OMU: Ant-Man -- Year One

While Marvel introduced their new superhero Ant-Man the same day that Spider-Man and Thor also burst on the scene, the character of Henry Pym had actually been introduced eight months earlier in a one-off sci-fi/monster story, the like of which was the company’s bread-and-butter at that time. Tales to Astonish #27, with its lead feature “The Man in the Ant-Hill,” hit the stands the same day as Fantastic Four #2, which makes Pym technically the second Marvel Universe property to appear, even pre-dating the introduction of the Hulk by several months. However, he was not intended as a continuing character at that time and was no different from dozens of other hapless scientists in Marvel’s monster comics who experienced something terrifying, learned an important lesson, and were never seen again. It was only later, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were launching their interconnected superhero universe, that they decided to revisit the character and turn him into a hero called Ant-Man.

The concept was considerably less daring and innovative than the rest of the Marvel heroes, inspired no doubt by the 1957 film The Incredible Shrinking Man and DC Comics’ own shrinking superhero, the Atom, who debuted about three months before Henry Pym did. Also Pym lacked the distinctive personality and rough edges that made Marvel’s other characters so compelling. Even the introduction of a female partner, the Wasp, and the concomitant attempt to inject the sort of flirty banter popularized by the Thin Man film series, did little to revitalize the property. Converting the lilliputian Ant-Man into the brobdingnagian Giant-Man a year later was a clear sign that this was a series in search of its identity. If not for his role in the team book The Avengers, it seems likely that Henry Pym would have soon faded into obscurity. Instead, he developed into a hard-luck hero who hung in there through highs and lows unmatched by any other major Marvel character.

Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.

Let’s go under the microscope with… The True History of Ant-Man!

1960 – Henry Pym is finishing a three-year post-doc in biochemistry at Columbia University in New York. As a young man, Henry had always demonstrated a great talent for science and ultimately chose to major in biochemistry at college with a minor in cybernetics, though his other interests included mechanical engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics. A gifted student, Henry pursued an accelerated course of study and earned his doctorate while most of his peers were still undergraduates. At a faculty mixer, Henry meets the brilliant geneticist Pavel Trovay and is instantly smitten with the professor’s daughter, Maria Trovaya. Henry is impressed to learn how they had escaped from Hungary during the failed revolution in 1956, after being arrested several times as political dissidents. Furthermore, he finds Maria to be intelligent, witty, and beautiful. She, in turn, is quite taken with the handsome and dedicated researcher, and they quickly fall in love.

Within a few months, Henry Pym and Maria Trovaya are married. Maria convinces her husband to take their honeymoon in her native Hungary, believing her new identity as “Mrs. Pym” will shield her from the secret police. Despite his reservations, Henry chooses not to disappoint his new bride and agrees to the plan. Upon arrival in Budapest, though, Maria is kidnapped at gunpoint by KGB agents. Henry is pistol-whipped and staggers to the American embassy to report the crime. An hour later, the ambassador receives word that Maria’s body has been found. She has been shot in the back of the head as an example to any who would seek to escape Hungary’s Soviet regime. Furthermore, a message from America reports that Professor Trovay has also been killed, in an explosion in his laboratory caused by sabotage. Henry goes out of his mind with rage and swears vengeance. Within a few days of his rampage, Henry finds himself in jail on the verge of a mental and physical breakdown. The State Department manages to negotiate his release and Henry is sent home, where he sinks into a profound depression.

Eventually, Henry works through his depression to return to his laboratory, though he is now more hard-driven and his research more radical than ever before. His new theories are ridiculed by his peers as project after project ends in failure. Ostracized by the scientific community, Henry sets up a laboratory at his own house in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, overlooking the Palisades.

1961 – Henry stumbles upon a subatomic particle with strange properties and educates himself in particle physics while continuing his experiments. He becomes obsessed with the idea that this particle could cause objects to change their physical size and soon develops a liquid potion in which these particles are suspended. Then, after several successful preliminary experiments, Henry decides to test the size-changing potion on himself. However, the serum is more potent than he expected, and he finds himself rapidly shrinking to the size of an ant.

In a blind panic, Henry runs under the door of his house and falls off the step, landing on the front walk. He runs into the grass, where he sees a swarm of ants leaving their ant hill and heading toward him. In a desperate gamble, Henry tries to hide in the tunnels of the ant hill, only to become trapped in a store of honey. Strangely, one of the ants helps him out of the sticky trap. As the rest of the ants move in for the kill, Henry finds a matchstick and manages to light it. Using it as a torch, he fights his way back to the surface but is soon backed up to the wall of his house with the ants closing in. Then, the friendly ant appears again and carries Henry up the wall to an open window. Inside, Henry reaches the antidote he had prepared and returns to normal size. Traumatized by his frightening experience, Henry destroys his potions and vows to pursue more practical inquiries.

A few weeks later, however, Henry thinks better of it and reformulates his two potions, keeping them locked in his wall safe. He also becomes obsessed with ants following his strange ordeal and trains himself in the science of myrmecology.

January 1962 – After two months of studying the means by which ants communicate with each other, Henry Pym devises a cybernetic system he believes will allow him to tune in to the ants’ frequency. Preparing himself for another foray into the ant hill, Henry designs a protective outfit to wear, using a red jumpsuit and some blue rubber boots he had laying around.

February 1962 – Henry begins constructing a helmet containing his cybernetic communications system. With its two antennae and the mandible-like extensions on which the microphone is mounted, the silver helmet gives Henry an ant-like appearance when he puts it on. Henry finances his new project by accepting a government contract to work on developing a new anti-radiation gas. He is provided with four lab assistants for the project, but he conceals from them his work with ants. Later, Henry is incredulous when the new superhero team the Fantastic Four sets up its headquarters in nearby New York City and then saves the metropolis from the menace of the Sub-Mariner. The leader of the F.F., Reed Richards, is a scientist whom Henry holds in high regard.

March 1962 – Henry’s plans for another close encounter with the ants take a sudden turn when four Soviet spies burst into the lab and hold his assistants at gunpoint. They demand the formula for the anti-radiation gas, but Henry refuses. He then sequesters himself in his upstairs office while the spies ransack the laboratory. Infuriated that he is again being victimized by Communist agents, Henry dons his protective suit and cybernetic helmet, then splashes himself with the shrinking potion from the wall safe. He is immediately reduced to the size of an ant. Henry then escapes from the house and returns to the ant hill, where, through trial and error, he uses his helmet to recruit an army of ants. He leads them back to the laboratory, where the ants swarm over the spies, enabling Henry to free his assistants. They then subdue the hapless enemy agents while Henry slips back to his office to expose himself to the antidote liquid and change back into his normal clothes. When he returns to the lab, he finds his assistants have already called the FBI. Later, Henry begins to ponder the implications of what he has accomplished.

April 1962 – Realizing he now has the power to fight crime, tyranny, and injustice, Henry Pym decides to become a superhero called the Ant-Man as a way of honoring Maria’s memory. He refines his protective suit into a proper superhero costume and converts his size-changing serum into a gaseous form which he can carry in pressurized canisters on his belt. Furthermore, he builds a large computer to monitor and catalog the communications network of the millions of ants throughout the New York metropolitan area. The computer is based on a primitive artificial intelligence system he has been developing. Once he feels fully equipped, Ant-Man embarks on his crime-fighting crusade. Within a few weeks, he has garnered an impressive reputation, as the public is fascinated by the diminutive hero and the authorities are grateful for his help.

May 1962 – Ant-Man’s reputation grows as he assists the Coast Guard in capturing the dangerous Soviet spy known only as Comrade X, revealing the espionage agent to be a woman disguised as a man. Next, he helps the police break a protection racket run by a masked man called the Protector, who has been victimizing the jewelry stores of Hackensack, New Jersey. With the help of the local ant population, Ant-Man tracks the Protector to his secret lair, overcomes the villain, and proves that his fearsome “disintegration ray” is a fake.

June 1962 – Ant-Man continues his war on organized crime, always frustrating the underworld’s attempts to eliminate him. His network of ants informs him of one such plot, hatched by the disgraced scientist Elihas Starr, better known by his nickname “Egghead.” Thus, Ant-Man is prepared for a trap when he goes to stop a jewel heist. The hero brawls with the gangsters until the police arrive to arrest them. However, Egghead manages to slip away and disappear into the night.

Shortly after, Ant-Man discovers a mutated scarlet beetle lurking in the sewers of Manhattan, which has gained human-level intelligence following exposure to radiation. Intending to conquer the world, the beetle traps the lone hero in a deep hole, then uses Henry’s enlarging gas to achieve gigantic proportions. It goes on a rampage in the city, causing extensive property damage, while its insect army attacks the human populace. Ant-Man escapes with the help of his loyal ants and lures the scarlet beetle into a toy store, where he manages to puncture his shrinking gas canister to reduce the beetle to its normal size. Back at his lab, Henry uses the anti-radiation gas he has been working on to undo the beetle’s mutations, thereby stripping it of its intellect. He then releases the creature back into the wild.

Unfortunately, Ant-Man’s victory over the scarlet beetle is not witnessed, and he is castigated in the media for failing to come to the rescue when the insects attacked. Following this public relations disaster, Henry accepts an offer from the publishers of the Fantastic Four comic book to do a series based on his exploits. He is soon informed that the first issue is due to hit the newsstands in September. Ant-Man then begins to rehabilitate his tarnished reputation when he helps nab the perpetrator of a series of payroll robberies at the Mitchell Armored Truck Co., unmasking the hijacker as the company’s owner, Howard Mitchell. Henry also redoubles his efforts against organized crime in New York and New Jersey, working closely with an FBI agent named Lee Kearns. Towards the end of the month, Ant-Man apprehends the traitorous research scientist Nathan Garrett before he can sell state secrets to the Red Chinese. However, Garrett makes bail and flees the country.

July 1962 – Henry is the latest victim of a plot to kidnap leading scientists and finds himself transported to an alien dimension. His strange-looking captors are ruled by a vicious warlord named Kulla, who has forced the Earth scientists to construct a “death ray” weapon for him. Overcoming his initial amazement, Henry manages to change into Ant-Man, adjusting his cybernetic helmet to contact the indigenous insect population. With the help of the alien bugs, Ant-Man soon turns Kulla’s death ray against him and the warlord is disintegrated. With Kulla dead, the rebel faction storms the citadel and takes over. Assuming his civilian identity once more, Henry rejoins his fellow scientists to be returned to Earth by the grateful leaders of the new regime.

Feeling lonely and finding he has no one to talk about his adventures with, Henry begins to consider the possibility of taking on a sidekick. He decides to look into ways to equip such a crime-fighting partner should the opportunity arise. He finds a promising new avenue of research with wasps, and over the next few weeks he makes some interesting discoveries.

Public opinion is suddenly turned against Ant-Man by the hypnotic vocal powers of the unscrupulous orator Jason Cragg, and the hero soon finds himself a hunted fugitive. Cragg’s irresistible commands nearly cause Henry to drown himself in the Hudson River, but the ants come to his rescue of their own accord. Days later, as Cragg prepares to use a television broadcast to make Ant-Man a pariah to millions of viewers, Henry hatches a desperate plan. Confronting Cragg at the TV studio, Ant-Man bluffs him with a prop gun set up offstage and forces Cragg to publicly retract his previous statements. After Cragg has done so, Ant-Man then releases some microbes he has stolen from a nearby hospital to infect Cragg’s throat and ruin his voice. Bereft of his superhuman power, Cragg is then run out of town by an angry mob.

Soon after, Ant-Man tracks down a villain calling himself the Time Master, who is threatening to turn his “aging ray” against the people of New York. Henry discovers him to be a disgruntled scientist named Elias Weems, who seeks revenge on society after losing his job for being “too old.” Confronting Weems in his apartment, Ant-Man tries to talk him out of his mad plan, but Weems turns his ray on the hero, changing him into a frail, elderly man. Despite his enfeeblement, Henry trails Weems to City Hall where the ants wrest the device from the mad scientist after he turns it on the unsuspecting crowd. Ant-Man then instructs a bystander how to operate the device to return everyone to normal. Weems is placed under arrest, and Henry is left with a new appreciation for his youthfulness.

August 1962 – At a preliminary hearing, Ant-Man offers testimony on Elias Weems’s behalf, seeking leniency since Weems acted only out of outrage against his unjust firing and the fear of losing his grandson’s respect. In light of his fantastic invention, Weems is offered his old job back, and so the judge sentences him to probation only. Leaving the courthouse, Henry feels he has accomplished a greater good than just sending an old man to jail.

Henry receives a visit from eminent scientist Vernon Van Dyne, who has brought along his daughter Janet. Immediately, Henry is struck by the resemblance between Janet Van Dyne and his late wife, Maria. Dr. Van Dyne suggests collaborating on a project, but seeing no correlation in their research areas, Henry declines. The Van Dynes take their leave, but Henry finds he can’t stop thinking about Janet, even though she seems very young to him. Later, he receives a phone call from a distraught Janet, saying her father has been killed. Henry initially dismisses it as a prank, but when his network of ants corroborates the story, he goes to investigate as Ant-Man.

In Van Dyne’s laboratory, Ant-Man deduces that Janet’s father must have inadvertently brought some alien menace to Earth with his experiments. Janet is determined to avenge her father’s death, and Ant-Man is impressed by her resolve, seeing the strength of character hidden beneath her debutante persona. Seizing his opportunity, he instructs her to report the crime to FBI agent Lee Kearns and then return to Henry Pym’s laboratory. She complies, and while racing back home, Ant-Man learns from the ants that the alien has left behind traces of formic acid. When Janet arrives at his lab, Henry questions her to see if she could be a suitable partner. Satisfied by her answers, he reveals that he is Ant-Man and offers to turn her into a superheroine called “the Wasp.” She immediately accepts the offer, and the procedure begins at once. Henry implants specialized wasp cells in her body to give her wings and antennae when she is exposed to his shrinking gas. He also provides her with a black-and-red costume with canisters containing his size-changing gasses. Regarding herself in the mirror, Janet declares The Wasp is ready for action.

Ant-Man and the Wasp then race to the George Washington Bridge, which is being menaced by the creature that killed Vernon Van Dyne, and find it to be a gigantic gelatinous monster. The Wasp recklessly attacks the alien, but Ant-Man saves her as the monster shrugs off the military’s most advanced weapons. Ant-Man hypothesizes that the creature is composed primarily of formic acid, and so they rush back to his laboratory to prepare a compound to neutralize the acid in the alien’s biochemistry. Replacing the gunpowder in a number of shotgun shells with the chemical he has prepared, Henry grabs his shotgun, and he and Janet catch up with the monster on Wall Street. As the gelatinous creature oozes by, Ant-Man opens fire on it, and the chemical succeeds in breaking down its body mass, killing it. After returning home, a triumphant Ant-Man calls Lee Kearns to report how he destroyed the monster, as well as announcing his new crime-fighting partner, the Wasp. Janet is swept up by the excitement of it all and falls head-over-heels for Henry Pym. For his part, Henry is embarrassed by the emotions Janet stirs in him and is also afraid to fall in love again and risk his heart being broken a second time.

In the days that follow Vernon Van Dyne’s funeral, the Wasp joins Ant-Man in his war against criminals. On one of their first cases together, the diminutive duo captures the international jewel thief Ramond Theis, recovering the Star of Ghana, one of the largest diamonds in the world. While returning the gem to its rightful owner, the crime-fighters hear tales of the sorcerers of India, such as one who can hypnotize people with his magic flute, but they dismiss such stories of the occult. On their way home, Janet drags Henry to a jazz club to hear a trumpet-player called Trago. During a break in the set, however, Henry is almost relieved when they must don their costumes again to prevent Trago from stealing the manager’s cashbox. The manager agrees not to press charges if Trago will leave the country, and the luckless musician agrees to go. Satisfied, Ant-Man and the Wasp return home. A week later, Henry gets back at Janet by dragging her to a lecture on human/insect relations given by a zoologist named Carl Striker. It is a brilliant lecture and even Janet enjoys it, though Striker seems unsettlingly familiar to Henry.

September 1962 – Henry gets frustrated when the signals from his network of ants keep getting scrambled and as a result he fails to prevent a major jewel heist. The next day, while he works to correct the problem, Janet attends another lecture by Professor Striker, this one specifically about wasps. However, that night, Ant-Man must rescue his new partner from Striker, whom he learns is really his foe Egghead, out for revenge. Egghead sets an aardvark on them, but Ant-Man defeats the animal with his disproportionate strength. Meanwhile, the Wasp finds a pin and uses it to “sting” Egghead and his cronies. In the end, the jewel is recovered and the accomplices arrested, but Egghead again manages to evade capture. Henry later chastises Janet for going off to investigate on her own, though overall he is happy with her performance.

Soon after, Ant-Man is invited to meet the Fantastic Four at their headquarters in the Baxter Building. After introductions are made, Reed Richards explains that each member of his team has inexplicably shrunk to tiny size for a brief period over the last several days. Ant-Man offers them a bit of his size-changing solutions and then returns home. A few days later, though, Ant-Man returns to the FF’s headquarters after all attempts to contact them fail. Finding traces of shrinking fluid, Henry realizes they must have shrunk to the point where they crossed over into a “microverse” dimension. He follows them, and as soon as he has appeared on the alien world, he is set upon by armored guards and beaten into unconsciousness. When he comes to, he finds himself the bound prisoner of the FF’s greatest enemy, Doctor Doom. As he is about to be sold into slavery to a race of lizard men, Ant-Man is rescued by the Invisible Girl, and they launch a counterattack. Doom flees as the Fantastic Four subdue the villain’s forces and return the rightful rulers to the throne. Then the five heroes expose themselves to the enlarging gas and are quickly returned to the Baxter Building. Ant-Man heads home having earned the Fantastic Four’s respect.

After a quiet couple of weeks, Janet gets bored and restless, so Henry suggests they take a vacation together. She chooses Greece as their destination, and two days later they arrive in the Mediterranean. While trying to charter a pleasure boat, they learn of a giant monster that’s been terrorizing the region, and so they decide to investigate. Out among the islands, they find a fifty-foot Cyclops straight out of mythology, which they soon discover to be a robot. The Cyclops leads them to a detachment of aliens from the planet Alpha Chiltar III, who are conducting experiments on captured humans in advance of their invasion of Earth. While the Wasp frees the captives, Ant-Man gets inside the robot’s systems and turns it against the aliens. They flee to their ships and call off the invasion, believing earthmen to be too formidable. Ant-Man then directs the Cyclops to walk into the Aegean Sea until it is lost beneath the waves. Henry and Janet enjoy the rest of their vacation before returning to New Jersey.

Later, Ant-Man and the Wasp receive a radio message broadcast by the Teen Brigade asking for help finding the Hulk. Having heard of the green-skinned monster, they decide to check it out and make their way to the small town of Quemado, New Mexico. Once there, they find two other superheroes have also answered the call, Iron Man and Thor. The Wasp is instantly smitten with the so-called thunder god, but to her disappointment, Thor leaves suddenly. Ant-Man and Iron Man agree to team up and help in the search. Soon, Ant-Man’s network of ants locates the Hulk at a nearby traveling circus. The heroes’ efforts to reason with the Hulk fail, and the green behemoth destroys the circus tent and gets away. Ant-Man and the Wasp then catch up to the Hulk at an auto factory in Detroit, where he is battling Iron Man. The brawl carries them all into another installation next door, where Thor suddenly arrives with his mischievous adopted brother Loki in tow, who is responsible for inciting the conflict. When Loki tries to escape, Ant-Man and his legion of ants trap the god of mischief in a lead-lined tank full of radioactive nuclear waste. Thor announces that he will return Loki to his prison in Asgard, but before they split up, the Wasp goads Ant-Man into suggesting the group continues to act as a team on a regular basis. When the others all agree to the idea, the Wasp suggests they call themselves “the Avengers.”

A few days later, Ant-Man and the Wasp attend the first official meeting of the Avengers, held at the Fifth Avenue mansion of Iron Man’s employer, industrialist Tony Stark. They arrive to find Stark’s butler, Edwin Jarvis, has fainted upon encountering the Hulk. The Wasp administers some smelling salts to bring him around. Henry is annoyed during dinner when Janet flirts with Thor shamelessly, though he realizes he has no claim on her affections. After dinner, she excuses herself when the men start to discuss the team’s organizational structure, charter, and bylaws, and Henry wonders if she is taking her own idea seriously.

October 1962 – At the next meeting of the Avengers, it becomes clear to Ant-Man that he and Iron Man are the only ones serious about drafting a proper charter and really getting the team off the ground. The Hulk and his teenage pal Rick Jones participate half-heartedly, Thor’s pronounced mood swings make him unpredictable, and the Wasp, who insists on acting flighty and flirty, seems more interested in the mansion itself than the team’s organizational work. Still, Henry manages to strike up a genuine friendship with the serious-minded Iron Man.

One evening, while Janet is hanging out in Henry’s laboratory, their quiet evening is shattered when Trago and his Magic Trumpet come on the radio and produce an overwhelming sonic effect that pummels them into unconsciousness. Upon recovering their senses, Ant-Man and the Wasp track Trago to the radio station that broadcast his uncanny music, recalling what they had learned about Indian sorcery during the summer. After a brief struggle, Ant-Man gets inside Trago’s trumpet and causes him to play the wrong notes, thereby breaking the magic spell. Trago instantly loses not only his powers but his memory as well. Furthermore, everyone hypnotized by his trumpet also awakes with no memory of what happened. Under the circumstances, Henry decides to let Trago go free, seeing no way to prove he committed a crime.

Later, as Ant-Man and Iron Man use their records of defeating Soviet agents to negotiate with the government for special security clearance for the Avengers, Henry realizes that the diminutive Ant-Man will always be overshadowed by his more-powerful teammates. Fearing that he will become a liability—or worse, a joke—he sets out to improve his powers. Fueled partly by jealousy over the way the Wasp ogles Thor at their weekly meetings, Henry starts investigating the possibility of changing size in the opposite direction.

November 1962 – While the Wasp is laid up with the flu, Ant-Man goes it alone against an armor-wearing bank-robber calling himself the Porcupine due to his quill-like weapons system. However, the Porcupine gets the better of him and leaves the hapless hero to drown in a bathtub, bereft of his cybernetic helmet and gas canisters. At the last moment, Ant-Man is rescued by the Wasp, but rather than feeling grateful, Henry is angry and mortified. His worst fears have been confirmed and his confidence shaken, and he becomes doubly determined to succeed in making himself giant-sized. Together, he and the Wasp manage to disable the Porcupine’s weapons, but to Henry’s frustration, the villain manages to escape nonetheless. Henry immediately returns to his lab and devotes himself to his experiments with his enlarging gas and also works on refining his bulky cybernetic system so he can incorporate it into a cloth mask.

Soon after, Henry succeeds in turning himself into a giant. Unfortunately, his house is wrecked when his initial dosage of growing formula is too high and his body smashes through the walls. After the Wasp arrives, he finally manages to stabilize himself at twelve feet tall and then reveals to Janet that he has also converted the size-changing gas to capsule form, replacing the pressurized canisters on their belts with capsule-ejecting cartridges. However, their conference is interrupted by an extraterrestrial kidnapper called the Living Eraser, who “erases” them by sending them into his own dimension with a device worn on his palm. On the strange world, Henry learns that he has once again joined several kidnapped scientists who are being coerced into building weapons of mass destruction by an alien despot. The Wasp, who has been hiding in the pocket of his lab coat, slips Henry a shrinking capsule, enabling him to escape his captors and get into his new costume. As soon as he gets outdoors, Henry grows to his full 12-foot height and attacks the aliens, calling himself Giant-Man. Reveling in his newfound strength and power, Henry goes on a rampage, easily overcoming whatever his opponents throw at him. Though he is finally re-captured by the Living Eraser, Giant-Man is again freed by the Wasp, giving him the opportunity to seize the transporter device. They use it to return all the kidnapped scientists to Earth before returning home themselves. Subsequently, it takes the world several days to realize Ant-Man has adopted a new identity. In the meantime, Henry decides to write off his home in Englewood Cliffs as a total loss and instead rents the top two floors of a building in Lower Manhattan.

Days later, Giant-Man and the Wasp arrive for the first Avengers meeting for the month and interrupt an argument amongst the other members. Henry announces his change of identity to the team. During the meeting, Hulk suddenly becomes more belligerent than ever and finally smashes through the wall of the building and storms off. The frustrated Avengers adjourn, but Giant-Man and the Wasp soon receive a radio message from Rick Jones at the local Teen Brigade headquarters. Rick reports that the Hulk has been replaced by an impostor, an alien plunderer called the Space Phantom. They find Hulk and Iron Man brawling outside the Stark Industries plant in Flushing, Long Island and enter the fray. During the battle, the Space Phantom assumes Giant-Man’s form, casting Henry into the dimension of Limbo, where the hero lies insensate for a brief time. When he comes to, Henry finds the Space Phantom has now taken Iron Man’s form. However, when the Wasp returns with Thor, the tide of the battle turns. The Space Phantom immediately tries to assume Thor’s enchanted form, but his power bounces back at him and he is himself cast into Limbo, where he is trapped. Though the Avengers are victorious, Hulk is furious at the way the others have treated him and he angrily quits the team. The Wasp is glad to see him go, but Giant-Man suggests that the green behemoth is now more dangerous than ever. Privately, Henry feels that he has finally held his own in a major battle.

Soon after, Henry’s ego gets a much needed boost by the formation of a Giant-Man Fan Club, and he is all too happy to entertain its members at his Manhattan headquarters. However, he discovers a new set of problems when he attempts to stop the notorious criminal known as the Human Top from robbing a major downtown department store. While chasing the whirling supervillain across the city, Giant-Man grows increasingly reckless and clumsy as his foe eludes him. Unaccustomed to maneuvering his 12-foot-tall form through the city streets, he nearly causes a traffic accident before losing the Human Top in the subway system. Frustrated, Henry returns home and begins an intensive training regimen and also tries to increase his speed and reflexes by taking a chemical stimulant. When that fails, he builds a humanoid robot to mimic the Human Top’s movements. Still, his performance is poor and he begins to worry again that he can’t cut it as a superhero. When the Human Top appears again, Giant-Man suffers a humiliating defeat, despite the help of the NYPD. Giant-Man then attends a high-level meeting after the FBI is called in, following the Human Top’s theft of certain civil defense plans from the Federal Building, and manages to convince the authorities to give him one more chance. He cooks up an elaborate strategy to fence off the side streets near the site where the Human Top is due to rendezvous with the city’s top Soviet agent and then coats his gloves with a strong adhesive. When the criminal shows up, Giant-Man succeeds in driving him into the trap and apprehending him. As the Human Top is finally taken into custody, Henry is merely relieved that he didn’t blow it.

Deciding the Hulk is too dangerous to be allowed to run around loose, the Avengers return to New Mexico to capture him. However, Hulk deals his former teammates an ignominious defeat and gets away on an eastbound train. Giant-Man is especially frustrated by his poor showing during the fight, since he was knocked off the train when he hit his head on an overpass. After a fruitless search, the Avengers return to New York, where they learn the Hulk has joined forces with the Sub-Mariner to challenge the team to a showdown at the Rock of Gibraltar. They meet in the tunnels under the famous promontory, and while Thor battles the Hulk, Giant-Man and Iron Man take on the Sub-Mariner. All of a sudden, though, Hulk abandons the fray, and the Sub-Mariner, realizing he is outnumbered, flees to the ocean depths. Exhausted, the Avengers head for home.

A few days later, Giant-Man and the Wasp chase down a costumed villain calling himself the Black Knight, who has been hijacking vehicles while flying on a winged horse. They find him attacking a helicopter high over New York Harbor. During the fight, Giant-Man realizes the Black Knight is really the traitorous scientist Nathan Garrett, whom he apprehended months before. Trapping Giant-Man with his steel-cable bolas, Garrett brags about the arsenal of unusual weapons he has developed, particularly his high-tech lance. Working together, Giant-Man and the Wasp manage to disarm the Black Knight, then drive his horse down towards Coney Island. Garrett is thrown off the horse when the Wasp pinches the animal and lands atop a roller coaster, where Giant-Man grabs him. Unfortunately, the Wasp gets into trouble trying to rein in the flying horse, and the Black Knight gets away when Giant-Man leaps to her rescue. Returning home, Henry is frustrated that so many of his foes seem to escape capture.

Soon after, during a mishap at a charity event, Giant-Man fractures his ankle and finds he is stuck at giant-size until it heals. The Giant-Man Fan Club comes to his headquarters to cheer him up. The young fans are dressed in homemade costumes of his many enemies, as depicted in the officially-licensed comic books, but among them is the real Porcupine, back for revenge. After sending the Wasp into a trap, the Porcupine gasses everyone with a powerful sedative. Giant-Man manages to fight him off, but the Porcupine escapes. For the next several hours, Henry is frantic to find his kidnapped partner, but the Porcupine has managed to knock out the ant network. Finally, the Wasp returns, believing she has escaped, but the Porcupine suddenly attacks them. He has decided to steal their supply of size-changing capsules, and before Giant-Man can stop him, the Porcupine swallows several of the pills, thinking he’ll become an invincible colossus. However, he discovers he has instead taken the shrinking formula and is rapidly reduced to microscopic size. While resting his ankle, Henry theorizes that the Porcupine may even have crossed over into a microverse.

The following week, Giant-Man and the Wasp join the Avengers as they search the North Atlantic Ocean for the Sub-Mariner, who has been terrorizing coastal areas since his defeat at the Rock of Gibraltar. Near the Gulf Stream, the team discovers the body of a man in tattered Army fatigues drifting in the open ocean. Giant-Man enters the airlock and pulls the soldier into the submarine. The Avengers make a startling discovery when the Wasp recognizes the colorful costume beneath the man’s rotted uniform as that of Captain America, the lost hero of World War II. To their astonishment, he is still alive, albeit in suspended animation, and Giant-Man and Iron Man work to revive him. When he then awakes, the disoriented Cap reacts violently and scuffles with his rescuers. Finally, Captain America convinces them he is genuine, and they piece together what happened to him in the winter of 1945 and how he came to be preserved in ice for almost 18 years.

After docking at a pier in New York, the Avengers are startled by a blinding flash. When their senses clear, Giant-Man and the Wasp find themselves with their teammates in a warehouse, facing Captain America and a green-hued extraterrestrial. Cap explains that the alien had turned the Avengers to stone as part of a deal with the Sub-Mariner, but the heroes agree to help the alien salvage his spaceship from the bottom of the ocean with no strings attached. And so, they travel to a small rocky island in the Atlantic, from which they raise the sunken craft. Suddenly, they are attacked by the Sub-Mariner and his elite guard. Giant-Man is caught underwater but quickly frees himself and joins the battle raging above, lending a hand as Iron Man takes on Namor in single combat while Thor battles his troops. When Namor reveals he is holding Rick Jones hostage, Captain America finally joins the fray. The battle comes to a sudden stop when the launching spaceship causes a massive shockwave that rocks the island. Namor leads his forces back to the sea, convinced his enemies will perish when the island sinks. Fortunately, the island is not completely destroyed, and as the dust settles, the Avengers invite Captain America to join the team.

For his first mission, the Avengers take Captain America out to New Mexico to search for the Hulk, only to learn that the green-skinned goliath has gone on a rampage in New York City. Racing back to their Fifth Avenue headquarters, the Avengers find the Hulk has defeated the Fantastic Four and has come to confront his former teammates, believing they have betrayed him. Hulk suddenly attacks the entire team at once, but when he spots Rick Jones, he grabs the boy and smashes out of the building. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four converge on the Hulk down the street, but the two teams only trip each other up, allowing Hulk to get away with Rick. Setting aside their pride, the two super-teams agree to work together, and they pursue the Hulk to a construction site, where they demolish a half-finished skyscraper. Despite the best efforts of the assembled heroes, Hulk manages to dive into the river and escape. Though disappointed, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four part on friendly terms. Giant-Man and the Wasp stop at Avengers Mansion to inspect the damage before returning home.

