The Marvel Experience

This page is best viewed on desktop screens 1300 pixels wide and above.
The mobile site is only a limited version of the intended experience.

Swipe up and tap on the boxes to switch narratives!
Beginning of Time
13.8 billion years ago
It is said that the universe had already gone through five cycles of death and rebirth. The Dweller in Darkness, a demon that embodied fear itself, was born in the sixth iteration of the universe. He sought to usurp the power of creation by fracturing the M’kraan Crystal, an artifact that is said to house all realities.
Beginning of Time
13.8 billion years ago
The Crystal’s guardian, the Phoenix Force, managed to stop the Dweller in Darkness at the expense of destroying the universe.
Beginning of Time
13.8 billion years ago
The sentience of the multiverse merged itself with the last living thing, Galan of Taa, at the point of universal collapse, forming the Cosmic Egg. Eventually, the egg amassed enough energy and exploded outwards, forming the current universe. Galan was reborn as Galactus, one of the first cosmic beings who would go on to play an important role in the balance of powers in the universe.
Beginning of Time
circa 10 billion years ago
The residual energies from the rebirth manifested cosmic beings that represented different aspects of the universe such as Eternity who embodied time, Infinity who embodied space, Oblivion who embodied nothingness, Death who embodied the end of life, and many more.
Beginning of Time
circa 10 billion years ago
The universe continued to expand to a multitude of races. Some of them gained immortality, banding into a group called the Elders of the Universe. The rest went to pursue technological supremacy. One race in particular, sought to help the other races advance, but eventually caused their demise. In remorse, this race became The Watchers, vowed to observe and never interfere again.
Beginning of Time
circa 10 billion years ago
Another race known as the Celestials, transcended into a higher level of existence as pure states of energies. They pursued a role as scientists and explorers, planting seeds inside of planets which in turn would yield more Celestials. And Galactus became a check and balance for them as he destroyed worlds, ensuring that the Celestials don’t overtake the universe in their proliferation initiatives.
Our Blue Sphere, the Earth
4.5 billion years ago
About 4.5 billions years ago, the Earth began to take form along with our solar system. Demiurge, the sentient life force of Earth’s biosphere, seeded the planet with pieces of its essence, giving birth to the first Elder Gods - Chthon, Set, Gaea and Oshtur. Each of them
continued to gain mastery over a cosmic power as
they proliferated across the planet over million of years.
Our Blue Sphere, the Earth
circa 3 billion years ago
Set discovered that he could grow his power considerably by consuming fellow gods, inciting the rest of the gods to follow in his footsteps. However instead of gaining power, they were transformed into the first forms of demons. Gaea, who wanted to protect life on Earth, mated with Demiurge to give birth to Atum. Atum had the power to transform into the Demogorge, which he used to defeat Set and the other demons.
Our Blue Sphere, the Earth
circa 1 billion years ago
After the battle, Atum merged with the sun to become Amon Ra, while Gaea merged with the Earth itself, dedicating herself to guiding evolution. Escaping destruction, Set and Chthon fled to a pocket dimension, leaving behind the Darkhold artifact. Oshtur travelled to the cosmos before the conflict and met with Hoggoth, and together with their offpsring Agamotto, established the Vishanti.
Our Blue Sphere, the Earth
circa 65 million years ago
Millions of years later, Gaea decided to allow the dinosaurs to become extinct as they were influenced by Set and did not show evolutionary potential unlike the mammals. Set rallied the dinosaurs to kill off the mammals but Gaea called upon Atum’s help. Set and Atum fought for millions of years that resulted in an asteroid that was drawn from space, causing the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event. The impact site became known as the Chicxulub Crater located in Yucatan Mexico.
Our Blue Sphere, the Earth
circa 65 million years ago
Not all dinosaurs were killed off, as an alien race named Nuwali rescued some to create the Savage Lands, a sanctuary in Antarctica. The Age of Mammals began shortly after.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
more than 100 million years ago
And while life thrived on Earth, the cosmic expansion was beginning to take form. A race known as the Xorrians, traveled the spaceways seeding life throughout various planets, spawning the Krees, Skrulls and Humans from their genetic code.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
circa 100 million years ago
Following this, the Celestials continued their journey of exploration across the Cosmos, and began experimenting on these races to create the Deviants with limitless mutation, the Eternals as perfectly evolved versions who possessed cosmic powers, and injected latent genes into the prime race that allowed for genetic potential.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
circa 10 million years ago
The Skrulls resided within the Andromeda Galaxy, as a reptilian race. Somewhere along their timeline, they broke into a civil war, and the Deviant Skrulls emerged victorious with their shapeshifting powers. The remnants convinced the Deviant Skrulls to unite as one race and ascend into godhood, Embracing their new destiny, they sought to prevent the extinction of the Skrulls by expanding through the universe in a peaceful manner.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
circa 1 million years ago
They eventually made their way to Hala in the Large Magellanic Cloud, home to the primitive Kree and Cotati races. The Skrulls took a group of them to the Earth’s Moon, and pitted the races against one another to prove their worth to join the Skrull ranks. In a fit of jealousy, the Krees slaughtered the Cotati and Skrull envoys, and claimed their technology and the planet of Hala to their own.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
