What Could the MCU look like if Marvel had the Rights to All their Characters? - Alternate MCU Thought Experiment

Hey my friends, and welcome back to my blog.

So I did a previous podcast where I spoke about how back in the 90s Marvel's mismanagement by corporate raiders led to the Comic Book Crash, and caused Marvel itself to file for bankruptcy. As part of their solution to remain solvent they sold off film rights to many of their most famous characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, the X-Men, Wolverine, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor, Daredevil, Punisher, Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and many, many others, to film studios large and small including  Universal, Paramount, Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox. 

Now in our world we know what happened next. Many film ideas were batted around at many studios for years throughout the 2000s. Some, like Sony's Spider-Man and Ghost Rider, Fox's X-Men, Daredevil and Fantastic Four, New Line's Blade, Lionsgate's Punisher, and Universal's Hulk got either single films or whole series of films that ran throughout most of the decade and beyond, while others like Iron Man, Captain America, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Black Panther and Deathlok were not made, for various reasons, and the rights to them eventually reverted back to Marvel after being traded across many companies for years. Now Marvel Studios did enter the ring to make their own movies eventually, and one of my earliest podcasts covered how that decision was made and the interesting things done to get funding for it, including several more character rights being put up as collateral. And in fact the rights to several of their most important characters being held by other studios led to Marvel making some very interesting choices throughout the development of their cinematic universe, especially considering the state of many characters in the comics at the time.

However like many other Marvel fans, and someone interested in the behind the scenes story of the comics and films that Marvel have made, I have obviously wondered how this superhero film boom would have gone if Marvel had not sold their character rights. If Marvel had been the one making the films containing their characters from the very beginning. 

So I thought it might be fun to engage in a thought experiment of sorts, and explore what the Marvel Cinematic Universe could look like in a world where Marvel owned the rights to all of their characters right from the start of the 2000s comic book movie boom. Now I am far from the first person to tackle this topic, and I have seen many others try to do their own version of this on YouTube especially, but many of them stick far too close to the structure of the existing MCU, especially the Infinity Saga, including keeping Thanos and the Infinity Stones as the overarching and culmination plot of the franchise, as well as keeping the start of this alternate MCU to the start of Marvel Studios in the mid-late 2000s, but I feel that much of this viewpoint strays from the depictions of the characters in the comics at the time, as there are many heroes that had their status in the comics greatly elevated due to an attempt at brand synergy to tie in with the films and the success they were seeing. In fact when it was announced that films were being made for characters such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man many news outlets speculated that Marvel was scraping the bottom of the barrel, while since those films those characters have become household names and fan favourites. 

So what I want to do with my thought experiment is cast my mind back to the late 90s and early 2000s, and really analyse the state of the comics at that time. What recent events had been published? What other media portrayals had happened? What characters were at the forefront of Marvel's output? And then from there I want to do my best to structure a slate of films for these characters that can exist in a shared universe and build towards a satisfying story conclusion.

Ground Rules

Now I think before we get to into the weeds with the research for this idea that it is important to set some ground rules for the thought experiment. So what restrictions am I putting in place?

Firstly we are working with the assumption that Marvel has the rights to use all of its characters, and that they can choose to use any of them in any way with any respective partners, either as films, television shows or streaming programmes. However I also expect Marvel Studios to operate with almost the same creative cohesion and oversight that it has had in the real world, albeit beginning at an earlier point. Now while this does mean that the creatives in place may be very different, as at this time Avi Arad would likely have been overseeing the creation of the universe rather than Kevin Fiege, I still expect a strong guiding voice to be in place, with a passion for the characters and stories, and creative input from Marvel Comics staff. I am also to to assume that this means the first Marvel film, 1998's Blade, was not made. 

Secondly I am going to assume that the comic output of Marvel during this period remains pretty much the same as it did in the real world. This means that the Ultimate Universe is still created as a piece of brand synergy, as are famous early 2000s comic reboots such as Grant Morrison's New X-Men, J. Michael Straczynski's Amazing Spider-Man, Brian Michael Bendis's New Avengers, and the continuing narratives that Marvel Comics built at this time that led to stories such as House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion. This is because it is very clear from the current output of Marvel that while things in the films influence the comics to some degree, it is much more apparent that the comics serve as a testbed of sorts for ideas that Marvel can draw on in the future, and so this will remain the case in my thought experiment. However it does mean that Joe Quesada is the Editor-in-Chief in this period still, at least until 2011, and I was not a fan of some of his editorial decisions at this point, especially the infamous Spider-Man storyline One More Day. 