December 1962 – Giant-Man must cut short a visit with his fan club when he and the Wasp are summoned to a high-level meeting at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. There, government officials request that the duo travel to Costa Rica to investigate possible election fraud after a communist-supporting strongman known as “El Toro” has been elected president in a suspicious landslide victory. Honored to serve, they jet down to the Central American republic that very day. However, as soon as they arrive at the airport in San José, Janet is arrested. Henry changes to Giant-Man but fails to rescue her after El Toro knocks him down from behind. The despot’s soldiers pursue him through the city, and Giant-Man again curses his clumsiness as he tries maneuvering his 12-foot-tall body through the narrow streets. He escapes his pursuers atop a train that takes him to the Pacific coast. With the help of the local ant population, he soon finds Janet being held prisoner aboard a freighter anchored at a dilapidated port. After rescuing his partner, Giant-Man and the Wasp return to the capital and attack El Toro at the Casa Presidencial, where they find evidence that the election was rigged. El Toro is ousted, and a proud Henry celebrates with Janet as a new election is held. After a few days relaxing on the beach, they return home.

Soon after, Giant-Man and the Wasp host another gathering of the Giant-Man Fan Club, showing old newsreel films of their heroic exploits. But when they learn the Human Top has escaped from prison and robbed a bank, they dismiss their fans and race to the scene of the crime. Feeling pretty confident, Giant-Man promises the bank manager that they will recover the stolen money. They then return to their headquarters to plan a strategy, only to be attacked by the Human Top, who has followed them back. The crook manages to snatch Henry’s canister belt and swallows a size-changing capsule, shooting up to twelve feet tall. Finding his enhanced size has increased the amount of wind he generates when he spins, the Human Top blows the still-normal-sized Henry into a closet. Locking the hero inside, the Human Top then traps the Wasp in a jar and kidnaps her. Furious, Henry has the ants bring him a shrinking capsule so he can get out of the closet and give chase. He soon catches up to the giant-sized Human Top and a rooftop battle ensues. When a roof collapses under the Human Top’s weight, the Wasp forces the stunned villain to swallow a shrinking capsule. The Human Top is then returned to police custody. The next day, Henry brags about his victory to members of his fan club, though his insecurities are mounting.

Henry talks himself into buying a diamond engagement ring and plans to propose to Janet. However, he gets nervous and fumbles his words. In a ploy intended to make Henry jealous and thus spur him to action, Janet announces that her childhood friend, wealthy socialite Sterling Stuyvesant, will likely propose to her that very night. She leaves for Stuyvesant’s party, hoping Henry will follow her, but instead he goes into a fit of rage. After he has calmed down, he learns that the stage magician Stuyvesant hired to entertain his guests has instead robbed them and kidnapped Janet. When a city-wide search by the ants proves fruitless, Henry decides to bait a trap. He lures the kidnapper to a luxury yacht by advertising a charity gala in the newspaper and confronts him as Giant-Man. The crooked magician tries to escape aboard a blimp, but Giant-Man pursues him and frees the captive Janet. They defeat the villain by crushing his blimp, and he is immediately picked up by the Harbor Patrol. Afterwards, Henry decides that he needs to sort out his feelings and that his idea to propose to Janet was premature. He puts the ring away and says no more about it.

Days later, the Avengers assemble to investigate a series of disasters caused by powerful sound waves. Tracing the mysterious phenomenon to the New Mexico desert, they discover a gigantic rock slowly rising out of the ground. The rock proves to be the weapon of an advancing army of subterranean Lava Men. While his teammates fight off the Lava Men, Giant-Man makes a thorough examination of the rock and determines a way to destroy it safely. Unfortunately, at that very moment, Hulk attacks them, still intent on exacting his revenge. However, the Avengers manage to trick the green-skinned brute into striking the rock’s one vulnerable spot. The force of the resulting implosion stuns the Avengers, and by the time they recover their wits, the Hulk is gone. The defeated Lava Men retreat to their deepest caverns, and the Avengers return to New York.

Giant-Man and the Wasp join their teammates in the Avengers in confronting a squad of supervillains, which includes the Black Knight, the Melter, and the Radioactive Man, when they wreak havoc by spraying a super-strong glue called Adhesive X all over town. Captain America is convinced that the mastermind behind the villains’ rampage is an old adversary from the Second World War, the Nazi scientist Baron Heinrich Zemo. After obtaining a powerful solvent from an incarcerated criminal known as Paste-Pot Pete, the Avengers decide to switch foes to gain a tactical advantage. Thus Giant-Man goes after the Radioactive Man, but it is Iron Man who actually apprehends the villain before turning around and defeating the Melter as well. Henry is frustrated with his grandstanding teammate and goes to help Captain America. Giant-Man captures Baron Zemo’s pilot, who has no super-powers, but lets Zemo escape. It is only Cap’s quick thinking that prevents Zemo from getting the solvent he was after, by switching it with a canister of tear gas. Though forced to make an emergency landing, Zemo nevertheless manages to slip away before the police can capture him. Henry is disgusted with his poor performance and begins to consider resigning from the team.

A week later, Giant-Man and the Wasp participate in the Avengers’ first annual Christmas charity benefit. Though Janet is filled with the holiday spirit, Henry is glum as he continues to compare himself negatively to his teammates. Iron Man and Thor are so much more successful, he thinks, and Captain America is a living legend. He finally decides to hand in his resignation at the team meeting after the party. To his surprise, however, Iron Man announces he is stepping down as Avengers chairman, and the others elect Giant-Man to assume those responsibilities. Heartened by his friends’ vote of confidence, Henry Pym vows not to let his teammates down.

Notes:

1960 – Henry Pym’s tragic relationship with Maria Trovaya is shown in Tales to Astonish #44 and later revisited in West Coast Avengers #33. The name of Maria’s father was never revealed, so I fashioned this one for my own convenience. “Trovaya” seems to be a rather unusual name but may be the feminine form of the more common name “Trovay.” This leads me to assume that her father was a Russian who had settled in Budapest, where Maria grew up. There is often confusion over what organization was responsible for Maria’s execution, but it was without doubt the KGB, who took over for the disbanded Hungarian secret police following the failed revolution in 1956. In the real world, the United States did not maintain a diplomatic presence in Hungary in the late 1950s and early 1960s and there was no ambassador to help people like Henry Pym. Apparently the situation was somewhat different in the Original Marvel Universe. Henry reflects on his college days in Avengers #227.

1961 – Pym’s discovery of his size-changing potions and his ant-hill adventure are featured in Tales to Astonish #27.

January–April 1962 – Henry Pym’s career as Ant-Man is chronicled in Tales to Astonish #35 and following. It is likely the general public found the teeny-tiny adventurer to be non-threatening, and this accounts for his atypically high level of acceptance and popularity among the superheroes of this period. However, the artificial intelligence computer Pym constructs to deal with the vast amounts of data generated by his ant communications network will eventually evolve into the killer robot Ultron, one of the greatest menaces to mankind ever constructed.

May 1962 – In the next issue, Ant-Man discovers the true identity of Comrade X by hiding inside her purse and then defeats the spy by tying her shoelaces together. Then, while battling the Protector in Tales to Astonish #37, Ant-Man proves that he can fight his way out of a paper bag. Not the most auspicious debut for a major superhero.

June 1962 – Egghead, Pym’s most implacable nemesis, makes his debut in Tales to Astonish #38. The Scarlet Beetle, introduced in the following issue, will return to menace Pym again in an Ant-Man back-up story in Iron Man #44, of all places. The premiere issue of the Marvel Universe’s Ant-Man comic book can be seen in Fantastic Four #17. Lee Kearns will appear in later issues, when his relationship with Ant-Man is already established. Nathan Garrett will return as the villainous Black Knight in about five months. Although the beginning of Tales to Astonish #52 shows Garrett being captured by Giant-Man, the amount of time necessary for subsequent events places their initial meeting at this point in Pym’s career.

August 1962 – The Wasp is introduced in Tales to Astonish #44. It seems likely that Vernon Van Dyne had ulterior motives for contacting Henry Pym—and for bringing along his flighty debutante daughter Janet—but his plans were abruptly cancelled when he was murdered by the creature from the planet Kosmos. As discussed in a previous post, Van Dyne may have been a member of the clandestine 12-seat council that oversaw the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D. and would actually have been trying to recruit Pym as the group’s latest member. While vetting Pym, Van Dyne would certainly have noticed the resemblance between his daughter and Pym’s deceased wife, and so he took Janet along hoping that Pym would be intrigued enough to give Van Dyne another avenue of approach should Pym rebuff his initial offer. It is no coincidence, then, that Pym and Janet Van Dyne met, though her father could not have foreseen Janet’s transformation into a superheroine. When the Creature from Kosmos is on its rampage through Manhattan, the Fantastic Four have temporarily disbanded and are scattered across the country and Thor has returned to Asgard. The only other available superhero is Iron Man, and he may have been away on a business trip as Tony Stark. Thus only Ant-Man is present to deal with the “giant monster” crisis. As with the Black Knight, the amount of time necessary for subsequent events places the diminutive duo’s first encounter with Trago at the beginning of Tales to Astonish #47 at this point in the timeline.

September 1962 – Ant-Man joins the Fantastic Four in saving Princess Pearla’s microverse from Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four #16. Then, Ant-Man and the Wasp become founding members of the Avengers in Avengers #1. The team’s first meeting can be seen in the flashbacks in Avengers #280. While the Avengers are off searching for the Hulk, the Sub-Mariner invades New York, as seen in Fantastic Four Annual #1. The FF have dealt with the situation by the time the Avengers get home.

October 1962 – Ernie Hart, who scripted the tale of Trago, the Evil Jazz Trumpeter (under the pseudonym H.E. Huntley), clearly took the path of least resistance when coming up with names for his Indian characters, deriving “Nehradu” and “Ghazandi” from Nehru and Gandhi, the two most famous citizens of India of his day. I get the sense from Pym’s comments at the jazz club that he is probably a big fan of Perry Como and guys like that. Henry Pym reminisces about his early days with the Avengers in Avengers #227.

November 1962 – Tales to Astonish #48 proves to be the final adventure for Ant-Man, as Pym adopts his new identity as Giant-Man in the following issue. It is also around this time that the Wasp starts calling him “Hank” instead of Henry, in an attempt to get him to loosen up. Most likely he’s been called Henry his whole life up to this point. The Avengers battle the Space Phantom in Avengers #2, and the unconscious Giant-Man is found lying in Limbo by the Wasp’s future self in Avengers #267. Then, in Tales to Astonish #50, Pym meets his other great nemesis, the Human Top (later known as Whirlwind), who would plague him throughout his career. After finding Captain America in Avengers #4, Giant-Man and the Wasp participate in the first big Marvel crossover event, as chronicled in Fantastic Four #25–26 and the brief wrap-up scene at the beginning of Avengers #5.

December 1962 – Costa Rica is fictionalized as “Santo Rico” in Tales to Astonish #54. Costa Rica did hold a presidential election in the spring of 1962, though events obviously unfolded a bit differently in the Original Marvel Universe. Pym’s battle with the eminently forgettable villain called the Magician occurs in Tales to Astonish #56. The rogues gallery created for Ant-Man / Giant-Man is unrivaled in its lameness. The Avengers’ first encounter with Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil brings us up to Avengers #6. Pym later claims that he long considered retiring from the Avengers before he actually did so in Avengers #16, but fate conspired to keep him on the team.

OMU Note: The final canonical appearance of Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne was in Captain America #383.

Jump To: Ant-Man -- Year Two

Next Issue: The Sentinel of Liberty!

OMW: Jennifer Kale

Another in our continuing series featuring the OMW (Obscure Marvel Women) of the OMU (Original Marvel Universe). This is the story of a very young girl and some very old magic, a girl who, despite growing into one of the most powerful practitioners of white magic on Earth, never quite received her due.

Jennifer Kale was born in 1950 in Citrusville, Florida. When she was four years old, her brother Andy was born. At some point in her early teens, Jennifer and Andy were orphaned and went to live with their grandfather, Joshua Kale, at his remote farmhouse in the swampland outside Citrusville. Jennifer was fascinated with her grandfather’s many magic talismans and mystic texts, even though her growing interest in the occult led to her being ostracized by her schoolmates. Jennifer heard the rumors about a mysterious swamp monster called the Man-Thing and believed him to be a creature of magic. Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, Jennifer convinced Andy to help her steal her grandfather’s most sacred text and attempt to cast a spell out in the swamp. Unfortunately, despite her inexperience, Jennifer managed to conjure up a powerful demon called Thog, the Nether-Spawn, who then sought to punish the siblings for their impudence. Following a battle in a local movie theater, Thog was defeated by the Man-Thing, who had been drawn into the conflict by his empathic abilities. Jennifer was shaken by the experience and felt deeply ashamed of the trouble she had caused.

A few days later, Jennifer confessed to her grandfather what she had done, but Joshua Kale realized that his sacred text, the Tome of Zhered-Na, could never summon an evil being such as Thog; therefore the true Tome must have been stolen previously and a book of black magic left in its place. Furthermore, he revealed to Jennifer that he was the leader of a sorcerous cult that traced its history back 20,000 years to the time of ancient Atlantis, and that their purpose was to guard the Nexus of All Realities, a pandimensional crossroads located within the swamp. Seeking revenge, Thog then kidnapped the Kale family, along with Jennifer’s boyfriend Jaxon, and tried to force the Man-Thing to kill them all. However, Jennifer managed to foil his evil scheme when she discovered she had formed a psychic link with the Man-Thing.

The Kales soon learned that the Tome of Zhered-Na had been stolen to render the cult powerless in the face of an invasion of Earth by the forces of Thog’s infernal realm, called Sominus. They recognized the corrupting influence of the extradimensional demons when a wave of bizarre, violent behavior swept the globe. Jennifer accompanied the cult into the swamp as they attempted to find the Tome through mystical means but suddenly found herself transported with the Man-Thing to a strange world. There she met the wizard called Dakimh the Enchanter. The Man-Thing was sent to fight that world’s greatest gladiator, Mongu, in the arena. When the muck monster prevailed and Jennifer proved her defiant spirit, Dakimh sent both of them back to Earth. Later, the wizard appeared to Jennifer and revealed his true motives. Dakimh was in fact the last of the ancient disciples of Zhered-Na, made immortal by her two hundred centuries ago, and was one of the founders of Joshua’s ancient cult. He recruited Jennifer to accompany the Man-Thing on a mission to retrieve the stolen Tome, and when she agreed, Dakimh transformed her clothes into the sacred raiment of a priestess of Zhered-Na. Together, the Man-Thing and Jennifer succeeded in finding the Tome and stopping the demonic invasion.

Following the defeat of the demons of Sominus, however, Jennifer’s psychic link with the Man-Thing appeared to have been broken, and throughout the summer that followed, she felt depressed and anxious. She was plagued by nightmares that grew steadily more intense, and her relationship with Jaxon became strained as she retreated into herself. Jennifer’s condition continued to worsen after starting back to school in the fall, and Joshua began to fear for her sanity. Finally, in November, Dakimh returned to reveal what was happening to her, explaining that the cosmic balance that prevents the multiplicity of alternate dimensions from colliding with each other had been disrupted. Jennifer’s psychic potential had caused her to project her astral self into the Nexus of All Realities while she slept, where she experienced the dimensional chaos firsthand. Sensing her great potential as a sorceress, Dakimh then proposed to make Jennifer his apprentice and impart to her all the mystical knowledge he had amassed during his 20,000 years of existence. With her grandfather’s blessing, Jennifer accompanied Dakimh to his lonely citadel, the Castle in the Sky, located in a realm known only as the Land Between Night and Day, where she once again donned her ceremonial garb.

Before her lessons could begin, though, the castle was attacked by a band of tyrants seeking to take advantage of the dimensional chaos to gain dominion over all reality. Jennifer was taken prisoner and brought to the council chamber of the so-called Congress of Realities to be executed. However, at the critical moment, she was rescued by Dakimh, who charged her and his other recruits, Man-Thing, Korrek the Barbarian, and Howard the Duck, with setting right the cosmic axis and restoring the normal structure of reality. They journeyed into the Nexus, but their efforts were disrupted when the Congress of Realities charged through the Nexus to invade the dimension of Therea, a pastoral paradise which stood in direct opposition to the hellish Sominus. The villains’ leader was then revealed to be Thog, the Nether-Spawn, but he was again defeated by the Man-Thing in hand-to-hand combat. Bereft of Thog’s leadership, the Congress of Realities fled, allowing Dakimh to repair the structure of reality. Jennifer accompanied Dakimh back to the Castle in the Sky to begin her training in the arts of sorcery.

Jennifer studied under Dakimh for one full year, until Korrek returned to enlist their aid in reclaiming the throne his enemies had usurped during his brief sojourn on Earth. Despite the Man-Thing’s help, the battle proved too strenuous for Dakimh’s ancient body, and he collapsed and died. Devastated by the loss of her mentor, Jennifer returned to the Kale family farm, where Dakimh’s body was buried. Furthermore, with her lessons barely begun, Jennifer lacked the knowledge to send Korrek home, and so the barbarian moved in with the Kales. Realizing that she had dropped out of high school to study with Dakimh, Jennifer felt completely adrift. She was overjoyed then, two months later, when Dakimh reappeared in a ghostly form, claiming that death was little impediment to a true master of sorcery. After sending Korrek home to his own dimension, Dakimh took Jennifer back to the Castle in the Sky to continue her education. A few months later, she celebrated her eighteenth birthday.

In February 1969, after her second year of training, Dakimh sent Jennifer to once again join forces with Man-Thing, Korrek, and Howard the Duck. Their mission this time was to stop a semi-demonic being called Bzzk’joh from spreading his vile influence throughout the universe. Though she was kidnapped and held prisoner by Bzzk’joh, Jennifer was soon rescued by her friends and they returned home triumphant. Shortly afterwards, however, while studying the Nexus, Jennifer and Dakimh were assaulted by the demonic entity known as D’Spayre. For several weeks, D’Spayre held them prisoner in the swamp and tried to corrupt their souls and make them slaves to his evil will. Though they resisted his malign influence, the cost, particularly to Dakimh, was great, for his spirit form could exist on the mortal plane for only limited amounts of time before he needed to retreat to Therea to rejuvenate himself. They were ultimately rescued by Spider-Man and the Man-Thing, who overcame D’Spayre, but Dakimh was so greatly weakened that he could no longer serve as Jennifer’s teacher. After promising to return one day, Dakimh disappeared, leaving Jennifer to her own devices. She went home to Citrusville, intending to continue her studies on her own.

However, that summer, Jennifer was again captured and held prisoner for several weeks, this time by the evil sorcerer Baron Mordo, who planned to open a portal that would unleash a demon horde upon the earth. Mordo’s intent was to use the Man-Thing, Jennifer, Andy, Joshua, Jaxon, and several others as human sacrifices to power his spell. All Jennifer’s attempts to escape or resist Mordo’s power proved futile. When the ritual finally began, Jennifer and the Man-Thing found themselves shackled to the center of a circular dais within an eldritch tower, her family and friends chained naked to obsidian slabs all around them. Though Jennifer dared to hope that deliverance was at hand when Doctor Strange, Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, stormed the temple, his fight with Mordo carried them into another dimension. The victims were thus left undefended as a crystalline gateway began to open and a great demon hand reached out and snuffed out the lives of its victims one by one. Jennifer watched in horror, begging the Man-Thing not to honor his Faustian bargain with Mordo. Finally, the demon hand reached Jennifer and reduced her to a desiccated skeleton. Moments later, though, Jennifer found herself restored to life, along with the other sacrificial victims. Doctor Strange appeared and explained that Mordo was defeated, and when the spell was broken uncompleted, the demon was forced to return the lives it had stolen. Doctor Strange encouraged Jennifer in her studies, but unnerved by her experience, she returned home with her family and debated whether to continue her occult education.

During that autumn, Jennifer worked to complete her G.E.D. and distanced herself from the mystic arts. Disappointed in his sister, Andy fell in with a bad crowd, a local motorcycle gang. Joshua became very disheartened. Then, in January 1970, Jennifer was sought out by a young woman named Barbara Bannister, who had heard the local lore that Jennifer was a witch. Bannister’s boyfriend, local sheriff John Daltry, had disappeared after falling victim to some sinister magic force, and Jennifer agreed to try to locate him. Her search was interrupted when the motorcycle gang attacked the Kale farm, looking to kill Andy for betraying them, but the bikers were routed by the Man-Thing and a mysterious stranger named John Kowalski, who turned out to be a modern-day Grim Reaper.

Soon after, Sheriff Daltry turned up, dressed as a pirate, and captured Jennifer with the power of his enchanted cutlass. She was transported to Sominus, where she found other mystics had also been taken prisoner, including Doctor Strange and a severely weakened Dakimh. To their surprise, Barbara Bannister came to the rescue, transformed by Kowalski into an angel of death. Daltry summoned his dread master, who turned out to be Thog, the Nether-Spawn, still seeking revenge on Man-Thing and the Kales. Despite his best efforts, Thog was again defeated by the Man-Thing, allowing Doctor Strange and Dakimh to transport all present back to the Kale farmyard. Jennifer’s reunion with Dakimh proved brief, as he immediately bid her farewell once again and withdrew to Therea.

Doctor Strange commended Jennifer on her progress, and she struck up an acquaintance with the other mystics who had been captured, the gypsy sorceress Margali Szardos and her daughter Jimaine, also known as Amanda Sefton. Inspired by their example, Jennifer resumed her study of the mystic arts and set up the attic in the farmhouse as her sanctum sanctorum. Doctor Strange assisted her with constructing the necessary mystic defenses to protect herself and her family. Jennifer then spent the next five years studying and practicing sorcery at home, while also exploring the Nexus of All Realities and assisting the Man-Thing in his role as its guardian. With access to over 20,000 years of mystical knowledge, she grew into one of the most formidable wielders of magic on Earth, though she intentionally kept a low profile.

However, in 1975, while investigating an unnatural maelstrom swirling through the swamp, Jennifer met the superhero known as Quasar, who was quite smitten with her. Together they battled the supervillain Quagmire, who used the Man-Thing’s body as a conduit through which to escape his home dimension. Following Quagmire’s defeat, Quasar asked Jennifer for a date and she agreed. Though their relationship was brief, it was through Quasar that Jennifer met other members of the superhero community, and she gradually established a reputation as a powerful sorceress. In time, she returned to the Land Between Night and Day and claimed the Castle in the Sky as her own.

First Appearance: Adventure Into Fear #11

Final Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #29

Notes:

Zhered-Na had worshiped the most powerful god of the Pre-Cataclysmic Era, Valka, who was almost certainly killed during the War of the Gods that ended the Hyborian Age some 10,000 years later. After this cataclysm, Dakimh the Enchanter transferred his worship to the gods of Therea, though he continued to preserve the Valkan teachings in the scrolls of Zhered-Na. The connection between Valka and the gods of Therea is unclear, though a connection is suggested by Zhered-Na’s prophesy of the invasion of Earth by the demons of Sominus. Rather than just being two random dimensions, Therea and Sominus counterpoint each other exactly as do the Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell.

Mongu, the gladiator of Sandt whom the Man-Thing battled, was clearly based on Mongu, the Soviet robot from Incredible Hulk #4, though the “in-universe” connection between the two was never explained. The extradimensional Mongu would also battle the Hulk, as seen in Hulk #211.

Next Portrait

OMW: Tessa

For today’s Obscure Marvel Woman, we present the true story of the victim of one of the most brutal retcons ever devised. In the Original Marvel Universe, she was the personal assistant, or “leman” (a polite way of saying ‘sex slave’), of one of the X-Men’s major nemeses, who evolved very gradually from an unnamed background character to an interesting personality in her own right. Years later, however, she was revived and given a convoluted and implausible backstory in order to retroactively make her a member of the X-Men, thereby completely changing her motivations, her personality, and effectively making her into a completely different character. I find the original much more intriguing.

The woman known only as Tessa was born during World War II. Though nothing is known of her early life, it is clear that she existed in the seamy underworld of illicit sex and degradation. In her teen years, she began to manifest mutant abilities that granted her powers of analysis and deduction far above human norms. At some point during the 1960s, she met the billionaire industrialist Sebastian Shaw, also a mutant, and became his personal sex slave.

Inspired by the erotic French novel Histoire d’O, Shaw required Tessa to wear a leather collar and other accoutrements of bondage much of the time, and she served him on multiple levels: as a sexual plaything, a handmaiden, a confidante, and an advisor / strategist in his business dealings. Though she accompanied Shaw everywhere he went, Tessa was kept in the background. Perhaps wisely, she harbored no ambitions above her station, for Shaw already had two other women whom he took as lovers and treated more like equals: Lourdes Chantel and Emma Frost, both of whom were mutants as well.

In 1968, Shaw Industries was contracted to build a new generation of Sentinel robots, based on the original designs of their creator, Bolivar Trask. Shaw initially had misgivings, as the original Sentinels had been intended to hunt down mutants, but his ambitions got the better of him when his client, Ned Buckman, made Shaw a probationary member of the influential Hellfire Club. Buckman was the head of the club’s inner circle, the Council of the Chosen, and Shaw benefited greatly from his patronage. Shaw then had Tessa dress in the corsets-and-thigh-boots style of the other “Hellfire girls” at the club, as a symbol of his own status.

At the end of the year, however, during a lavish party at the Hellfire Club, Buckman’s plans to exterminate mutants were discovered when Frost telepathically scanned the mind of secret agent Michael Rossi, who had been investigating Buckman and his associate Steven Lang. Too late, Buckman sent one of Shaw’s own Sentinels to kill Frost, but Chantel teleported herself, Shaw, and Tessa to her aid, whereupon Shaw destroyed the robot. Unfortunately, the Sentinel managed to mortally wound Chantel, and she died in Shaw’s arms. Enraged, Shaw and Frost returned to the club, where Frost used her telepathic powers to force Buckman to murder the rest of his Council of the Chosen. Shaw then broke Buckman’s neck and replaced him as head of the club’s inner circle, which he re-christened the Lords Cardinal. Shaw named himself Black King and made Frost his White Queen. Tessa then became first among the club’s staff of female servants, though she was always considered Shaw’s personal property.

Within a few months, the Lords Cardinal were contacted by Mastermind, formerly of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who sought the Hellfire Club’s aid in getting revenge on his enemies the X-Men. Tessa advised Shaw to back Mastermind’s plan, and sure enough, the Lords Cardinal defeated the members of the X-Men who invaded the club’s headquarters on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Unfortunately, Mastermind had not reckoned with the fact that Jean Grey of the X-Men had been replaced by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix and was now too powerful for his mind-tricks. Phoenix rescued her teammates and drove Mastermind into a catatonic state before the team fled into the night.

A year later, Tessa advised Shaw as the Lords Cardinal attempted to capture the X-Men again. However, this time the X-Men were victorious and Shaw was badly injured when he was struck by a bolt of lightning. Tessa then spent over a year nursing Shaw back to health and managing his affairs while he was incapacitated. During this time, Tessa was kidnapped by Donald Pierce, a non-mutant cyborg member of the Lords Cardinal who intended to take advantage of Shaw’s weakness to take over the Hellfire Club. However, Pierce also kidnapped Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men, and was defeated by a cadre of young mutants Xavier had only just recruited. Tessa took custody of Pierce, who was then expelled from the club and imprisoned at a Shaw Industries facility in Kentucky.

When Shaw was finally fully recovered, Tessa accompanied him on a trip to England to meet the influential politician Sir James Jaspers, whom Shaw considered a threat to mutant interests. A month later, Emma Frost collapsed into a catatonic state while talking to Tessa, and Tessa immediately alerted Shaw. They soon learned Mastermind was out for revenge, but he met defeat at the hands of the X-Men. Tessa realized that the X-Men and the Lords Cardinal had mutual interests and convinced Shaw there was nothing to gain by antagonizing Xavier’s team, especially after their own positions became threatened by the ambitious mutant sorceress called Selene, who joined the Lords Cardinal and quickly rose to the position of Black Queen.

In time, Tessa’s analysis was borne out as the Lords Cardinal and the X-Men were drawn ever closer together. After joining forces to defeat the mutant-hunting robot called Nimrod, Shaw offered the X-Men’s leaders, Magneto and Storm, the chair of White King jointly, hoping to check Selene’s ambition. Both groups found the new alliance to their mutual benefit, and it lasted just over a year, until the X-Men were apparently killed while fighting a monster in Dallas, Texas. Magneto, not present at the battle, became more involved in the Hellfire Club following the X-Men’s demise, which ultimately led to Shaw being ousted in December 1974. Following his expulsion from the club, Shaw took Tessa with him and began to seek other alliances among the “supervillain” community.

Shortly after, in early 1975, Tessa investigated when Donald Pierce was freed from his imprisonment in a bloody raid on the Kentucky facility. She decided not to alert the Hellfire Club of Pierce’s renewed threat, knowing Shaw would be pleased if Pierce now attacked the Lords Cardinal. To further thumb his nose at his former associates, Shaw lunched at the Hellfire Club as the guest of Senator Robert Kelly, a long-time member, and brought Tessa with him. When Senator Kelly’s wife was then killed during a battle between a giant robot and a group of unidentified superheroes, Kelly agreed to support Shaw’s proposal for a new generation of Sentinels, inspired by the Nimrod robot.

However, Sebastian Shaw’s plans were abruptly cut short a few months later when he was murdered by his illegitimate son Shinobi Shaw, who was no less ruthless and ambitious than his estranged father. Shinobi Shaw detonated powerful explosives that utterly destroyed his father’s Swiss chalet, and his faithful slave Tessa was killed in the blast.

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #132

Final Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #247

Notes:

Tessa’s name was revealed in her third appearance, in the New Mutants graphic novel. Her early days with the Hellfire Club were revealed in Classic X-Men #6–7. Her death occurs behind the scenes in X-Factor #67. Her subsequent appearances are outside the scope of the Original Marvel Universe and are considered non-canonical.

Next Portrait

OMU: Ancient History 4

The remainder of my general history of the Original Marvel Universe is compiled from my own OMU chronologies and the later sections of Robert Wicks’s “Unofficial Chronology to the Marvel Universe.” Further content has been culled from online sources, such as the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe. By this point, Mr. Wicks’s timeline is broken down according to the amount of time passed between the event in question and when the Fantastic Four gained their powers, in order to accommodate Marvel’s infamous “Sliding Time Scale.” The result is a very disjointed timeline in which it is easy to lose the overarching story. Conversely, here we have a clear, straightforward narrative that finally brings Marvel’s fractured history into a cohesive whole.

Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding backward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts.

Bringing you up to speed with… The True History of the Original Marvel Universe!

Part Seven: The Modern Era

1902

Adrian Toomes is born on Staten Island in New York City.

Samuel James North is born.

Gus Mustin is born.

1903

In Madrid, Spain, Death manifests in human form in an attempt to destroy Dracula once and for all. However, each time Death arranges for Dracula to be killed, the vampire is resurrected. Finally admitting to having no power over the undead, Death offers Dracula a truce. Even so, Death notes that there are still plenty of vampire hunters out there.

1904

Thaddeus E. Ross is born.

Philip Masters is born in Dragorin, Transia, near Wundagore Mountain.

1905

Karl Amadeus Mordo is born in Varf Mandra, Transylvania, the son of a Transylvanian nobleman named Nikolai and his wife Sara, the daughter of German Viscount Heinrich Krowler. All three adults are practitioners of black magic.

Ivan Kragoff is born in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Vernon Van Dyne is born.

1906

Johann Schmidt flees from the crowded orphanage, intending to live by his wits on the streets. However, he soon proves to be inept at both begging and thieving and is often victimized by older boys. Schmidt takes refuge in lightless cellars and crypts, sometimes spending weeks at a time in total darkness. He becomes fascinated by the strange visions his mind conjures up in the dark.

A member of the mystical race of the Neuri discovers a family of gypsies trapped in the snow and uses his powers to save their lives. However, the greedy family takes the Neuri prisoner so they can exploit his magical abilities. In time, the family members start killing each other off, until only two brothers remain. The Neuri will remain their prisoner for the next 70 years.

