The character Nebula has had a confusing and often times conflicting family tree. The facts are as follows:
Avengers #260: In one of Nebula’s earliest appearances, she claims to be the granddaughter of Thanos. This has been one of the long standing claims that she has made over the years. Her alleged great uncle Starfox spends a period of time trying to find out if this is true or not. Thanos would later attack her for making these claims in Infinity Gauntlet #1-6, disputing her claims.
Silver Surfer Annual #5: Firelord and Starfox interrogate Nebula. Here, via mindlike, they are shown images from her past. These memories show her being sexually abused as a child by an adult male whose exact connection to Nebula is only inferred as a father-figure. He had blue skin and a ridged chin. It should be noted that when Nebula shared these memories she had been driven insane following the events of the Infinity Gauntlet and have not been independently verified.
Nova (vol. 3) #1: In this story, Nebula claims to be the daughter of Zorr, a Luphomoid responsible for devastating the planet Xandar an even that led to Richard Rider becoming Nova. She has not made this claim since, this claim also has not been independently verified.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #8 (Nebula profile): Mentions all of the above, but makes no definitive decision on what’s true or false.
Gamora #1-5: Published in 2017, this story takes place during the time when Thanos was raising Gamora to become his ideal warrior. Placing it prior to the Thanos storyline in the Warlock series from the 70’s. This story also has Nebula being trained alongside Gamora. Here, she and Gamora are referred to as Thanos’ adopted children. It should be noted that Nebula appears in his cyborg form years before it was first introduced in the 3rd volume of Silver Surfer.
Silver Surfer: Rebirth: This series came out in 2022 but is set around the time of the 3rd volume of Silver Surfer from the 90s. In this story, Thanos ends up in an alternate dimension where he encounters a version of Nebula. Here, they refer to themselves as father and daughter.
The reason for the later stories (Gamora and Silver Surfer: Rebirth) was to put the comics more in line with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, where Nebula (who is a cyborg) is the adopted daughter of Thanos. However, it doesn’t entirely fit with continuity and these discrepancies have yet to be explained.
The first issue is that Nebula is depicted as a cyborg in stories set before she was turned into one. I would think that perhaps Nebula was always a cyborg and in her earlier appearances (set in the modern day) is just hiding that fact. It’s better than explaining how she was a cyborg, was turned back to normal, then became a cyborg again. This would make some logical sense when you consider other cyborg character who can assume a non-cybernetic appearance such as Cable or some versions of Deathlok. It doesn’t seem too outlandish that this would be the case with Nebula.
As for her parentage, I think that a lot of her conflicting claims could come from the fact that she is mentally unstable or she is being intentionally deceptive.
As for Thanos denying that Nebula is his granddaughter: This is not necessarily incorrect. Thanos was mad that Nebula was suggesting that Thanos — a being obsessed with death — procreated, particularly during a period where Thanos was trying to wipe out half of all life in the universe.
The fact that Thanos doesn’t also clarify that she was his adopted daughter doesn’t negate later stories either. He’s in the middle of a cosmic battle of wills that will alter the fate of the universe, I think we can accept that he’s not going to stop what he’s doing just to clarify his family tree to everyone. Basically, the evidence of absence is not absence of evidence. Just because Thanos tortures Nebula for claiming to be his biological granddaughter does not negate that he had any kind of past association with her.
One could assume that Nebula was making the granddaughter claim to intimidate her foes and gain followers as part of whatever scheme she was involved with at the time. In lieu of an official explanation, my index chooses to accept that all stories are in continuity and the full story has yet to be revealed.
Since Daredevils #4, the “Prime” Marvel Universe has been designated Earth-616. Soon after, most universes were given a unique universe designation as a means of categorizing each reality. This reality numbering system was likely derived from a similar multiverse numbering system that was employed by DC Comics in the 1960s. Writer Alan Moore was the one to coin the designation Earth-616 and per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, the number was chosen arbitrarily. There is no significant reason for choosing it.