Thirdly unlike many others who have done similar takes at this idea I am unwilling to speculate on casting and filmmaker choices. The main reason for this, despite not being as familiar with the big names in Hollywood and their careers, is that Marvel have often surprised me in this regard. Marvel seems to excel at finding talented people at just the right point in their careers to take on their projects, especially in the case of relatively unknown talent, and turning them into superstars both in front of and behind the camera, and so I fully expect that to remain the case in this alternate world. It is indeed likely that many of the same names that were attached to Marvel projects in our world might also have similar roles in this one, such as Hugh Jackman, Tobey Maguire, Chris Evans, Scarlet Johannson, Chadwick Boseman, the Russo brothers, Ryan Coogler, James Gunn, Brie Larson, and Taika Watiti. However it is also just as likely that with the order of projects moved around, and more comic accurate takes on the characters, that completely different people could occupy major roles in this alternate MCU. 

Next I am only going to focus on the most obvious selections for this universe, but it is possible that like in the real world there may be surprises that cannot be predicted. For example in our real world the purchase of Marvel by Disney is something that shocked many, as did the release of films such as James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy or Chloe Zhao's Eternals. Not to mention the desire and drive of some creatives to get certain films made has led to many pleasant surprises, such as Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool, Edgar Wright's efforts to make Ant-Man, and Nicolas Cage's turn in Ghost Rider. As a result some characters and concepts that became notable in the real world may not exist in what I am going to propose, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't have happened anyway.

Finally while I am going to plan out my film universe to a certain extent, thinking that Marvel has as grand of a plan in mind as I will present here is something that many fans believe but which does not seem to be true. In fact it seems very clear when going back through the Infinity Saga for example that rather than deliberately leaving ideas to pay off later in future projects, that Marvel instead works from the idea of working in elements from previous films into their new ideas. For example I do not believe that it was always meant to be the case that the Tessaract and Loki's Scepter contained Infinity Stones, but that this was an idea to utilise those elements once a clearer endgoal was decided upon. Marvel has proven adept at this sort of storytelling, with callbacks to even derided and unsuccessful films in their canon such as Thor: The Dark World becoming incredibly satisfying parts of more recent projects, in this example Avengers: Endgame and Loki.

So those are the ground rules. But what is the basis for my thought experiment?

Marvel Comics in the 90s

Looking at the actual time it took for Marvel to adapt present events in the comics into the films there seems to be a 5-10 year delay before storylines like Civil War made their way into the comics, and so it seems logical to assume that if Marvel was developing films of its characters in the late 90s and early 2000s that the comics of the 90s would be the ones that they might use as a basis for their adaptations. 

So what did the landscape of Marvel comics look like in the late 90s?

Well it was a very interesting time for the industry. Obviously there was the huge negative impact of the comic crash, and many derided elements of collector culture that had fuelled the spectator boom, but there were still many incredible comics released in this period, despite the modern perception of the era as a "dark age". 

X-Men was probably Marvel's best performing group of books at this point, with two main X-Men titles focusing on the main team, and at one point there were several spin-off titles from that main team, featuring associated teams X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, and new students Generation X, as well as ongoing solo titles for Wolverine and Cable. The comics were also bolstered by the incredibly popular X-Men: The Animated Series, that had ran for 5 seasons between 1992 and 1996. As for the stories being published while Chris Claremont had left his legendary run in 1991, and the brand had lost the superstar artists of Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee when they left to found Image Comics, the comics still remained remarkably strong, helped by Editor Bob Harras's pattern of annual crossover storylines between the titles, something that had originated in the 80s with stories like Inferno and Fall of the Mutants, but became much more prominent in the new decade, with stories like X-Cutioner's Song, Fatal Attractions, The Phalanx Covenant, and the epic Age of Apocalypse. The X-Men had recently been at the centre of the Onslaught crossover, a crossover that had affected not just the X-Men line, but pretty much every title Marvel published. It had seen a new entity with the abilities and mannerisms of both Magneto and Charles Xavier, created due to very bizarre comic book events, establish itself and attack all of the heroes, including unleashing an army of Sentinels upon New York, and it had actually taken the sacrifice of several heroes to defeat him, deaths for which the X-Men were blamed. This then led to the following crossover of Operation: Zero Tolerance, where anti-mutant leader Bastion tried to eliminate the X-Men. I have some more details on these stories in this podcast episode.