1907

Heinrich Zemo is born at Castle Zemo in Germany, the son of a German nobleman.

David Fortunov is born in New York City.

Justin Hammer is born in Surrey, England.

Aaron Soames is born.

1908

The exiled Inhuman Phaeder discovers a colony of Deviants and falls in love with Morga, a Deviant considered ugly by her race’s standards but quite attractive to Phaeder. They soon have a son, Maelstrom. Phaeder and Maelstrom will eventually leave the Deviants and begin traveling the world incognito.

Ulysses Klaw is born in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands.

Howard Stark is born.

1910

John Falsworth, embittered that his older brother Montgomery has become the new Lord Falsworth and inherited the bulk of their father’s estate, travels throughout Europe seeking his fortune.

Ben Parker gets a job at a Coney Island amusement park. He hopes to woo May Reilly, though she thinks of him as just a friend.

Having been a recluse since accidentally causing the death of his brother, Isaac Christians begins to come out of his shell and befriends Buster Henderson and Elaine Willoughby.

Philip Masters and his parents immigrate to America from Transia when Philip is six years old.

Acting on the orders of her father, Viscount Krowler, Sara Mordo kills her husband Nikolai. She then takes her son Karl Amadeus back to Germany, where Krowler tutors the boy in the black arts of sorcery.

1911

May Reilly is aggressively courted by the debonair small-time crook Johnny Jerome. May’s friend Ben Parker confronts them after Jerome kills a shopkeeper during a robbery. Thus learning of his criminal activities, May refuses Jerome’s marriage proposal, so he flees. Outside, Jerome is shot in the leg by the police and taken into custody. May turns to Ben Parker for comfort and soon falls in love with him.

Denis Nayland Smith, an agent of the British government stationed in Burma, first crosses paths with the international criminal mastermind Fu Manchu, beginning a lifelong rivalry between them.

Sergei Kravinoff is born in Tsaritsyn, Russia.

1912

Stephen Strange is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Eugene and Beverly Strange. They are a very well-to-do family.

Dracula finally exacts his revenge on Jonathan Harker by killing him and his wife Mina. Their son, Quincy Harker, dedicates his life to destroying all vampires.

1913

May Reilly marries Ben Parker at a church in Brooklyn, New York.

Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader Dugan is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Luchino Nefaria is born in Rome, Italy.

Frank Hall is born in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

1914

John Falsworth, making his way through Transylvania, seeks out Dracula. Falsworth believes he might find some way to enslave Dracula and bend the vampire to his will. However, Dracula easily overcomes Falsworth and drinks his blood. Falsworth dies and, three days later, rises from the dead as a vampire. Dracula then sends Falsworth back to London to wreak havoc on the country from which Dracula had fled decades before.

With the outbreak of World War I, the British government asks Montgomery, Lord Falsworth to assume the costumed identity of Union Jack. His one-man commando-style tactics are extremely successful against the German army.

The vampire John Falsworth, in order to help destroy England, offers his services to the German government. The Germans give the vampire the code name Baron Blood and a bat-like costume with which to terrify his victims. Baron Blood soon becomes the Germans’ greatest secret weapon, murdering a number of top British army officials.

Ernest St. Ives is drafted into the army and sent to fight in France. He reluctantly leaves his wife and daughter behind, vowing to return to them one day.

J. Jonah Jameson is born in New York City.

Herbert Edgar Wyndham is born in Manchester, England.

Eugene Judd is born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

1915

Nick Fury is born in New York City to Jack Fury and wife.

Michael Twoyoungmen is born on the Sarcee Indian Reservation outside Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

1916

Dawn Fury is born in New York City to Jack Fury and wife. Some months later, Jack leaves his family and travels to England, intent on becoming a fighter pilot in the war, unaware that his wife is pregnant with their third child.

Bruce Dickson is born.

Basil Sandhurst is born in Kittery Point, Maine.

Roger Willis is born to Eric Willis, the immortal guardian of the Casket of Ancient Winters, an Asgardian artifact.

1917

Karl Kaufman, an American citizen of German heritage and an experienced pilot, assumes the costumed identity of the Phantom Eagle so that he can fight in the war without endangering his parents, who are now living in Germany. He fights heroically for the Allies and becomes known as one of the greatest aerial pilots of the time.

Later, the Phantom Eagle encounters the Hulk, who has been sent back in time by Kang the Conqueror.

Union Jack and the Phantom Eagle team up with the French adventurer known as La Chevalier Cramoisi (the Crimson Cavalier) and a duo of British adventurers, Sir Steel and Silver Squire, as Freedom’s Five to fight the German forces. They work together occasionally throughout the remainder of the war. One of their greatest adversaries is Baron Blood, who always manages to escape them.

Isaac Christians grows heartsick when his beloved Elaine Willoughby marries Buster Henderson and, lying about his age, joins the U.S. Army to prove himself as a soldier. However, on his first day in combat, Christians flees from the battle, only to be caught in the woods by a German infantryman. As fate would have it, he is saved by Henderson, whose own unit has been massacred. They take refuge in a farmhouse, which is soon surrounded by enemy soldiers. Henderson charges out the door and dies in a hail of bullets, while Christians stands frozen with fear. Rescued by American forces, Christians is ashamed of his cowardice. A few months later, he receives word from home that his mother has died.

Now the latest Baron Russoff, Gregor marries a girl named Maria, the daughter of another Transylvanian noble family.

Sergei Kravinoff is brought to America by his parents, who are fleeing the Bolshevik takeover of Russia. The formerly aristocratic family is forced to live in poverty. His mother will eventually go insane.

Gus Mustin lies about his age to join the U.S. Army and is sent to fight in Europe. During his first battle, he is exposed to an experimental chemical weapon which triggers a latent mutation. He is soon given a medical discharge and sent home to his family farm. A few months later, he discovers he has gained superhuman strength. His father convinces him to keep his abilities a secret.

Ernest St. Ives, the sole survivor of his unit, is caught in an explosion that sends him plummeting into an ancient subterranean cavern. He lands in a pool of strange fluid just as mustard gas comes billowing into the chamber. The interaction of the two chemicals grants St. Ives a kind of immortality and makes any contact with his skin lethal. He interprets his experience as having fought off Death itself.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Ross is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dino Manelli is born in Italy. While he is still a child, his family immigrates to the United States.

Bentley Wittman is born.

Jake Fury is born in New York City to Jack Fury and wife.

1918

During the last few weeks of the war, Union Jack investigates a number of murders caused by Baron Blood. During their ensuing fight, Union Jack wounds the vampire with a silver dagger. Baron Blood then flees the country.

Jack Fury is killed in combat.

Near the end of the war, the Phantom Eagle attempts to get his parents out of Germany. Before he can take to the skies, he is discovered by the German pilot Hermann von Reitberger, who shoots the Phantom Eagle and his family to death. However, through unknown means, the Phantom Eagle’s spirit remains on Earth, determined to have revenge on Reitberger. One week after his death, the Phantom Eagle appears in the skies in a ghost plane and shoots down Reitberger. However, Reitberger survives the crash but is now too frightened to fly. For decades, the Phantom Eagle’s spirit will haunt Reitberger, who will always manage to find some means of escape.

With the end of the war, Union Jack is officially retired by the British government. Lord Falsworth accepts the decommissioning of his costumed identity and eventually marries.

Disgusted by the war, Nathaniel Omen, a submarine captain, convinces his crew to leave the surface world behind to live in the ocean’s depths. Over time, their vessel is greatly enlarged and equipped with advanced technology. Omen also finds a way to genetically engineer his crew’s offspring to better survive in the deep-sea environment. Their submarine will not surface again for nearly fifty years.

Gabe Jones is born in New York City.

Izzy Cohen is born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irving and Selma Cohen.

William Nasland is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Wilson Fisk is born in New York City.

Boris Bullski is born in Makeyevka, Ukraine.

Cornelius van Lunt is born.

Gregory Russoff is born in Transylvania, eldest son of Baron and Baroness Russoff.

1919

Paul Destine, a young man with psychic abilities, joins a traveling carnival and uses his powers as the show’s mentalist. While researching psychic phenomena, Destine learns of the race known as the Ancients, whom he believes were also mind-readers. Seeking to find the lost site of the Ancients’ civilization, Destine signs up with the Oracle, an American ship commanded by Leonard McKenzie which is on an expedition to Antarctica. After reaching Antarctica, Destine and McKenzie discover the remains of the Ancients’ city. While trying to free some artifacts from the ice, Destine inadvertently triggers an avalanche. McKenzie escapes unharmed and, believing Destine to be dead, returns to his ship. However, Destine survives and discovers the disguised Serpent Crown nearby. Placing the Serpent Crown on his head, Destine finds his injuries instantly healed. The crown also greatly increases both his physical strength and psychic powers. Using one of the Ancients’ devices, Destine places himself in suspended animation in order to allow his psychic powers to grow and develop.

Meanwhile, clearing a path through the ice fields off Antarctica using dynamite, McKenzie and the Oracle inadvertently cause damage to the undersea city of Atlantis. The Atlantean princess Fen is assigned to organize a search party to investigate the cause of the explosions. However, Fen is very adventurous and undertakes the mission alone. Taking with her a potion which allows her to breathe air for up to five hours at a time, Fen heads for the surface. Boarding the ship out of curiosity, Fen is discovered and brought to Captain McKenzie. After learning that the blasts were not meant as an act of war, Fen becomes attracted to McKenzie. She spends the next few months aboard the Oracle with him, and the two are soon married. The Atlanteans become very concerned about Fen’s long absence and search for her. Emperor Thakorr, discovering that his daughter is aboard the Oracle, assumes Fen is a prisoner. Thus, the Atlanteans attack the ship, killing most of the crew. Believing Leonard McKenzie to be among the dead, the distraught Fen returns to Atlantis.

Discharged from the military, Isaac Christians cannot face returning home to Virginia and instead makes his way to Paris, France, where he becomes obsessed with a prostitute named Germaine. When his lover eventually abandons him, Christians goes into a profound depression.

When Ernest St. Ives finally returns home from the war, his wife embraces him before he can stop her. She dies instantly due to his touch of death. His daughter screams in horror, and St. Ives flees, never to return.

Having spent the war in prison, Johann Schmidt is released and finds a job doing menial labor for a Jewish shopkeeper. Schmidt becomes obsessed with his employer’s daughter Esther when she shows him a small kindness. Overcome with lust, Schmidt makes clumsy attempts to woo her. When Esther spurns his sexual advances, Schmidt kills her with a shovel. He flees into the night, experiencing euphoria for the first time in his life.

Robert Frank is born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Dr. Emil Frank and wife.

Jeff Mace is born in Brooklyn, New York.

Maynard Tiboldt is born in Vienna, Austria, to circus owners Fritz and Lola Tiboldt.

Elihas Starr is born in Queens, New York.

1920

Fen gives birth to Namor, a mutant hybrid of Homo sapiens and Homo mermanus. Namor, which means “Avenging Son,” is accepted by the Emperor despite the fact that he is half “air-breather.”

Leonard McKenzie recovers from his injuries and returns to the United States, but the story he tells is dismissed as the ravings of a disturbed mind. Unable to secure work, he is soon driven into bankruptcy. He is unaware that Fen was pregnant at the time of their separation.

Isaac Christians leaves France and wanders Europe before moving east to India, where he becomes the disciple of a guru called Vishnu Dass. Experiencing a spiritual awakening, Christians travels throughout the region with his guru, ministering to the poor.

A small plane crossing the Atlantic Ocean enters a fog bank and strikes the floating island of Aerie, home of the avian Inhumans who seceded from Attilan long ago. The crash has only one survivor, an infant boy. The Bird-People’s leader, King Aerivar XVIII, decides to raise the boy as one of their own and declares him to be the Heir of Cheiros. Called Red Raven because of his bright red hair, the boy is given artificial bat wings and an anti-gravity pack so he can join his adopted family in the sky.

Viscount Heinrich Krowler meets Adolf Hitler, a fervent member of an obscure nationalist group in Germany. Krowler comes to believe that Hitler has great potential as a politician.

Percival Pinkerton is born in England.

Madeline Joyce is born in Washington, D.C.

Louise Grant is born in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Wilbur Day is born in New York City.

1921

Baron Gregor Russoff obtains the Darkhold scrolls from the sorcerer Taboo and binds them back into book form. He also begins translating it and transcribes much of its content into his ancestor Grigori’s diary, which he then uses as his own diary. His studies of the evil tome cause him to be afflicted by the ancestral curse of lycanthropy, and he begins turning into a werewolf. He is able to hide this from his wife Maria, though it causes a growing rift between them. Furthermore, Gregor begins spending more and more of their money on his dark pursuits, causing financial hardship for the family.

Steve Rogers is born in New York City to Joseph and Sarah Rogers.

Edwin Jarvis is born.

Robert Ralston is born in Louisville, Kentucky.

1922

While in the Himalayas, Isaac Christians receives a letter from home informing him that his father has died and he is needed to take over the family business. Christians is reluctant to leave his guru, but Vishnu Dass convinces him to take what he has learned back to Virginia. After hiking out of the mountains, he makes his way back to Christiansboro, where he continues to read books on mysticism and the occult.

Reed Richards is born in Central City, California, to Nathaniel and Evelyn Richards.

Victor von Doom is born in Latveria to Werner and Cynthia von Doom.

Jonathan Juniper is born.

1923

Viscount Krowler sends Karl Amadeus, now Baron Mordo, to Tibet to become the disciple of the legendary sorcerer known as the Ancient One. Though he is aware of Mordo’s corrupt nature, the Ancient One hopes he can teach Mordo a better way.

Otto Octavius is born in Schenectady, New York.

Norman Osborn is born in Hartford, Connecticut.

Leland Owlsley is born.

Anthony Druid is born.

1924

Harris Moore is born in New York City.

Michael Morbius is born in Greece.

Jason Wyngarde is born in England.

Alexander Gentry is born.

Miles Warren is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1925

Namor is raised by his mother, Princess Fen, and his grandfather, Emperor Thakorr. As heir to the throne, the young prince often observes the Emperor carrying out his official duties. In one case, Thakorr sentences a prominent scientist, Vyrra, to eternal banishment for conducting illegal cloning experiments. Fen then teaches Namor the grim history of Atlantis’s centuries-old ban on cloning.

Benjamin J. Grimm is born in New York City to Daniel and Elsi Grimm.

Jacqueline Falsworth is born to Lord and Lady Falsworth.

Klaus Voorhees is born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Nathan Garrett is born in London, England.

Jimmy Woo is born.

Peggy Carter is born in Richmond, Virginia, to Harrison and Amanda Carter.

1926

Logan, a mutant with animal-like senses and a rapid healing factor, leaves his home in Canada to sail around the world. In midwinter, his ship barely survives an intense storm as it moves through the Drake Passage beneath the southernmost tip of South America.

Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy, Thaddeus Ross marries Karen Lee, the daughter of a U.S. Army captain.

While in Rome, Dracula runs afoul of local gangster Big Nick Diablo, who sends a succession of hitmen out to kill him. However, the mobsters are unfamiliar with vampires, so their bombs, knives, and Tommy guns prove ineffective. Dracula turns the assassins into vampires along with Big Nick’s bodyguards, then orders them all to rip their boss to shreds.

James Buchanan Barnes is born in Shelbyville, Indiana.

Cain Marko is born in Berkeley, California, to Kurt and Marjory Marko.

Calvin Zabo is born in Trenton, New Jersey.

Peter Petruski is born in Gary, Indiana.

Samuel Smithers is born in London, England.

Gregor Shapanka is born in Szombathely, Hungary.

Dirk Garthwaite is born in New York City.

Christopher Summers is born to Phillip and Deborah Summers.

1927

When Joseph Rogers dies, his wife Sarah struggles to support herself and her young son Steve.

Logan arrives in China where he meets a young woman named Rose Wu. They have an adventure that leads them into a futuristic city in another dimension, possibly K’un-Lun.

Ted Sallis is born in Omaha, Nebraska.

Chen Lu is born in Lanzhou, China.

1928

Herbert Edgar Wyndham, now a London-based geneticist, begins experiments on cellular mutation and artificial evolution. Wyndham is invited to the International Conference on Genetics held in Geneva, Switzerland. There, he meets Jonathan Drew, an American zoology student at Yale University. Also at the Geneva Conference are Wladyslav Shinski of Poland and Arnim Zola of Switzerland, as well as the German scientists Abraham Erskine and Basil Frankenstein. After the conference, Wyndham is given a blueprint for breaking the genetic code by Phaeder, the exiled Inhuman. The blueprints are the essential ingredient Wyndham needs to continue his research in artificial evolution. Wyndham is eventually successful in artificially evolving a dog into humanoid form. However, the dog-man quickly escapes from Wyndham, and when spotted by local villagers, it is shot and killed.

Jessica Drew is born in London, England, to Jonathan and Merriem Drew.

Leaving their two sons in a Transylvanian boarding school, Baron and Baroness Russoff close up their ancestral castle and move to their estate in the small neighboring country of Transia, land which includes Wundagore Mountain. Gregor leaves the bound scrolls of the Darkhold in the castle library, but takes with him his diary, into which most of the spells have been copied.

The Watcher sends the Thing and Medusa back from the late 1960s to prevent time-traveling mailman Willie Lumpkin from changing history. They rescue Lumpkin from gangsters who want to use his knowledge to manipulate the stock market, then take him back to the future.

Fred Raymond, a young chemist suffering from asbestos poisoning, is working as an assistant to Phineas T. Horton, who is trying to design a synthetic man. Raymond leaves Horton’s employ for health reasons but nevertheless marries Nora Jones, a scientist who is terminally ill due to exposure to radium. The couple is determined to spend what time they have left living life to the fullest. Nine months after their marriage, Nora gives birth to a mutant son, Thomas Raymond. As Thomas grows up, his parents will discover that he is immune to fire.

Leonard Samson is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Leopold Stryke is born.

Norbert Ebersol is born in Dayton, Ohio.

Carl Creel is born in New York City.

Sebastian Shaw is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine is born in Italy.

1929

Namor is publicly adored by the Atlanteans, especially his playmate and companion Dorma, who will eventually grow to love him. However, many Atlanteans are secretly hostile towards Namor, not wanting a hybrid of Homo mermanus and Homo sapiens to one day take the throne. A small number, such as his childhood friends Byrrah and Meranno, despise him for his pink skin, but they normally keep their feelings to themselves for fear of the Emperor’s wrath. Even so, Byrrah constantly schemes to get Namor into trouble.

In Philadelphia, Stephen Strange’s family is fairly well insulated from the effects of the stock market crash. As the Great Depression begins, they remain wealthy and comfortable. The family members feel little sympathy for the less fortunate.

Evelyn Richards dies.

J. Jonah Jameson begins working as a copy boy in the offices of the Daily Bugle.

Jonathan Drew’s wife Merriem inherits a small piece of land in the nation of Transia, near Wundagore Mountain. Learning that large tracts of adjacent land are for sale by Baron Gregor Russoff, Drew purchases the land to add to their estate. Included in the land is Wundagore Mountain itself.

Phillip Masters discovers radioactive clay at Wundagore Mountain.

In China, Logan meets a young man named Chang. They are photographed together on a pier in front of a three-masted sailing ship.

Charles Xavier is born in New York City to Brian and Sharon Xavier.

The man known as Magnus is born in Poland.

Moira Kinross is born in Scotland to Lord and Lady Kinross.

Samuel Sterns is born in Boise, Idaho.

Milos Masaryk is born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

Peter Corbeau is born.

1930

Stephen Strange graduates from high school and enters the University of Pennsylvania, intent on becoming a medical doctor.

Nick Fury and his friends routinely brawl with the notorious Yancy Street Gang, enabling Nick to develop his signature no-holds-barred fighting style.

Herbert Wyndham and Jonathan Drew begin construction of a small research laboratory on Wundagore Mountain in Transia. During construction, the two discover deposits of uranium. They decide to mine the ore to finance the construction of their research station. Now with nearly unlimited funds, they contract German astrophysicist Horace M. Grabsheid to design their “Citadel of Science,” asking him to make the facility spaceworthy.

One night, Drew’s daughter Jessica is frightened by the appearance of Baron Gregor Russoff in his werewolf form. Investigating, Wyndham is contacted again by Phaeder, who has trained a number of Moloid Subterraneans to serve in both the mining of the uranium and the construction of the citadel.

Logan travels to Japan, where he becomes close friends with a man named Bando Saburo. From Bando, Logan learns to appreciate Kabuki theater.

Wilson Fisk earns fifteen dollars by setting fire to a factory, committing his first murder in the process.

One of Merlyn’s chosen guard leaves Otherworld and takes up residence on Earth, where he assumes the identity of James Braddock.

Robert Bruce Banner is born in Dayton, Ohio, to Brian and Rebecca Banner.

Sean Cassidy is born at Cassidy Keep in Ireland.

Jericho Drumm and his twin brother Daniel Drumm are born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Owen Reece is born in New York City.

Zebediah Killgrave is born in Rijeka, Yugoslavia.

Bruno Horgan is born in Queens, New York.

Emil Blonsky is born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.

Jonathan Powers is born in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Henry Peter Gyrich is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1931

Six months after the Subterraneans begin working for Herbert Wyndham and Jonathan Drew, Jessica Drew collapses from radiation poisoning. She is placed in a cryogenic tube to slow down her cellular damage, and Jonathan administers a treatment he has devised from spider extract. However, because the treatment will take months to be effective, Jonathan decides to keep her in stasis so that the radiation poisoning won’t do any more damage to her. Within the stasis tube, Jessica ages at an extremely slow rate. Upset about her daughter’s condition, Merriem Drew goes for a moonlit walk and is killed by the werewolf Gregor Russoff. Wyndham discovers her body but tells Jonathan that she must have died in a fall. Jonathan has been suspicious of the Subterraneans and Wyndham doesn’t want him to conclude that they had assaulted Merriem. While searching for Merriem’s killer, Wyndham is attacked by the werewolf, but the sunrise causes the creature to retreat. Jonathan, distraught over the death of his wife and his daughter’s sickness, returns to England, leaving Jessica’s care to Wyndham.

Now alone, Wyndham experiments with treating Jessica with his prototype genetic accelerator. He realizes her course of treatment will span many years. Worried about further werewolf attacks, Wyndham constructs a suit of silver-plated armor to protect himself. A month later, the werewolf enters the citadel and kills one of the Subterraneans. Wyndham manages to capture and contain the beast, but the death of one of their own causes the Subterraneans to abandon the citadel, which is near completion. After Gregor Russoff returns to human form, Wyndham offers to take responsibility for restraining Russoff’s bestial alter-ego in exchange for the opportunity to study his bizarre condition. Gregor agrees and soon reveals to Maria that he has a “sickness” and is going to stay at the Citadel of Science for treatment. Although she remains living in the house nearby, he never sees his wife again. He arranges for his eldest son, Gregory, to assume the baronetcy upon his maturity. Then, he withdraws completely from the outside world. Ultimately, Wyndham’s studies of Gregor prove inconclusive. Nevertheless, Gregor remains in Wyndham’s care, helping him put the finishing touches on the research facility.

Logan begins to study the martial arts under a ninja master named Ogun, whom he soon comes to regard as a father-figure. In the process, Logan becomes an enemy of The Hand, a cult of ninja assassins.

Walter Langkowski is born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

1932

All Atlantis is impressed as young Namor starts developing superhuman strength.

Industrialist Howard Stark has a mansion constructed on Fifth Avenue in New York City, across the street from Central Park.

Steve Rogers befriends a neighborhood boy named Arnie Roth. More physically robust than Steve, Arnie frequently defends him from bullies. With his father dead and his mother working long hours, Steve spends a great deal of time with the Roth family.

Agon, head of the ruling Inhuman Council of Geneticists, makes significant advances in the prediction of Terrigen effects on Inhuman genes. Agon convinces his wife, Rynda, to expose herself to Terrigen while pregnant. Agon and Rynda also persuade their brothers and sisters to expose their children to Terrigen while in utero. Months later, Blackagar Boltagon is born to Rynda. In infancy, Black Bolt demonstrates energy manipulative powers which he is too young to control. To protect the citizens and the city of Attilan, he is placed within a soundproof chamber. Within the chamber, he will be educated and learn how to control his powers, but this will take many years.

Wilson Fisk, now the leader of a small gang of criminals, rapidly increases his power base through his organizational skills. He eventually becomes successful enough to invest in legitimate businesses.

Fu Manchu develops his Elixir Vitae, a life-prolonging serum that begins to reverse his aging process. He shares the serum with his daughter, Fah Lo Suee.

James MacDonald Hudson is born in London, Ontario, Canada.

William Baker is born in Queens, New York.

Curt Connors is born in Coral Gables, Florida.

Seth Voelker is born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

St. John Allerdyce is born in Sydney, Australia.

Rachel Van Helsing is born.

1933

Ben Grimm witnesses his older brother Dan getting killed in a street gang fight. Dan’s criminal activities as the leader of the Yancy Street Gang provided the bulk of the family’s income, due to his father being an underemployed alcoholic. Thus, Dan’s death causes great financial as well as emotional hardship.

David Fortunov, a private detective based in Los Angeles, California, becomes a celebrity as an adventurer-for-hire under the name Dominic Fortune.

“Dutch” Mallone, a gangster living in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, is arrested by Eliot Ness and charged with tax evasion. Mallone spends the rest of his life in prison, but it is long rumored that before getting arrested he stashed away millions of dollars. In fact, Mallone had hidden the money in one of the walls of his Forest Hills home. Mallone’s house will later be bought by Ben and May Parker.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party come to power in Germany.

Baron Heinrich Zemo, a young German scientist, offers his services to the Nazi government as a designer of new technology and weaponry for the military and intelligence services.

James Braddock meets his future wife, Elizabeth. Within a year, they are married.

Shanna O’Hara is born in Zaire, Africa, to American parents, Gerald and Patricia O’Hara. From her mother, Shanna receives an inhabiting spirit, an ancient mystical entity known as the Queen of the Pride, that lies dormant within her.

Quentin Beck is born in Riverside, California.

Paul Duval is born in Fontainebleau, France.

Eric Williams is born in Paterson, New Jersey, to Sanford and Martha Williams.

1934

Upon reaching puberty, Namor sprouts small wings on his ankles that, he soon discovers, grant him the ability to fly through the air.

Horace M. Grabsheid and his infant son immigrate to America following the death of his wife and daughter, for which he blames the Nazis. Grabsheid, a Jew, legally changes his name to Matthew Grayson. Concerned about raising Robert Grayson in a world where such hatred and prejudice exist, the scientist begins monitoring radio waves from outer space. He also begins making plans to construct a rocket which will carry him and his son into orbit, planning to stay in space until the end of the coming world war, which he sees as inevitable. Eventually, Grayson makes radio contact with the Uranian Eternals. Still despondent after their discovery of a grand unified theory of everything, the Uranians are eager to hear news of their native planet. They then send Grayson the technical knowledge he needs to build a spaceship capable of interplanetary travel. The Eternals persuade Grayson to make the trip to Uranus so they can study his mortal genes in hopes of discovering a method by which to terminate their own existence. Fearful of retribution from Nazi spies and believing Uranus to be a perfect society, Grayson begins construction of the spaceship in his own back yard.

Stephen Strange graduates from college and enrolls in the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.

J. Jonah Jameson becomes a full-time reporter for the New York Herald Journal-Express, but when he doggedly pursues a story on police corruption, William Walter Goodman persuades him to return to the Daily Bugle. Six weeks later, Jameson is distraught when a young copyboy is killed by a bomb meant for Jameson, but Goodman convinces him to fight for what he believes in. Jameson confronts the corrupt police officer and endures a brutal beating in order to get a confession. Impressed, Goodman takes Jameson under his wing. Riding high on his success, Jameson marries his long-time girlfriend Joan.

An expedition collecting specimens for the Morris Oceanarium in Hawaii accidentally captures a fugitive from Lemuria named Llyron. The oceanarium’s owner, Rhonda Morris, is fascinated by this blue-skinned man from the depths, and not wanting to return to Lemuria, Llyron soon seduces her. Within a few months, they are married in secret. The oceanarium prospers as Llyron brings in rare and dangerous animals from the deep sea. However, in an unfortunate mishap, Llyron is killed while defending Morris from a shark. The heartbroken Morris soon discovers she is pregnant.

Notorious gangster “Machine Gun” Martin escapes from prison only to stumble upon a Skrull slave ship. He is captured by the alien slaver and transported to the planet Kral in the Andromeda Galaxy. Martin’s bellicose antics inspire a fad among the Skrulls to imitate his “gangland” culture, and before long the practice has spread all across the planet.

Fritz Tiboldt, owner, manager, and ringmaster of Tiboldt’s Circus in Austria, becomes a staunch supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Brian Banner becomes convinced that his son Bruce is a mutant “freak” possessed of superhuman intelligence.

Natalia Alianovna Romanova is born in Stalingrad, U.S.S.R.

Medusalith Amaquelin is born on the island of Attilan to Quelin and Ambur of the Royal Family of the Inhumans.

Tania Belinskaya is born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R.

Triton is born on the island of Attilan to Mander and Azur of the Royal Family of the Inhumans.

Max Dillon is born in Endicott, New York.

Ebenezer Laughton is born in Rhinebeck, New York.

MacDonald Gargan is born.

1935

Namor meets his cousin, Aquaria Nautica Neptunia, when she comes to visit Atlantis. Like him, she is a hybrid of Homo sapiens and Homo mermanus. Though initially annoyed at being made to play with a girl, Namor changes his attitude after Byrrah leaves him trapped inside a sunken submarine and Aquaria comes to the rescue.

In Berlin, Johann Schmidt manages to get a job as a porter at a nice hotel. When Adolf Hitler comes to stay one night, the dictator sees in Schmidt a hatred for all mankind and decides to mold him into the perfect Nazi. Recognizing Hitler as a kindred spirit, Schmidt readily agrees to accept the Führer as his master. Impressed by the man’s ruthlessness, Hitler personally oversees Schmidt’s training as a Nazi agent and gives him a blood-red skull mask to wear. Code-named the Red Skull, Schmidt is made into a symbol of Nazi power and is answerable only to Hitler himself.

Herbert Wyndham revives Jessica Drew from suspended animation for a period of one year to continue treating her for radiation poisoning. Since neither he nor Gregor Russoff have experience caring for young children, Wyndham hires a nurse from the local village to watch over Jessica between sessions in the prototype genetic accelerator. The nurse is disturbed by the nature of Wyndham’s experiments.

James Braddock purchases Braddock Manor, which the family had sold some years before, and moves in with his new bride.

Quincy Harker succeeds in destroying Lilith, daughter of Dracula. As a point of honor, Dracula attacks Harker at the opera, crippling him and nearly killing his wife, Elizabeth. Undaunted, Harker builds a wheelchair containing an anti-vampire arsenal. Due to her unique nature, Lilith spends the next three decades wandering England as a disembodied spirit.

American intelligence agents S.J. North and George C. Cooper join Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong during the Long March of the Red Army.

Rhonda Morris gives birth to Llyron’s daughter, a green-skinned baby she names Llyra. Within a few months, Llyra develops the chameleon-like ability to mimic her mother’s skin and hair color. Another mutant hybrid of Homo sapiens and Homo mermanus, Llyra eventually proves to be amphibious.

Carol Danvers is born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Joseph and Marie Danvers.

Bobbi Morse is born in San Diego, California.

Gorgon is born on the island of Attilan to Korath and Milena of the Royal Family of the Inhumans.

1936

Curious about his paternal heritage, Namor takes Aquaria and Byrrah to explore the base camp left behind by Admiral Richard Byrd’s recent expedition to Antarctica. Rummaging through a supply shed, Aquaria accidentally sets the structure on fire. Byrrah panics and flees back to the ocean, but Namor risks his life to save the hapless girl.

Reed Richards begins taking college-level courses at the California Institute of Technology.

Brian Banner murders his wife Rebecca, seriously traumatizing their young son Bruce. With his father committed to a mental institution, Bruce is taken in by his aunt.

