“They said it all started with a flash in the sky and a ripple through the clouds. Nobody knows what caused this exactly, but some people think it might be a punch. Was he really that strong? Had the infection made him so determined to get here in search of a brand new food supply? At the time I said no... but having experienced this hunger firsthand I'm afraid that I now know better. The Avengers were the first on the scene. Can you picture them? Faces grave, concerned for all those human casualties. That idiot Colonel America reassuring everyone that everything would be fine now that the super heroes have arrived. What they didn't know is that the infection had targeted the super heroes of this dimension and a thousand realities before us. This was how it consumed, you see... by infecting super heroes just like him and sending them out to infect the others. Within twenty-four hours, we'd consumed the entire planet. One super hero from an infected universe... That was all it took to end an entire world.”
History
Preface[]
Earth-2149 was largely identical to that of the main Marvel reality, Earth-616, with only a few minor differences and some major differences. For example, the Steve Rogers of this Earth was 3 ranks ahead of his 616 counterpart and was known as Colonel America. He was also at one point President of the United States, though he never served a full term. Some characters, such as Luke Cage and Falcon, retained older versions of their costumes, and as evidenced by the appearances of Venom, Dark Phoenix, Scarlet Spider, and the Winter Soldier, events such as the first Secret Wars, the Dark Phoenix Saga, the Clone Saga, and Bucky's time as the Winter Soldier still happened, Black Cat also had a twin sister known as Night Cat and the Vulture seemed to have been a superhero rather than a villain given his allegiance to the zombified heroes. For major differences, it also appears that this Earth had not yet been visited by Galactus and the Silver Surfer before, and thus the Galactus Trilogy didn't occur either, since the Marvel Zombies show no familiarity with them, and based on Thanos appearing as one of the infected in the 40 years later time jump, the Infinity Gauntlet never came to be.[2][3] Given the roles that Galactus and Silver Surfer played in events native to Earth-616, it might mean that Earth-2149's interaction with cosmic and alien beings was very limited until the outbreak.[4] Generally, Earth 2149's main point of divergence is unknown.
Beginning of the Infection[]
This reality continued on in this way, until it was ravaged when a version of the Sentry of yet another alternate universe (who was sent by his native Watcher to create a temporal loop and prevent the infection from spreading to alternate realities),[5] brought with him a disease that turned individuals into flesh-eating zombies. The Avengers were the first on the scene after Sentry crashed in the middle of Manhattan, and all were quickly infected. The disease soon spread throughout the superhuman community, with the super powered undead feasting on the non-powered population. With most of the human life of this Earth extinguished, the super-zombies wandered the world, tormented by hunger with nothing to eat.[4]
The Coming of Galactus[]
Magneto's last stand
Soon after Magneto, one of the last uninfected villains/heroes, was eaten, the Silver Surfer arrived to announce the coming of Galactus. Many zombies tried to eat him, but only Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Power-Man, and Colonel America succeeded. The Zombie Galacti absorbed his powers, so they used it to toast the other zombies and eat them, hoping they would taste better fried, but after eating them, the remaining zombies commented how they tasted bad anyway and were left starving once again.[6]
After eating Galactus
However, Galactus immediately arrived, and the initially zombies tried to eat him too and launched an unsuccessful and ineffective attack, but an enraged Galactus attacked them for eating his herald. After retreating, they used Vibranium to create a machine that united their Power Cosmic to take him down, but their zombie villains used the opportunity to try to eat Galactus as well; the Zombie Galacti faced their old enemies one last time and killed them. Before Galactus could recover, they quickly devoured him, absorbed his Power Cosmic, and used it to travel through space to consume other life forms.[7] During this time, some remaining zombies on Earth tried to reach the mainstream reality, but their plans failed, with some of them being killed by their original counterparts.[8]
Forty Years After[]
Intergalactic Zombie Group
After forty years consuming planets, at the edge of the known universe, the Zombie Galacti realized that practically all the life in the universe was gone, so they decided to return to Earth to repair an old Dimensional Travel Machine of Reed's to consume other dimensions. By this point, Phoenix, Firelord, and Gladiator had joined the Zombie Galacti; Thanos joined them as well, but was killed by the Hulk after he accused the green monster of being as responsible as the other zombies for the extinction of life in the universe and for eating more than the rest of them. After arriving back to Earth, they encountered a group of survivors led by a zombified Black Panther, who survived with the severed heads of Wasp and Hawkeye in robot bodies along with the Acolytes.
The Hulk tried to eat them, but was stopped by Giant-Man who suggested creating some sort of breeding project to produce more "food", but Spider-Man was against the idea and attacked Hank, who demanded that someone kill Spider-Man. Wolverine tried to do it, but Power-Man stopped him, then Wasp, Hawkeye, and T'Challa helped them fight the "bad" zombies while the group of humans hid.
A forcefield was activated and separated the good zombies and humans from the bad ones; this made the Hulk lose consciousness and revert into Bruce Banner, cut Power-Man in half, and trapped Gladiator inside, resulting in his death. Having no remaining way to prey on the survivors, the "bad" zombies decided to return their attention to the Dimensional Travel Machine at the Baxter Building.