Spider-Man was in a much more precarious position in the 90s however. As I detailed in the first episode I linked about the comic crash, the Spider-Man titles were going through the Clone Saga in the 90s. This story, while beginning from a simple and interesting premise, quickly spun out due to editorial interference into a seemingly never-ending years long story full of twists and turns. However Spider-Man is easily Marvel's most popular character, appearing in plenty of merchandise, and obviously the star of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, one of Marvel's most successful animated adaptations that featured long-form storytelling and guest appearances from many other heroes such as Iron Man, Punisher, Captain America, Daredevil, Blade, and Doctor Strange. By the late 90s however the Clone Saga was over, Peter Parker had returned to the role of Spider-Man, and while Mary Jane had lost the baby she was carrying she and Peter remained happily married, with her knowing of his double life as Spider-Man. Aunt May had however recently passed away, and while several important villains such as Doctor Octopus and Kraven the Hunter were currently deceased, Norman Osborn had recently returned from the dead, revealed as the mastermind of the Clone Saga. An issue of What If? bought back Peter and MJ's daughter Mayday Parker in an alternate future as Spider-Girl, which soon spun off into its own new continuity and group of comics, known as MC2, and featuring teen heroes taking up the mantles of their forbears. Venom was a regular star of connected mini-series that had been giving him a still lethal but more heroic persona, with him being an occasional ally of Spider-Man at this time as well. 

The Avengers and Fantastic Four had all been lost in the Onslaught crossover, and rebooted in a separate universe as part of the Heroes Reborn initiative, but after a year the deal with Image for Heroes Reborn fell through, and so the series were rebooted again when reintroduced to the main Marvel universe. Fantastic Four, Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor all got new titles with very talented creative teams, and Kurt Busiek's run on Avengers at this point did a tremendous job of highlighting many lesser known characters and bringing elements of the team's long history together, especially in the incredible time-travelling adventure Avengers Forever. However Chris Claremont's run on Fantastic Four divided fans of that title. In their absence after the Onslaught crossover another superhero team had stepped into their place, the Thunderbolts. However the Thunderbolts had been exposed as the Avengers villains the Masters of Evil, posing as heroes for evil ends, but several members of the team actually did begin to reform, enjoying the reaction from the public. Once the other Heroes returned and the Thunderbolts were exposed, many of them took drastic steps to reform, helped by Hawkeye, who joined the team. In the early part of the decade there had been many other spin-offs of the main Avengers titles, including Avengers West Coast and Force Works, and characters like Wonder Man and Quasar had also had their own titles. The Fantastic Four even had a early 90s spin-off with Fantastic Force, although that was relatively short-lived. Iron Man and the Fantastic Four had animated shows as part of the Marvel Action Hour, both with much better second seasons than their first seasons, and Avengers: United They Stand served as an adaptation, albeit an unpopular one, of some lesser known Avengers characters. 

Incredible Hulk was written from the late 80s to the mid 90s by Peter David, whose run on the title was incredibly introspective, looking at the mental state of Bruce Banner and his relationship with the Hulk in both its green and grey iterations. There had also been many interesting changes that had shaken up Hulk's supporting cast, from being chased by the US Army, to joining the Pantheon, to going to the dystopic timeline of Future Imperfect. In short I expect this run to have a large impact on any films featuring the character. She-Hulk had had several successful series at this point, but was not currently headlining a title. However the two had recently starred together in a popular animated series, that had taken a lot of inspiration from Peter David's work in its storytelling, as well as featuring characters like Thor, Ghost Rider, Sasquatch and Doctor Strange.

Daredevil in the 90s had been taken back to his roots in a lot of ways, restored to his more quippy Silver Age style, while dealing with villains like Mister Fear, creating a nice juxtaposition of classic superheroics and gritty crime drama. Punisher had no less than three titles at a point in the 90s, being  a very marketable character for Marvel. However both Daredevil and Punisher had their titles rebooted as part of the Marvel Knights initiative, a publishing move that saw top tier independent talent from Event Comics take on characters, with big names like Kevin Smith, Garth Ennis and (Christopher) Priest taking over titles. Not only were Daredevil and Punisher given a push in this way, but Black Widow, Moon Knight, Black Panther, the Inhumans, Cloak and Dagger, and Shang-Chi would also get spotlighted in titles as part of this line. The line would also eventually see the introduction of the Sentry, a character marketed by Marvel as a lost Silver Age hero that the rest of the Marvel Universe had forgotten about.