Steve Rogers is left an orphan when his mother dies. With no other living relatives, he must struggle to get by on his own. Increasingly withdrawn, Steve drifts away from his more gregarious friend Arnie Roth.

Logan enters the final stage of his ninja training with Ogun, in which his sensei uses quasi-mystical psychic powers to imprint himself on his student’s mind. When the process threatens to overwhelm Logan’s personality, he rebels and breaks free of Ogun’s influence. Disillusioned, Logan leaves Japan, not expecting to ever return.

Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a Prussian nobleman, is recruited by the Nazi government’s intelligence services.

Upon reaching the age of 18, Gregory Russoff becomes the new Baron Russoff, graduates from school, and returns to the family’s ancestral castle to live.

Henry Pym is born in Elmsford, New York.

Tony Stark is born on Long Island, New York, to Howard and Maria Stark.

Marc Spector is born in Czechoslovakia to Elias Spector and wife.

Walter Newell is born in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

John Jameson is born in New York City to Jonah and Joan Jameson.

Maximus is born on the island of Attilan to Agon and Rynda of the Royal Family of the Inhumans.

Helmut Zemo is born in Leipzig, Germany, to Baron Heinrich and Hilda Zemo.

David Cannon is born in Kansas City, Missouri.

Abner Jenkins is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

Georges Batroc is born in Marseilles, France.

Erik Josten is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Jamie Braddock is born in England to James and Elizabeth Braddock.

Karla Sofen is born in Van Nuys, California.

Giulietta Nefaria is born in Rome, Italy, to Count Luchino Nefaria and his wife Renata, who dies in childbirth. Count Nefaria arranges for his daughter to be raised in New York City by the wealthy financier Byron Frost, who launders money for Nefaria’s Maggia syndicate. She is renamed Whitney Frost and brought up unaware of her true parentage.

1937

While showing off his flying ability to his friends, Namor inadvertently destroys a Nazi fighter plane above the Antarctic coast. Though he is hailed as a hero at the royal court, Namor realizes he didn’t really know what he was dealing with.

Ben Grimm joins the Yancy Street Gang, despite what happened to his brother.

Logan and soldier-of-fortune Eugene Judd both fight in the Spanish Civil War. While there, they become friends with the American news correspondent Ernest Hemingway and the English writer later known as George Orwell.

While exploring the Himalayas, Wendell Rand wanders into the extradimensional realm of K’un-Lun, where he saves the realm’s ruler, Lord Tuan, and his son from the dragon Shou-Lao the Undying. The dragon gravely injures Rand during its retreat, so Lord Tuan carries him into his city, where he is nursed back to health by the beautiful maiden Shakirah. Out of gratitude, Lord Tuan adopts Rand into his House of K’ai and names him as heir to the throne of K’un-Lun. Tuan’s son, a few years younger than Rand, is embittered by this decision, and his hatred for his adopted brother only grows when Rand and Shakirah are married. Within a year, they have a daughter, Miranda Rand-K’ai.

Dominic Fortune and his girlfriend, casino owner Sabbath Raven, travel to New York City, where they thwart a Nazi scheme to use comic books for fascist propaganda. Fortune is then hired by the Police Commissioner to rescue a socialite from undead mobsters. At a movie premiere in a Broadway theater, Fortune stops Baron Wolfgang von Strucker from assassinating a U.S. senator and reveals the film’s lead actor to be Nazi agent. Next, Fortune and Raven expose Hollywood child star Tiny Tina Timmons as a diminutive adult woman who is trying to have her ex-husband murdered.

Japan invades China, initiating the second Sino-Japanese War.

Biochemist Arnim Zola discovers a cache of Deviant scientific papers on genetic research in his ancestral castle in Switzerland. After deciphering the Deviant language, Zola begins experiments on creating artificial life.

John Kowalski, a Polish immigrant, has won the Medal of Honor while serving in the United States Marine Corps. However, he is framed for espionage and convicted of high treason by a military tribunal. Stripped of his citizenship, Kowalski is forced to return to Poland.

On Christmas Eve, Dominic Fortune saves the British ambassador from an assassin dressed as Santa Claus. His efforts are hampered by wealthy socialite Lamar Canfield, who is attempting to fight crime as a gun-toting mystery man called the Silhouette.

Matt Murdock is born in New York City to Jack and Grace Murdock.

T’Challa is born in the African kingdom of Wakanda to its chieftain, T’Chaka, and his wife N’Yami, who dies in childbirth.

Carl Lucas is born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

Simon Williams is born in Paterson, New Jersey, to Sanford and Martha Williams.

Jennifer Walters is born in Los Angeles, California, to Morris and Elaine Walters.

Francis Castiglione is born in Queens, New York, to Mario and Louisa Castiglione.

Karnak is born on the island of Attilan to Mander and Azur of the Royal Family of the Inhumans.

David Angar is born in San Francisco, California.

1938

Stephen Strange earns his MD and begins an internship at a major hospital. He meets another intern named Robinson, and they form a professional friendship, though Strange remains rather self-centered. Strange soon realizes he finds it difficult to care about his patients at all. Then, his mother dies after a long illness.

Back in California, Dominic Fortune prevents a power-hungry newspaper magnate from betraying the United States to the Japanese military, then stops a disgruntled movie star with a device that causes earthquakes. Fortune and Sabbath Raven then help Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan save his circus from being taken over by an unscrupulous businessman.

Matthew Grayson and his young son Robert leave Earth for the planet Uranus. Upon arrival, they are greeted by the Eternals with open arms. The Uranians secretly scan the Graysons, hoping to discover a key to ending their own immortal existence. The Eternals share with Grayson their knowledge of the grand unified theory of everything and provide him with his own laboratory. As he grows up, Robert Grayson becomes very close to a young female Eternal named Lilli.

Dane Whitman is born in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Elektra Natchios is born in Greece to Hugo and Christina Natchios.

Angelo Unuscione is born in Milan, Italy.

Arthur Parks is born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Hannibal King is born.

Sharon Carter is born in Richmond, Virginia, to Harrison and Amanda Carter.

Maria Trovaya is born in Budapest, Hungary.

1939

Namor’s friend Meranno contacts the German government and betrays the location of the undersea city. The Nazis launch an invasion of Atlantis, wiping out their primitive forces, destroying the Hall of Science, and leaving Emperor Thakorr in a coma. Namor, as acting emperor, banishes Meranno from the realm. Meranno then joins the Nazis, hoping they will provide him with the means to gain vengeance on Namor. After Emperor Thakorr revives, his stepson Byrrah convinces him to send Namor to the surface world in the hope that he will never return. Subsequently, Namor makes numerous attacks on the surface world, particularly targeting New York City, but becomes conflicted about his mission after meeting NYPD officer Betty Dean. The American media dubs Namor the Sub-Mariner.

Phineas T. Horton, one of the pioneers in the fields of artificial intelligence, succeeds in creating a fully functional android in his Brooklyn, New York laboratory, one which mimics virtually all of the organic functions of a human being, including independent thought. Horton intends to use the android to make himself wealthy. However, a flaw in the photoelectric solar cells which cover the android causes his skin to burst into flame upon contact with air, although the android remains unharmed. After revealing his creation to the public at a news conference, Horton is pressured into containing the android until a means can be found to control his flame. Horton reluctantly does so, sealing the android inside a tube submerged in concrete. However, Horton provides the android with audio devices so that he can learn of the human world. The android spends weeks thus trapped, until a crack in the concrete allows a small amount of oxygen to penetrate the capsule. Igniting his flame, the android frees himself. Inadvertently causing property damage as he explores the city, the android douses himself in a swimming pool. Called the Human Torch, the android soon learns to control his flame and becomes a successful crime-fighter. However, refusing to allow himself to be exploited for profit, the android distances himself from Horton. The inventor is subsequently ostracized by the scientific community due to the destruction and panic that the Human Torch caused. Furthermore, claiming that Horton could not control his experiments, the government impounds his equipment and chemicals. The Human Torch soon establishes a human identity, naming himself Jim Hammond and entering the New York Police Academy.

Private detective Thomas Halloway, a true renaissance man, dons a blue-and-red costume to fight crime as the Angel. Wishing to do more than he could as a gumshoe, Halloway uses his fighting skill and wide-ranging knowledge to smash numerous crime syndicates and other menaces to public safety.

His internship completed, Stephen Strange enters a surgery program and is trained in neurosurgery, for which he demonstrates a great talent. His mentor is Dr. Kenneth W. Ward, a top neurosurgeon, part-time explorer, and collector of occult antiquities. Recognizing each other’s talents, they become close friends.

After the Nazis seize power in Czechoslovakia, Elias Spector takes his family and flees to America. They settle in a poor section of Chicago, Illinois.

Eugene Judd discovers the mystical Black Blade of Baghdad. Upon touching the scimitar, Judd releases the spirit of an ancient Persian sorcerer named Razor, who had been imprisoned within the sword centuries before by his fellow wizards. Razor attacks Judd, and Judd quickly learns that the weapon allows Razor to absorb a portion of his victim’s lifeforce, manifested physically as a shrinking in stature. Razor boasts that he can repeat the process until his victim vanishes into nothingness. However, Judd manages to use his own mystical knowledge to draw Razor inside his body and trap him there. Because Razor had struck Judd with the scimitar several times, Judd finds himself reduced to only 3½ feet tall. The presence of Razor within his body causes Judd incredible pain, but the mystical energies he has absorbed cause Judd to age very slowly.

Herbert Wyndham revives Jessica Drew again to continue her treatments. Unable to find any villagers willing to come to the Citadel of Science, Wyndham supervises her care personally. They develop a close father-daughter bond. At the end of the year, Wyndham places Jessica back into suspended animation, unaware that the cryogenic process completely erases her memory.

Gerald O’Hara accidentally kills his wife while trying to shoot a leopard and subsequently sends his traumatized daughter Shanna to live with relatives in the United States.

Brian Falsworth, the son of the Union Jack, disagrees with his father regarding Britain’s non-interference policy towards Nazi Germany, believing Hitler is doing good things for the German people. Brian goes so far as to travel to Germany with his friend Roger Aubrey but is shocked to learn the truth about the Third Reich.

Adolf Hitler’s Germany invades Poland, kicking off World War II. The Nazis begin taking over Polish cities. Thousands of Poles, Jews, and gypsies living in the area are rounded up and sent to Nazi work camps. The family of the boy later known as Magnus begins to fear for their lives. During the invasion, John Kowalski is killed, but his cursed spirit is damned to an eternity as Death’s servant. Meanwhile, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker is transferred to full military service. Still in Germany when war is officially declared, Brian Falsworth and Roger Aubrey are arrested and sent to separate prison camps.

Newspaper reporter Mark Todd goes to China to cover the Sino-Japanese War. There, he stumbles upon a mysterious race of “Skull Men,” who grant him superhuman strength and an invulnerability to fire. Sickened by the carnage he has covered as a reporter, Todd renounces his philosophy of pacifism, dons a red costume and flaming skull mask, and attacks the Japanese army as the Blazing Skull.

Fritz Tiboldt is asked by the German government to take his circus troupe to America. Traveling from city to city under the guise of an innocent circus, Nazi agents within the group perform assassinations on U.S. government officials. Fritz Tiboldt is soon nicknamed the Ringmaster of Death.

The Red Skull becomes involved in subversive activities on American soil.

The American government, realizing that war against Germany is imminent, decides to come up with an American counterpart to the Red Skull and assigns Dr. Abraham Erskine to work on Operation: Rebirth, a project dedicated to creating perfect “super-soldiers.” However, fearing that the super-soldiers might one day turn against their creators, Dr. Daniel Schumann proposes Project T.E.S.S (Total Elimination of Super-Soldiers), which involves the creation of an army of robots to be activated only in the event the super-soldiers become a threat. Schumann’s proposal is accepted and he is reassigned to work on a prototype robot.

The Atlanteans construct their first warships and also begin work on a giant, monstrous android that will be known as the Behemoth.

The widowed King T’Chaka of Wakanda remarries, taking Ramonda as his second wife. Within the year, their son Jakarra is born.

Susan Storm is born on Long Island, in Glenville, New York, to Franklin and Mary Storm.

Betty Ross is born in California to Thaddeus and Karen Ross.

Bill Foster is born in Los Angeles, California.

Will Talltrees is born in Wolf Point, Montana, to Thomas and Rebecca Talltrees.

Maximillian Q. Coleridge is born.

Mark Scarlotti is born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Anthony and Barbara Scarlotti.

1940

The Angel fights and kills a 10-foot-tall mutant called Butch, who is being manipulated by gangsters. Though mentally disabled, Butch is super-strong and bulletproof. Deprived of their living weapon, the gangsters are taken into custody by the police.

Professor Philo Zog, an extremely wealthy and brilliant inventor, builds a large, powerful robot which he calls “Electro.” The robot is bulletproof and can even withstand small artillery. It can run at over 100 m.p.h. It can leap into the sky and cover huge distances and is possessed of tremendous strength. The robot can be summoned by means of a wireless transceiver. Concerned about crime and the degenerating world situation, Professor Zog recruits a dozen men, among them capable agents such as Dick Gardner and Bill Dunn, to serve as a vanguard against criminals and foreign subversives, using Electro as their main weapon. Zog’s valet, Burke, and his secretary, Wilkins, help manage and operate the organization.

The Human Torch realizes he could make a better crime-fighter as his flaming self than as a rookie beat cop and approaches New York Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine with a request for special status. The Commissioner agrees to the proposal and makes the Human Torch the city’s first super-powered legal officer.

The Sub-Mariner is put on trial in New York City for murder and mayhem. He is quickly convicted and sentenced to death. All appeals are immediately denied. However, he escapes from prison and attacks the city again in retaliation. After meeting with Betty Dean, the Human Torch engages the Sub-Mariner in a vicious battle which causes extensive property damage to the city. Finally, the combatants reach a stalemate, and Dean negotiates a truce between them. The Sub-Mariner leaves New York and returns to the Antarctic to face Emperor Thakorr’s displeasure.

After nearly 90 years lying in suspended animation, Spencer Keen awakes. Upon clawing his way out of his grave, he finds he has become super-strong and basically invulnerable. He soon stumbles across a plot hatched by a half-Japanese, half-Polish scientist, Professor Maluski, to create a race of zombies to take over the world. After defeating Maluski, the bewildered Keen is hailed as a “superhero.” His efforts to explain himself are misinterpreted, and he is dubbed the “Blue Blaze” by reporters. Soon after, Keen battles an insane scientist named Barko, who has developed a freezing ray, and has him committed to an asylum.

After many years of research and development, scientists Joel Williams and Joshua Williams, brothers, build a robot with a rubber body filled with an experimental gas, which they can operate by remote control. Their creation is dubbed “Flexo the Rubber Man” and uses its great speed, astounding strength, and ability to fly to perform spectacular feats.

A brilliant young Assistant District Attorney named Carl Burgess, inspired by the heroic antics of the dashing Angel, dons a costume and stalks the night to fight crime as the Falcon. Although a pretty good brawler, Burgess proves no match for the city’s criminal element and, after only a few weeks, is beaten to death by a gang of hoods.

When his parents die suddenly, Ben Grimm leaves Yancy Street and his gang to move in with his estranged Uncle Jake and Aunt Alyce at their uptown apartment. Though he behaves like a juvenile delinquent at first, Ben eventually settles in and finds acceptance at his new high school by becoming the star of the football team.

T’Chaka and Ramonda travel to South Africa to attend the funeral of her father. She remains behind when T’Chaka is summoned back to Wakanda on an urgent matter. A British hunting expedition has discovered the vibranium mound and requested permission to send samples back to England for analysis, so T’Chaka returns home to negotiate the terms. He decides to allow the foreigners to take some samples out of the country, hoping to learn more about the ore’s peculiar properties. However, Ramonda suddenly disappears, and despite his best efforts, T’Chaka is unable to find her. He eventually receives photographs of Ramonda in compromising positions with a white South African man, leading T’Chaka to believe she has betrayed him. He decides to never discuss the scandal with his sons T’Challa and Jakarra. Ramonda is in fact being held prisoner by a South African official named Anton Pretorius, who will rape her on a regular basis for the next 34 years.

The British share the Wakandan ore samples with some American scientists, and the substance is dubbed “vibranium” due to its unique properties.

The family of Magnus is arrested by the Nazis and forced to stand at the edge of a pit with other families. Then, the Nazis begin shooting them. The terror of the incident prematurely activates Magnus’s mutant abilities, and he unconsciously uses his magnetic powers to change the paths of the bullets, avoiding harm as his family is killed around him. However, the experience so drains him that he falls unconscious. Believing him dead, the Nazis bury him along with the rest of his family, but the boy quickly regains consciousness and claws his way to the surface. The Germans are so astonished that he is alive that, instead of finishing their murderous act, they decide to send the boy to the new labor camp at Auschwitz.

Bruce Dickson, a scientist exploring Mount Kalpurthia in the Himalayas, becomes separated from his expedition during a blizzard. Seeking refuge in a cave, the scientist discovers a portal to the ancient city of Kalahia. Dickson loses consciousness, and upon awakening, he discovers that the Kalahians have experimented on him, giving him the ability to make his own body paper-thin. Upon returning to the western world, Dickson establishes himself as the costumed adventurer the Thin Man.

British Army Lieutenant John Watkins is on a boat in the English Channel when it comes under attack by a Nazi plane, which strafes the boat with machine gun fire. Watkins is hit and falls overboard. When the boat returns to base, it is reported that Watkins is dead.

American civilian Nick Fury, a member of a stunt flying team, is hired by the British military to instruct commandos in the art of parachuting. Among his students is Sam Sawyer, an American lieutenant serving in the British army. Sawyer convinces Fury and his buddy Red Hargrove to accompany him on a search-and-rescue mission in Holland. While there, they meet Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan, an American working as a circus strongman, who helps them escape from the Gestapo.

Victoria Murdock, better known as the Asbestos Lady, a criminal whose modus operandi involves fire, breaks into the home of Fred and Nora Raymond to force them to develop new ways she can use asbestos in her crimes. However, the Human Torch, determined to bring the Asbestos Lady to justice, witnesses the break-in and captures her gang. Unfortunately, the Asbestos Lady gets away. While at the Raymonds’ home, the Human Torch learns of their son Thomas’s immunity to fire.

Kevin Plunder is born in London, England, to Robert and Blanche Plunder (Lord and Lady Plunder).

Red Raven decides to leave his home in the Aerie and explore the world of his birth parents. Appalled at social conditions among ground-dwellers, Red Raven decides to become a crime-fighter.

Dominic Fortune and Sabbath Raven break up a Nazi spy ring led by Wolfgang von Lundt. The couple then travels to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where, after an argument, Raven disappears. Fortune’s efforts to search for her are hampered by the German bombing of the city, and he is soon evacuated with the other Americans there. Back in the United States, Fortune sinks into a severe depression.

Over the summer, the Blue Blaze becomes a sensation, and many local mobsters come to fear their super-strong, bulletproof foe. One such crime boss, called Dr. Gair, employs a Jewish astrologer and magician known as the Star-Gazer, who seemingly creates monsters and death rays to kill the Blue Blaze. However, the Blaze is triumphant and the villains end up dead, much to Spencer Keen’s satisfaction.

The Asbestos Lady, obsessed with her failure to kidnap the Raymonds, causes a train they are traveling on to derail. The train bursts into flames, killing Fred and Nora Raymond. However, their son Thomas escapes unharmed. Thomas is then taken in by a married team of circus fire-eaters. Hearing reports of a fireproof boy, the Human Torch realizes that it must be the son of the Raymonds. On the way to meet with “Toro,” as Thomas is known at the circus, the Human Torch foils the Asbestos Lady’s attempt to kidnap the boy and finally captures her. When he arrives at the circus, the Human Torch’s presence causes Toro’s mutant abilities to manifest and the boy bursts into flame for the first time. The Human Torch then arranges to become Toro’s legal guardian and starts training him in the use of his powers. The two soon become a successful crime-fighting duo.

Dr. Myron MacLain begins working for the American government to develop a super-metal from which invulnerable tanks can be built. Months later, MacLain falls asleep while attempting to fuse his experimental enhanced steel with a sample of Wakandan vibranium. When he awakes, he discovers that he has succeeded due to some unknown factor having entered the mix, which he is subsequently unable to isolate or reproduce. MacLain pours his new alloy into a disc-shaped mold for testing and finds that, once it hardens, this metal is virtually impervious to harm. He devotes the next decade to trying to duplicate the process, without success.

John Watkins returns to England, having been rescued by a French fisherman and nursed back to health. His commanding officer is greatly surprised, but since Watkins is legally dead, he is recruited to become a special agent to infiltrate Nazi-occupied territories in Europe and inspire the resistance. He agrees, is given a modified uniform and a mask, and adopts the identity of Citizen V—“V” for Victory. As Citizen V, Watkins returns to France and wages a one-man guerilla war against the Nazis, leaving his calling card—the letter V displayed in whatever manner presents itself—everywhere he goes. Over time, he builds up an underground resistance movement that comes to be known as the V-Battalion.

The demon Mephisto manipulates a psychic who calls herself “Claire Voyant” into becoming an immortal killer who chooses evil men as her victims. She comes to be called the Black Widow.

The Williams brothers use the unspeaking Flexo mainly as a servant and to assist them with various research projects. However, when an unscrupulous scientist, a Dr. Murdock, tries to create a death-ray machine using stolen radium, Flexo is enlisted to halt the dangerous scheme. Later, Flexo again comes to the rescue when a German spy, Karl Damos, steals a torpedo-defense device the Williamses have developed for the Navy. Then Flexo is used to stop a series of arsons committed by a fascist calling himself the “Iron Duke.” Josh and Joel Williams, being Jewish, are very concerned about the situation in Europe, especially with Hitler and the Nazis having just conquered France, and they discuss using Flexo as a weapon against fascism. Having come to the attention of the Third Reich, Nazi agents kidnap the Williams brothers and take them to Germany, along with the formula for a new high-explosive they were working on. Flexo is instrumental in rescuing its creators from the Nazis and returning them to the United States.

As autumn arrives, the Nazis gain their revenge on the Williams brothers by having them murdered. Unable to make Flexo work to serve their cause, the Nazis destroy the robot and burn down the Williams’ laboratory. All their research is lost.

In late autumn, the Blue Blaze battles a villain calling himself Dr. Vortex, who is intent on fanning the flames of war in Europe. Dr. Vortex proves to be a formidable foe, and their struggle is only ended when both men, locked in hand-to-hand combat, tumble into a flooded limestone quarry and drown.

A device invented by Dr. Enoch Mason summons the extradimensional creature named Aarkus, who will spend the next few years on Earth battling evil. The press dubs the mysterious being the Vision.

A lone Dire Wraith crashes his Drakillar fighter craft on Earth. The ship cannot be salvaged, and with its communications equipment destroyed, the pilot finds himself stranded on a hostile alien world. Weary of an interstellar war that’s been raging for 200 years, the Dire Wraith decides to take on human form and live among the natives in peace. He assumes the name Jacob Marks and buys a remote farm outside Clairton, West Virginia.

The Human Torch prevents Toro from being kidnapped by Nazis claiming to be his parents. Then, the pair rescues the Sub-Mariner from a German assassin. Namor is less than impressed with Toro, finding him to be an insolent child. The Sub-Mariner then rushes off and involves himself in a naval battle at the Panama Canal.

The American government begins recruiting volunteers for the super-soldier project. Horrified at the newsreel footage of the war in Europe, Steve Rogers decides to enlist in the U.S. Army. However, he is ranked 4-F because he is weak and sickly. Rogers pleads to be accepted, and overhearing Rogers’ fervent request, General Chester Phillips decides that the frail young man fits the profile as a candidate for Operation: Rebirth. General Phillips offers Rogers a spot in the project, and Rogers readily agrees.

Kyle Richmond is born in Mamaroneck, New York, to Arthur and Penelope Richmond.

Misty Knight is born.

1941

Steve Rogers is flown to Washington D.C., where he meets Dr. Abraham Erskine. After weeks of medical and psychological testing, Rogers is chosen to be the first subject for the super-soldier process. Minutes after being subjected to the treatment, which includes an injection of the super-soldier serum and an exposure to high-energy “vita-rays,” Rogers emerges as physically perfect as a human being could be. However, a Nazi spy who had been observing the experiment then shoots up the laboratory, killing Dr. Erskine before Rogers can stop him. The assassin dies while attempting to escape. Since Erskine had never committed the full formula to paper and his few notes are later stolen by Nazi spies, Steve Rogers proves to be the only person to benefit from Erskine’s genius. With the creator of the super-soldier serum dead, the government cuts off all funding to Operation: Rebirth.

With the demise of Operation: Rebirth, Project T.E.S.S. is cancelled as well. Professor Schumann, however, does not give up but instead continues work on his prototype robot.

The Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch team up for the first time, in order to stop the Axis Powers from constructing a tunnel under the Bering Strait and launching a ground invasion of North America.

Janet Van Dyne is born in Creskill, New Jersey, to Vernon Van Dyne and wife.

Steve Rogers has a chance encounter with Arnie Roth, who has just joined the Navy. Roth is astonished by the change in his friend’s physique, but Rogers dodges his questions and makes an excuse to be on his way. About to start his new secret mission, Rogers feels duty-bound to close the door on his past.

Over the next three months, Steve Rogers undergoes rigorous training in many forms of martial arts, fighting techniques, gymnastics, and military strategy. Finally, Rogers is given the code name Captain America, and his first assignment is to stop the Nazi agent known only as the Red Skull. Rogers is also given a red, white, and blue costume to both conceal his identity and make him a patriotic symbol, along with a bulletproof steel shield.

While on the trail of the Red Skull, Captain America easily captures Agent Axis, a strange merger of three spies representing Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Possessing three times the strength of an ordinary man, Agent Axis soon escapes from custody and returns to Europe.

Bob Frank flees to Africa with his father, Dr. Emil Frank, who has been framed for murder by a gangster called Granno. There, Bob gains superhuman speed in a bizarre incident involving cobra venom and mongoose blood. When his father dies of heart failure, Bob decides to get revenge on Granno. Returning to New York City, Bob dons a yellow-and-blue costume and becomes the Whizzer. After bringing Granno and his gang to justice, the Whizzer goes on to become the scourge of criminals and foreign subversives.

Madeline Joyce visits a lighthouse owned by her wealthy guardian, broadcasting magnate James Bennett, who has recently had the structure converted into a science laboratory for the study of electricity. While exploring the lab during a thunderstorm, Joyce is struck by lightning and lapses into a week-long coma. Upon awakening, she discovers she has gained superhuman abilities: increased strength and stamina as well as the power to fly. Joyce decides to fight crime in a red-and-blue costume. Calling herself Miss America, she soon makes a name for herself as a spy-buster.

Dan Lyons journeys to a Blackfoot Indian reservation to take up the mantle of the elderly Indian hero who once saved his father’s life. After passing a battery of tests of strength, stamina, skill, and intelligence, Lyons is awarded the secret of the Black Marvel, which allows him to reach the pinnacle of human ability. He returns to New York City, designs a black, red, and gold costume for himself, and declares a one-man war against crime.

Inspired by the adventures of Captain America, Daily Bugle reporter Jeff Mace assumes the costumed identity of the Patriot. The Patriot soon gains celebrity status both through his successful exploits and his weekly news broadcasts.

Wanting to emulate the dashing hero known as the Angel, Federal Communications Commission technician and ham radio operator Jerry Carstairs puts on a red-and-blue costume and goes out to fight crime in Washington, D.C. as the Thunderer, using a microphone/speaker gimmick to amplify his voice in order to frighten his opponents.

Betty Barstow, secretary to private detective Dan Hurley, is on her way to a masquerade ball, dressed in a superhero-style costume, when she stumbles upon a crime in progress. The gang of crooks is so startled by her appearance that they are easily defeated by her martial-arts skills. Thrilled by the experience, she decides to continue as a costumed crime-fighter and soon comes to be known as the Silver Scorpion.

Elton T. Morrow, a scientist doing research in Antarctica, discovers a giant azure diamond. En route back to the United States, Morrow’s boat is sunk by a Nazi submarine. Gunfire shatters the diamond and hundreds of particles are embedded in Morrow’s skin. He and other survivors are soon rescued by a British destroyer. A medical examination reveals that Morrow’s body has somehow absorbed the diamond particles into itself, giving his skin the hardness and durability of a diamond. Upon reaching America, Morrow becomes the costumed crime-fighter called the Blue Diamond.

United States Navy Lieutenant Peter Noble is a member of the crew of an American submarine that sinks during a training exercise. Desperate to survive, Noble takes an oxygen tank and abandons the vessel as it sinks toward the ocean floor. However, rather than being crushed by the water pressure of the deep sea, Noble discovers that his body can withstand it. He soon finds that he can breathe underwater as well. Fearing that he is some kind of freak, Noble does not return to the surface world but instead eventually happens upon the small undersea kingdom of Neptunia. Accepted by the blue-skinned denizens of Neptunia, Noble eventually becomes their leader.

Professor Zog’s organization has been wildly successful, and Electro, painted bright red and yellow, is hailed in the press as “the Marvel of the Age.” However, the Third Reich soon decides to try to steal the secrets of Electro for its own purposes. In an explosive battle between Nazi commandos and Zog’s anti-crime syndicate, the robot is utterly destroyed, the Professor is killed, and his laboratory is blown up. The surviving foreign agents are jailed, but most of the members of Zog’s organization are killed. The remaining members decide to disband.

Steve Rogers is assigned to Camp Lehigh as a cover for his spybusting activities as Captain America. There, he meets the camp’s mascot, the teenage orphan James Buchanan Barnes, who goes by the nickname “Bucky.” One night, Barnes barges into Rogers’ tent to find Captain America removing his mask. Rogers immediately swears Barnes to secrecy, but the boy begs his idol to take him on as his sidekick. Over the next several months, Captain America secretly trains Barnes in many forms of unarmed combat.

The Angel defeats a traitorous crime boss who wears a slinky black feline-themed costume and calls herself the Cat’s Paw, foiling her scheme to murder America’s leading industrialists. Soon after, the Angel teams up with the Sub-Mariner in the Caribbean to fight Nazis disguised as zombies. The Angel then battles an evil mutant called the Python, who can coil his body like a snake. Outwitting his more powerful foe, the Angel captures the Python and frees the scientists he’s kidnapped.

The Vision is magically transported to the Savage Land by the evil sorcerer Khor, where they fight. Khor is killed when the Vision knocks him into a geothermal spring filled with boiling water.

A strange being dubbed an “ice elemental” tracks a murderer from the Arctic to the United States and leaves him to die in a burning building. The being, given the name “Jack Frost” by the New York Police Department, then becomes an outlaw and killer vigilante, dispensing his own brand of “cold justice.”

Larry Scott, the son of a convicted murderer who is set to be executed, is convinced that his father is innocent. Scott does everything he can to prove it and save his father’s life. Unfortunately, his efforts fail and his father is hanged on schedule. The experience causes Larry Scott to become unhinged. He dons a hooded cloak and a mask, takes up a scythe, and calling himself Father Time, begins killing criminals, vowing to “make time work against criminals instead of the innocent.”

The Sub-Mariner, under the influence of an undersea temptress called Rathia, launches another military invasion of the surface world. The Atlanteans attack all over the globe, wreaking havoc on several continents. The Human Torch and Toro repel the Atlanteans from New York City but are unsuccessful in completely stopping the Sub-Mariner. Finally, after the Atlanteans use whales and immense undersea turbines to create an enormous tidal wave which floods Manhattan, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner fight yet again. Namor finally throws off Rathia’s sinister influence and decides to call off the invasion.

In a prison camp, Brian Falsworth encounters Eric Schmitt, a German scientist who had been working on a variant of the super-soldier serum. Schmitt had successfully completed a version of the serum but kept it from the Nazis because of their rough treatment of him. Now dying, Schmitt turns the formula over to Falsworth, who drinks the potion and is immediately enhanced to physical perfection. He escapes from the camp, adopts a bizarre costume, and begins operating as the Mighty Destroyer, fighting the Nazis within their own borders. Meanwhile, Roger Aubrey has been turned over to the Institute of Nazi Science to be brainwashed and experimented upon. The Institute’s Colonel Dietrich erases Aubrey’s memory and manages to shrink him in size to less than one foot tall, intent on turning him into a super-agent for the Third Reich.