In the 2010s, the same set of Official Handbooks went on to designate the Marvel Cinematic Universe as happening on Earth-199999. However, in more recent movies in the franchise — particularly Spider-Man: Far From Home and the more recent Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — characters in these movies refer to that cinematic universe as Earth-616.
So what does this mean? Does it mean that the MCU is now Earth-616 and the comic book universe is being designated as something else?
I think that what this all boils down to is that references to Earth-616 in the movies is merely just an easter egg added to the story for long times fans and in is in no way an attempt to bump the long running comic book universe from that reality designation.
However, a universe suddenly changing its designation is not out of the ordinary. For example, the universe where the X-Men and Spider-Man animated series from the 90s was originally designated as Earth-921031 and later changed to Earth-92131. Numberings have been changed when there have been conflicts, revisions, or even in error.
That said, I don’t think that is the case here. I think the simpler solution is based on the reason Alan Moore numbered the Prime Marvel Universe as Earth-616. It was arbitrary. Case in point, nearly all other reality designations usually have no rhyme or reason behind why they have been assigned a given number. In some cases the numbering is based on the date a story was published that featured an alternate reality or people from that reality. More often than not though this numbering is just as arbitrarily selected as choosing Earth-616.
As there is no real rhyme or reason to the numbering system then these designations are all a matter of perspective from the person counting realities. As such perhaps the reason why characters in the MCU call their universe Earth-616 is all from the perspective of where they started counting and numbering the multiverse.
The best example of this can be found in JLA/Avengers #1-4. In that story, the Marvel and DC Universes are drawn closer enough together that they were parallel dimensions between one another. In this altered reality, the Avengers and Justice League of America refer to their worlds as Earth-One and Earth-Two. This is of course paying homage to early DC Comics stories where their Golden Age characters from the 40s were designated to Earth-Two, while the Silver Age characters existed on Earth-One. When the Avengers and JLA start referring to their universes in this way, they argue over whose universe is Earth-One and whose is Earth-Two, as members of a given team think their universe is “Number One”. It’s all arbitrary from the perspective of who is counting and why they are picking one number over the other.
With that in mind, to us readers, we have all sorts of ancillary texts and media where realities are given unique numbers that have been set in place for decades. Where as the characters in a fictional universe that is just starting to explore the Marvel multiverse don’t have that perspective. That said, the reality they have designated Earth-616 is actually Earth-199999 to us. The perspective, knowledge and understanding of this fictional multiverse for the viewers is vastly different for these characters that are just now discovering that a multiverse exists.
One of the most important parts of Magneto’s past is that he was a Jew who survived the Holocaust of World War II. This has been a part of his character since the mid-1980s and endures to this day. However, due to the Sliding Timescale this causes a problem as it becomes increasingly impossible for someone to have lived through World War II to still be alive without some means of extending their lifespan.
As of this writing (June, 2022) there has not been a definitive explanation from Marvel. The closest thing to explain his longevity is the events of Defenders #15-16 and X-Men #104. In that story, Magneto was de-aged into a baby. When he was later restored to adulthood (as pointed out in numerous Marvel Handbooks) he was restored to the relative prime of his life. While this worked at the time, the Sliding Timescale has bumped the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward where his surviving to the point where his age was regressed also becomes increasingly impossible.
There are a few possible solutions to this issue:
The first, is that the nature of Magneto’s powers — his control over magnetism — somehow has slowed his aging process. The guy can control people by magnetically influencing the iron in people’s blood. While a flimsy explanation, it is the simplest.
The second comes from his ties to the Nazi death camps during World War II. In Excalibur (vol. 3) #7 it is revealed that Mister Sinister experimented on people in the same concentration camp that Magneto lived in during the war. It’s entirely possible that Sinister experimented on Magneto as well. It could be that these experiments also slowed Magneto’s aging process.
The last possible explanation comes from the Magneto profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #6. It states that Maelstrom discovered genetic equipment used by Phaeder an Inhuman geneticist. This information is vague so we don’t know when this happened exactly. Phaeder was a master geneticist who also trained the likes of the High Evolutionary and Arnim Zola. It’s entirely possible that Magneto learned some way to slow his aging process this way.
Or it could be a combination of all three. Why not?