circa 1 million years ago
The Skrulls hear of the betrayal and wage war against the Kree, which would stretch over hundreds of millenia. Both races continued to expand their military strength through acquisitions of artifacts such as the Cosmic Cube and Crystal of Ultimate Vision. The Kree, however, failed the test given by the sentience of these artifacts, dooming the evolution of their race forever.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
circa 50,000 years ago
In an effort to save their race, the Kree experimented on the humans but eventually gave up due to their foretold destruction at the hands of their creations. Unknown to the Kree, the humans continued to prosper under a sovereign as Inhumans, until the discovery of Terrigen Mists that would unlock their latent mutant powers.
Beyond the Cosmic Horizons
more than 10,000 years ago
On the other side of the cosmos, the Shi’ar were developing their own empire, originating with Sharra and K’ythri. According to the Shi’ar legends, the two possessed untold power, each existing as opposites through good and evil, waging war against one another. Forced to marry through unknown means, the two were presented with the M’Kraan Crystal, hence becoming the protectors of the artifacts and all realities.
First Civilizations
tens of thousand of years ago
The Celestials seeded the Celestial Egg in Earth, and expanded the primitive life into the Deviants, Eternals and Prime as they did with other planets. Confused over their roles in life, the Eternals sunk into a spiral of civil wars, eventually isolating themselves in Olympia, a kingdom far in the skies away from mankind. The Deviants and Primes on the other hand, expanded and built the kingdoms of Lemuria and Atlantis respectively.
First Civilizations
circa 18,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
When the Celestials returned to check on Earth’s evolutionary progress, the Deviants attacked them, forcing the Celestials to retaliate and causing the Great Cataclysm. The destruction caused both Lemuria and Atlantis to sink to the bottom of the sea, leaving most of the Deviants dead and only a fraction of surviving humans.
First Civilizations
circa 18,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
The surviving Atlanteans adapted to life underwater by mutating their skin blue and the ability to breathe underwater. One of the Eternals named Utnapishtim built an ark to save some of the humans, while the rest left Earth to colonize Saturn’s Moon instead, where the genocidal warlord Thanos would be born.
First Civilizations
13,000 to 8,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
Due to the loss of technological advancement post-Cataclysm, mankind reverted back to barbarism. Conan, a descendent from the extinct Valusia kingdom, became an champion of humanity, and later king of the land of Aquilonia. Most of the civilizations built during this Hyborian Age, were antecedents to Egypt and Greece, to name a few.
The Descent of Gods
circa 18,500 BCE (Before Common Era)
Following the Hyborian Age, there were three groups of supernatural beings who also made Earth their home. The first group originated from a landmass split between a fiery and frozen landscape. The clash of the opposing forces eventually gave birth to the first frost giant Ymir, whose body melted to become Buri, who in turn spawned Bor. Bor was the father of Cul, Ve, Vii and Odin, as well as the founder of Asgard.
The Descent of Gods
circa 10,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
The second group of early gods in Marvel was the Ennead, the Heliopolitan race of gods who also existed in the extradimensional realm. Their descent to Earth was heavily aided by Atum, who led this group of gods as Ammon Ra. The Heliopolitans were worshiped as gods by the people of Egypt and Africa, and some of the gods like Bast and Khonshu bestowed powers to their chosen Avatars to bring peace to the world.
The Descent of Gods
circa 8,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
The final group being Olympus, who existed in a dimension adjacent to Earth. It housed twelve immortal and omnipotent beings led by the most powerful of them, Zeus, and were eventually worshiped as gods by the people of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Unlike the long-lived Asgardians and Enneads, the Olympians maintain true immortality and cease to age through a concocted ambrosia, or Nectar of the Gods.
The Descent of Gods
8,000 to 3,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
While the first wave of gods made its way into the Marvel universe via alternate dimensions, the descendants of these deities were mostly offspring of the first wave gods and Mother Earth Gaea, under different identities. Due to that, the number of deities in mythologies expanded rapidly in the next millennia, sprouting gods of different races in different parts of the world.
The Descent of Gods
8,000 to 3,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
Her efforts paid off when the Celestials returned to judge Earth’s right to continue existing. Her pantheon of gods showed the Celestials the highest ideals representing all of mankind’s achievements, winning them over.
Conquerors and the Conquered
circa 3,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
As mankind started to develop and rebuild culture, the first civilization to be formed after the Hyborian Age, was Ancient Egypt. The concept of time travel was also introduced here, as the man who would become Kang the Conqueror, traveled back in time to rule as Pharaoh Rama-Tut.
Conquerors and the Conquered
circa 3,000 BCE (Before Common Era)
