The most impactful Marvel comics events of all time - zimmermancogized

The nearly impactful Marvel comics events of complete time

collage of images from Marvel Comics event stories

(Image citation: George Marston)

Wonder Studios is power train up for its next case film The Eternals, which hits theaters in early November. The Eternals is expected to bring some twists to the MCU, affinal to the retiring of the Marvel World and its prospective, as laid call at our review of the film.

But the Marvel Comics Universe is only as malleable, if not even more so - and many of the most impactful Marvel Comics stories of the past have had a straight work on the narrative of the MCU.

Comic book superhero events, Be they at Marvel, DC, or elsewhere, are generally tout ensemble storylines with characters crossing o'er from multiple comic book series to fight some overreaching threat. In the best of times, information technology's a virtuoso-adorned limited with excellent stories that you rarely get to get a line in your day-to-day (or in this case month-to-month) comic book serial publication.

So on the eve of Eternals, we're crisscrossing Marvel Comics history to pinpoint the most impactful comic book events ever. These are stories that had massive ramifications for Marvel going forward, from the deaths characters to the decease of altogether universes, from the retooling of common characters to the return from the dead of others, and of course were chock congested of the real draw of IT all: extraordinary stories.

So we'll numeration down the most impactful Wonder Comics events of all time.

Mention: The Eternity Gauntlet

Untimely on in The Infinity Gauntlet, it seemed Eastern Samoa if it would be the serial publication that would change everything – half of humanity was dead! Natural disasters had edited the very world our characters lived in! – but everything was readjust past the series' end, with the lonesome imperishable effects being that a new Warlock series could be spun out of the total shebang. A masterclass in the entirely 'No change, just the illusion of change' thing.

A incorporeal stick to-up, Infinity, promised more lasting change - while Thanos and the gems were still a part of the story, the biggest fallout from that event was the unleashing of the Terrigen Mists and unlocking the powers of thousands if not millions of inactive Inhumans.

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10. Fear Itself

2011's large event series Fear Itself featured developments that certainly felt big at the time, and away the final yield of the series, Bucky (who was Captain America at this point) and Thor were still dead, and Paris was a city of stone statues instead of people.

And and so came the three epilogue issues that, one by one, undid each of those things. Cleansing up after itself or a statement on the impermanence of death in superhero comic books? Possibly both, as the writer Matte Fraction told Newsarama at the time: "Death in superhero comics is meaningless. Information technology's the evasion. It's the Resurrection. That's the story. These issues were kind of the casual to focussing on that under the microscope, once all the pyrotechnics were through."

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9. Underground Encroachment

It's tempting to suggest that ending the then-mindful-running string of 'Who Do You Trust?' and "Maybe one of these characters is an estrange shapeshifter" is enough to wee-wee the closing of Secret Encroachment an important event in and of itself.

In terms of narrative, though, the series moved Tony Stark away from the set down of major power that atomic number 2'd been in for months, and placed everything in the hands of Norman Osborn, heralding a period where the bad guys really had North Korean won... Well, at least until they started messing everything upwardly for themselves.

The title of this series, if not its full preface, leave constitute adapted for an upcoming Disney Plus MCU show.

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8. Secret Wars

This is a tough one because it wasn't the end of Secret Wars that changed everything, but the start. Still, that's what you bring when the entire serial publication is in essence a 12-part flashback to explain away the changes already seen in everyone's diarrhoetic book.

She-Hulk in the Howling Four and Spider-Man's black dress up that would later o turn out to be Venom are two changes that may not have stuck forever but ended sprouted becoming surprisingly wanted additions to the canon. Little so, that giant star dragon lady friend for Lockheed, of course. Thankfully, 'Rocky Grimm, Space Commando,' didn't make a return when Secret Wars was revived in 2015 - just he did end up back in space with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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7. Schism

Unusually, Schism was an event book that existed for the sole purpose of the end leave: Splitting the X-Men enfranchisement in two. And yet it worked, and in the cognitive operation refreshed the franchise in a way that nothing else had managed since the days of Grant Chloe Anthony Wofford.

It wasn't just the clash of ideologies that surprisingly came to life, but the characters presenting those ideologies. 'Wolverine as Instructor' made perfect sense, even as it seemed counter-self-generated, a sign that something has gone outside.