The father of Tony Stark has a messy timeline that has yet to be sorted out as of this writing (June, 2022). This is a combination of factors that place his activities in locked in time periods that fall outside the Modern Age and the Pre-Modern Age years of continuity.
Astonishing Tales: Dominic Fortune #1-6 shows Howard Stark as being alive as early as 1936. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1, Avengers Mansion is stated as being built by Howard Stark in 1932. However, the Howard Stark referenced here is stated as being Tony’s grandfather. Suggesting that the name Howard Stark was passed down to successive generations.
A handful of stories state that Howard Stark was alive during World War II. Particularly stories in Avengers Annual #9 and Captain America Annual #9. In the case of the Avengers story, Howard’s wartime references were updated to the Cold War when that story was revisited in Iron Man (vol. 3) #84. However, this is backpedaled when Tony refers to the Arsenal again in Spider-Man Family #9, stating that it was made in World War II. The Captain America story however, wherein Howard and Maria Stark are rescued by Cap and the Howling Commandos remains unexplained.
More recently in S.H.I.E.L.D. #1-6 (vol. 2) #1-6, Avengers: 1959 #3, Operation S.I.N #1-5 all show Stark as being active in the 1950s. During this time he was associated with the secret organization called the Brotherhood of the Shield.
Iron Man (vol. 5) #5-17 deals with Tony Stark’s adoption and features many flashbacks to the time when Howard and his wife Maria were trying to have a baby. Much of this story appears to have been set in the early 1970s. However, since this story is tied into the events surrounding the birth of Tony’s adopted brother Arno, the timeframe this story is set in should be considered topical as it clearly takes place during the Pre-Modern Age.
The theory that this Index subscribes to is that there is only one Howard Stark and he appeared in all of these stories. Given his association to the Brotherhood of Shield, who managed to keep Leonardo DaVinci and other historical figures alive well past their natural lifespan this doesn’t seem too outlandish. Perhaps the reason there is a distinction between “Howard Stark, Sr.” and “Howard Stark, Jr.” is perhaps Howard would fake his death and then pose as his own son. This is not unlike what Kang did when posing as Victor Timely in the Citizen Kang storyline.
Update, February, 2023: Iron Man (vol. 6) #25 ended with a teaser page giving hints at what kind of stories were coming up in the soon-to-be-published 5th volume of Invincible Iron Man. One panel features Tony standing at Howard Stark’s grave wondering why his father didn’t share his big secret. It seems to me that perhaps my theory is going to be put to the test at some point in the near future.
For 4 decades Iron Man 2020 has been said to come from the not-too-distant future of 2020 AD. While most unofficial sources tend to believe that this timeline is set to a specific date and that world’s version of the Age of Heroes (aka the Modern Age in the Prime Marvel Universe) happened 30 to 40 years in the past. This explanation becomes flimsy now that we’re in a situation where the present day Marvel Universe has surpassed the year 2020.
Iron Man 2020 has always been represented as a character that comes from the future where technology is much more highly advanced than the present day. Every time he refers to the era he is from, he is always treated as a character from “the future”. As such, much like Deathlok, I don’t believe we should consider the date in Iron Man 2020’s future as one that is locked in place. Rather, it’s my position that his timeline exists on a Sliding Timescale much like that of Earth-616.
In this case, rather than keeping the fiction in the relative “present” for the Modern Age, in the case of Iron Man 2020’s timeline it’s constantly sliding forward so it always maintains a position a few decades into the future of the Prime Marvel Universe.
Based on this logic, the year 2020 when used in the context of the character should be considered topical. More often than not, calling him “Iron Man 2020” is an editorial name, meaning that the character is seldom referred to by that name verbally in the fiction. But hey, if making 2020 topical, you could also say the name “Iron Man 2020” is no longer in reference to the year he originates from, but the model number for his armor.