Nick Fury enlists in the United States Army. He is assigned to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and quickly rises to the rank of sergeant.

Reed Richards is recruited into the army as a codebreaker.

Brian Xavier is killed in an atomic accident while working on the early Manhattan Project. His widow, Sharon, soon marries Kurt Marko, one of Brian’s colleagues. His son, Cain Marko, joins the family at the Xavier mansion in Salem Center, NY, but proves to be a bully to Sharon’s son Charles.

Captain America decides James Buchanan Barnes is ready to join him in combat. He gives Barnes a red-and-blue costume and allows him to participate in missions as his sidekick Bucky. While stopping some Nazi saboteurs, they meet the beautiful government agent Betsy Ross. Soon after, Captain America and Bucky fight the Red Skull, but the villain turns out to be an impostor named George Moxon. Before he can be questioned, Moxon is apparently killed by his own syringe full of poison.

Hoping to finally end his feud with the Van Helsing family, Dracula kills Rachel Van Helsing’s parents and moves in to slay the girl as well. However, Rachel is saved by Quincy Harker using the anti-vampire arsenal built into his wheelchair. After Dracula has been driven off, Harker takes Rachel home and arranges to become her legal guardian.

The demon Marduk Kurios, calling himself “Satan,” enters Earth’s dimension and disguises himself as a human in the hopes of siring half-human, half-demon children. He seduces and marries a young woman named Victoria Wingate.

The Inhuman exile Phaeder and his son Maelstrom, traveling the world incognito, meet and share their knowledge of genetics with Arnim Zola.

Clint Barton is born in Waverly, Iowa, to Harold and Edith Barton.

During the autumn, the indestructible vibranium-alloy disc created by Myron MacLain is given to Captain America for use as his new shield. Rogers decides to keep the old one in his footlocker. Soon after, Captain America and Bucky invade Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue a kidnapped American financier. While fighting their way through the prison camp, they encounter both Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring. Along with the financier, the two superheroes are extracted by the Royal Air Force and flown to London, England.

George Moxon returns as the Red Skull, having developed an immunity to his own poison, and wreaks havoc in New York City with a gigantic tunnel-boring machine. Captain America and Bucky track him to his lair and beat up his henchmen. While attempting to escape in his tunnel-boring machine, Moxon throws a bomb at the two heroes. Captain America catches the bomb and throws it back. It then explodes, killing Moxon and destroying his machine. Not long after, Captain America and Bucky expose the subversive activities of the Tiboldt Circus. Fritz Tiboldt and his underlings are deported back to Germany.

A few weeks later, Captain America and Bucky finally meet the real Red Skull, Johann Schmidt, when he tries to assassinate some of the U.S. military’s best strategists. While rescuing the Red Skull’s latest victim, Captain America punches the villain in the face, knocking him into a river. When the Red Skull doesn’t resurface, Captain America and Bucky assume he has drowned.

Meranno, using a combination of Atlantean and Nazi technology, manages to greatly increase his natural strength. Meranno takes the code name U-Man and begins fighting alongside the Nazis.

Franz Gerhardt dons a suit of armor and assumes the identity of Komtur, the Teutonic Knight. He comes into conflict with Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner in three separate incidents while engaged in espionage for the Axis powers.

The Angel recaptures the Python after the murderous mutant attempts to escape from death row by starting a prison riot.

The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Almost immediately afterwards, America enters World War II. Lieutenant Sam Sawyer is reassigned to the United States Army Rangers. “Dum Dum” Dugan enlists in the army and joins Lt. Sawyer’s unit.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits Washington D.C. to engage in strategy talks with the American government. The Nazis, wishing to keep these talks from going ahead, send their own super-agent, Übermensch (a.k.a. Master Man), to assassinate Churchill. Captain America, Bucky, the Human Torch, Toro, and the Sub-Mariner learn of the plot and defeat Master Man before he can carry out his orders. Churchill is impressed with the superheroes and urges them to set aside their differences for the duration of the war, banding together as the Allies’ unofficial “invaders.” The heroes agree to the proposal, and the Invaders will remain together throughout the rest of the war.

After joining the Invaders, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes largely abandon their military cover identities to participate almost full time in the war effort as Captain America and Bucky.

Gus Mustin decides to become a superhero, but when he realizes that, though super-strong, he is not invulnerable, he changes his mind. He becomes frustrated that he has never found a way to use his special ability.

Wounded in combat in North Africa, Lt. Sam Sawyer is promoted to captain and assigned administrative duty.

General Chester Phillips orders Captain America to submit to a procedure to implant a package of false memories into his subconscious mind, just in case he should ever be captured by the enemy and tortured for information. The memories will remain dormant unless triggered by extreme trauma.

James Rhodes is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Heather McNeil is born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Ramsey and Claire McNeil.

Scott Lang is born in Coral Gables, Florida.

Jack Monroe is born in Naugatuck, Connecticut.

Drew Daniels is born in Amarillo, Texas.

Fred J. Dukes is born in Lubbock, Texas.

Emma Frost is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jasper Sitwell is born.

Edith Harker is born in London, England, to Quincy and Elizabeth Harker.

1942

Captain Thaddeus E. Ross is sent to fight in the Pacific theater of operations, where he soon earns the nickname “Thunderbolt.”

The Invaders prevent U-Man from assassinating Winston Churchill in Bermuda. Soon after, the team battles a Nazi-created monster at Castle Frankenstein in Switzerland. In the end, the monster turns on its creators, Basil Frankenstein and Dr. Kitagowa, and kills them as it commits suicide.

The Red Skull, not content to be a subordinate, begins kidnapping and assassinating a number of Hitler’s top advisors. In this way, the Red Skull quickly rises to become the second-most-powerful man in Nazi Germany.

The Invaders are kidnapped and brainwashed by the Red Skull, although Bucky manages to escape. Under the Red Skull’s orders, the Invaders commit a number of acts of sabotage. Storming into the radio station from which the Patriot airs his weekly broadcasts, Bucky issues a general plea to recruit new superheroes to fight the brainwashed Invaders. The Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, Miss America, the Patriot, Red Raven, the Thin Man, and the Whizzer all respond to Bucky’s call. They band together to form the Liberty Legion and soon free the Invaders from the effects of the brainwashing. The Liberty Legion then decides to remain together, serving on the American homefront as spy-busters and crime-fighters while the Invaders focus mainly on Europe.

Lord Falsworth and his daughter Jacqueline befriend the Invaders.

Seeing in Adolf Hitler a kindred spirit, Baron Blood again offers his services to the German government. Beginning a new reign of terror in Britain, Baron Blood is opposed not only by his brother, Lord Falsworth, who once again dons his Union Jack costume, but also by the Invaders. The heroes uncover Baron Blood’s true identity, but during a battle with the vampire, Union Jack’s legs are crushed by a falling boulder. However, Union Jack manages to roll the boulder off of him and it rolls into Baron Blood, causing the vampire to fall backwards. He is impaled on a stalagmite that contains traces of silver, which causes his body to disintegrate.

Jacqueline Falsworth, having been bitten by Baron Blood, receives a blood transfusion from the android Human Torch. His unique blood combines with the vampire ichor in her system to activate her latent mutant power of superhuman speed. She assumes the costumed identity of Spitfire and joins the Invaders.

The Invaders battle an armored foe called the Blue Bullet. Then they go to Warsaw, Poland, to rescue the Blue Bullet’s brother, where they encounter a Golem that rescues the team from the Nazis.

Alfie, a Nazi spy posing as a member of the British intelligence establishment, organizes a team of superhuman adventurers known as the Crusaders, planning to discredit the Invaders and assassinate King George VI. William Nasland, the only American in the group, joins as the Spirit of ’76. Roger Aubrey is returned to England to join the team as the diminutive Dyna-Mite. The other members are known as Captain Wings, Ghost Girl, Thunderfist, and Tommy Lightning. Alfie manages to convince the Crusaders that the Invaders are really Nazi agents, leading the two groups into conflict. However, the Invaders manage to foil Alfie’s plot. The Crusaders, realizing they have been fooled and their powers are derived from Nazi science, disband. Only the Spirit of ’76 elects to continue in his costumed identity to strike back at the Germans.

The Invaders meet the Avengers—Yellowjacket, the Black Panther, and the synthezoid Vision—and learn they are superheroes from the future who have been sent back in time by an alien gambler called the Grandmaster. After a brief fight, the Invaders are momentarily disabled when the Vision phases through their bodies, disrupting their nervous systems. To the Invaders’ surprise, the Avengers then announce that they’ve “won the game” and return to the future.

Giving up his identity as Dominic Fortune, David Fortunov joins the American military.

The Thunderer slips off an icy roof and falls to his death.

Peter Noble attacks a Nazi submarine that comes too close to Neptunia, and in the ensuing battle many Neptunians are killed. Therefore, Neptunia declares war on Germany, and Noble makes many daring attacks against the Nazis on both land and sea, using an enchanted cutlass he has discovered in an ancient shipwreck. Dubbed the Fin due to his distinctive headgear, Noble is considered a seafaring superhero by the American press, often compared to the Sub-Mariner (much to Namor’s chagrin). However, after only a few months, the Fin is killed in combat.

A time-traveling Thing appears in New York and meets the Liberty Legion. They join forces to save the city from an attack by Nazi super-agents Master Man, U-Man, Skyshark, and Brain Drain.

While the Invaders attempt to rescue American comic book artist Biljo White from his Nazi kidnappers, a chemical accident transforms Nazi scientist Frieda Rätsel into Kriegerfrau (a.k.a. Warrior Woman). While his teammates are captured, Captain America meets the Mighty Destroyer and together they rescue Biljo White. However, Captain America is soon recaptured.

Union Jack, Spitfire, and Dyna-Mite parachute into Germany in the hopes of discovering a means to restore Dyna-Mite’s memory so they can find out what happened to Brian Falsworth. When Union Jack and Dyna-Mite are then captured by the Nazis, they are rescued by the Mighty Destroyer, who reveals his true identity to his father. Lord Falsworth is overjoyed to see his son, and the two are reconciled. Lord Falsworth then asks his son to take over the role of Union Jack, and Brian agrees. The second Union Jack then rescues the Invaders, disrupting the wedding of Master Man and Warrior Woman in the process. Afterwards, the new Union Jack joins his sister as a member of the Invaders.

After Colonel Dietrich is captured by the Allies, he returns Dyna-Mite to his original size. Roger Aubrey then decides to take up the abandoned identity of his friend and returns to Germany as the Destroyer.

When teenagers Gwenny Lou Sabuki and David Mitchell gain superpowers after being kidnapped by Agent Axis, they join Bucky and Toro in a group called the Kid Commandos. Sabuki becomes Golden Girl and Mitchell names himself the Human Top. The group is used more for morale-boosting and fundraising than for actual combat missions. Bucky and Toro take an extended leave of absence from the Invaders.

The Invaders defeat Baron Strucker and the Teutonic Knight.

After fighting numerous criminals, mad scientists, unscrupulous businessmen, and Nazi spies, the Black Marvel soon becomes the chief nemesis of a gang of mobsters calling itself the Order of the Hood. Eventually, he is captured by the Order of the Hood and tortured to death.

The Asgardian thunder god Thor is contacted by Adolf Hitler and agrees to fight on the side of the German peoples. Battling the Invaders, Thor blasts the new Union Jack with a bolt of electricity. However, upon learning that Hitler is a truly evil person, Thor absorbs back most of the electricity in Union Jack’s body and then returns to Asgard. The mystical energies remaining within Union Jack give him the ability to discharge electrical bolts from his body. These events are witnessed by a time-traveling Victor von Doom.

Called back to the United States, the Invaders rescue the Liberty Legion from an armor-clad German nationalist called the Iron Cross. At the conclusion of the battle, the Iron Cross drowns in the ocean.

A Japanese spy calling herself Lady Lotus begins recruiting foes of the Invaders into a group she calls the Super-Axis. She uses her mutant powers of psychic domination to force her recruits to obey her.

The Whizzer and Miss America resign from the Liberty Legion and join the Invaders.

The Blazing Skull is killed in action while battling the Japanese army.

The Silver Scorpion runs afoul of a mob boss who discovers her secret identity as Betty Barstow and has her murdered along with her employer, Dan Hurley.

The vampire Baron Blood is revived by Japanese soldiers and briefly battles Union Jack and Spitfire but is forced to abandon the fight to travel to New York to join Lady Lotus’s Super-Axis.

The Invaders battle the Super-Axis in Chicago. Lady Lotus’s team consists of U-Man, Baron Blood, Master Man, and Warrior Woman. She uses her psychic powers to control the Human Torch, but he comes to his senses in time to ruin her plans. The Super-Axis is defeated, but Lady Lotus escapes capture. She later meets the Yellow Claw in New York’s Chinatown.

Howard Stark is recruited to work on the Manhattan Project.

Sharon (Xavier) Marko dies. Later, Cain Marko starts a fire in his father’s lab, causing the death of Kurt Marko. Both Cain and his stepbrother Charles Xavier are now orphans.

Gabrielle Haller, a young Jewish girl, is imprisoned in the Nazi death-camp Dachau. Unlike her family, Gabrielle is kept alive to serve as a prostitute to the camp commandant. Baron Strucker then orders that a cache of stolen gold be buried in Kenya, with the location implanted in Gabrielle’s unconscious mind. However, the procedure drives her insane, and she retreats into a waking coma. Strucker is frustrated that the secret of the hidden gold has been lost.

After putting Bucky in the hospital, the Red Skull imprisons Captain America in a dungeon and initiates a murderous crime spree.

The Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and Toro work together when Nazi commandos free the Python from prison. Despite the superheroes’ best efforts, the evil mutant escapes. The Python and his gang then force Phineas T. Horton to brainwash the Human Torch while augmenting his flame powers, turning him into a menace. The maddened Torch rampages through New York City causing chaos and destruction while Namor, Toro, and Horton try in vain to stop him. While the heroes are fighting each other atop the George Washington Bridge, a Nazi invasion fleet makes its way up the Hudson River, facing fierce resistance as it goes. Within a few hours, the invasion is repelled by American coastal defenses, but the Python and his blazing servant get away again. Horton tracks the Torch to a subway tunnel under the East River, where Namor and Toro continue trying to subdue him. In desperation, Namor gives the Python a vicious beating, forces him to order the Torch to stop fighting Toro, and then strangles the villain to death. Unfortunately, the roof, damaged during the battle, collapses, sending torrents of river water into the tunnel. The Sub-Mariner forces the Torch through the breach, extinguishing his flame, while Toro saves Horton. The trio races the nearly drowned android back to Horton’s lab, where his creator restores him to normal. Horton then explains to the authorities that the Human Torch was not responsible for his actions.

After a month in the hospital, Bucky finally tracks down Captain America and frees him from the Red Skull’s dungeon. They catch up to the Nazi and his henchmen as they’re trying to slip out of the country with Cap’s indestructible shield. Abandoning his lackeys, the Red Skull steals an open-cockpit monoplane and attempts to escape. Cap and Bucky leap onto the plane as it’s taking off and fight with the villain high in the air. The Red Skull appears to fall to his death, but he survives, exchanges clothes with a farmer he’s just killed, and vanishes into the night.

Larry Scott’s insanity makes him careless, and Father Time becomes the final victim of his own deadly scythe.

A British destroyer and a German U-boat sink each other in the South Atlantic. Survivors from both vessels find their life rafts carried by currents through the tunnels to the Savage Land, where they establish separate encampments and resume their war. Cut off from the outside world, they will continue fighting for decades.

The Soviet soldier Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov finds Natalia Romanova, a young girl who is related to the Russian royal family. Surviving the battle of Stalingrad, Ivan Petrovitch vows to raise and care for “Natasha” as she grows up.

John Grey begins teaching at Bard College near Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. He and his wife Elaine have their first child, Sara Grey.

Wilson Fisk, now a wealthy criminal mastermind, marries a woman named Vanessa.

Sergeant Nick Fury proves himself a capable leader, so when Captain Sam Sawyer organizes the First Strike Force, a squad of United States Army Rangers that comes to be known as the Howling Commandos, he arranges for Sgt. Fury and Corporal “Dum Dum” Dugan to be assigned to this team. Captain Sawyer also becomes one of the first officers to break the military’s non-integration policy by inviting Private Gabe Jones, an African-American, to join the elite strike force. Sawyer also recruits “Reb” Ralston, Izzy Cohen, Dino Manelli, and “Junior” Juniper. The Howling Commandos soon gain fame and success for their brave and often foolhardy combat style. Future members will include Percival Pinkerton, Eric Koenig, and Ken Astor.

Major Reed Richards is assigned to the O.S.S. and sent to Europe, where he soon meets Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Later, Richards is sent to the Pacific theater.

Nick Fury meets Pamela Hawley during a London air raid and is smitten with her. Soon after, “Junior” Juniper is killed in action. Then, the Howling Commandos first battle Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. They attempt to kidnap Baron Heinrich Zemo, the Nazi weapons designer, but Zemo’s death-ray is too powerful for them and he escapes. Next, the Howling Commandos are ordered to kidnap Adolf Hitler himself. Although their mission is successful, they discover upon returning to base that they have only nabbed a doppelgänger.

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos meet Captain Simon Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders.

Captain America fights with Baron Zemo, dousing him with his own Adhesive X, thereby causing his hood to be permanently adhered to his face.

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos assist Captain America and Bucky on a mission to rescue a group of Allied prisoners-of-war in France. Meanwhile, after busting up a spy ring, the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and Toro take out a fleet of U-boats off the coast of New Jersey.

On the trail of a murdering sorcerer, Captain America and Bucky encounter the demon Marduk Kurios on Bald Mountain outside the small town of Rutland, Vermont. When the sorcerer is killed by his own black magic, Marduk Kurios manifests himself. After trading punches with Cap, the devil is impressed with the hero’s fighting spirit and decides to retreat. Disturbed by the experience, Cap and Bucky agree never to discuss it.

Sam Wilson is born in Harlem, New York, to Paul and Darlene Wilson.

Daimon Hellstrom is born in Fire Lake, Massachusetts, to Victoria Wingate Hellstrom and the demon Marduk Kurios.

Patsy Walker is born in Centerville, California, to Joshua and Dorothy Walker.

Crystalia Amaquelin is born on the island of Attilan to Quelin and Ambur of the Royal Family of the Inhumans.

Mortimer Toynbee is born in York, England.

Parnival Plunder is born in London, England, to Robert and Blanche Plunder (Lord and Lady Plunder).

Todd Arliss is born in Pasadena, California.

Frank Schlichting is born in Racine, Wisconsin.

Dominic Petros is born in Crete.

Donna Garth is born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Simon and Miranda Garth.

1943

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos help stop the demon Dormammu from conquering the earth by defeating his minions, Viscount Heinrich Krowler and Sir Anthony Baskerville, with help from a time-traveling Doctor Strange.

Nick Fury’s girlfriend Pamela Hawley is killed by the Nazis, just as he’s about to propose to her. Nearly insane with grief, Fury tracks down the general responsible for the air raid and kills him in revenge.

The Howling Commandos battle the Red Skull, but the fight is inconclusive. The Red Skull escapes.

Captain America and Bucky destroy a coven of vampires to save a couple of hapless Army friends.

The Human Torch and Toro prevent Mount Rushmore from being destroyed by a Nazi saboteur.

While parachuting into Germany, Nick Fury receives an injury to his left eye, which begins to slowly deteriorate.

Infuriated by Baron Strucker’s many defeats by Nick Fury, as well as Strucker’s failure to destroy the French village of Cherbeaux, Adolf Hitler orders Strucker’s death. However, the Red Skull, who is making plans to supplant Hitler as the head of the Nazi Party, aids Strucker in fleeing to the Far East. The Red Skull orders Strucker to organize a power base there. Upon reaching Japan, Strucker becomes the mastermind behind a secret society bent on world domination. This society makes a number of successful raids on war plants and equipment storehouses throughout the world and becomes known as HYDRA.

The Vision annihilates a horde of alien invaders while rescuing a human couple they had abducted.

Captain America and Bucky are transported into a microverse to help an exiled young princess reclaim her throne from a usurping warlord. Although they are unable to stop the warlord from destroying the princess’s world, Cap and Bucky do prevent his invasion of Earth. Cap kills the warlord in hand-to-hand combat on a beach in Maine, and his defeated followers are sent back to the microverse. The princess and her handmaiden take refuge on Earth.

Deeming HYDRA strong enough to carry out his plans, Baron Strucker assassinates the head of the organization and becomes Supreme Hydra. Strucker also breaks off his ties with the Red Skull. HYDRA then constructs a fortress on a small island in the Pacific Ocean to serve as the organization’s principal base, which they call Hydra Island.

Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders attack Baron Strucker at his Hydra Island headquarters. As a result of the battle, Hydra Island is destroyed.

Ben Grimm graduates from high school, and though he has won a football scholarship for college, he joins the United States Marine Corps instead and trains to be a fighter pilot. He is soon sent to fight overseas.

Baron Strucker travels to Africa, where he captures Nick Fury. Strucker tortures Fury while the Howling Commandos think he’s been killed in a plane crash. However, Fury escapes, meets up with the Howlers, and begins his recovery.

Baron Strucker retreats to the island of Madripoor, where he kidnaps Natasha Romanova, the young Russian child in the care of Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov. Captain America is assigned to meet up with Ivan and to track the whereabouts of Baron Strucker. While rescuing Ivan from an attack by the ninja assassins known as the Hand, Captain America is himself rescued by Logan, who is trying to prevent Hand infiltration of Madripoor. The three team up to rescue Natasha from the Nazis and the Hand. With Logan’s help, Captain America and Ivan escape Madripoor, and Ivan and Natasha make their way back to the Soviet Union.

Ivan Petrovitch enrolls Natasha in the Leningrad State Choreographic School, the oldest and most prestigious ballet academy in Russia. He visits her whenever he is able, depending on his service in the Soviet army.

Logan volunteers for service in the Canadian Army, becoming a paratrooper.

Stephen Strange begins dating a woman named Madeleine Revell, whose life he saved on the operating table after she was involved in an automobile accident. Madeleine, a translator at the French consulate in New York, is at first intensely infatuated with the brilliant young surgeon.

Because America is at war with Italy, Mario and Louisa Castiglione decide to change their family name to Castle. Thus, their son Francis becomes known as Frank Castle.

Herbert Wyndham revives Jessica Drew again but is heartbroken to discover she has no memory of him. He is unable to discover the cause of the memory loss before having to return her to suspended animation.

In Smithville, Pennsylvania, bank teller Fred Hopkins gains superhuman strength upon being exposed to a radioactive meteorite. Inspired primarily by the Invaders, he becomes a costumed superhero called the Thunderbolt, serving his local community for the next three decades.

Baron Strucker organizes a secret group of scientists to create high-tech weaponry for his subversive organization HYDRA. These scientists will eventually become known as A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics)

The Crimson Commando, Stonewall, Super Sabre, and the Yankee Clipper, four costumed adventurers, team up to handle missions against the Axis powers considered too “dirty” for the Invaders to undertake.

Over the period of a year, four renowned scientists, Maris Morlak, Carlo Zota, Wladyslav Shinski, and Jerome Hamilton, fake their own deaths and meet up with each other on a remote North Atlantic island where an archaeologist friend of Hamilton’s has discovered an ancient Deviant stronghold. These scientists, calling themselves the Enclave, plan to use their combined scientific knowledge to rule the world. Over the next ten years, the scientists, using Deviant technology, complete work on their complex, which they will christen the Beehive.

Aarkus, a.k.a. the Vision, having grown more and more disgusted with the human race, finally decides he can stomach no more after a particularly gruesome case on Halloween. He leaves Earth, never to return.

The parents of Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine are both murdered by the Nazis for having given aid and comfort to the Italian Resistance movement. Devastated by her loss, Val joins the Resistance and wages a reckless guerilla war against both the Nazis and the fascist Italian troops who remain loyal to Mussolini.

The Red Skull destroys several armament factories in the United States before Captain America and Bucky track him to his hideout inside a closed-down hospital. After gassing the two heroes into unconsciousness, the Red Skull traps Cap in an iron lung and preps Bucky for unnecessary surgery. Cap manages to free himself and rescue his junior partner just in time. The Red Skull is taken into custody but soon escapes.

Captain America and Bucky then travel to California, where they participate in the filming of the movie serial The Adventures of Captain America while trying to capture a Nazi saboteur.

Henry P. McCoy is born in Dunfee, Illinois, to Norton and Edna McCoy.

Greer Grant is born in Chicago, Illinois.

Bonita Juarez is born in Taos, New Mexico.

Barbara Denton is born in New York City to Alvin and Celestia Denton.

Richard Fisk is born in New York City to Wilson and Vanessa Fisk.

Martin Blank is born and soon orphaned.

Morgana Blessing is born to Emil and Regina Blessing.

1944

Captain America and Bucky flush out the saboteur, special-effects man Lyle Dekker. Dekker escapes capture, but for his failure he is tortured by the Red Skull until he goes mad.

Jeff Mace’s newspaper transfers him to Washington, D.C., to serve as a correspondent there. Nevertheless, he continues his costumed career as the Patriot.

Lieutenant Ben Grimm is captured by the Japanese but is soon rescued by Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders. A few weeks later, Grimm meets Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, assisting them on a search-and-destroy mission.

Captain America rescues Bucky from the Red Skull and destroys the villain’s death-ray. Cap gives his nemesis a beating and takes him into custody, but the Red Skull soon escapes. A few weeks later, the Red Skull turns up again at a lakeside resort near Camp Lehigh, but Cap and Bucky overcome his Nazi troops and foil his plans.

As he reaches puberty, Sean Cassidy discovers he has the mutant ability to create powerful sonic waves with his voice. Fearing that others would regard him as a freak, Sean decides to keep his strange abilities a secret from everyone. Unbeknownst to him, his older cousin Thomas Cassidy also has mutant abilities, being able to focus blasts of force and heat through wood. Sean will eventually become heir to the estate of the Cassidy clan after he wins it from Tom in a bet.

The Patriot foils a Nazi scheme to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Captain America and Bucky team up with Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos to rescue Howard and Maria Stark from the Red Skull.

Appalled by the inhumanity he has witnessed during the war, Red Raven decides to return to the Aerie, the floating city of the Bird-People. However, upon arrival he discovers that the Aerians plan on taking advantage of the turmoil caused by the war to conquer the human race, whom they believe to be their inferiors. Red Raven, knowing that the humans would easily win such a war, decides to save the Bird-People from extinction by releasing a gas which places the entire populace of the island in suspended animation. Red Raven places the Bird-People in chambers which will keep them alive, then uses the island’s control systems to sink the entire refuge beneath the Atlantic Ocean. After programming a timer to automatically raise the island from the depths after 20 years and release everyone from stasis, Red Raven places himself in suspended animation as well.

The Invaders, the Howling Commandos, the Destroyer, and Logan all participate in the Allied invasion of Europe on D-Day.

The future Captain America is transported back from 1972 by the villainous Leader. With his memories clouded, Cap joins Bucky in helping an American army squadron repel an attack by Nazi troops. However, Hulk and She-Hulk soon arrive to restore Cap’s memory, and the three time-traveling heroes then continue their pursuit of the Leader. Bucky momentarily thinks his partner has been disintegrated but then sees the contemporary Captain America approaching across the battlefield.

Captain America and Bucky battle Nazis at Greymoor Castle in England. Soon after, Bucky reaches his 18th birthday and decides to retire his costumed identity to join the U.S. Army as a regular soldier. No longer content to serve as Cap’s junior partner, Bucky resigns from the Invaders and sets out to prove himself as a man.

William Drake marries Maddy Bass, and they buy a house in Port Jefferson, New York.

Baron Strucker discovers the presence of aliens called Gnobians hiding in a town in Germany and kills everyone in the village to keep the secret. He also kills most of the aliens and seizes their technology for use by HYDRA.

After a year-long romance, Stephen Strange proposes marriage to Madeleine Revell, but she declines, having realized that she does not want to spend her life with a man possessed of his greed, ambition, and cold-heartedness. Her stinging rejection causes Strange to become even more arrogant.

Peggy Carter, an American member of the French Resistance who is Captain America’s girlfriend, is captured by the Gestapo and held prisoner in Paris. During the city’s liberation by the Allied forces a shell explodes nearby and Carter is knocked unconscious. Although she recovers from her wounds, the explosion leaves her amnesiac. Carter is eventually discovered by friends in Belgium and sent home to her family in America. Since Captain America had only known her by her code name, the heartbroken hero has no way of discovering her condition or whereabouts.

Logan joins the joint U.S.-Canadian commando unit known as the Devil’s Brigade. His reckless fighting style soon forces him to realize that his rapid-healing ability has its limits.

At the Warsaw Uprising, the Nazis finally catch up to John Watkins, and a bullet to the head ends the career of Citizen V.

The Yankee Clipper is killed in action, leaving her partners to act as a trio. Her death leads the Crimson Commando, Stonewall, and Super Sabre to develop deep feelings of bitterness.

Howard Stark oversees Project Tomorrow, an attempt by the U.S. government to create an unstoppable android warrior to be deployed only if America loses the war. The android, code-named Arsenal, is linked to a computerized guidance system with an artificial intelligence based on the brain patterns of the industrialist’s wife, Maria.

Captain America befriends Jimmy Woo, which inspires the young soldier to follow a career path that will lead him into the FBI.

A group of refugees from another dimension crash their escape craft into the Andes Mountains on Earth. After burrowing deep underground, they establish a colony and set about searching for a means to return home. Shunning contact with the planet’s native inhabitants, they come to call themselves “the Others.”

Captain America teams up with Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos to stop the Red Skull from unleashing the deadliest virus in history, engineered by the Nazis as a doomsday weapon. However, unknown to the heroes, the sole survivor of the Red Skull’s experiments, an American aviator named Michael Kramer, slips away with the Judas Plague hidden in his genetic matrix.

In Bermuda, the Sub-Mariner stops an incursion by aliens led by a human gangster. Namor ends up killing all his foes, but one of the aliens, a woman named Vanza, is left marooned on Earth.

While the Invaders are in New York City to receive a special commendation from the mayor, the Sub-Mariner rescues Caleb Alexander when the boy inadvertently rides his bicycle off the end of a pier. The experience inspires Caleb to pursue a career in marine biology.

Johnny Storm is born on Long Island in Glenville, New York, to Franklin and Mary Storm.

Alicia Reiss is born to Jacob and Marcia Reiss.

Wyatt Wingfoot is born on the Keewazi Reservation in Oklahoma to American decathlon champion Will Wingfoot and his wife. Wyatt is the grandson of Silver Fox, chief of the Keewazi tribe of Comanche Indians.

Johnny Blaze is born in Waukegan, Illinois, to Barton and Clara Blaze.

Heather Douglas is born in Los Angeles, California, to Arthur and Yvette Douglas.

Colleen Wing is born to Lee Wing, a Chinese-American college professor, and his Japanese-born wife.

Jerome Beechman and Nekra Sinclair are both born in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Twins Desmond Marrs and Phoebe Marrs are born to Archimedes Marrs and his wife.

1945

Magnus and a gypsy named Magda escape from the Nazi death-camp Auschwitz in Poland. Magnus saves Magda’s life by killing a guard about to shoot her as the camp is being shut down and the Nazis are retreating. The couple slips off into the woods, then moves south into the Carpathian Mountains. Within a few months, they are married.

Auschwitz is finally liberated by the Russian army. Among the American army personnel present at the liberation is Major Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross.

Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen go into action against the Nazis, under the command of Captain Sam Sawyer.

Lord Dark Wind, an experienced Japanese fighter pilot, volunteers to run a kamikaze mission against an American ship. However, the explosives aboard his plane fail to detonate and Dark Wind survives, although he is terribly scarred. He is captured by the Americans and held as a prisoner of war.