The world’s first mutant, En Sabah Nur, who would later become known as Apocalypse, freed himself as a slave when his powers manifested. He went on, throughout the ages, inciting wars to root out the weak. His pursue for evolutionary perfection also gave rise to notable villains like Mister Sinister and the Horsemen of Apocalypse.
Conquerors and the Conquered
circa a million years ago
In the early days of Africa, a vibranium meteorite crashed into Earth and mutated those who were exposed to the radiation. The tribesman prayed to the old Egyptian god Bast, for the strength to defeat the monsters and was granted power in the form of refined vibranium, the strongest metal on Earth. The nation of Wakanda was established to guard the highly sought-after vibranium, which powers the Black Panther and all their technology.
Conquerors and the Conquered
500 to 600 CE (Common Era)
Before the Ancient One, Merlyn was the Sorcerer Supreme and was said to be a powerful entity that exists as one across the multiverse. He was the central figure in guiding King Arthur to find Excalibur and the formation of the Knights of the Round Table. He also fashioned the Ebony Blade, wielded by the Black Knight, who would go on to be cursed by bloodlust and death.
Conquerors and the Conquered
6th to 18 century CE (Common Era)
Civilizations rise and fall in the era of the Conquerors and Conquered, from Ancient Greece to Roman Empires to the Dark Ages in Europe to China Dynasty and more, leading all the way through the 19th century. Famous figures like Genghis Khan, Christopher Columbus, Vlad Dracula and Leonardo Da Vinci were one of the many who made history.
The Abyss of Wars
1940s to 1960s CE (Common Era)
World War I and II was the definitive period where Marvel introduced the first superheroes to their shared reality. The Human Torch (The Android, not Johnny Storm), Sub-Mariner Namor and the first super-soldier Captain America, was portrayed to participate heavily in the war efforts against the Axis powers.
The Abyss of Wars
1940s to 1960s CE (Common Era)
Some of the key events involved saving Winston Churchill from the Nazis, introducing the idea of superhero team-ups; Adolf Hitler’s “Master Race” plan that had him kidnapped twelve super powerered individuals to study their genome; and the Holocaust subjugation of the Jews from the account of Erik Lehnsheer, which would eventually become the vengeful Magneto.
The Abyss of Wars
1940s to 1960s CE (Common Era)
While the concept of super-soldiers started with Captain America and Project Rebirth, the ongoing tampering and replication efforts for that serum went on even after the wars. This allowed Captain America to exist as a American symbol, passed through the generations. On the other spectrum, it also led to other shady operations like the Weapon Plus Program, which was the origins of characters like Wolverine, Deadpool and the mutant-killing Sentinels.
The Abyss of Wars
1960s to 1990s CE (Common Era)
Shortly after the turbulent war era, the world saw the rise of the US and the Soviet Union as two superpowers engaging in a competition for supremacy known as the Cold War. There were numerous assasination attempts of government officials and espionage missions that gave rise to characters like Hulk, Winter Soldier (brainwashed Bucky), Black Widow, Hawkeye, and secret organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA that continued behind the scenes.
The Abyss of Wars
1960s to 1990s CE (Common Era)
The founding members Iron Man, Ant-Man and Wasp, who would later become Avengers, also joined the fray to develop military prowess against the Soviets and Communists.
The Abyss of Wars
1960s to 1990s CE (Common Era)
But the most remarkable introduction during the Cold War era was the Fantastic Four, a group of NASA astronauts who gained superpowers from a space mission gone wrong. They were Marvel’s first dysfunctional superhero family who didn’t hide behind secret identities. They would go on exploring the galaxies and expanding the cosmic universe.
The Age of Superheroes
circa 1990s to today CE (Common Era)
The next giant step for Marvel was the introduction of Peter Parker a.k.a Spider-Man, the world’s first teenage superhero who is constantly battling his inner demon. Struggling to get through in life and dealing with grief was the two main themes of his story arc.
The Age of Superheroes
circa 1990s to today CE (Common Era)
It also started the reign of street-level superheroes who fights crime under the guise of vigilantism such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and many more. On the flip side, anti-heroes like Punisher blurred the moral lines due to exploration of darker themes like murder, drugs and sex in his narrative.
The Age of Superheroes
circa 1940s to today CE (Common Era)
At some point in time, the latent gene left by the Celestials in humans began to manifest rapidly, granting extraordinary powers and branching evolution into mutantkind. They were despised, hated by the humans throughout the years. Having seen the animosity towards mutantkind, a telepath by the name of Professor Charles Xavier established a school to help them control their powers, hoping for a peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans one day.
The Age of Superheroes
circa 1940s to today CE (Common Era)
However, another mutant who would go on to become Magneto, started the Brotherhood. Having lived through the atrocities during the Holocaust, Magneto believed that humans are innately evil and inferior to the mutantkind, and that they should be the dominant species on Earth. This would eventually lead to the many clashes between Xavier’s X-Men and the Magneto’s Brotherhood in the years to come.
The Age of Superheroes
circa 1940s to today CE (Common Era)
Apart from superheroes, US presidents have mostly made their way into the universe over the years but the most impactful one was definitely Barack Obama, who was replaced by Chameleon and unmasked by Spider-Man before the actual ceremony. Other celebrity cameos also include magicians Penn and Teller, David Letterman, Jeremy Lin, a resurrected zombie Princess Diana, and even… the Beatles!