Regarding the rest of Marvel there had been several other major heroes that had titles at this time. Firstly the Canadian super team Alpha Flight had been in a title since the 80s, which came to an end in the mid-90s. There was also the teenage team New Warriors, consisting of several other heroes that had appeared in solo series, including Speedball, Darkhawk and Nova. Silver Surfer was the main representative for the more cosmic side of the universe, with a very good animated series in the late 90s, as the Guardians of the Galaxy as we know them from the MCU did not exist. There was a team with that name, but they were a group of alien warriors in the far future who had teamed up with the Avengers in the past. The early 90s had seen cosmic villain Thanos claim the Infinity Gems and perform his infamous snap, but in the aftermath the Gems were under the care of the Infinity Watch, a group led by Adam Warlock and featuring Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Pip the Troll and Moondragon. Back on Earth Doctor Strange, while having his own adventures as the Sorceror Supreme, had been responsible for gathering a group of darker heroes to become the loose knit group known as the Midnight Sons, with members including Morbius the Living Vampire, Blade, the second Ghost Rider Danny Ketch and his brother and former Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze, and the guardians of the mystic tome the Darkhold. Namor the Sub-Mariner, after years of instability, had returned to the human world as a hero, fighting the Roxxon Corporation and aided in many adventures by Danny Rand, the Iron Fist. Luke Cage remained a hero for hire in Harlem, with several other heroes close to him. Ka-Zar and his wife Shanna travelled between the Savage Land and New York City. Quicksilver was helping the High Evolutionary's Knights of Wundagore. And Deadpool was making an name for himself as a mercenary, with his own ongoing title having begun by the end of the decade. 

There are two other important comic developments from this time I want to draw attention to. First is the 2099 comics line. This was a group of titles taking place in the year 2099, a more corporate, cyberpunk style future, where Miguel O'Hara took on the identity of the new Spider-Man while trying to avoid being hunted by the leaders of the Alchemax corporation. More titles were added to the line featuring new characters taking the mantles of previous characters such as Punisher, Hulk, and Ghost Rider, while mutants of this future formed a new group of X-Men. There was also the new hero Ravage, written for a time by Stan Lee, and seemingly the original version of the villain Doctor Doom, who had found himself in this future and resolved to save the world. In the main comics Doctor Doom had been lost during the Heroes Return event after trying to steal the powers of a Celestial, although he would eventually return.

The final series to mention is Marvels, by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. This was a series that retold events of the Golden and Silver Ages, but through the perspective of photographer Phil Sheldon. The series was critically acclaimed, and covered many important events from the first two decades of Marvel, including the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, the deployment of the Sentinels, the coming of Galactus, the Kree-Skrull War, and the death of the Stacys. The series was notable for avoiding the sliding timescale that had become standard in Marvel, and other superhero, comics at the time, where all events since the first appearances of the heroes is considered to have taken place within the last ten to twenty years, however in this series all the events take place in the years the comics are published, with Sheldon being a war photographer for Captain America and the Invaders, before being around in the 60s and 70s when the heroes, the 'Marvels' as Sheldon called them, returned. One of the final parts of the story even featured Danny Ketch as a teenage boy, suggesting the progression of time before the events catch up to the "modern" day. 

Inspiration From Adaptation

So now that we have an idea of the state of Marvel Comics and its heroes approaching the end of the 90s, I think we should take a closer look at how to construct this universe, and the easiest way to do this may be by looking at some examples from our real world as to how Marvel has adapted its characters before.

I've already mentioned the first thing I'm going to be looking at, which is the various animated series that existed in the 90s. Now while how connected these various series actually are is a matter of some debate due to various actual inconsistencies, such as the Silver Surfer and Galactus in the Silver Surfer animated series not being the same ones the Fantastic Four encountered in their own show for example, there are some very strong connections as well. Iron Man for example has the same armour design in every series he appears in, and in his appearances in Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man actor Robert Hays reprises his role from the Iron Man series. Each of the series, except for Silver Surfer, began in media res - that is, the heroes were already established, and with their powers. How they obtained those powers would be explained in flashbacks or comments throughout the series where necessary. For X-Men, the character of Jubilee was used as an audience surrogate to introduce us to the rest of the team as she encounters them for the first time. For Spider-Man, Peter's inner thoughts serve as narration for his adventures, in a similar way to the caption boxes of the comics. Hulk is introduced via his latest attempt to cure himself, with She-Hulk being introduced after several episodes. Fantastic Four begins with a two-parter of the team revealing their origins and retelling their first adventure in a TV interview. Iron Man sees the hero and his team arrayed against the Mandarin's forces almost in a similar way to Masters of the Universe from the decade prior. Series were planned but not picked up for several other heroes, including Captain America, Ghost Rider, and Daredevil, all of whom had guest appearances in at least one of the other shows. While not the most consistent shared universe, due to the myriad of creatives involved at multiple studios, it is clear that references were being made so that if kids were watching all of these shows that the characters would be consistent at the very least. As I said several characters appeared in multiple shows, but interestingly the X-Men and Spider-Man had the least crossovers, despite being the longest running series. The entire cast of the X-Men featured for two episodes in Spider-Man, but Spider-Man himself never had a full guest appearance in any of the other series, despite his own show featuring the most guest appearances from other Marvel heroes. 