Arnim Zola presents Adolf Hitler with technology that will preserve his consciousness, memory, and brain patterns after his death. Zola also tells Hitler that he has perfected a cloning process. Hitler, intrigued by the possibility that he could live forever through these means, begins funding Zola’s projects and allows the scientist to take cell samples and scan his brain patterns. Zola then successfully clones Hitler’s brain and instructs the dictator on how to transfer his consciousness into the cloned brain whenever he chooses.

Infuriated by his constant defeats at the hands of Captain America, the Red Skull orders Baron Zemo to kill the American hero at all costs. Zemo decides to use the theft of an experimental drone plane to bait a trap.

Captain America learns that the Red Skull is constructing doomsday devices to be activated following Germany’s inevitable defeat. Thus, Cap heads to Berlin to stop him just as the Allied air raids are beginning. Cap defeats the Red Skull in hand-to-hand combat, but suddenly the building they are in is hit by a bomb. Cap manages to crawl from the rubble, but the Red Skull is lost. Unknown to Cap, his enemy also survives the explosion but is thrown into a state of suspended animation when a canister containing an experimental gas ruptures. The Red Skull will lie undiscovered in a subterranean chamber for nearly two decades.

After liberating Diebenwald concentration camp, Captain America returns to England to stop a string of sabotage attempts at Allied bases. At one such base, located on the North Sea, Cap finds Pvt. Bucky Barnes attached to the base security detail.

Allied intelligence alerts Captain America that Baron Zemo is planning to steal the experimental drone plane housed at the very base Bucky is guarding. The former partners agree to team up for old times’ sake. So as not to scare Zemo off, Cap straps his shield to his chest and dons a standard Army uniform to join Bucky on patrol. Soon, Zemo makes his move, reprogramming the plane to fly to Berlin and then launching it. Cap and Bucky race down the runway on a motorcycle and catch up to the plane just as it is lifting off. Determined to prove himself, Bucky leaps aboard the plane and clambers up to its control panel. Cap manages to grab the bottom of the plane but realizes too late Zemo has booby-trapped it. He yells to Bucky to disengage, but Bucky instead tries to disable the detonator. Suddenly, the plane explodes in mid-air. Bucky Barnes is killed instantly, and Captain America falls into the North Sea. Exposed to the freezing waters, the super-soldier serum in his blood causes Captain America to enter a state of suspended animation. His body is carried by the current up into the Arctic, where it eventually becomes entombed in a large block of ice. In time, it will be discovered by the indigenous people of the region and worshiped as a holy object.

Believing his greatest enemy dead, Baron Zemo then flees to South America, leaving his wife and son behind in Germany. Over the next few decades, Zemo will continue to develop his own plans for world conquest.

Baron Blood is killed once more by being impaled with a wooden stake. His body is entombed in the Tower of London to prevent him from being resurrected again.

American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage. With the death of the President, the Invaders go on full alert. The Human Torch and Toro are ordered to assist with the invasion of Berlin. The Sub-Mariner is ordered to the Pacific to aid against Japanese kamikaze bombers. Spitfire and Union Jack are ordered to safeguard British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Whizzer and Miss America are ordered to patrol the British coast for Nazi saboteurs. Vice-President Harry S. Truman immediately takes over as America’s commander-in-chief.

The Nazi death-camp Dachau is liberated by Allied forces. As the Allies are investigating the camp, half of an alien mystical gem, the “Resurrection Stone,” appears after being sent backwards in time by an alien archaeologist. The gem fragment is found by prisoner Sol Rosenblatt, who discovers it has the power to return the dead to life. However, because it is incomplete, the gem can only return the soul to the dead body. Rosenblatt uses the power of the gem to resurrect his murdered family, who had been killed by the Nazis before the Allies could liberate the camp. In pursuit of the Resurrection Stone, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast, and Wonder Man journey back in time and convince Rosenblatt to hand over the gem. Once in possession of the mystical object, the four Avengers dematerialize.

With the liberation of Dachau, Gabrielle Haller is freed. Upon her release, Baron Strucker orders that she be placed under continuous surveillance, on the chance that one day her sanity returns.

The Daily Bugle discovers that Captain America and Bucky have disappeared. They publish an article, but the American government, wishing to keep this information secret, denies the truth. Nevertheless, Peggy Carter is told of Captain America’s disappearance. Believing her beloved to be dead, Carter becomes extremely depressed and enters a period of prolonged mourning.

Despite the threat of death, Baron Strucker returns to Berlin, knowing the Red Skull has disappeared. With the Allies winning the war, Strucker seeks to ensure the survival of the Nazi Reich by placing Master Man and Warrior Woman in suspended animation. The two super-agents are hidden in laboratories on opposite sides of Berlin. Strucker then flees the city and returns to Southeast Asia.

Adolf Hitler learns that Russian troops have invaded Berlin and realizes his defeat is imminent. Thus, he prepares to escape by killing his body and transferring his consciousness into the cloned brain constructed by Arnim Zola. However, Hitler is interrupted by the arrival of the Human Torch and Toro, who are intent on capturing Hitler and bringing him to trial. The Torch is forced to incinerate Hitler to stop him from activating a device to destroy the bunker. As he is dying, Hitler successfully transfers his consciousness to the other brain, stored safely away in Zola’s laboratory.

President Truman asks the Spirit of ’76 to assume the role of Captain America. Fred Davis, a boy who had impersonated Bucky Barnes in the past, becomes the second Bucky. Serving as members of the Invaders, the second Captain America and Bucky battle the Japanese in the Pacific, the American public believing them to be the originals.

Stephen Strange completes his training and enters private practice in New York City. His father dies of a heart attack, but Stephen is too busy to attend the funeral.

Peter Parker is born in New York City to Richard and Mary Parker.

The first atomic bomb is detonated at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The explosion is detected by Eternals living on Saturn’s moon Titan. Thanos, son of Alars and Sui-San, develops an interest in Earth and begins closely monitoring the planet.

Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov is discharged from the military. His aptitude for electronics enables him to secure a position at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, and he becomes even more of a father figure to Natasha Romanova. She shows tremendous promise in ballet and excels in all her subjects.

The Japanese surrender after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the Second World War. With the end of the war, many of the Howling Commandos decide to accept honorable discharges from military service. However, Captain Sam Sawyer and Sergeant Nick Fury remain enlisted.

After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Jack Frost returns to the Arctic wastes, disgusted by humanity. He is never seen again. Following his departure, the Liberty Legion disbands.

Steve Rogers is officially listed as missing in action. His footlocker, containing numerous personal effects including Captain America’s first shield, is put into storage at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Eventually, the record of its location will be lost.

Bruce Dickson returns to the hidden city of Kalahia in the Himalayas, only to find it has been utterly destroyed. Grief-stricken, Dickson soon discovers that an old enemy, Agent Axis, had learned of the existence of Kalahia and tried to conquer it after Germany lost the war. Unable to subjugate the Kalahians, Agent Axis killed them all and destroyed the city, then fled to parts unknown. Abandoning his identity as the heroic Thin Man, Dickson will spend the next thirty years trying to track down Agent Axis and get revenge.

The second Captain America battles Lyle Dekker at his base near Newfoundland and foils his plot to release a deadly nerve gas. Dekker never realizes it is not the original Captain America.

With the end of the war, the Crimson Commando, Stonewall, and Super Sabre return to their hometown in Massachusetts and devote themselves to fighting crime there.

Jacqueline Falsworth retires her Spitfire identity. Over the next few years her body will reject the foreign elements which activated her latent superhuman abilities, and by the end of the decade she will once again be a normal woman. Likewise, her brother, Brian Falsworth, retires his identity as Union Jack. His powers will also soon fade as Professor Schmitt’s serum wears off. Brian’s friend Roger Aubrey returns from Germany and gives up costumed adventuring as well.

Ben Grimm enters college at the State University of New York on the G.I. Bill, where he meets both Reed Richards and Victor von Doom. Ben and Reed become roommates, but he has little interaction with the anti-social Victor. Ben quickly becomes a star of the college football team, playing alongside Sam Thorne, who also becomes a friend. Reed talks constantly of his ambition to build a spaceship and take it to another star system. Ben laughingly promises to pilot the ship should it ever actually be built.

The U.S. Congress considers using the Arsenal android in the fight against Communism, but Howard Stark convinces President Truman to have Project Tomorrow shut down. Stark then has the android and its computer control system put into storage in a cavern located deep beneath his Fifth Avenue mansion in Manhattan. The computer, code-named Mistress, goes into hibernation, awaiting an activation signal.

Lord Dark Wind is released from the American prison camp and returned to Japan. His injuries leave him permanently scarred, and as his children are born, he scars them as well. In the years that follow, Dark Wind begins attracting followers to a cult devoted to restoring Japan’s honor.

Fritz Tiboldt and his wife Lola aid the Allies by testifying against the Nazis during the war crimes trials. Eventually, Nazi agents who had gone undercover to avoid prosecution will hunt the Tiboldts down and kill them. Their son Maynard then takes over the family circus and moves it back to America.

One of Hitler’s top scientists, Otto Kronsteig, becomes a fugitive as he flees from the War Crimes Commission. Another Nazi scientist, Gustav Hauptmann, also escapes prosecution for war crimes by finding a powerful patron. A former high-level advisor to Hitler, Nikolaus Geist, saves himself from prosecution by bartering secrets from the German rocket program to the O.S.S. Wolfgang von Lundt also cooperates with the Allies. He is granted immunity from prosecution and set up in a new life under the name Simon Steele.

Simon Garth and his friend Brian Stockwood form Garwood Industries, a wholesale coffee distributor based in New Orleans.

A large contingent of Dire Wraiths arrives on Earth and decides the planet would make an ideal staging ground for a second invasion of Galador. Thus, the Dire Wraiths create human identities for themselves, using the disruptions in the aftermath of World War II to mask their infiltration of Earth society. With their characteristic combination of advanced technology and dark mysticism, the Dire Wraiths set out to achieve key positions in business, science, and government.

In Clairton, West Virginia, the Dire Wraith calling himself Jacob Marks starts dating a young woman named Marjorie Seaton. Although his initial intent is merely to avoid attracting the attention of gossiping busybodies, Marks soon develops a real emotional attachment to Seaton. The more time Marks spends with his human neighbors, the more distant he grows from his Dire Wraith heritage.

Rick Jones is born in Scottsdale, Arizona. While Rick is still a child, his parents die and he is left with nothing except his father’s guitar. Growing up, Rick is moved from one orphanage to the next for disciplinary reasons. Eventually, he will end up in Quemado, New Mexico, living with his aunt.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier and Jean-Paul Beaubier are born in Montreal, Quebec. Shortly after their birth, their parents are killed and the twins are separated. Jean-Paul is adopted by his mother’s cousin, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Louis Martin, who could not afford to adopt Jeanne-Marie as well. The Martins arrange for Jeanne-Marie to be placed at Madame Dupont’s School for Girls in LaVelle, Quebec. Soon afterwards, Martin accepts an assignment in Northern Quebec, and he relocates his family there. The Martins lose contact with Jeanne-Marie, so the twins both grow up unaware that they have a sibling.

Alison Blaire is born on Long Island in Gardendale, New York, to Carter and Katherine Blaire.

Wendell Vaughn is born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to Gilbert and Lisa Vaughn.

Frank Moore is born in Brooklyn, New York, to Harris and Helen Moore.

Alejandro Montoya is born in Madrid, Spain.

Abdul Qamar is born in Saudi Arabia.

Satana Hellstrom is born to Victoria Hellstrom and the demon Marduk Kurios.

Harry Osborn is born in New York City to Norman and Emily Osborn, but his mother dies when he is still a baby. Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, and Gwen Stacy are also born.

1946

The All-Winners Squad, the postwar successor to the Invaders, is formed. The Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, Toro, Captain America II, Bucky II, the Whizzer, and Miss America are the founding members. An early case brings the team into conflict with a criminal mastermind calling himself ISBISA, who sets up a series of diversionary crimes to keep the heroes busy while he steals an atomic bomb. Luckily, the All-Winners Squad figures out what the villain is up to in time to stop him.

Phineas T. Horton moves to Boston and creates a new android, Adam-II. However, Adam-II rebels against Horton, kidnaps him, and begins creating robot servants. Adam-II develops a plan to substitute congressional candidate John F. Kennedy with a robot duplicate. The Human Torch and Toro come to Boston to visit Horton and are captured by Adam-II. The three of them are rescued by the Patriot. Horton informs the Patriot of Adam-II’s plans, and the Patriot alerts the All-Winners Squad. The second Captain America and Bucky battle Adam-II and his robots. Captain America (William Nasland) is killed, though the dying hero uses a flare to summon the rest of the All-Winners Squad. Inspired by Nasland’s sacrifice, the Patriot dons a spare Captain America costume. As the third Captain America, he manages to foil Adam-II’s plans. Jeff Mace is then accepted as the successor to the role of Captain America and becomes a full member of the All-Winners Squad. He also partners up with the second Bucky.

The members of the All-Winners Squad spread out around the globe to foil the schemes of a world conqueror from the distant future calling himself Future Man and his accomplice, the sultry American crime boss known as Madame Death. The villains are then defeated when the All-Winners Squad locates and sabotages Future Man’s time-ship, sending it hurtling out of control into the distant past.

Louise Grant, a secretary working for government agent Mark Mason, creates the masked identity of the Blonde Phantom. She becomes a successful crime-fighter, frequently aiding Mason with his cases, though he remains unaware of her dual identity.

When escaped Nazis steal plans for the atomic bomb, the Human Torch and Toro track them to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean and detonate their nuclear arsenal. Later, the Torch and Toro hunt down and destroy a werewolf that’s terrorizing a small town in Connecticut. Soon after, they stop a criminal who has discovered a means to make himself invisible.

The Asbestos Lady seeks revenge on the Human Torch and Toro when her murderous twin brother, whom they apprehended, is executed for his crimes. Taking over her brother’s gang, the Asbestos Lady lures the two crime-fighters into a trap. They break free and chase after her, but she escapes.

Stephen Strange makes the acquaintance of another doctor, Darryl Berenson, and his beautiful blond wife, Patricia. Strange contemplates pursuing having an affair with the woman but never actually bothers.

After searching Europe for his lost love, David Fortunov returns to the United States but decides not to resume fighting crime as Dominic Fortune. Instead he becomes a car salesman on Long Island, eventually getting married and having a family.

In K’un-Lun, Wendell Rand fights Davos, son of the martial-arts master Lei Kung the Thunderer, for the right to face the dragon Shou-Lao the Undying and the chance to gain the power of the Iron Fist. Rand defeats Davos, who refuses to yield and accuses Lord Tuan of favoritism when he declares Rand the winner. Lei Kung publicly rebukes his son, prompting Davos to sneak out of the city and challenge the dragon anyway. Davos fails to overcome Shou-Lao and is left weeping in the snow. Lei Kung soon finds his injured son and carries him back to the city to recover. Rand continues his training, intent on besting the dragon and becoming the Iron Fist.

Gregory Russoff discovers the Darkhold in his father’s library and begins to study it. Reading of the origins of lycanthropy in the Darkhold under the light of the full moon activates the latent curse inherited from his ancestors, and he is transformed into a werewolf. Unfortunately, the active curse will be transferred to his descendents as well. Gregory devises a way to imprison his werewolf self within the castle tower on each night of the full moon. Only occasionally does he fail to lock himself away in time, in which case his bestial alter-ego terrorizes the countryside. Not long after, Gregory meets an American college student named Laura through his brother Philip, who had dated her previously, when she comes to Transylvania on vacation. The two fall madly in love and are soon married. Gregory’s mother, Maria, journeys from Transia to attend the wedding. Laura, now Baroness Russoff, leaves school and moves into the family castle. Philip decides to relocate to the United States, where he Americanizes his last name to “Russell.”

On Christmas Day, Thomas Halloway is killed while fighting crime as the Angel.

Scott Summers is born in Anchorage, Alaska, to Christopher and Katherine Anne Summers.

Warren Worthington III is born on Long Island in Centerport, New York, to Warren Jr. and Kathryn Worthington.

Twins Brian Braddock and Elisabeth Braddock are born in England to James and Elizabeth Braddock.

Calvin Rankin is born in Passaic, New Jersey, to Ronald Rankin and wife.

Mary Jane Watson is born to Philip and Madeline Watson.

1947

The War Department places Jeff Mace and Betsy Ross on the faculty of the Lee School, a private academy in New York City that brings together children of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Fred Davis is enrolled there as a student. Ross is immediately attracted to Mace and assists him with his activities as Captain America. Within a couple of months, the third Captain America and second Bucky encounter the second Red Skull, a communist agitator named Albert Malik, and foil his scheme to hijack shipments of valuable pharmaceuticals. Over the course of the year, Captain America and Bucky battle outlandishly costumed villains such as the Human Fly, the Bullfrog, and the Acrobat.

Aquaria Nautica Neptunia sees her hometown, the undersea city of Maritanis, destroyed by a gang of criminals using a stolen submarine to loot their treasures. Her father is killed in the attack, so Aquaria adopts the name “Namora,” meaning “the avenging daughter,” and takes vengeance on the crooks, aided by her cousin, Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Namor then arranges for Namora to move in with his friend Betty Dean, and the three of them become something of a crime-fighting team.

The Asbestos Lady tries again to get revenge on the Human Torch and Toro, but they escape from her death trap and catch her attempting to steal a load of gold bullion. Though he has an opportunity to avenge the murder of his parents, Toro merely causes a wall to collapse onto the Asbestos Lady rather than incinerating her on the spot. She drags herself from the rubble only to be taken into custody by the police. The Torch is extremely proud of Toro’s self-restraint.

Leaving government service, Mark Mason opens his own detective agency and hires Louise Grant as his secretary. She continues to involve herself in his cases as the Blonde Phantom.

Victor von Doom is expelled from State University in New York when a forbidden experiment explodes, scaring his face. He then travels to Tibet, where he takes refuge with a group of reclusive monks. They forge a suit of armor for him, but its red-hot mask completely destroys his face.

Stephen Strange has built a reputation as a top neurosurgeon but then crashes his sports car and sustains nerve damage that ends his surgical career. An associate, Dr. Charles Benton, offers him a position as a consultant, but Strange’s pride prevents him from working as anyone’s assistant, and so he spends much of his fortune seeking a cure for his condition.

Ben Grimm proposes to his girlfriend, Alynn Cambers, but she turns him down, intent on going to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. Ben’s efforts to forget her are hampered as Alynn appears in a string of popular movies over the next several years.

Charles Xavier graduates from college with a degree in biology. He travels to England to attend Oxford University, where he will fall in love with Moira (Kinross) MacTaggert, an unhappily married student of genetics.

Magnus and Magda become parents as their daughter Anya is born.

Natasha Romanova studies under the legendary ballet instructor Agrippina Vaganova, which she considers to be a great honor. She develops an especially close relationship with another teacher, the prima ballerina Oksana Bolishinko, and comes to look upon her as a mother figure. Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov marries a pretty blonde named Galina, although she and Natasha never become close.

When the portal between K’un-Lun and Earth opens again, Lord Tuan banishes Davos for his sacrilege. Later that same day, Lord Tuan’s son leads Wendell and Shakirah Rand into an ambush by the H’ylthri, in which Shakirah is killed. Rand escapes from the H’ylthri, but overwhelmed with grief, he is easily led across the bridge to Earth by his rival and left to wander in the Himalayas. When the portal closes, Rand realizes he cannot return to K’un-Lun until it reopens in ten years. Thus, he makes his way to New York City, where he founds a company with businessman Harold Meachum that is immediately successful. Soon, Rand marries the beautiful socialite Heather Duncan and they move into a house on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. Rand also hires the young lawyer Jeryn Hogarth to manage his affairs.

With Wendell Rand, the rightful heir, having disappeared, Lord Tuan’s son achieves his ambition of being the ruler of K’un-Lun when his father dies. Thus, he comes to be known as Yü-Ti, the August Personage in Jade.

Herbert Wyndham revives the amnesiac Jessica Drew for further treatments. He forces himself to remain emotionally distant, knowing she will have no memory of this part of her life. With work on his genetic accelerator nearly completed, Wyndham stays focused on his experiments.

Jericho Drumm leaves Haiti to attend college in the United States, while his brother Daniel decides to follow the ways of voodoo.

Traumatized by the horrors of war, Hiram and Mary Dobbs leave their rapidly growing hometown in Indiana to establish a homestead on an uninhabited island in the South Atlantic Ocean, turning their backs on civilization. The couple never suspects the island contains priceless vibranium deposits.

After being transferred to the new United States Air Force, Major Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross is assigned to the nuclear research facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico. However, Ross, a combat veteran, is dissatisfied with the desk job he has been given.

After a Skrull scout ship crash-lands near Roswell, New Mexico and its occupants are autopsied by the U.S. Air Force, President Truman creates a secret 12-member panel comprised of scientists, military leaders, and government officials to investigate the possibility of extraterrestrial incursions. Among the members are Howard Stark, head of government contractor Stark Industries, and the influential astrophysicist Vernon Van Dyne.

Another “UFO,” a spaceship from the planet Dakkam carrying the infant Wundarr, crash-lands near the Nexus of All Realities in the swamp to the south of Citrusville, Florida. When an elderly couple decides not to investigate, the alien child remains in the ship’s womb-like interior, where he will eventually grow to manhood.

While in Vietnam, German mercenary Gustav Brandt marries a local woman named Lua, the sister of a racist crime lord called Monsieur Khruul. Due to his threats, the Brandts are forced to flee into the countryside. After ten months of living as fugitives, Lua gives birth to a daughter, who will one day be known as Mantis. Eventually, Khruul discovers their whereabouts and orders their house burned to the ground. Lua dies in the fire, but Brandt, though badly burned and blinded, manages to escape with his infant daughter into the jungle. Days later, Brandt discovers the temple of the Priests of Pama, descendants of Kree monks who worshiped the Cotati. The priests aid Brandt and his daughter, whom they suspect may be the Celestial Madonna. The two remain at the temple for many years as the daughter learns their unique philosophy and martial arts and the father learns how to overcome his physical blindness by developing his psychic potential.

Thanos is on a surveillance mission to Earth when his spaceship is seen by a family making a late-night drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Wanting no witnesses to his activities, Thanos orders the car destroyed. The blast kills Arthur and Yvette Douglas, but their daughter Heather survives. Witnessing what Thanos has done, his father Alars rescues Heather. Then, deciding that his son has become too much of a threat to both Titan and Earth, Alars enlists the aid of his father Chronos, now a near-cosmic-level being. Together they manage to prevent Arthur Douglas’s soul from leaving the mortal plane and create for it a new body from the earth’s soil, investing it with tremendous power. They program their new being with a burning hatred for Thanos and no memory of his previous existence. Re-named Drax the Destroyer, he initiates his relentless pursuit of Thanos. Alars takes Heather Douglas back to Titan and places her in a monastery to be raised by another sect of the Priests of Pama. As she grows up, Heather is trained in martial arts and in developing her latent psionic powers. For many years, Drax the Destroyer foils Thanos’s schemes, though he never manages to stop his enemy completely.

Jean Grey is born in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, to John and Elaine Grey.

Alex Summers is born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Christopher and Katherine Anne Summers.

Shiro Yoshida is born in Agarashima, Japan, to Saburo Yoshida and his wife.

John Proudstar is born in Camp Verde, Arizona, to Neal and Maria Proudstar.

Shang-Chi is born in Honan, China, to Fu Manchu and his American-born wife.

Jacob Russoff is born in Transylvania to Gregory and Laura Russoff.

Felicia Hardy is born in New York City to Walter and Lydia Hardy.

Sybil Dvorak is born in Focşani, Romania.

1948

When the second Bucky, Fred Davis, is gunned down in the line of duty, he is forced to retire from crime-fighting. The third Captain America then recruits Betsy Ross to be his new partner. After a brief period of intensive training, the athletically gifted Ross dons a green-and-gold costume to become the second superheroine to be known as Golden Girl. Captain America and Golden Girl then hunt down the gangster who shot Bucky, a woman called Lavender, and bring her to justice.

In pursuit of a pair of jewel thieves, Captain America and Golden Girl follow an extradimensional imp named Mr. Zrr through a large mirror into his native realm. They find that the thieves’ aggression and greed have contaminated Mr. Zrr’s utopian society and force the crooks to return to Earth. Mr. Zrr then destroys the mirror from the other side, closing the dimensional portal.

When the Whizzer gets Miss America pregnant, they retire their superhero identities and get married. The couple then begins working as non-costumed security agents at a nuclear power plant in New York. ISBISA, an enemy from their days in the All-Winners Squad, seeks revenge on the Franks and sabotages the plant. The Franks rush into a high-radiation area to activate the dampening rods that have malfunctioned and are both exposed to high levels of radiation. Months later, Madeline Frank gives birth to a deformed mutant baby who emits toxic levels of radiation. The government persuades the Franks to surrender the child, Robert Frank, Jr., into its custody. The baby is placed within a specially-designed chamber meant to drain the enormous amounts of radiation he is generating. The boy will remain in suspended animation for nearly two decades. Distraught over the loss of their child, the Franks accept a compensation package from the government and decide to tour the world.

The mysterious adventuress known only as Sun Girl bursts on the scene and becomes a worldwide sensation. Her astonishing beauty, unsurpassed martial-arts skill, unparalleled acrobatic ability, and unconquerable will make her the toast of a fascinated public and the bane of a frustrated underworld. In addition to her natural abilities, she employs a number of technological devices as well, which she claims have been provided by admirers in the scientific community. Chief among these is a wrist-mounted “sunbeam ray” that produces a blinding light.

The movie Blonde Phantom is released, featuring a fictionalized account of the masked crime-fighter’s glamorous exploits.

After Toro takes an extended leave of absence to care for his dying foster mother, the Human Torch becomes romantically involved with Sun Girl. She quickly becomes his new partner in crime-fighting, and they share several exciting adventures. Towards the end of the year, the Torch and Sun Girl team up with Captain America to stop extradimensional demons from driving the human race to murderous madness with their eldritch energies.

Richard and Mary Parker, a husband-and-wife spy team working for the American government, are assigned to infiltrate a communist spy ring in Algiers run by the second Red Skull (Albert Malik). The Red Skull learns of the Parkers’ true identities and has them killed. Custody of their son Peter is granted to Richard’s brother Ben and his wife May, who have been keeping Peter when his parents were on assignment.

Bruce Banner graduates from high school and enters college at Pennsylvania State University, pursuing a medical degree.

Logan becomes a field agent for the Canadian Intelligence Corps.

His financial resources squandered, Stephen Strange hits up Dr. Darryl Berenson for some money. Berenson is angered and gives his former friend the bum’s rush. Strange lets fly with verbal abuse before he is forcibly removed from the clinic.

Namor convinces Emperor Thakorr to petition the United Nations to admit Atlantis as a member. The U.N. is open to discussing the proposal, given the Sub-Mariner’s service in the Invaders and the All-Winners Squad. However, when Namor’s delegation arrives in New York City, they are met by a violent mob, due to a rising tide of paranoid xenophobia in America. Amidst an exchange of gunfire, a bullet ricochets off Namor and kills a French tourist. Disgusted by the incident, Namor calls off the talks and starts to limit his involvement with surface-world affairs.

Herbert Wyndham perfects his genetic accelerator and uses it to transform animals into humanoids. One of his first attempts results in a cow-woman he names Bova. Artificially evolving other animals, Wyndham discovers that these “New Men,” as he calls them, are highly intelligent. Meanwhile, sensing Jonathan Drew’s troubled thoughts about Wundagore Mountain, the astral form of Magnus, the sixth-century mage, possesses Drew and takes him back to Transia. Magnus is worried that Chthon may one day escape his imprisonment within the mountain. Once there, Magnus/Drew suggests to Wyndham, who has dubbed himself the High Evolutionary, that they train the New Men in medieval chivalry. Desiring to instill in his New Men a code of honor, the High Evolutionary agrees to the plan. The Knights of Wundagore, as they are called by their masters, begin a long process of training.

Dracula pays a visit to Rachel Van Helsing on her 16th birthday and mesmerizes her with his hypnotic stare. Before he can drink her blood, though, Dracula is again driven off by Quincy Harker. Rachel is emotionally traumatized by the incident and wonders if, deep down, she finds Dracula seductive.

Victoria Hellstrom discovers the supernatural identity of her husband. The fact that her husband is a demon calling himself “Satan” drives her mad, and she dies shortly afterwards. Marduk Kurios places his son Daimon in an orphanage but takes his daughter Satana with him to his own dimension to school her in the use of her demonic powers.

Bobby Drake is born on Long Island in Port Jefferson, New York, to William and Maddie Drake.

Danny Rand is born in New York City to Wendell and Heather Rand.

Elizabeth Twoyoungmen is born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Michael and Kathryn Twoyoungmen.

Ruth Bat-Seraph is born in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Frankie Raye is born in New York City.

Tilda Johnson is born in New York City.

Joseph Fasinera is born in New York City to Vincent and Scarlet Fasinera.

Yuri Ivanovich Bezukhov is born in Leningrad to Ivan and Galina Bezukhov. Natasha Romanova is at first resentful but soon comes to see him as her baby brother.

1949

The Human Torch and Sun Girl rescue President Harry S. Truman when he is abducted to another dimension along with many other people and objects. The heroic couple forces the kleptomaniacal aliens to return all their loot to its original location.

Captain America and Golden Girl battle a tyrannosaurus that’s rampaging through Times Square in Manhattan after being inadvertently released from a research facility by thieves. After causing extensive property damage, the dinosaur is mortally wounded on the George Washington Bridge by U.S. Army forces.

When Toro returns from his leave of absence, he is not happy to find he has been replaced by a woman and is clearly jealous of the Torch’s relationship with the gorgeous Sun Girl. For her part, Sun Girl quickly becomes annoyed with the Torch’s inability to resolve his divided loyalties and suggests they take a break from each other. She elects to leave New York for a while and travel the world. The Torch is disappointed, but at the same time he’s happy to be reunited with Toro. However, a few weeks later, a gang of mobsters uses an experimental solution to neutralize the flame powers of both the Torch and Toro. Believing the deactivated Human Torch to be dead, the criminals bury him in the Nevada desert. Temporarily paralyzed, Toro is handed over to the Soviet agents who provided the chemical solution and is subsequently taken behind the Iron Curtain and brainwashed into becoming a secret weapon for the communists.

Due to having lost most of its members, the All-Winners Squad officially disbands.

Odin, disturbed by his son Thor’s prideful and headstrong nature, banishes the thunder god to Earth in the mortal guise of medical student Donald Blake so that he might learn humility. Choosing a medical student named Keith Kincaid as the template for Blake, Odin creates a magical replica of the young man, changing the physical features slightly and giving him a pronounced limp. Trapped in Blake’s body, Thor is stripped of his true memories and sent to the campus of the Empire State University School of Medicine in New York, where he immediately enrolls.

Sun Girl mysteriously disappears and is never heard from again.

Namora marries an Atlantean named Talan, with whom she has fallen madly in love. She abandons her life of adventure to devote herself to her husband. However, their relationship suffers when it becomes clear that Namora is unable to get pregnant. Desperate to save her marriage, Namora colludes with the exiled Atlantean geneticist Vyrra to clone her and implant the resulting fetus in her womb. Namora then claims her pregnancy is a natural one due to the Atlanteans’ centuries-old ban on cloning.

Madeline Frank accidentally becomes pregnant again. During her first trimester, she begins to experience serious complications.

Louise Grant, a.k.a. the Blonde Phantom, marries Mark Mason. She retires from costumed crime-fighting to become a housewife.

Reed Richards is disappointed when one of his best friends, Milton Ekler, drops out of college to marry his girlfriend. A few months later, Ekler’s son Larry is born but his wife dies, leaving him to raise his child on his own. Richards makes an effort to keep in touch, and young Larry will eventually come to call him “Uncle Reed,” but he and Ekler gradually drift apart as their career paths diverge.

Ben Grimm graduates from college and returns to the Air Force to become a test pilot.