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6. Avengers vs. X-Men

Parenthesis from the death of Charles I Saint Francis Xavier – as if we've never seen that before – and the criminalization of the 'Phoenix Five,' what incisively did Avengers vs. X-Men achieve for the larger MU?

Advantageously, in theory, it ushered in an era where the X-Men and cosmic characters were brought further into the wider Marvel Universe, which ended up being a quieter, but Thomas More meaningful change to Marvel than we ordinarily see from these event books.

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5. House of M

"No More Mutants."

With those triplet words, the Scarlet Glamour upended the X-Men dealership in a apparently out-of-nowhere denouement to the alternate realness series, reduction the mutant population of the Marvel Universe to less than 200 and beginning a race against extinction that finally came to an end a decade later.

House of M rewrote the Wonder Cosmos - literally - creating a place where mutants were in cathexis under the leadership of Magneto. The fallout of the event had big ramifications on both the X-Manpower and Avengers for years to come and tack together plot points distillery referenced in both franchises today.

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4. Mutant Massacare

Mutant Massacre wasn't an event crossover in the way that we devour and understand them today. There was no core limited serial publication in which the main events occurs. There wasn't even a 'Mutant Massacre' banner on the covers of the tie-ins. But despite lacking the standard housing of a Marvel event had the sort of impact that a crossing over such as 'Maximum Security' could sole dream of.

This storyline marked the end of the X-Work force's stay at Xavier's school for or so the next 100 issues and included the deaths of a handful of familiar faces, the introduction of new characters and revised team up rosters, Rabbit warren Worthington/Angel being wounded pertinent his wings are amputated, and a more melancholy tone for a enfranchisement already known for its dourness.

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3. Onslaught

Hey, remember that sentence when a crossover ended with the Marvel Universe innocent of some of its just about famed characters? Now, we can look hindmost and say that the absence of the Fantastic Iv, Avengers, and their respective members was but a temp thing, but at the time that was far from a known fact, meaning that the 'Onslaught' saga authentically did have that feeling of having changed everything in real ways, possibly forever.

Onslaught has made a couple of comebacks, including as 'Reddish Onslaught,' a twisted manifestation of Xavier's powers in Marxist Skull's trunk - a nightmare that finally ended with Saint Francis Xavier's Resurrection. Most late atomic number 2 resurfaced on Krakoa in the unity-shot X-Men: The Attack Revelation #1.

Xavier is now hindmost whole, helping wind the newly shaped mutant island of Krakoa.

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2. Civil War

Oh, Subject War, how you changed the Marvel Universe. There was that overall 'You body of work for the regime or you'rhenium a criminal' thing, that hale 'Now no united gets on with anyone else' thing, the skillful creation of a second Avengers book for the first time since West Coast Avengers, but more importantly, it changed the Marvel Universe by changing the whole step of the Marvel Universe.

Even though House of M's decimation of mutantkind came earlier, it was National War that felt as if IT actually had an impact on the style and content of all of Marvel's titles for months after, setting the pattern for events that followed.

And Subject War is the Marvel event that just keeps giving, not only as the inspiration for Captain America: National War, but in 2016's comic book sequel, Civil State of war II.

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1. Secret Wars

... Secret Wars, again? Déjà vu? Not exactly. Visit, this launching is about the second event to use the title Secret Wars.

The fallout of the newer looping of Marvel's first-ever crossing case enclosed the Ultimate Universe close whole, with aspects of it, including Miles Morales and the Triskelion, folded into the mainstream Marvel Creation, the planetary at large believing the Unrealistic Four were dead patc they rebuilt the multiverse, and the death of Marvel's oldest character, Namor, in the aftermath (he got better.)

While the in-universe consequences stemming at once from Secret Wars are, on their own, adequate to give this event a spot high on this list, the real-world implications are even more staggering. During its run, the integral Wonder Comics logical argument was put along hold piece tie-ins explored the various aspects of the makeshift, crossbreed planetary the plot line occurred on, Battleworld, only to see every single Marvel comic Quran relaunched with a new #1 as part of the 'All-New, All-Different' Marvel Universe.

The new-sprung universe identical closely resembled the old one, making this less of a reboot and more of a retooling, but it's likely equally close as the august company will ever refer in full rebooting its universe, as its very proud of the fact DC has rebooted its macrocos multiple times and its has not.

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I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic leger historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site newsperson at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con External: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic news media, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitar player of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)