Marvel Universe - Concepts

Concepts

The Marvel Universe is strongly based on the real world. Earth in the Marvel Universe has all the features of the real one: same countries, same personalities (politicians, movie stars, etc.), same historical events (such as the September 11, 2001 attacks), and so on. However, it also contains many other fictional elements: countries such as Wakanda and Latveria (very small nations), and organizations like the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and its enemy, HYDRA. In 2009 Marvel officially described its world's geography in a two-part miniseries, the Marvel Atlas.

Most importantly, the Marvel Universe also incorporates examples of almost all major science fiction and fantasy concepts, with writers adding more continuously. Aliens, gods, magic, cosmic powers and extremely advanced human-developed technology all exist prominently in the Marvel Universe. (A universe incorporating all these types of fantastic elements is fairly rare; another example is the DC Universe.) Monsters also play a more prominent role with east Asian origins of magical incantation, outlandish sorcery and manifesting principle in the Marvel Universe. One such case is Fin Fang Foom arising from the ashes of tantric magic. Thanks to these extra elements, Earth in the Marvel Universe is home to a large number of superheroes and supervillains, who have gained their powers by any of these means.

Comparatively little time passes in the Marvel Universe compared to the real world, owing to the serial nature of storytelling, with the stories of certain issues picking up mere seconds after the conclusion of the previous one, while a whole month has passed by in "real time". Marvel's major heroes were created in the 1960s, but the amount of time that has passed between then and now within the universe itself has (after a prolonged period of being identified as about ten years in the mid-to-late 1990s) most recently been identified as thirteen years. Consequently, the settings of some events which were contemporary when written have to be updated every few years in order to "make sense" in this floating timeline. Thus, the events of previous stories are considered to have happened within a certain number of years prior to the publishing date of the current issue. For example, Spider-Man's high school graduation was published in Amazing Spider-Man #28 (September 1965), his college graduation in Amazing Spider-Man #185 (October 1978), and his high school reunion in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #7 (December 2004). Because of the floating timeline, where stories reference real-life historic events, these references are later ignored or rewritten to suit current sensibilities. For instance, the origin of Iron Man was recently changed to refer to armed conflict in Afghanistan, whereas the original Iron Man stories had referred to the Vietnam War.

The Marvel Comics company itself exists within the Marvel Universe, and versions of people such as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have appeared in some of the stories, whereas characters like Steve Rogers, (Captain America's alter ego), have worked for Marvel. The Marvel of this reality publishes comics that adapt the actual adventures of the superheroes (except for details not known to the public, like their secret identities); many of these are licensed with the permission of the heroes themselves, who customarily donate their share of profits to charity. Additionally, the DC Comics Universe is also said to exist in the Marvel Universe as one of the many alternative universes. The reverse may also be said with respect to the DC Universe. This is one method of explaining the various crossover stories co-published by the two companies.

Pop culture characters such as Dracula and Frankenstein actually exist in the Marvel Universe. This is usually justified as a second hand account of events as told to credited authors Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley although the general public continues to believe them as fictional. Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Kull the Conqueror, and Solomon Kane also have real life existences in the Marvel Universe. The Hyborian Era of Conan and Kull is considered part of Earth-616 pre-recorded history. However, they rarely encounter modern Marvel superhero characters. This is most likely possible due to the uncertain legal status of Howard's works prior to 2006 when they became public domain. Other licensed works that have been incorporated into the Marvel Universe include Godzilla, 2001: A Space Odyssey (in the character of Machine Man), ROM: Spaceknight, the Micronauts, and the Shogun Warriors. In most cases, such material is either restricted from use after the license expires or the characters redesigned or renamed to avoid infringement.