At Pennsylvania State University, Bruce Banner meets Walter Langkowski, who is attending on a football scholarship. Bruce inspires Walter with his passion for science, but after the fall semester, Bruce transfers to Desert State University in New Mexico and changes his major to nuclear physics. Walter decides to major in nuclear physics as well. In New Mexico, Bruce meets Peter Corbeau when they become roommates.

Stephen Strange becomes a penniless drifter and alcoholic derelict. While hanging out on the waterfront, he learns of the supposedly miracle-working “Ancient One” in Tibet and decides to find him in a last ditch effort for a cure. Strange sells the last of his possessions to book passage on a boat to India, from which he crosses into Tibet. Near the end of the year, the Red Chinese army invades eastern Tibet.

Kurt Wagner is born in the Bavarian Alps to a mutant shape-changer who will later be known as Raven Darkhölme. Everyone present is horrified that the baby has yellow eyes, blue fur, a pointed tail, and deformed hands and feet. The mother is driven off by a superstitious mob, but the baby is taken in by the gypsy sorceress Margali Szardos, a fortune-teller at a nearby circus. Never officially adopted, Kurt is raised collectively by the circus troupe, with Szardos acting as his foster mother. Despite his strange appearance, Kurt is treated as a sibling to Szardos’s own children, Stefan and Jimaine.

Harold and Edith Barton are killed in an automobile accident, and their children Barney and Clint are placed in a state orphanage.

When his wife dies, Professor Lee Wing sends his daughter Colleen to live in Japan with her maternal grandfather, Kenji Ozawa. Colleen is raised in the family’s ancestral home in the mountains of northern Honshu and trained in the martial arts.

After his mother dies, Kyle Richmond is sent to boarding school, since his father is constantly away on business. He soon develops a reputation as a troublemaker.

Robert, Lord Plunder discovers the Savage Land and finds a large cache of vibranium, some of which he takes back to England with him. Sadly, he finds his wife Blanche has died during his absence, leaving him to care for their sons Kevin and Parnival. When enemy agents try to intimidate Plunder into revealing the location of his vibranium store, he realizes his sons are in danger. He fashions a medallion-key to his secret vault and gives one half to each boy. Then, sending Parnival into hiding with his trusted butler, Lord Plunder takes Kevin to hide out in the Savage Land. Unfortunately, shortly after their arrival, Plunder is killed by the tribe of Man-Apes led by the savage Maa-Gor. Kevin is rescued by the sabertooth tiger called Zabu and taken to safety in an area shrouded by mystic vapors. These mists slowly enhance Kevin’s strength, agility, and endurance as he grows older.

Ted Sallis enrolls in Stanford University to pursue his Ph.D. in chemistry.

Magnus and Magda move to Vinnitsa, Ukraine, as Magda becomes pregnant with twins. Initially, she decides to keep this information secret from her husband, due to their precarious financial situation. As his mutant powers begin to manifest themselves, Magnus runs afoul of the Soviet authorities, who prevent him from rescuing Anya from the burning inn in which she is trapped. As his daughter’s blazing body plummets to the street, Magnus lashes out with his magnetic powers, killing everyone at the scene. Magda is horrified by what her husband has become, and consumed by grief, terror, and despair, she flees into the night. Magnus goes into hiding to escape the police. Magda makes her way southwest into the Balkans, terrified that her husband will find her.

After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, one of the more powerful pre-revolution government officials loses everything to the communists. He sets off in search of a way to restore his power and fortune. Wandering China, he eventually comes upon the fabled Valley of Spirits, where he discovers a crashed spaceship and the skeletal remains of its pilot. He spends the next several years mastering the alien technology and deciphering the secrets of the ten rings that the alien wore. The man soon becomes feared throughout China as the implacable Mandarin.

One night, lightning strikes the tower of Castle Russoff, setting the Gregory Russoff werewolf free. The following night, a hunting party comes across the werewolf and shoots him with silver bullets. Upon dying, the werewolf reverts to his human form, confirming the villagers’ suspicions about the Baron. Now widowed and disgraced, Laura Russoff takes her son Jacob and flees Transylvania, returning to the United States. She contacts Philip in California, who is glad to help. Lissa Russoff is born in Los Angeles. Laura and Philip find their former romance rekindled, and they are soon married. Laura Americanizes the children’s last names to “Russell” as well.

Sir Denis Nayland Smith finally succeeds in smashing Fu Manchu’s international criminal empire but is captured and crippled by Fu Manchu’s enforcers. Confined to a wheelchair, Nayland Smith retires from the intelligence service, believing his career to be finished. Fu Manchu begins the slow process of rebuilding his organization, forced by China’s communist revolution to rely solely on his own resources.

William Baker adopts the alias “Flint Marko” as he embarks on a life of crime.

Ororo Munro is born in New York City to David and N’Dare Munro.

Lorna Dane is born, but weeks later her family dies in a plane crash. She is adopted by her aunt and uncle.

Jamie Madrox is born in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Daniel and Joan Madrox.

Dakota North is born to S.J. and Caroline North.

Jim Wilson is born in Los Angeles, California, to Gideon Wilson and wife.

Topaz is born in India to British parents.

Twins Andrea Strucker and Andreas Strucker are born to Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his mistress.

1950

Stephen Strange meets the Ancient One and his pupil, Baron Mordo, in the Himalayas of northwest Tibet. Although the Ancient One claims to have no cure for Strange’s damaged nerves, the traveler is forced to remain when a blizzard suddenly descends upon them. Left to his own devices, Strange soon stumbles upon Mordo plotting to kill his teacher with sinister black magic. Learning firsthand that the power of such magic is very real, Strange realizes the only way to save the old man is to learn enough spells of his own to overcome Mordo. When he entreats the Ancient One to take him on as a student, the wizened mage reveals he is aware of Mordo’s treachery already and counters the evil spells with the merest gesture, freeing Strange from their effects. The experience leads Stephen Strange to have an epiphany, and he decides to start on a new path in life, devoting himself to the study of the mystic arts.

The third Captain America, Jeff Mace, retires from active crime-fighting and returns to his former career as a newspaper reporter. He and Betsy Ross, who abandons her Golden Girl identity, get married and move to Boston.

When Namora’s baby is born, she names the child Namorita in honor of her famous cousin, the Sub-Mariner. No one in Atlantis, least of all Talan, knows that Namorita is a clone.

Paul Destine emerges from suspended animation. Using the increased powers given to him by the Serpent Crown, Destine, now calling himself Destiny, senses the presence of the city of Atlantis off the coast of Antarctica. Through the Serpent Crown, the Elder God Set realizes his chance for revenge on the Atlantean god Neptune has come, and he mentally compels Destiny to destroy Atlantis. Destiny thus triggers a number of undersea earthquakes and explosions. Namor journeys to the surface to investigate and confronts Destiny but is defeated by the power of the Serpent Crown. Destiny then forces Namor to witness the destruction of his kingdom. Although large numbers of Atlanteans escape, Emperor Thakorr and Princess Fen are among those killed. Destiny then renders Namor totally amnesiac and commands him to fly to New York City. Satisfied, Destiny returns to suspended animation to increase his psychic powers further. The surviving Atlanteans decide to resettle the ruins of ancient Atlantis and spend the next decade roaming the ocean searching for its location. Krang, one of their greatest military leaders, wishes to rule his fellow Atlanteans, but constant attacks by barbarians and predators hamper his ambitions. Eventually, Dorma and Krang become engaged to be married. For the next 12 years, Namor will live as a derelict in New York with none of his memories.

Talan is killed in the destuction of Atlantis, so Namora, worried that her daughter’s nature will be discovered, takes Namorita and immigrates to the Pacific Ocean, finding refuge in a client kingdom of the Lemurian emperor Naga. Namora and her baby are taken in by Llyra, now an ambitious member of the royal court. Llyra’s schizophrenia has driven her to abandon her mother in Hawaii to live with her father’s people. Namora’s exotic beauty soon catches the eye of heir to the throne Prince Merro, much to Llyra’s chagrin.

As her own pregnancy comes to term, Magda the Gypsy reaches the citadel of the High Evolutionary on Wundagore Mountain in Transia. With the cow-woman Bova acting as midwife, Magda gives birth to twin babies, a girl and a boy, whom she names Wanda and Pietro. Outside the citadel, a supernatural war rages between the High Evolutionary’s Knights of Wundagore and the demon Chthon, who is trying to escape his prison within the mountain. Facing imminent defeat, Chthon senses the awesome latent power within baby Wanda’s mutant body and imbues her with some of his magical energy. Bova notices the baby briefly glows with the same eerie lights flashing in the night sky outside. Believing Chthon will free him from the curse of being a werewolf, Gregor Russoff attempts to use the Darkhold spells in his diary to free the arch-demon. However, the spectral Magnus possesses Russoff and forces him to read the Darkhold’s Ritual of Banishment, sending Chthon back to his pocket dimension. At the last moment, Chthon lashes out with a magical blast, killing Russoff. Magnus returns to Jonathan Drew’s body and buries Gregor Russoff on Wundagore Mountain. With the threat of Chthon ended, Magnus takes Drew back to England before departing for the astral plane.

As soon as she is able, Magda leaves her twins behind and flees into the night, never to be heard from again. Days later, Bob and Madeline Frank arrive at Wundagore Mountain, seeking a cure for Madeline’s illness from the High Evolutionary. Bova acts as midwife once again, but Madeline dies in childbirth, the result of her highly radioactive mutant baby, which is stillborn. Hoping to make some good out of this tragedy, Bova offers Magda’s twins to the grief-stricken Bob Frank, but he leaves Wundagore as fast as his superhuman speed can take him. Realizing the twin babies need a human family to nurture them, the High Evolutionary takes them to a gypsy camp at the foot of the mountain and charges Django Maximoff and his wife Marya to raise them as their own. Having lost their own twin children recently, the couple agrees.

Baroness Russoff is informed by an emissary from the High Evolutionary that her husband has died. The emissary presents Gregor’s diary to her, which she carries with her as she finally returns to Russoff Manor in Transylvania. Then, leaving the diary behind, she immediately travels to Castle Russoff, where she learns that her son Gregory is dead and the rest of the family has left for the United States. To her horror, Maria is accused by the local villagers of consorting with Satan to mother a werewolf. They stone her and drive her from the village, also preventing her from returning to Russoff Manor. Homeless and starving, Maria wanders the woods for weeks until she stumbles into a gypsy camp. The gypsies embrace her as one of their own. She subsequently spends over 15 years with them and studies the black arts of sorcery.

Jennifer Kale is born in Citrusville, Florida.

Phillip Masters causes an accident that kills Jacob Reiss. He marries Reiss’s widow, Marcia, and adopts his daughter Alicia, who then becomes Alicia Masters.

Logan is recruited into a black-ops unit and teamed up with Victor Creed, Silver Fox, and a handful of other agents.

One night while hitchhiking home from a concert, Sean Cassidy is rescued from a possible police beating by a university student named Maeve Rourke, They flee on Maeve’s motorcycle, but one of the policemen shoots out her back tire, sending the bike careening over the edge of a cliff. However, Sean uses his mutant powers to save their lives. Maeve is immediately attracted to Sean but also becomes smitten with Sean’s cousin Tom Cassidy, whom she meets later that night. Both Sean and Tom fall in love with her, but Maeve eventually chooses Sean as her lover.

Nathan Christopher Summers time-jumps from the distant future but finds he has overshot his destination by 25 years. With no means for further time-travel, he is forced to put his mission on hold and adjust to life in an age that seems very primitive to him. Using his advanced cyborg prosthetics, the young man soon becomes a successful soldier-of-fortune called Cable.

Still ostracized from the scientific community, Phineas T. Horton is forced to become a repairman to make ends meet. Horton starts living under the alias “Thomas Raye” when he becomes Frankie Raye’s stepfather.

With the outbreak of the Korean War, many of the former Howling Commandos re-enlist. They are reunited under Sergeant Nick Fury for a special mission. After they successfully destroy an enemy MIG base across the 38th parallel, Fury is promoted to Second Lieutenant.

Colonel Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross is reassigned from Los Alamos, New Mexico, to Korea. While there, Ross rises to the rank of general.

Harvard history professor Anthony Power is called in to advise President Truman on the war effort. He will go on to advise the next three presidents as well before dropping out of the public eye.

Roger Willis sees combat in Korea. His tour of duty ends when an injury leaves him with a steel plate in his skull.

Fu Manchu takes his young son Shang-Chi to Africa, where British agents have dealt another blow to his schemes. However, Fu Manchu takes an interest in an orphaned child named M’Nai, believing he can raise the boy to be an assassin. M’Nai is taken back to Honan, China, to be trained and educated alongside Shang-Chi.

On Uranus, Robert Grayson is given a pair of energy-manipulating wristbands that are a scaled-down version of Eon’s quantum bands. At the age of seventeen, Grayson travels back to Earth, where he battles crime and tries to spread the Uranian way of peace. Calling himself Marvel Boy, Grayson becomes the preeminent costumed crime-fighter of the time.

1951

As Stephen Strange begins his studies in the Ancient One’s remote retreat, the Chinese government forces Tibet to sign a treaty effectively annexing the country into the People’s Republic of China. Cut off from such affairs, Strange soon gets to know the Ancient One’s devoted manservant, called Hamir the Hermit, who looks after both master and disciples alike. Soon, Strange has his first encounter with the malevolent entity called Nightmare, who inhabits the Dream Dimension. It proves to be only the first of many such battles. Months later, Baron Mordo challenges the novice Strange to a mystic duel but is defeated. The humiliated Mordo is banished from the Ancient One’s temple, and he returns to his ancestral castle in Transylvania.

At the age of nineteen, Black Bolt, son of the Inhumans’ ruler, is allowed to leave the soundproof chamber in which he has lived since he was an infant. Around this same time, the alien Kree renew their interest in the Inhumans. Black Bolt’s brother Maximus begins secret negotiations with Kree agents. A month after he is permitted to re-enter society, Black Bolt discovers his brother’s treachery and uses his powers to stop the Kree agents before they can escape. However, the Kree spy ship crashes into the laboratory where his parents, Agon and Rynda, are working, killing them. The reverberations from the hypersonic shout also cause Maximus to lose his sanity. Black Bolt is named the new ruler of the Inhumans. Maximus vows to one day destroy his brother and seize the throne.

Charles Xavier enlists in the army to fight in the Korean War. He finds himself serving alongside Cain Marko. On patrol in the jungle, Marko disappears in a mysterious cave-in. Later, Xavier meets William Lonestar, a Cheyenne Indian. They grow close and eventually become blood brothers. Xavier also meets Air Force intelligence operative Michael Rossi.

Nick Fury aids French intelligence as a spy in Vietnam, actions which help him earn the rank of Colonel. His spy work helps him get a position in the Central Intelligence Agency and he quickly rises to be a top operative.

Tony Stark, who has developed his genius-level talent as an inventor, enrolls in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of fifteen.

Sam Wilson witnesses his father, Reverend Paul Wilson, being knifed in the back while trying to stop a fight between two Harlem street gangs. Rev. Wilson bleeds to death in an alley, leaving young Sam traumatized. Sam then becomes very active at his church, trying to fill the void left by his father’s death.

The Crimson Commando, Stonewall, and Super Sabre offer their services to the American government as agents against Communist aggression. However, the government declines their request and persuades them to retire from crime-fighting.

RCMP officer Louis Martin and his wife are killed in an accident. Their adopted son, Jean-Paul, is placed in a foster home.

The High Evolutionary revives Jessica Drew from suspended animation. As before, she has no memory of her previous life. He assigns Bova to be her nanny until she is placed back in stasis following a year of treatments.

After rescuing Kevin Plunder from a pterosaur, Zabu is caught in one of Maa-Gor’s tiger traps. Maa-Gor decides to adopt Kevin and takes him back to his encampment, where he trains him in the use of a spear. Maa-Gor then forces Kevin to impale a bound prisoner from a rival tribe, killing him. Learning that Zabu is still alive, Maa-Gor tries to make Kevin kill the tiger, but Kevin rebels, destroys the trap, and stabs Maa-Gor in the foot. Kevin and Zabu then make their way back to their misty refuge.

Jericho Drumm graduates from college and enrolls in medical school, intent on becoming a psychiatrist.

Alvin, Celestia, and Barbara Denton start spending their summer vacations in Vermont.

Jacqueline Falsworth marries British nobleman Lord Crichton and soon gives birth to their son Kenneth.

Jacob Marks and Marjorie Seaton are married, and she comes to live at his farm outside Clairton, West Virginia. Although she has her heart set on having a baby, he is reluctant to sire children, uncertain of what kind of hybrid would result from the union of a human and a Dire Wraith.

The American government begins construction of the Alley, a huge network of tunnels underneath the island of Manhattan, for use by the military in case of nuclear war. These tunnels are only kept operational for a few years and will later be abandoned.

Maintaining radio contact with Uranus, Marvel Boy learns that his father has become ill and the Uranians, unfamiliar with the illness that afflicts his body, cannot treat him. Unable to get a bank loan to purchase medical supplies, Marvel Boy faces a significant delay while he raises the funds he needs. Meanwhile, the conceptual being Deathurge, sensing the Uranians’ desire for self-obliteration, appears at their colony. The Uranians give him permission to end their existence, and so Deathurge destroys the life-dome covering the Uranian colony. Exposure to the planet’s environment kills Matthew Grayson and weakens the Eternals to the point that Deathurge can slay them. When Marvel Boy finally arrives, he discovers the dead bodies of his father and the Uranians. Driven insane with grief, Marvel Boy salvages the quantum bands from the rubble, puts them on his wrists, and sets a course back to Earth to seek vengeance on the bank manager who had refused his loan application. However, on the return journey, Marvel Boy’s spaceship passes through the tail of comet. Exposed to an unknown form of radiation, Marvel Boy is thrown into suspended animation, and the ship slows to the point that it will take 15 years to reach Earth.

Peter Rasputin is born on the Ust-Ordynski Collective in Siberia to Nikolai and Alexandra Rasputin.

1952

Charles Xavier is wounded in combat, but William Lonestar saves his life. Xavier is sent to a military hospital. During this time, Moira MacTaggert is sexually assaulted by her husband Joe, putting her in the hospital. Learning she is pregnant, Moira breaks off her relationship with Charles Xavier. After recovering from his injuries, the heartbroken Xavier goes to live on the Greek island of Kirinos.

Matt Murdock is blinded in a traffic accident when he is hit in the face with radioactive waste.

Natasha Romanova competes in the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, as a member of the Soviet women’s gymnastics team. After returning from Helsinki, she falls madly in love with a brilliant college student named Andrei Rostov, and it is to him that she loses her virginity. Natasha struggles to make time in her hectic ballet school schedule for their relationship.

Sean Cassidy graduates from Trinity College in Dublin with a Bachelor of Science and soon becomes a detective with the international law-enforcement organization Interpol.

Logan and his black-ops team are sent to Egypt during the Egyptian Revolution, earning them the enmity of both the CIA and the KGB.

Officer Craig “Crash” Simpson gives up his day job as a motorcycle cop to join his old Army buddy Barton Blaze in a traveling stunt cycle show. However, Barton Blaze is killed attempting a spectacular leap, leaving his son Johnny an orphan. The Simpson family takes the traumatized Johnny in and raises him alongside their daughter Roxanne.

While fighting in Korea, Curt Connors loses his right arm to a grenade. After returning home, he decides to pursue a career in herpetology, hoping to discover a means of growing his arm back.

Richard Rider is born in Queens, New York, to Charles and Gloria Rider.

Xi’an Coy Manh is born alongside her twin brother Tran in Vietnam.

1953

Reed Richards attends Columbia University and stays in a boarding house run by Susan Storm’s aunt. Sue falls in love with the much older Reed, to his great embarrassment.

Bruce Banner graduates from college and starts graduate school at the California Institute of Technology.

During the summer, Tony Stark falls in love for the first time, to Meredith McCall, the daughter of one of his father’s main competitors. The rival fathers forbid the match, and the young lovers are forced apart. Tony is sent on a grand tour of Europe before returning to MIT, and he and Meredith lose all contact with each other.

Donald Blake graduates from medical school with top honors and secures an internship at Bellevue Hospital, where his keen instincts and sincere desire to aid humanity make him popular with patients and staff alike. His level of surgical skill quickly surpasses that of his peers.

Matt Murdock begins working with a crusty old martial arts master known only as Stick, who is also blind. As they train, Stick helps Matt develop a “radar sense” that gives him full awareness of his physical surroundings despite his lack of eyesight. Additionally, Stick teaches Matt how to take his gymnastic abilities to a much higher level and trains him in a variety of fighting techniques. Matt proves to be as adept at these studies as with his book-learning, but being naturally introverted, he discusses his new abilities with no one other than Stick.

Natalia Romanova graduates and becomes a professional ballerina in the famous Kirov Ballet company, garnering accolades for her gifted performances. She quickly becomes a source of pride to the Soviet establishment and a celebrity in the world of ballet.

Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov is contacted by two men he believes to be American agents, who attempt to bribe him into defecting to the West, arguing that Stalin’s recent death heralds the end of Communism. Ivan throws the money in their faces and says he is loyal to his country, despite its flaws. In retaliation, the agents murder Ivan’s wife and abduct his son, whom Ivan eventually decides must be dead as well. In truth, the “American agents” are Soviet military intelligence, and they take Yuri to an installation in East Berlin, where he is brought up to hate his “American” captors and all they seem to represent.

In the summer, Logan’s black-ops team is sent on a mission to Cuba, where they discover information about the CIA’s relationship with Fidel Castro that could prove embarrassing to the United States government.

When unscrupulous Dutch scientist Ulysses Klaw invades Wakanda to steal vibranium, he is confronted by the tribal chieftain T’Chaka. Klaw’s heavily-armed mercenaries gun down T’Chaka and his men, but the villains are driven off in defeat when the teenaged Prince T’Challa attacks them with their own sonic disruptor weapon. In the aftermath of this tragedy, T’Challa is sent abroad to complete his education at the finest universities of Europe and America, accompanied by his best friend B’Tumba. In the meantime, B’Tumba’s father, N’Baza, takes up the mantle of the Black Panther and rules Wakanda as regent.

Carol Danvers enlists in the United States Air Force. After basic training, she is assigned to the intelligence division, where Colonel Michael Rossi takes her under his wing. Their first mission together is to Berlin.

A test of an atomic bomb in the Nevada desert bathes the Human Torch with radiation and frees him from the paralysis which has afflicted him for four years. After unearthing himself, the Torch tracks down Toro, finding him being used by the communists to blow up American ammo dumps in Korea. His powers augmented by the nuclear blast, the Torch easily overcomes Toro and returns him to America, where his mental conditioning is broken. Overjoyed to be reunited, the Human Torch and Toro resume their crime-fighting crusade.

During the Korean War, an American history teacher, obsessed with hero worship for the original Captain America (whom he correctly believes to have disappeared before the end of World War II) discovers the formula for the super-soldier serum in a Nazi spy’s notebook. Going to the American government, he offers to become the next Captain America in exchange for the serum. The government agrees, hoping to have a patriotic symbol to fight in the Korean War. This man then learns the original Captain America’s true identity, and wanting to convince people that he is the original, he undergoes plastic surgery to look as much like Steve Rogers as possible. Shortly after, however, the project is cancelled when the Korean War comes to an end. This new “Steve Rogers,” as the history teacher is now legally known, starts teaching at the Lee School in New York City. There he meets Jack Monroe, a teenager who shares his obsession with Captain America and Bucky. The two become friends and Monroe acquires Captain America and Bucky costumes for them. However, Rogers at first refuses to don the costume.

Brian Falsworth, the second Union Jack, dies in a car crash.

Despite his reputation as the best surgeon in Canada, Michael Twoyoungmen is unable to save his wife from a terminal illness. Upon her death, their daughter Elizabeth vents her grief upon her father, seeing his failure as a betrayal. Going into a profound depression, Twoyoungmen leaves his daughter in the care of his neighbors Ramsey and Claire McNeil and retreats to a remote cabin in the wilderness.

Upon graduation from college, Walter Langkowski is drafted to play professional football for the Green Bay Packers.

A Plodex egg, which has drifted across the Atlantic Ocean for millennia, is discovered underwater by Newfoundland fisherman Thomas Smallwood. His wife Gladys forces the egg open, and upon contact with human DNA the Plodex within assumes a humanoid shape. Thomas and Gladys adopt the half-alien infant and name it Marrina. Because of the damage done to the egg when the Plodex ship crashed on Earth, Marrina grows up with none of her race’s aggressiveness and is treated as a normal human girl. Despite her physical differences, the residents of the small fishing community come to accept her.

Richard Easton, an archaeologist’s assistant working in Resolute Bay, Northwest Territories, discovers a long-buried metal headband. Later that night, Easton feels a compulsion to put on the headband, and when he does so, a vision of Nelvanna, Hodiak, and Turoq—three of the Inuit gods—appears before him. Nelvanna informs Easton that she plans to mate with him. She tells Easton that she needs to give birth to a child that is half human and thus not affected by the barrier which prevents the Inuit gods from physically appearing on Earth. Overwhelmed by Nelvanna’s beauty, Easton is mystically transported to the gods’ realm.

The Inhumans begin to fear discovery of their island of Attilan by the human race. Black Bolt’s aquatic cousin Triton is assigned to monitor oceangoing traffic. However, when Triton is briefly captured by human sailors, Black Bolt decides to relocate the entire city and searches the world for a suitable site. Black Bolt encounters Ikaris the Eternal and accompanies him to Olympia to meet Zuras. Learning of the Inhumans’ plight, Zuras decides to aid Black Bolt in finding a new location for Attilan. In the Himalayas, the Eternals use their powers to excavate an enormous pit and then use anti-gravity generators to float the Inhumans’ city to its new home.

Shortly after Attilan is moved from the Atlantic to the Himalayas, the exiled Inhuman Phaeder and his son Maelstrom discover traces of Terrigen Mist on the abandoned island. They set up a base and begin conducting their own experiments on Terrigen, genetic engineering, and cloning.

The Enclave makes a number of scientific breakthroughs. However, their major goal is to discover a process by which to create artificial life so that a slave race could be engineered to fight their wars of conquest. The Enclave labors on this problem for the next ten years.

Tyrone Johnson is born in South Boston, Massachusetts.

John Walker is born in Custer’s Grove, Georgia, to Caleb and Emily Walker.

Lemar Hoskins is born in Chicago, Illinois.

Kevin MacTaggert is born to Moira MacTaggert in Scotland.

1954

Ben Grimm returns to New York City to visit his Uncle Jake, who has been badly injured in a car crash that killed Aunt Alyce. Ben is disturbed to find that Jake is consumed with bitterness and remorse but sees that he’s being well cared for by an attractive young nurse named Petunia.

Tony Stark graduates from MIT and goes to work for his father at Stark Industries.

Donald Blake enters a six-year residency program in neurosurgery, where he soon proves his aptitude, developing an excellent reputation that would be the envy of more experienced surgeons.

Clint Barton and his brother Barney run away from the state orphanage and join a traveling carnival. There, Clint apprentices himself to the carnival’s star attraction, the Swordsman, who is secretly the international criminal Jacques Duquesne. For eight hours every day for four years, the Swordsman trains Clint in the use of bladed weapons while another of the carnival’s performers, Buck Chisholm, a.k.a. Trick Shot, trains him in archery.

Natasha Romanova’s relationship with Andrei Rostov becomes strained as he has difficulty dealing with her newfound fame. Although they had talked of marriage, Rostov insists Natasha give up the ballet to be his wife, which she is unwilling to do. Rostov becomes jealous after Natasha develops a friendship with the handsome Soviet flying ace Alexi Shostakov, who is already considered a hero to the Russian people and understands the pressures of being famous. Ultimately, Natasha breaks up with Rostov and takes Shostakov as her lover.

While at summer camp, Peter Parker is bullied to the point where he loses control and attacks six of his tormentors, fighting them so savagely that the camp counselors have to pull him away from the other boys. Afterwards, as he struggles to calm down, Peter is terrified of the rage within him and the violence he is capable of when it is unleashed.

Christopher and Katherine Anne Summers are kidnapped by the Shi’ar, an alien race from a distant galaxy. Their sons, Scott and Alex, are sent to an orphanage in Omaha, Nebraska. Alex is soon placed in a foster home, but Scott, due to injuries sustained during the kidnapping, remains at the orphanage.

Ororo Munro is also orphaned in Cairo, Egypt, when an airplane crashes into her house.

Sam Wilson and his sister Sarah witness their mother being gunned down in an alley by a mugger. Sam is further traumatized and begins creating an alternate personality as a tough, streetwise delinquent called “Snap.”

Johnny Blaze finally overcomes his fear of motorcycles and begins learning stunt-riding techniques alongside Roxanne. He dreams of one day taking over the show after “Crash” Simpson retires.

Rejecting his father’s wish that he enroll in a theological seminary, Marc Spector instead pursues a career in boxing. When his father learns of Marc’s activities, he interrupts a bout to plead with his son to turn away from a life of violence. Instead, Marc punches his father and knocks him to the mat. The next day, Marc leaves home and joins the Marines. The father and son will never speak to each other again.

With the death of his wife, General Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross sends his daughter Betty off to boarding school, believing a military base is not a proper environment for a teenage girl.

John Jameson graduates from high school and joins the Air Force.

Newspaper reporter Ben Urich starts covering the police beat for the Daily Bugle.

Alvin Denton buys a large summer home for his family on the outskirts of Cobbler’s Roost, Vermont.

Dr. Myron MacLain finally perfects the formula for his enhanced steel, creating the nearly indestructible alloy he calls adamantium.

Lord Dark Wind arranges for the theft of the adamantium formula from the American government and then begins experimenting on a process to bond adamantium to bone in order to create his own army of super-warriors.

Norman Osborn comes to prominence after stealing the research of Professor Mendel Stromm. When Stromm tries to stop him, Osborn arranges for Stromm to be sent to prison for ten years.

Rogue is born in Mississippi.

Tandy Bowen is born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, to Nathan Tyler and Melissa Bowen.

Vance Astrovik is born in Saugerties, New York, to Arnold and Norma Astrovik.

James Proudstar is born in Camp Verde, Arizona, to Neal and Maria Proudstar.

Jimmy Marks, a hybrid of human and Dire Wraith, is born at his parents’ farm outside Clairton, West Virginia. His father, Jacob, is relieved that Jimmy appears to be a normal human boy. His mother, Marjorie, remains unaware of her husband and son’s extraterrestrial nature.

1955

Reed Richards graduates from Columbia and returns to his father’s research complex in Central City, California. Unknown to Reed, his father is engaged in a secret project to build a time machine and is working in collaboration with Victor von Doom.

Mary Storm dies in a car accident.

Charles Xavier travels to Cairo, Egypt and has a run-in with Ororo Munro, now a pickpocket. He then fights a psychic duel with the evil telepath Amahl Farouk, current host to a malevolent entity known as the Shadow King. Xavier triumphs, leaving Farouk dead and the Shadow King trapped on the astral plane.

Natasha Romanova marries Alexi Shostakov and they become something of a celebrity couple. As Natalia Shostakova, she continues to delight audiences with the Kirov Ballet, though she remains haunted by her wartime experiences.

The communist Red Skull holds hostage a number of foreign delegates at the United Nations building in New York. When a news report announces the return of the Red Skull, “Steve Rogers” and Jack Monroe decide to take the super-soldier serum. However, because they do not undergo the same “vita-ray” treatment as the original Steve Rogers, the serum will have a detrimental effect on their sanity. Donning their costumes, the fourth Captain America and the third Bucky go after the second Red Skull and defeat him. The two friends then become active crime-fighters, mainly concentrating on communist spies.

Matt Murdock enrolls in Columbia University and meets his roommate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. Matt soon meets fellow student Elektra Natchios, daughter of a Greek ambassador, and they become lovers.

The radiation which had freed the Human Torch from his paralysis is causing him to lose control over his powers. Realizing that he is probably dying, the Human Torch says goodbye to Toro and returns to the desert in the American southwest. There, the Torch attempts suicide by overloading his solar cells in a single powerful burst. However, he is merely rendered inert rather than being destroyed. His body falls to the desert floor and is soon covered by the drifting sands. A disheartened Toro retires from crime-fighting and forswears ever using his powers again. He will eventually marry a woman named Ann and lead a relatively normal life for several years.