The next adaptation, of a sort, that I wish to look at is the Heroes Reborn Initiative. In the mid-90s Marvel was having great success selling its X-Men line, and the Spider-Man books had a boost from the Clone Saga, and things like Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Punisher were always consistent sellers, but Avengers and Fantastic Four, and their associated titles, were not selling well. So Marvel editorial hit on the idea to have the heroes be rebooted, farmed out to the studios held by Image Comics co-founders, and former Marvel superstar artists, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, and using some of the independent talent that Image had to give these titles a shot in the arm. This resulted in four titles: Avengers and Captain America by Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios, and Fantastic Four and Iron Man by Jim Lee's Wildstorm Productions. The titles put all four titles together in a new shared universe, where Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Henry Pym, and Victor Von Doom had been contemporaries in college, where they had dubbed themselves the "knights of the atomic round table", dreaming up fantastic technology that could better humanity. Eventually in the modern day they had found themselves in positions where they could use their ideas. Reed built a space rocket, that he, his girlfriend Sue Storm, her brother Johnny, and pilot Ben Grimm flew, getting caught in a cosmic storm that gave them super powers. The cosmic storm was caused by the arrival of the Silver Surfer, who activated several locus points around the globe, leading the Fantastic Four to explore them and encounter Mole Man in Subterranea, Namor the Sub-Mariner in Atlantis, the Black Panther in Wakanda, and the Inhumans in Attilan. Captain America, still alive since World War II but mentally reprogrammed in the 50s, emerged in the modern day to battle resurgent Nazi villains Red Skull and Master Man. Nick Fury gathered the Avengers together to act as a response team to super-powered threats, consisting of Captain America, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Swordsman, Vision, and Hellcat, and in their first mission they recruited the frozen Viking warrior god Thor and battled Loki. The team was based at Avengers Island, a technologically advanced base powered by a gamma reactor created by Bruce Banner, and during an accident at another reactor Banner developed for Stark Industries he is transformed into the Hulk, and has to be stopped by Tony in the experimental armour he has developed. The heroes faced many of their enemies reborn in this world, and eventually crossed paths with Galactus, who attacked the world with his heralds. Doctor Doom rewound time 3 times to attempt to defeat Galactus, and the heroes eventually succeeded by convincing the Silver Surfer to aid them, and enhancing his powers with their own technology. There were some very interesting diversions from the main Marvel canon in Heroes Reborn, but unfortunately the series varied wildly in quality, and Rob Liefeld was removed by Marvel partway through his runs, leaving several plotlines he had been developing unfulfilled, especially in Avengers. The heroes were eventually revealed to have been placed in a pocket universe by Franklin Richards, and he helped bring them back to the main Marvel Earth. However there were several connected elements here that I think Marvel was glad to have introduced, as they did even have plans to continue this line, but Jim Lee was reluctant to take over all four titles on top of his other work at Wildstorm. I think it is likely that elements of this world, such as the knights of the atomic round table concept, and the Avengers being a SHIELD connected initiative, would repeat in films made earlier.

