Getting Caught up on Marvel Now
Marvel U in a billion words or less.
By xcrementus - 7/29/2012
If you guys are interested in Marvel Now, here's a little primer for where the Marvel U is at right now. It mainly concentrates on the Avengers + XMen. I realise things are missing, everytime i think of one that i missed, i forget another, so this is the meat and potatoes lol.
SCHISM (XMEN)
Cyclops and Wolverine have fallen out, over the role of young mutants. Cyclops thinks they should be ready for spontaneous war, due to the constant threats they face.
Wolverine wants them to just be kids, and leave the fighting for the adults.
After an alpha-male brawl, the XMen split in two. Cyclops side remains on the island nation of Utopia off the coast of San Fransisco.
Wolverine's team heads back to New York, and opens the Jean Grey Institute, charged with keeping the kids studying instead of fighting.
FEAR ITSELF (AVENGERS)
Odin's brother, the God of Fear (the Serpent), returns from exile and sends down magical hammers to Earth. Whoever wields them becomes The Worthy, chosen to spread fear and increase his strength back to full.
The Hulk and Thing are unfortunate receivers of these weapons, along with Absorbing Man, Titania, Attuma, Grey Gargoyle, and the new Red Skull (Red Skull's daughter, Sin).
Odin knows the devastation the Serpent will ultimately bring, across Earth and finally to Asgard. Odin declares a deadline...Asgard will obliterate Earth and all upon it, in order to destroy the Serpent.
With the world being torn apart, the Avengers do what they can to form a resistance while Sin tears apart Washington with her Nazi loyalists.
Bucky, Steve Roger's old sidekick from WWII and current Captain America, is killed by Sin during the Washington blitz...or so it seems.
Losing faith, Steve decides to pick up the shield again, after four long years.
Thor learns that the God of Fear is his uncle, and there is a prophecy where if Thor slays the Serpent, Thor too will die.
Iron Man offers a sacrifice to Odin for a chance to fight back against the Serpent, the offer being Tony's sobriety. He gets drunk as a skunk and abuses Odin until it amuses him to let Tony play with Asgardian toys.
After Tony forges some weapons for the Avengers, they take on the Serpent and the Worthy, and Thor slays the Serpent, dying soon after as the prophecy foretold.
POST FEAR ITSELF:
CAP:
Bucky's death was a ruse...he used it as a chance to slip into the underground and avoid his current fugitive status. Steve finds out, punches out Nick Fury for keeping it a secret, and wishes Bucky luck.
THOR:
Thor finds himself inside a spiritual ship, bound for the Demigorge which eats dead Gods. Thor smashes his way out...as he tends to do.
He returns to Asgard, to find that Odin has abdicated his throne, and in his stead rule the three Maidens of Asgard. Also, theres a guy named Tanarus running around, posing as Thor. Thor smashes him. It turns out Tanarus is Ulik (who ironically loves being the handsome Thor-alike).
IRON MAN:
Mandarin had Tony's suit bugged during Fear Itself, He knows all about the drunken episodes, and leaks it to the press. Tony is forced to give up all traces of the Iron Man suit to the government....but he makes a deal with Rhodey, where Rhodey is secretly running around using the newest Iron Man prototype. Tony tells the media he has NO idea who the hell that is, and considers suing (haha).
PRE-AVENGERS vs XMEN
Cyclops is pushing Hope Summers (the first mutant child born since M-Day, which robbed 98% of all mutant's powers). He wants her to be ready for the destiny he feels is coming to her, even though she doesn't quite get the reason why. Hope occasionally shows signs of the Phoenix Force, worrying pretty much everybody that she's a giant time bomb.
Wolverine continues to keep the school kids safe, even going so far as to continuing a covert XForce team, in charge of killing off threats to the school or mutantkind in general (pretty shady morality, but thats Wolverine).
Scarlet Witch recently returned to the Marvel U, to a chilly reception. The XMen hate her for an effective genocide of her race (she depowered 98% of the mutants, causing the Decimation). The Avengers still recall her killing half their squad when she went crazy (Avengers Disassembled...CLASSIC!).
AVENGERS vs XMEN
The Phoenix makes its way to Earth, the target is presumably Hope Summers. Avengers want her in custody so they can figure out what the next step is, they dont wanna see the world burn if she goes nuts.
Cyclops tells them politely that they'll have to take her off of Utopia over his dead body.
And so the war begins. Punch, kick, kablammo, repeat.
When the Phoenix Force finally arrives, Hope can't handle it. Some interference from Tony Stark, however, results in the Phoenix being split up into 5 parts. It now has 5 hosts: Cyclops, Namor, Emma Frost, Colossus + Magik. Now near gods, they start remaking the world the way they see fit, making sunshine and rainbows for everybody.
Cap hates un-democratic sunshine and rainbows (who doesn't!!) and decides they need to be taken down a peg or two. XMen retaliate by throwing them in prisons one after the other.
That's where we are right now. Hope's trying to train and make herself ready to take on the Phoenix Five...Scarlet Witch and Iron Fist for some reason both have powers which the Phoenix is susceptible to (there's a link via prophecy somewhere, from Iron Fist's homeland).
The ending of AVX will fundamentally shift Avengers-mutant relations. Can't wait to see where it all leads, cus there'll be so many stories which simply weren't possible before.
It'd be nice to see XMen characters, so often pegged in their little corners, to mix it up with the wider world around them.
See you in October!!
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