Civil war comes to Attilan after Maximus turns three Alpha Primitives into super-intelligent energy beings known collectively as the Trikon. Together they wrest the throne from Black Bolt and drive him into exile, along with Gorgon, Karnak, Triton, and Crystal. During the battle, Medusa becomes separated from the others and, suffering from total amnesia, is lost in the Himalayas. The rest of the Inhumans are forced to serve the usurper Maximus.

The High Evolutionary brings Jessica Drew out of suspended animation. Bova again cares for the amnesiac girl during her year-long regimen of treatments in the genetic accelerator. Jessica then returns to her cryogenic chamber.

Topaz, now orphaned, is found in a prison camp by the sorcerer Taboo. Impressed by her superhuman psychic abilities, Taboo directs her to turn her powers on the guards, enabling them to walk out of the camp unscathed. Recognizing her vast potential, he takes Topaz under his wing and trains her to serve as his familiar.

Daniel Drumm becomes the Houngan Supreme of Haiti.

The CIA sets up a clandestine operation to recreate the super-soldier program of World War II, using as a cover the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pest Control Section. The operation is code-named Weapon X. Using a front organization, the project secures the cooperation of the Canadian government. They target Logan’s black-ops team as potential test subjects.

Sam Guthrie is born in Cumberland, Kentucky, to Thomas and Lucinda Guthrie.

Danielle Moonstar is born in Boulder, Colorado, to William and Peg Lonestar. Charles Xavier is present for her christening and meets William’s father, the shaman Black Eagle.

Meggan is born near Fenborough in the north of England to gypsy parents. Her mutant shapeshifting powers cause her to grow fur to protect herself from the cold. Her frightened parents try to keep their strange baby hidden.

1956

Susan Storm graduates from Glenville High School and works various modeling jobs in and around New York City. She keeps in touch with Reed Richards, although he is working obsessively on his research projects.

Suffering from schizophrenic paranoia and on the verge of mental breakdown, the latest Captain America and Bucky start attacking not only suspected communist sympathizers but also African Americans and anyone else they consider not to be “pure-blooded” Americans. The FBI learns of their attacks on innocent people and arrests the pair, exposing them as impostors to the public. Rogers and Monroe both refuse to undergo psychiatric treatment and are sentenced to prison, but due to their super-strength, they end up being placed in cryogenic storage.

Matt Murdock fails to rescue Ambassador Hugo Natchios from a group of terrorists. With her father dead, Elektra drops out of Columbia University and leaves the United States.

Magnus is volunteering at a psychiatric hospital for Holocaust survivors in Haifa, Israel when he meets Charles Xavier. As they get to know each other, Magnus begins to suspect that Xavier is a mutant like himself, and his suspicions are confirmed when the hospital is attacked by the terrorist group HYDRA. The HYDRA agents, led by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, are seeking a fortune in Nazi gold. Magnus and Xavier follow them to Kenya to rescue their friend Gabrielle Haller, who knows the secret of the gold’s whereabouts. Using their mutant powers, Magnus and Xavier defeat Strucker and his men, but Magnus then takes all the gold for himself. Seeing that the spirit of the Nazis lives on, Magnus begins to plot the overthrow of Homo sapiens in favor of mutants like himself.

Moira MacTaggert receives her doctorate in genetics and establishes her Mutant Research Centre on Muir Isle, off the coast of Scotland.

Sean Cassidy rises to the rank of inspector at Interpol. Shortly afterwards, he is assigned to a mission that will keep him from communicating with his wife Maeve for a year. Unbeknownst to both of them, Maeve is pregnant at the time of Sean’s departure. In due course, Maeve gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Theresa. Deep undercover, Sean remains unaware of these events.

Having earned a fortune, Walter Langkowski retires from sports to pursue a Ph.D. in nuclear physics.

After rescuing Crystal from a superstitious mob in Central Europe, Gorgon decides to return to Attilan to negotiate terms to end the royal family’s exile. There, he learns that his father was killed while leading a revolt. He swears vengeance on the killer, known as the Seeker. Maximus then sends Gorgon back to Black Bolt and the others with orders to find Medusa and bring her home. The Seeker follows, keeping a surreptitious eye on the royal family during their quest.

Still suffering from amnesia, Medusa eventually makes her way to Paris, France, where she falls in with a jewel thief named Paul Dumas. They become partners-in-crime and are wildly successful thanks to Medusa’s prehensile hair.

Harris Moore encounters a mysterious gaseous entity that endows him with superhuman powers. He adopts the costumed identity of the Comet and finds fame as New York’s only active superhero.

Namora is murdered by Llyra, who wants Prince Merro for herself. Following a whirlwind romance, Llyra and Prince Merro are wed, but after he ascends the throne, he dies under mysterious circumstances. Llyra then takes control of the tiny kingdom. Namorita suspects Llyra of murder but has no proof.

Shang-Chi and M’Nai become good friends after fighting their first kung fu duel. One of their classmates disappears after claiming that Fu Manchu is a villain rather than a humanitarian, but Shang-Chi does not suspect his father of foul play.

The Yellow Claw enters into an agreement with the Red Chinese government under which he would be lavishly rewarded for undermining Western democracies. However, the criminal mastermind actually plans to use the Communists’ resources to conquer the world for himself. The Chinese then smuggle the Yellow Claw and his grandniece Suwan into California, where they form an alliance with the escaped Nazi war criminal Karl von Horstbaden, a.k.a. Fritz Voltzmann. FBI agent Jimmy Woo is assigned the task of bringing the Yellow Claw to justice. Despite foiling a number of nefarious schemes, Woo is unable to apprehend the villains, though he and Suwan manage to fall in love with each other.

Godzilla is awakened from suspended animation by a nuclear weapons test. The sole survivor of the creature’s initial attack is Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi, who dedicates his life to studying and understanding the monster he believes himself responsible for creating. In the midst of Godzilla’s first rampage through Tokyo, the scientist’s grandson Rob Takiguchi is born. Godzilla wanders Japan for several years, causing widespread destruction, until mysteriously disappearing.

J. Jonah Jameson launches a newspaper crusade against professional wrestler Maxwell Markham, whom he claims is too brutally violent for decent society. As a result, Markham’s career is destroyed. Later, Jameson hires Ian Fate, a journalism student fresh out of college, to work at the Daily Bugle.

CIA agents S.J. North and George C. Cooper inadvertently cause the sinking of the ocean liner Andrea Doria.

Marvel Comics begins publishing Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, based on the real-life exploits of Nick Fury’s famous WWII squad.

Kitty Pryde is born in Deerfield, Illinois, to Carmen and Theresa Pryde.

Doug Ramsey is born to Phillip and Sheila Ramsey.

Amara Aquilla is born in Nova Roma within the Amazon jungle to Senator Lucius Antonius Aquilla and his wife.

Danny Ketch is born in New York City.

Eugene Patilio is born in New York City to Vincent and Rosie Patilio.

Rusty Collins is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Gabrielle Haller gives birth to Charles Xavier’s child, whom she names David Haller.

1957

Nathaniel Richards succeeds in building his time machine and mysteriously disappears, leaving his son Reed some two billion dollars, with which he initiates his long-anticipated starship project, setting it up at the family labs in Central City, California. Reed secures federal funding as well.

Victor von Doom has built a copy of the time machine for himself and uses it to study the great conquerors of history, including a stop in 1942 to observe Adolf Hitler in person.

Franklin Storm is convicted of manslaughter and imprisoned.

Charles Xavier travels to Tibet and encounters an extraterrestrial being calling himself Lucifer. During their confrontation, Lucifer cripples Xavier and escapes. Utterly defeated, Xavier finally returns home to Salem Center, NY to become a recluse and study genetics, beginning to publish his research again.

Jean Grey’s telepathic powers manifest themselves when her friend Annie Richardson is hit by a car and dies in Jean’s arms. As a result, Jean shuns all human contact.

In response to the growing threat posed by HYDRA, the government’s clandestine 12-member council is charged with planning a new international security organization, which will eventually be christened S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division).

At the age of 21, Tony Stark inherits Stark Industries when his parents are killed in a car crash. His first major contract is to design and build a flying fortress that will be known as the Helicarrier, a project that will take several years. In the meantime, Stark will develop his company into a multimillion-dollar business with contracts to supply weapons and munitions to various agencies of the American government.

KGB director Ivan Serov decides that the Shostakovs would make excellent operatives. Natasha is told that her husband has been killed in an explosion caused by American sabotage. She vows to do whatever she can to honor her husband’s heroic memory. The KGB recruits her to be a spy. She retires from the ballet, bids farewell to Ivan Petrovich, and leaves Leningrad. At the KGB’s infamous Red Room training facility, Natasha meets another agent-in-training, Melina Vostokova. Although they first develop a friendly rivalry, it soon becomes clear that Melina can’t match Natasha’s natural talent. Recognizing that talent, master spy Alexi Bruskin takes Natasha under his wing and supervises her training personally. In time, Natasha receives advanced training from top agent Irma Klausvichnova. Meanwhile, Alexei Shostakov is told that his wife has died and begins a rigorous training program to turn him into the costumed hero known as the Red Guardian.

Bobbi Morse enrolls in a Ph.D. program in biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she meets Dr. Wilma Calvin.

Maeve Cassidy is killed by a terrorist bomb while visiting relatives in Northern Ireland. Baby Theresa is taken in by her father’s cousin Tom, a mercenary. When Sean Cassidy finally returns from his undercover assignment, he is informed of his wife’s death, but to spare him further pain, his family decides not to tell him of Theresa’s existence, since she is presumed to have died as well. When Sean nearly cripples Tom during a fight at Maeve’s grave, Tom vows to never reveal that Sean has a living daughter. Tom rechristens the girl Theresa Rourke, after her mother’s maiden name, and claims she is a foundling.

Disgusted by the impostor Captain America and Bucky, Fred Davis publishes a book that reveals the true story of the life and death of Bucky Barnes, as well as explaining about the second and third Captain America and the disappearance of the original.

Carl Lucas and his friend Willis Stryker, both small-time crooks in Harlem, fall for the same girl, Reva Connors. However, as Stryker has made money as a racketeer, he proves a more successful suitor, until he receives a savage beating from enforcers for the Maggia. Terrified, Connors breaks off her relationship with Stryker and starts seeing Lucas, who is trying to go straight. Stryker vows to get revenge on Lucas for stealing his girl.

Wendell Rand takes his family to the Himalayas in search of K’un-Lun, which he has described only as a mystical land. They are accompanied by his business partner, Harold Meachum. However, while traveling through the mountains, Rand’s son Danny falls from a treacherous mountain passage, dragging his mother and father with him. Although Danny and Heather land safely on a ledge below, Wendell hangs precariously from the edge of the mountain. Meachum, wishing to obtain complete control over their business, ignores Rand’s pleas for help and instead causes him to fall to his death. Seeing what Meachum has done, Heather and Danny spurn his offer of aid and instead attempt to make their way back to their camp on their own. Later, while fleeing from a pack of wolves, Heather and Danny stumble upon the portal to K’un-Lun. As Danny races across the bridge to the city, Heather sacrifices herself to the wolves to give her son a chance to make it to safety. Danny is then brought before Yü-Ti, who chooses not to reveal that he is the boy’s uncle. As the son of Wendell Rand, Danny is the rightful ruler of K’un-Lun, but Yü-Ti is unwilling to relinquish his reign. Thus, he has Danny apprenticed to Lei Kung the Thunderer to learn the martial arts, hoping that Danny’s desire for revenge on Harold Meachum will eventually lead him to return to Earth. Danny’s arrival in K’un-Lun is witnessed by a Tibetan monk, Da Tempa, who is visiting the extradimensional realm on the day the portal is open. He then returns home full of hope that Danny Rand may one day claim the mantle of the Iron Fist.

Harold Meachum gets lost while hiking out of the mountains and collapses into the snow. He is rescued by some local Sherpas and taken to a house in the Katmandu Valley. Due to severe frostbite, both of Meachum’s legs must be amputated above the knee. While he is recovering, the Tibetan monk Da Tempa visits the house, bringing tales of his visit to K’un-Lun. Meachum is shocked to hear that the warrior monks there have taken in a young American boy whose parents were lost in the mountains and have begun training him in the martial arts. Meachum becomes convinced that Danny Rand will return to seek vengeance when K’un-Lun reappears in ten years’ time.

When the Comet’s secret identity is discovered by New York’s criminal underworld, an assassin blows up the Moore family’s house, killing the hero’s wife and daughter. Harris Moore is severely injured, and while recovering in the hospital, he decides to abandon his superhero career. Unaware that his son, Frank, has survived, Moore becomes a drunken bum living on the streets of Manhattan. Frank is placed in foster care and eventually swears to take vengeance on the underworld.

Chemist Ted Sallis initiates a research project at Empire State University to develop a serum that would alter human biochemistry to survive even the most toxic industrial pollution. The project soon receives the full backing of the United States military and is classified top-secret and code-named Operation: Sulfur.

Fu Manchu finally introduces Shang-Chi to his half-sister, Fah Lo Suee. While speaking privately, Fah Lo Suee begins trying to undermine Shang-Chi’s belief that their father is a great humanitarian. A few months later, Shang-Chi is shocked by a brutal combat between three members of Fu Manchu’s organization and a stranger calling himself Tiger-Claw, who shows up unannounced and demands a position of authority. Fu Manchu watches impassively as Tiger-Claw kills his three opponents, then welcomes the stranger into his organization. Later, Fu Manchu admits to Shang-Chi that he is sometimes forced to resort to brutal methods, blaming it on his ruthless enemies.

Hounded by Jimmy Woo, the Yellow Claw returns to China and goes into hiding. Frustrated by Suwan’s repeated betrayals but unwilling to kill his only living relative, the Yellow Claw places her in suspended animation so she cannot interfere in any more of his schemes.

Facing extinction, living robots on the planet Protaris create a series of artificial humanoids in an attempt to preserve their cultural heritage. The most fully biological unit is sent to live on Earth under the name James-Michael Starling. The boy is raised by android parents at a secluded house in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Roberto da Costa is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Emmanuel and Nina da Costa.

Rahne Sinclair is born in Scotland and soon orphaned.

1958

While test-flying a prototype F-4 Phantom, a mechanical failure causes Ben Grimm to crash. He is trapped in the burning wreckage until being rescued by his best friend, fellow test pilot Desmond Pitt. Later in the year, Pitt takes a position at NASA and he and Grimm start to lose touch.

Bruce Banner accepts a job with the United States Defense Department, working at the research station at Desert Base, New Mexico. There he begins work on the top-secret development of an experimental nuclear weapon called the gamma bomb. His project is supervised by General Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross, and Banner soon meets the general’s introverted daughter Betty.

Logan encounters Eugene Judd during a mission to Venezuela and is shocked by Judd’s physical transformation. Though they are working for opposing sides, they maintain their mutual respect.

A child psychiatrist refers Jean Grey to Charles Xavier, based on his past success with patients like Gabrielle Haller. He helps Jean suppress her telepathic abilities and begins training her in the use of her telekinetic powers. He encourages her to keep her abilities a secret.

Stephen Strange, now a master of the mystic arts, finally returns to New York and establishes his Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village. Near the end of the year, Wong shows up at his door, saying he has been sent to be Strange’s manservant, just as his father, Hamir, served the Ancient One.

Natasha Shostakova is sent on her first espionage mission outside the U.S.S.R. She meets an operative named Danny French at Los Angeles International Airport. They break into a secret installation in Nevada called Project Four. Their mission is a success, and they steal a mysterious sphere which the scientists had been working on. Natasha is then sent to upstate New York where she lives under the alias “Nancy Rushman,” a third-grade teacher. She succeeds with every mission the KGB gives her during the three years of this assignment.

The hard-drinking Logan is slipped a powerful drug by the CIA that causes him to accidentally shoot a firing range worker in the head. The subsequent investigation reveals “self-destructive tendencies” and a “morbid obsession with mutants,” and he is cashiered from the intelligence service. Depressed, Logan visits his friend Bando in Japan, and they participate in an elaborate tea ceremony.

Wishing to distance himself from painful associations, Sean Cassidy resigns from Interpol and leaves the UK to become a freelance operative. He eventually settles in the United States and begins working for the New York City police department.

Carl Lucas is arrested when police find two kilos of uncut heroin in his apartment, though the drugs were planted there by Willis Stryker. Lucas is unable to convince anyone of his innocence and is sentenced to twenty years in prison. Shortly afterward, Reva Connors is killed in a drive-by shooting as a drug-trafficking ring tries to eliminate Stryker. Lucas vows to avenge Connors’s death.

While on a research expedition in northern India, Professor Lee Wing unearths the mystic tome known as the Sacred Volume of Kali. That very night, an assassin from the Cult of Kara-Kai tries to kill Wing and retrieve the book, but Wing shoots him dead with his revolver. Learning that the book is believed to contain the means of destroying the fabled city of K’un-Lun, Wing decides he must keep the book safe until he can translate its ancient script. Thus, he hikes out of India through a lonely mountain pass in the Himalayas, where he comes upon the Tibetan monk Da Tempa, who has been mortally wounded in a rockslide. Before dying, Da Tempa tells Wing of his recent visit to K’un-Lun and of Danny Rand and his quest for vengeance against Harold Meachum. Intrigued, Wing decides to try to track Danny down when he reappears in nine years.

Kyle Richmond enrolls in Grayburn University, despite his poor academic record, thanks to his father's wealth and influence.

Tandy Bowen’s father leaves his wife and child and travels to India to seek spiritual enlightenment.

Despite having become fabulously wealthy, Medusa is troubled by her lost past, which leads her to reject Paul Dumas’s sexual advances and dissolve their partnership. As a result, Dumas betrays her to the French police. Medusa escapes, only to run into Gorgon, though she doesn’t recognize him. Medusa flees from her cousin, eventually finding refuge on a small island in the Mediterranean Sea.

In India, Dracula attacks Taj Nital and his family. Nital puts up a valiant fight but is unable to prevent one of Dracula’s vampire servants from drinking his son’s blood. Another vampire cripples Nital’s wife as she’s attempting to flee. Dracula slashes Nital’s throat, leaving him mute, but is driven off by Rachel Van Helsing and her wooden crossbow bolts. Three days later, Nital’s son rises again as a vampire. His wife refuses to let the undead boy be destroyed, so Nital accompanies Van Helsing back to England, where he joins Quincy Harker’s band of vampire hunters.

Dracula moves east to China, where he encounters a man called Blade, who claims to represent a group willing to betray the human race to save themselves from the coming vampire apocalypse. Dracula is intrigued and follows Blade to the group’s hideout. Once they arrive, though, Blade and his four associates attack Dracula with wooden knives, driving them into his heart. However, while his assailants are out digging a grave, Dracula is resurrected by his vampire brides. He slays two of the men when they return, but Blade escapes. Dracula vows to track him down and kill him.

Air Force test pilot Chuck Chandler is killed when his experimental jet crashes in the desert after encountering a UFO. His younger brother, Hal Chandler, refuses to accept that Chuck is dead, though he finds solace in the arms of Chuck’s bereaved girlfriend, Peggy. Within a few years, Hal and Peggy are married.

Heather McNeil, wishing to support her large family, gets a job at the Am-Can Petro-Chemical Company in Edmonton, Alberta. McNeil becomes attracted to James MacDonald Hudson, an employee of Am-Can, though he is much older than her. Eventually, Hudson resigns from Am-Can when he learns that a high-tech geological exploration suit of his design is to be sold to the United States military. Hudson steals the exploration suit but keeps only the cybernetic helmet that operates it. McNeil, having also resigned from Am-Can, visits Hudson and discovers that he has the helmet, without which the suit is useless. Fearing criminal proceedings against him, Hudson goes to the Canadian government for help. The government declares that Hudson has been a “retroactive” employee of theirs for years and gives him immunity from prosecution. Hudson is then invited by the Canadian Prime Minister to help create Department H, a top-secret research and development agency within the Canadian Ministry of Defense. Hudson and McNeil get engaged, and she joins Department H as his secretary. Later, she glimpses reports on Hudson’s desk on a process to bond adamantium to bone, translated from the Japanese. McNeil dismisses the reports from her mind and does not recall them again for many years.

Logan returns to Canada and makes plans to finally go home to the Yukon. On the way, he is kidnapped from outside a bar and taken to a secret facility in Windsor, Ontario. The other members of his black-ops team are kidnapped as well and they are all subjected to a reprogramming process to erase their memories and replace them with implanted scenarios. However, Silver Fox manages to escape and goes into hiding. She eventually joins the subversive organization HYDRA.

Logan is transported to a secret research installation in Canada’s north woods, where he becomes a test subject for the Weapon X program. The scientists adapt Lord Dark Wind’s process to fuse adamantium to Logan’s entire skeleton, making it unbreakable. They also implant three bionic adamantium “claws” into each forearm, which he can extend through the backs of his hands. However, their attempts at mental conditioning fail and Logan escapes from the complex. Though free, Logan’s memory has been destroyed and his mind is shattered. Little more than a savage animal, he stalks off into the wilderness.

Logan encounters a fearsome creature known as the Hunter in Darkness and frees it from a bear trap. He draws off the men hunting the creature, but one of them shoots Logan in the chest. The wound quickly heals and Logan disappears into the night.

Angelica Jones is born to Bartholomew Jones and wife.

Kristy Watson is born to Louis and Sybil Watson.

Bora is born in the Soviet Union.

1959

Doctor Strange begins his new career as a Master of the Mystic Arts. He begins to build a reputation as an expert in the occult, occasionally helping the police with particularly mysterious cases but more often aiding individuals who seek him out. For the next three-and-a-half years, Doctor Strange develops his skills as a sorcerer and has adventures that remain shrouded in mystery. It is during this period that he first befriends the mystics Omar Karindu and Aleister Kane and makes an enemy of the minor sorcerer Cyrus Black.

Newlyweds James and Heather Hudson discover Logan, reduced to a feral state, while on their honeymoon in Wood Buffalo National Park. Heather helps Logan begin to regain a more stable mental state while her husband goes for medical help. After returning to civilization, the Hudsons continue to nurse Logan back to health, learning more about his mutant powers and adamantium claws. They work with Logan at Department H, where he receives psychiatric treatment.

Clint Barton begins to perform professionally as a trick marksman in a traveling carnival under the name Hawkeye the Marksman. He discovers his mentor the Swordsman is stealing from the carnival’s management to repay a large gambling debt. Clint flees in panic from his angry mentor. Chasing Clint onto the high-wire, the Swordsman cuts the rope out from under him, and Clint falls to the ground. The Swordsman is about to kill the severely injured youth when Trick Shot intervenes. Discovered by his brother Barney, Clint is rushed to the hospital. The Swordsman flees the country, returning to Europe. After several weeks, Clint is released from the hospital and resumes performing with the traveling carnival.

Kyle Richmond believes he has killed his girlfriend Mindy in a drunk-driving accident and allows himself to be expelled from Grayburn University. In truth, Mindy is only crippled, but Kyle’s father pays her a fortune to disappear. Rejected from military service due to a heart murmur, Kyle reluctantly takes over the family business after his father dies in a plane crash. He begins searching for a means to correct his heart murmur.

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier, extremely depressed over the harsh conditions she endures at DuPont’s School for Girls, attempts suicide by jumping off the school’s roof. Instead of plunging to her death, Jeanne-Marie’s mutant abilities emerge and she discovers that she can fly. Believing this to be a sign of divine intervention, she tells the school’s headmistress, Souer Anne, what has happened. Believing Jeanne-Marie to be speaking blasphemy, Souer Anne has the girl strictly punished. The anguish Jeanne-Marie experiences causes her to have a mental breakdown, triggering her multiple-personality disorder. Under the influence of a new persona, Jeanne-Marie leaves the school for three days, and when she returns, she has no memory of what happened. The further punishment she receives for leaving the school causes Jeanne-Marie to repress the new personality, and it will not re-emerge for some years.

Jean-Paul Martin’s mutant abilities also begin to develop. He discovers that with his enhanced speed, he has turned from a mediocre skier into a highly successful one. Concentrating on his skiing, Jean-Paul sets his sights on becoming a world champion.

Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson graduate from college and enroll in Columbia Law School to pursue their Juris Doctor degrees.

After repeated escape attempts and incessant brawling and insubordination, Carl Lucas is transferred to Seagate Prison, a maximum-security facility on an island off the coast of Georgia. Once there, he is subjected to brutal beatings by the racist guard Albert “Billy Bob” Rackham.

Jessica Drew is released from cryogenic stasis, finally cured of radiation poisoning. She has no memory of her past existence. The High Evolutionary pledges to raise her as his own daughter, but absorbed in his research, he leaves Jessica’s care and education primarily to Bova. Among the New Men of Wundagore, Jessica feels isolated and lonely.

Marc Spector is in Italy, running guns for the CIA, when his younger brother Randall sells him out to the Communists. Randall murders Marc’s lover, Lisa, and flees into the countryside. Marc soon hunts Randall down and almost kills him with a hand grenade. Randall goes mad while in the hospital and, three months later, kills a nurse and escapes. The brothers will not see each other again for ten years.

While practicing a pyrotechnic stunt, Johnny Blaze’s motorcycle catches fire, and he bravely rides it out of the canvas-enclosed arena before it can explode. However, blinded by the smoke, Johnny rides into a tree and crashes. His foster mother, Mona Simpson, rushes to his aid, only to be fatally wounded when the fire ignites the gas tank. At the hospital, the dying Mona extracts a promise from Johnny never to ride in the stunt show. After her funeral, Johnny refuses to get back on a motorcycle, leading Roxanne and her father to suspect that he is a coward.

Charles Xavier begins teaching genetics classes at Columbia University in New York. Then, he attends a genetics conference in Chicago where he meets veterinary student Shanna O’Hara. Xavier also begins collaborating with a physician, Karl Lykos, whom he initially believes to be a mutant. Xavier even discusses some of his ideas about a mutant taskforce with Lykos, but when he determines that Lykos is actually something he classifies as a “non-mutant variant,” Xavier gradually ends their association.

Shang-Chi meets Fah Lo Suee for the second time, and she continues trying to subvert their father’s teachings. She urges Shang-Chi to maintain his independence of spirit rather than allowing himself to be molded into one of Fu Manchu’s fanatical followers.

While visiting her Aunt Anna, Mary Jane Watson sees Peter Parker for the first time.

Back in Transylvania, Dracula plans to return to England to kill Quincy Harker, but before his final preparations can be made, a Scotsman invades his castle, intent on getting revenge for the recent death of his son at the vampire’s hands. As they battle, Dracula is surprised by the Scotsman’s ferocity. Finally, the Scotsman manages to plunge a wooden stake into Dracula’s chest, piercing his heart. Feeling his flesh starting to disintegrate, Dracula grabs the Scotsman and hurls him to his doom in a deep pit. Dracula then collapses into one of his coffins and crumbles into a desiccated skeleton.

David Cannon, a mutant who can spin at incredible speed, begins his career as the superhuman criminal known as the Human Top.

Zebediah Killgrave, a Yugoslav spy, is caught infiltrating an American military base. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, he is exposed to a mutagenic nerve gas that dyes his skin purple. He quickly discovers that he has also gained the ability to control others’ behavior simply by giving verbal commands. He immediately quits working as a spy and adopts a lifestyle of indolent luxury, becoming known as the Purple Man.

Now calling himself Doctor Doom, Victor Von Doom returns to Latveria and seizes the throne. His coup is not known to the international community, which still considers the small nation to be a constitutional monarchy governed by a prime minister. However, Latveria immediately begins to isolate itself from the world outside its borders.

Tabitha Smith is born in Roanoke, Virginia.

Ginny Snow is born.

1960

Research scientist Henry Pym meets Maria Trovaya, the daughter of a brilliant geneticist who escaped the recent revolution in Hungary. Within months, they are married. Maria convinces her husband to take her back to Hungary for their honeymoon, believing the KGB will not know that “Mrs. Henry Pym” is the political dissident Maria Trovaya. Unfortunately, she is kidnapped and murdered by the secret police soon after their arrival in Budapest. Pym goes berserk and is jailed, but the U.S. State Department negotiates for his release. Returning to America, Pym goes into a profound depression.

Ben Grimm is happy to learn that his Uncle Jake is marrying his former nurse Petunia, though the rest of the extended family disapproves of the May-December romance. As a result, the newlyweds leave New York City and open a joint medical practice in the small town of Benson, Arizona.

Logan is recruited into the Intelligence Branch of the Canadian Armed Forces and retrained as a secret agent. He soon meets Asano Kimura of Japanese Intelligence, as well as Nick Fury, Henry Peter Gyrich, Jack Bascomb, and other agents of America’s Central Intelligence Agency.

Carol Danvers and Michael Rossi first meet Nick Fury and Logan. They work together on a number of occasions. While in Tokyo, Danvers teaches Logan to play poker.

Magnus decides to use his powers to track down escaped Nazi war criminals and bring them to justice. His early successes bring him to the attention of the CIA. He is assigned a CIA handler and adopts the code name Magneto.

His residency completed, Donald Blake signs up for a one-year fellowship to put the finishing touches on his medical education.

Kevin Plunder emerges from his mist-shrouded lair to exact revenge upon the Man-Apes. Aided by his loyal sabertooth, Zabu, he hunts down and kills the Man-Apes until Maa-Gor is the only one left. Only vaguely remembering his childhood in England, Kevin adopts the name given to him by the Man-Apes, “Ka-Zar,” which means “Son of the Tiger.”

Shanna O’Hara, now a doctor of veterinary medicine, takes a job at the Central Park Zoo in New York, where she demonstrates a special affinity with big cats.

When his experiments show the formula created for Operation: Sulfur would mutate people into horribly disfigured pollution-breathing monsters, Ted Sallis begins to question the morality of his research project. Then, after falling for a bohemian girl called Sainte-Cloud, whom he met in Greenwich Village, Sallis is inspired to condemn his own project. He convinces a panel of his colleagues to refuse to endorse the project and the government orders it shut down. However, he is dejected afterwards when Sainte-Cloud refuses his marriage proposal.

Todd Arliss competes at the Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy and wins a gold medal in each swimming and diving competition he participates in. Ready to turn pro, Arliss then signs half a million dollars’ worth of sponsorship deals. However, on the boat back to America, he hurts his back while trying to rescue an elderly man who fell overboard. He is distraught when his doctors then inform him that his injuries will preclude him from pursuing a career as a swimmer. In the months to follow, Arliss pursues all manner of unorthodox treatments, to no avail.

While in Buffalo, New York, Zebediah Killgrave commands a woman named Melanie to marry him. Within a few months, though, he develops real feelings for Melanie and releases her from his influence. Horrified by what she was made to do, Melanie flees to Toronto, Canada. Several months later, she gives birth to their daughter, Kara Killgrave.

Alex Power is born in Richmond, Virginia, to James and Margaret Power.

Jubilation Lee is born in Beverly Hills, California.

Cassie Lang is born to Scott and Peggy Lang.

An extraterrestrial called Xemnu crash-lands on Earth after escaping from a prison planet. Badly injured in the crash, Xemnu is revived by a hapless electrician named Joe Harper. The alien then uses his psychic powers to hypnotize a number of people and uses them to build a new, more powerful spacecraft for him. However, Xemnu releases Harper from mental domination as a reward for saving his life. Bravely, Harper rewires the ship’s control panel, causing it to short out once it has left Earth’s atmosphere. Nearly electrocuted, Xemnu goes into shock and his ship spins out of control, tumbling into a collision course with the sun. On Earth, Xemnu’s other thralls emerge from their trance with no memory of what has happened. Only Joe Harper realizes the dire threat posed by aliens from outer space.

This brings us up to more or less where many of the individual OMU chronologies begin. See the handy links section in this blog’s left-hand column for the continuation of the story of the Original Marvel Universe.

Next Issue: The Man in the Ant Hill…!