There they discovered that the Dimensional Travel Machine was actually in the survivor's camp, so they returned to New Wakanda, where Wasp, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Power-Man, and Black Panther offered to give up the machine if the "bad" zombies left them, and the humans, alone. Deception and another battle ensued. Banner gained consciousness and tried to eat Reynolds in a security room from which he was watching the battle, which also contained the lever that activated/deactivated the force field. In his panic, he accidentally disabled the force field, so the "bad" zombies concluded that they could not only steal the machine but also eat the humans as well, but their hunger for flesh left before they could do it. Banner turned into Hulk and started eating again. All the various zombies tried to stop him, but Iron Man, Phoenix, Firelord, and Hawkeye were killed.
Reynolds offered to let the Hulk eat him if he would spare the others, having lost his lover the Wasp in the previous battle with Ant-Man. After eating Reynolds, Hulk changed back into Banner and let himself be killed by the remaining zombies before he could become the Hulk again. Weeks later, Malcolm Cortez decided he liked his lifestyle and didn't want the zombies around, so he tricked them, sending all of the remaining zombies to Earth-91126.[9]
The Zombies traveled to Earth-91126 where they infected that reality and ultimately lead to the Watcher of that reality sending the Sentry back to Earth-2149 and starting the infection on their reality.[5]Points of Interest
- Earth
- United States of America
- New York
- New York County
- New York City/New Wakanda
- Baxter Building
- Empire State University
- Avengers Mansion
- 177A Bleecker Street
- Asteroid M
- New York City/New Wakanda
- Westchester County
- North Salem
- New York County
- New York
- United Kingdom
- Russia
- Japan
- Wakanda
- Latveria
- Savage Land
- United States of America
- Asgard
- Tarnax IV
Residents
Trivia
Zombie Reed tricking the Ultimate Universe's Reed
- Earth-2149 debuted in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21, where zombie Reed Richards tricks the Reed Richards of the Ultimate Universe into coming there. After that story arc, the reality received its own miniseries, Marvel Zombies.
- The deception was also to the readers, as Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 was teased as a "Crossover" between Earth-1610 and Earth-616. Ultimate Fantastic Four #20 ends with Reed-1610 looking at a Reed that resembles Reed-616, and within issue #21 itself, the zombie Reed presented himself looking similar to the mainstream Reed.
- Zombie Thor is shown wielding a makeshift hammer made of rubble, implying that as a member of the undead, he was no longer deemed worthy to wield Mjolnir.
- Earth-2149 has also unofficially been called "Earth-91126" by Marvel Zombies writer Robert Kirkman. In Marvel Zombies Return, Earth-91126 became an official name for the other universe infected by Earth-2149's fugitives.
- The designation Earth-2149 was given in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1. With the release of Marvel Zombies, many fans began referring to it as Earth-615. This possibly stems from a Newsarama forum post.
- Deadpool of Earth-91119 visited this reality and met its Thor.[10]
- Earth-2149 appears to have a very scrambled history and diverts from Earth-616 in many ways despite sharing similarities.
- Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days, and Marvel Zombies 2 show the existence of Venom, Winter Soldier, Dark Phoenix, Scarlet Spider, and War Machine, yet the Silver Surfer and Galactus still have not discovered Earth.
- Steve Rogers goes by Colonel America[11] and was President at one point, for less than one term.[2][12] By contrast, the Earth-616 Steve Rogers never ran for President while the Ultimate Captain America became President and also served less than one term.[13] "Colonel America" was used as a codename for a Captain America-like character in Marc Guggenheim's Marvel Comics Presents (Vol. 2) #1.
- Thanos still has yet to wield the Infinity Gauntlet.
- The X-Men's lineup is based off the early 1980s lineup,[14] but Wolverine is wearing the blue-yellow outfit instead of tan brown-yellow, while the Acolytes from the 1990s Jim Lee era[15] appear as well.[16]
- Luke Cage is part of the Avengers yet still wears his 70's outfit.[11]
- Iron Man still wears his Model 2 armor from the early 1960s.
- The modern day Runaways[17] and Nextwave[18] show up.
- Black Cat has a twin sister, Felicity Hardy, known as Night Cat.
See Also
- 41 appearance(s) of Earth-2149
- 6 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Earth-2149
- 6 minor appearance(s) of Earth-2149
- 9 mention(s) of Earth-2149
- 6 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Earth-2149
- 495 image(s) of Earth-2149
- 247 characters that originate from Earth-2149
- 18 teams that originate from Earth-2149
- 2 organizations that originate from Earth-2149
- 1 items that originate from Earth-2149
- 1 vehicles that originate from Earth-2149
Links and References
External links[]
References
- ↑ Young Avengers (Vol. 2) #8
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Marvel Zombies #2
- ↑ Marvel Zombies #3
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Marvel Zombies: Dead Days #1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Marvel Zombies Return #5
- ↑ Marvel Zombies #1–3
- ↑ Marvel Zombies #4–5
- ↑ Marvel Zombies 3 #1–4
- ↑ Marvel Zombies 2 #1–5
- ↑ Marvel Super Hero Squad Online
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Ultimate Fantastic Four #22
- ↑ Marvel Zombies: The Book of Angels, Demons & Various Monstrosities #1
- ↑ Ultimate Comics Ultimates #15
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men #150
- ↑ X-Men (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ Marvel Zombies #1
- ↑ Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #2
- ↑ Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness #3
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1