In the 2000s however Marvel launched another initiative to spin off from the main Marvel timeline. This was the Ultimate line of comics, designed to be rebooted versions of the main Marvel heroes back to their core character concepts. New versions free of the decades of previous continuity to create easy entry points for new readers, and collected and placed on sale as trade paperbacks in bookshops. It proved to be a wildly successful strategy. In terms of the creation of the universe the opening book was Ultimate Spider-Man, featuring teenager Peter Parker who was bitten by a genetically modified spider developed by Oscorp. Norman Osborn was one of many industrialists developing new genetic technology in secret as part of bidding for a government super-soldier program, designed to replicate the success of Captain America in the 40s. Other attempts saw the creation of the Hulk due to the transformation of Bruce Banner when he tested his research on himself, the Weapon X program that created Wolverine and experimented on other mutants including Nightcrawler and Rogue, and the development of Tony Stark's Iron Man armour. SHIELD, headed by Colonel Nicholas Fury, was leading the American development of super-soldiers in the US, and Fury himself was convinced that the next world war would feature genetically enhanced super-soldiers, as it became clear that Russia, China and others were also developing their own super-soldiers. Meanwhile across the world mutants were emerging, and while most found themselves in the Savage Land under the banner of Magneto, a mutant supremacist, a small group found themselves in the care of Charles Xavier as the X-Men, where they opposed the government controlled mutant-hunting Sentinels, and Magento's Brotherhood. This universe soon added the Ultimates, a SHIELD controlled team led by Fury and the restored from the ice Captain America, and consisting of Iron Man, a Thor that was either the real god or a mentally unbalanced man with stolen equipment, Giant-Man, and a mutant and asian Wasp. As well as being superheroes the Ultimates also became public figures, known for their superpowered identities. They were soon joined by Hawkeye and Black Widow, both of whom were elite SHIELD agents. Eventually a Fantastic Four series was added to the line, featuring the team as teenagers, with Reed a super-genius who had been admitted to the Baxter Building think-tank. The Ultimate Universe was seemingly a much more grounded and realistic universe, devoid of the more science-fiction elements of the Silver Age comics that had influenced the Marvel Universe, or the fantastic excess of Heroes Reborn. Genetic engineering was the primary method of super-powers rather than radiation exposure as in the Silver Age. Instead this line connected closely with post-9/11 War on Terror era politics, and kept things realistic where possible, and at best influenced by modern science fiction elements. The giant Sentinels were a notable exception, but the Ultimate version of Galactus served as a good example, as instead of a giant humanoid Gah Lak Tus was instead a swarm of alien spacecraft sized beings that fed on all the living matter on a planet in a similar way to a horde of locusts. The universe eventually diverged greatly from a reimagining of the classic Marvel characters to a very different alternate universe, but this took a long time to happen. 

Obviously looking at all three of these it is easy to see what influenced the film adaptations that we did get in the 2000s. Spider-Man by Sam Raimi featured a genetically enhanced spider created by Oscorp, and Norman Osborn being linked to military contracts. The X-Men films featured their Weapon X project being a secret military project that experimented on several mutants. The divide between Magneto's Brotherhood and Xavier's X-Men was an ongoing rivalry that split mutantkind. The Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the Hulk featured both Bruce Banner and Emil Blonsky gaining their abilities due to a super-soldier project. Tony Stark publicly revealed that he was Iron Man. Hawkeye and Black Widow were SHIELD agents, and the Avengers were gathered by Nick Fury. That said as much as the film adaptations of these characters did take from the more modern Ultimate comics, there was plenty as well that was also taken from the Silver and Bronze Ages of Marvel in the 60s, 70s and 80s, especially in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For example Captain America of the Ultimate universe was much more jingoistic and willing to use brutally violent means than the main Captain America, who was much more idealistic and determined to uphold the best aspects of America, both of which were much closer to the film version of Steve Rogers as played by Chris Evans, and I think a large part of this was because the films were not necessarily based upon the Ultimate comics, but instead used similar ideas to attempt to ground the characters in a more relatable way to audiences, and just hit a lot of similar ideas. 

Marvel Comics in the mid 2000s also began annual events that worked to bring their heroes together for storylines, with their effects playing out across multiple titles across the next year of comics, often as part of a line-wide rebranding. This began with the event series House of M that saw Scarlet Witch, having lost control of her powers, depowering millions of mutants overnight, leading to the Decimation event in the X-Men titles. This was soon followed by Civil War, which saw the introduction of the Superhuman Registration Act and a divide among not just the Avengers but all of Earth's heroes, that led to a government sponsored Initiative of heroes, while other heroes remained underground, where they discovered a Secret Invasion by the alien shapeshifters the Skrulls. When the Skrulls were defeated by former supervillain Norman Osborn this then led to him being put in charge of world security, replacing SHIELD and leading to a Dark Reign, that eventually culminated in his forces laying Siege to Asgard before they were stopped by a reunited Avengers, leading to a new Heroic Age. These storylines all led into each other across multiple titles and many years, affecting many of the heroes in the universe in various ways, as Spider-Man and the X-Men especially faced their own issues as a result of several of these storylines, with the X-Men especially remaining very self-focused in the wake of Decimation until 2012's Avengers Vs X-Men bought them back into the mainstream Marvel Universe in a big way. Some of these ideas have obviously influenced films and storylines in the real world, and may also do so in my alternative universe. 