With that, the Marvel Universe began to expand to over 50,000 comics to date and it would take the average reader about 3 years to finish reading everything.

The visualization showing Marvel's growth over the last 80 years is only available on desktop.

The Avengers, X-Men and all the superhero groups were constantly debilitated with catastrophic threats, and that often culminated in a epic showdown of good vs evil. At times, they would lose and we would see a paradigm shift to the shared universe.

The richness and vastness of all these story arcs are deserves more than just a callout, but there were definitely three popular events that explored the darker sides of mankind as well as societal issues.

House of M was where we saw for the first time, the extent of Scarlet Witch’s reality-bending powers.

Her traumatic mutant childhood and the loss of her kids, triggered
‍A TOTAL MENTAL BREAKDOWN
that made her alter the fabric of reality to create a mutant utopia and trapped everyone within their deepest desires.

She was stopped eventually but not without her decimating the mutant population through her famous words, “NO MORE MUTANTS"

Collateral damage from superhero
fights have always under scrutiny
and the tipping point was the
DEATHS OF 60 CHILDREN

This divided the superheroes in
a Civil War, one led by Iron Man advocating for accountability and control, the other by Captain America fighting for freedom and protection.

The negative public sentiments
and the disharmony between the
heroes eventually led to the next
biggest Marvel comic event.

Secret Invasion was another
provoking narrative that built
on the previous Civil War.

This event elevated the trust issues by introducing the alien shape-shifting Skrulls who had swapped bodies with superheroes and politicians alike, pulling the strings of events in Marvel Universe for years.

"WHO DO YOU TRUST?"

With almost a century of interweaving stories, it may be daunting for any newcomer to simply jump in. Thanks to the brilliant minds at Marvel Studios today, we have the curated Marvel Cinematic Universe that builds on that same framework that the late Stan Lee established.

Truth be told, people saw the beginnings of MCU as a failure because of the B-lister Iron Man. And yet, he was the cornerstone of the franchise, giving us the most emotional redemption character arc.

The visualization showing the success of
Marvel movies is only available on desktop.

THE CAST

LOUIS YU WEIWEI
Python and Excel (mostly)
Tableau shenanigans
<head><html><body><script>
Look ma, I know Adobe stuff

LET'S NOT GET INTO TROUBLE...

Data provided by Marvel. © 2022 MARVEL
Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men and the rest

Marvel Database - Fandom
Marvel characters lore and rabbit hole

Box Office Mojo
Box office sales  (they have everything!)

Comichron / John Jackson Miller
Comic book sales and ranking (Who knew?!)