As a western publication it should come to no surprise that there are many issues that feature characters celebrating various holidays. The most common one being Christmas (and by extension other national holidays that occur around the same time such as Hannukah and Kwanza). Depending on when these stories are published this wreaks havoc on the Sliding Timescale. Based on its composition, the Sliding Timescale means that Christmas should only be observed once every four years. Christmas is the most frequent occurrence where the rules of the Sliding Timescale is flouted. As a cultural touchstone and potential money maker it doesn’t make any sense to not publish Christmas stories every year. While Marvel hasn’t published holiday stories every year, they happen consistently enough that they are fairly common.
One could play it safe and just presume that every depiction of the holiday is a topical reference. Sometimes this works fine because Christmas is just a backdrop to a story. However, when stories include aspects like characters interacting with Santa Claus (who is real in the Marvel Universe) that becomes very difficult to reconcile.
I could be wrong, but I believe the first Christmas story in the Modern Age was in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #10, published in March of 1969. Incidentally most Christmas stories are usually published in March of a given year, unless it’s a special that is specifically published around the holiday in question. As such, as a general rule I consider each holiday story within a four year span as being factual with the others in between being topical unless there is some kind of special circumstances. So based on the first published story these “factual” Christmases would include stories published around March of the following years: 1973, 1977, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2025, and so on.
How one could reconcile the stories that do not fit the Sliding Timescale is up to interpretation. I’d argue that they cannot be reconciled with any kind of logic. Christmas breaks the Sliding Timescale more often than not and there’s no sense wrapping one’s head around a Christmas story to try and make it not be about Christmas. So I say why bother. Unless it’s easily able to generalize the holiday, there is no sense in even trying to recount the events as anything but. It’s a perfect example that timeline for the Marvel Universe will always be imperfect. I think it’s simpler to just say that Christmas breaks the fourth wall of the Marvel Universe and leave it at that.
There seems to be some confusion out there in internet land as to how to classify the numerous events that have gone under the name Secret Wars. Specifically how to differentiate the 2015 Secret Wars event from the others. The unmentionable crowd-sourced shit heap calls both the original and the 2015 event Secret Wars choosing to refer to the original as Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars and the other one as simple Secret Wars. This is stupid. Unless you’re referring to the original limited series by the the official title or indica, then specifying it’s Marvel Super Heroes is redundant. Especially from a resource that specifically focuses on Marvel Comics. They then choose to list the 2015 event as Secret Wars (2015). The respectable Unofficial Appendix also seems to get it wrong, since a smattering of their most recent updates refer to the 2015 event as Secret Wars III.
The numbering for Secret Wars has been straight forward. It has been used for the “secret” conflicts between Marvel’s heroes and villains involving the Beyonder, his kind (the Beyonders), or someone stealing the power of a Beyonder. There are five times a version of Secret Wars is in the fiction:
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: The original 12 issue miniseries that was published in 1984. Since it’s publication it has always been retroactively referred to as simple Secret Wars. There is no reason why it shouldn’t be referred to as anything else. Everything else shouldn’t be given the same fucking name even with a year in parenthesis.
Secret Wars II: The sequel to the original which took place over a 9 issue limited series and over 30 crossover issues in 1985-1986.
Fantastic Four #316-319: A story arc where the Fantastic Four end up locating the Beyonder. Doctor Doom fights him. Fantastic Four #319 is titled Secret Wars 3. Even though it is a single issue, its part of a multipart story. In addition, it has three key players that are involved in all other official Secret Wars: The Beyond, Doctor Doom, and the Molecule Man.
Secret War: 4 issue mini-series that took place in 2004-2005. Involves Nick Fury leading a team of heroes on an unsanctioned mission into Latveria and the fallout caused from it. No connection to all past Secret Wars events. This series starts a trend where Marvel uses keywords as brand recognition for their events. Secret War begat Secret Invasion and so on. Its use here is much like Marvel’s frequent use of the word Infinity to describe events. It and any other series with Secret in the title is not part of the greater Secret Wars events.
Secret Wars: A 10 issue min-series and 49 spin-off mini-series/one-shots that were published in 2015-2016. Since this story involves the Beyonders, Doctor Doom (stealing the power of the Beyonders), and the Molecule Man, than it is classified as a proper Secret Wars event. Since it is the fourth such storyline, then it is Secret Wars IV.