However I do think it is also important to bear in mind that while several things in my film universe may end up being similar to things that were explored in real life, there are also things that will be different. Two prominent examples are the Winter Soldier and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Bucky being bought back as the Winter Soldier was a huge shock when it happened in 2005, and that was because Bucky was considered one of the characters that would be unthinkable to bring back to life, alongside Uncle Ben, and Jason Todd who would also loater returnand so everyone assumed would always stay dead, due in large part to his death being such as integral part of Captain America's transition to the Silver Age. The Guardians of the Galaxy meanwhile just did not exist in the same way as they do in the films until 2008. Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Drax and Groot still existed in the comics for sure, but only Gamora and Drax had prominent roles, and were better known as members of the Infinity Watch, as previously explained. Star-Lord, Rocket and Groot however were lesser known cosmic characters, perhaps occasionally appearing as side characters in large stories, but mostly unexplored. Finally there is the idea of Civil War. Civil War was a storyline that began in 2006, and it was the final major story event published by Marvel Comics before the release of Iron Man and the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and its subsequent effect upon the comics, but while clashes between the Marvel heroes have always been common, and may still occur in my proposal, I do not believe that the Civil War as seen in the comics will have much effect on my universe, as it is something that I feel is built upon several years of comics history.

I do think in general that Marvel have shown in their adaptations in the real world that they will stick quite closely to the comics for inspiration, but not directly follow any story. Films like Age of Ultron, Civil War, and Infinity War have little more than surface similarities in many ways to the comics they take their titles from, and other ideas that were used as inspiration such as the Kree-Skrull War also have many twists from their comic origins, and I would argue that in many cases these changes are for the better. So while I will do my very best to highlight what I think would be good and logical adaptations of comic storylines, I honestly do think that whatever I would come up with that Marvel would make better and more surprising choices that I would prefer.

Hollywood Influence

So now its time to really start thinking about how to construct this universe, and again I'm going to look at the real world to see how things occurred. 

Looking at all of the Marvel adaptations that we have across the last twenty five years, both from Marvel Studios and from other studios, it seems that there is a notable trend as the average amount of productions increases, and more films, and gradually television and streaming productions, see development every year. In fact the majority of the television and streaming productions come from Marvel Studios themselves, and so tend to appear in large numbers later in our timeline, from the mid-2000s onwards with the launch of Agents of SHIELD and the Defenders Saga. There is very quickly however an average of two film releases every year, gradually increasing to three and then four in the 2010s as Marvel's own releases coincide with Fox and Sony's own efforts. As a result I will try to follow Marvel Studios' own example in regards to how this universe will expand, just earlier.

This change of course means that I have to take into account the actual state of film and television throughout this period. For this I have especially looked at science-fiction and fantasy stories, due to them containing similar production design and visual effects to what we would expect from our alternate Marvel Studios, as well as the rise of premium television. The early 2000s saw the release of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Harry Potter film series, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, the Matrix sequels, Terminator 3, historical epic Troy, disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, and actor driven special effects features like Minority Report, Evolution and I, Robot, as well as the start of film series like Resident Evil, Underworld, Fast and Furious, and Pirates of the Carribbean. As the decade went on other special effects heavy blockbusters included King Kong, the Transformers series, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 300, Chronicles of Narnia, Cloverfield, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Inception, District 9, Clash of the Titans, and Avatar. The 2010s, as well as seeing the success of the MCU in our world, also saw films like the Hobbit Trilogy, Life of Pi, the new Planet of the Apes films, Skyfall, the Hunger Games series, Prometheus, JJ Abrams' Star Trek films, Interstellar, the start of Legendary's Godzilla series, Green Lantern, Man of Steel, Jupiter Ascending, Pixels, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Jurassic World, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and regardless of any views of quality of any of these films, its clear that the trend was heading towards larger budget films with various visual effects setpieces even outside of any Marvel properties, and so I expect this trend to continue. In fact if anything the majority of the films I have highlighted prove that films of this time were perfectly capable of realising the big setpieces and fully CGI characters that have come to be expected of several of the MCU properties, and this is on top of any practical effects or special effects sequences used. 

As for television, well the late 90s through to the 2010s are considered a Golden Age, full of many "must-watch" shows that took on a much more cinematic quality, with shows like The West Wing, The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Band of Brothers, Homeland, Sons of Anarchy, Orange is the New Black and Mad Men all leading the way with dark character focused dramas boasting "film-like" production values. Now while these all had their influence on the medium of television as a whole, in terms of genre I don't think many of the projects I would look at would take after them. However this was also the era where Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and eventually The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones all proved that it was possible for high-concept and large budget television sci-fi and fantasy to find a solid audience that rewarded it with loyalty and success. 

So I think I have finally laid all of the background that I need to in order to justify my choices for this universe, and so I think we are finally ready to begin.

What If...?

It's the late Nineties, and the comic book crash is still fresh in the minds of many fans of superheroes, however in this alternate universe Marvel weathered the storm in a better position than in our world. After a couple of years of rebuilding helped by some outside investment Marvel is in a position where they are planning to launch film adaptations of several of their industry leading heroes in the new millennium. Its a daunting prospect, with the most recent comic book films being Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin, which followed the success of Batman Forever with a camp take on the hero that was derided by critics and audiences, and the disastrously received Spawn film based on Todd MacFarlane's dark comicbook, but Marvel has a team in place that they believe can make this successful, taking what works in the comics and adapting key elements of these beloved characters and storylines to bring in new audiences. In perhaps their most ambitious move they have loose plans to connect these films if they are as successful as they expect them to be, but while some groundwork will be laid the plan is always to focus on a single project at a time until they know if it is a success. They have the right creatives in place, and they are ready to begin. Pre-production starts on their first film, while more films are planned, but it is only when production begins that the others begin to move forward, One film at a time, in baby steps. Publicity begins with updates from Wizard Magazine, and soon other trades begin to share the story, gaining media attention. 

So the question is what is that first film? I believe that Marvel would start with one of their greatest and earliest comics, and that the Fantastic Four would have the potential to do for the comic book films what they did for Marvel in the 60s. The reason why I think Fantastic Four makes the perfect first choice is that in many ways it bucks a lot of expected superhero trends, presenting us with a group of character tropes that all fit in a family dynamic, something immediately relatable to mainstream audiences and helping to ground the exaggerated sci-fi elements. I would look to draw from the team's origin, and play up a lot of the more emotional elements of Ben Grimm's story from the classic story 'This Man, This Monster'. While I did consider using a different villain, such as Mole Man, Red Ghost or Diablo, I do think that Doctor Doom makes the most sense as a main villain, especially due to his links to Reed's history, and I do think a more accurate version overseen by Marvel themselves would have the impact and gravitas the villain deserves. However I would ensure that Doom survives the end of the film, and comes back, to take on a role similar to Loki's in the actual MCU, becoming a driving force of future stories. I think ideas that could be used to inspire further connections might be the idea of the "Knights of the Atomic Round Table", as it wouldn't take much more than a small mention to lay these as seeds for the future, and it would easily establish Reed and Doom's history. I do think that many of the more comic book elements should be leant into as well. When the MCU began it was following the first Marvel adaptations, many of which seemed to struggle to adapt some of the more fantastical elements of the comics, and so tried to hew closer to modern action sci-fi films, but I think series like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter being worked on sincerely and about to hit their stride proves that more genuine takes on this material would be able to find success, and so our first film is Fantastic Four, and that it would release in May 2000. 

For the second film I think it is highly likely that Marvel would try to get a film based on their most popular and iconic character, Spider-Man, and with the recent launch of the Ultimate Spider-Man comic I think it is highly likely that elements of that would be explored to update the character's origins. This series also introduced another connective element, that of Oscorp working on a government contract to recreate the Super-Soldier Serum, and I think that in a similar way to how The Incredible Hulk did in the actual MCU using this as an idea would work wonders, allowing for further storytelling opportunities further down the line. I think Peter Parker should be in high-school or possibly even in college for this, with supporting characters including Flash Thompson, Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson, in a similar way to Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man film. Now while Norman Osborn's Green Goblin could work as an obvious villain, the higher profile that character had as a villain in the comics of the time means I would like to save him for a sequel, and maybe might even have him as an absent figure in Harry's life as well. Instead what I would suggest is taking a link from John Byrne's then-recent Spider-Man: Chapter One series, as this had the demonstration that saw the origin of Spider-Man take place during an accident that also saw Otto's accident that turned him into Doctor Octopus, an idea Ultimate Spider-Man would also reference. Perhaps Oscorp's demonstration could be something to do with neogenics, a concept that was heavily used in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, incorporating several elements at once. I would want to also show a nicer side to Otto rather than just his villain persona, and I think the best way to do this is with his comic connection to the recently widowed Aunt May, who he has also been shown to be kind to, and even romantically linked to at points. So at some point after the death of Uncle Ben perhaps Otto could meet May in his civilian persona and the two could bond over their recent tragedies, before Otto descends more strongly into his villainy. Either way Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus would eventually clash, and towards the end of the film perhaps Peter could find a way to appeal to the better person inside Otto, perhaps even as a result of Otto's connection to May, allowing him to surrender. I would expect this film, maybe even called Amazing Spider-Man after the long-running flagship comic, to release in Summer 2001. 

For the third film in my series I think Marvel would go for a film on one of their most popular characters in the mainstream, namely the Hulk. Hulk is a character that has a significant presence in the public consciousness as a result of the Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno starring Incredible Hulk series in the 1980s, and so I believe that a film that explored the darkly tragic elements of the Hulk, while still allowing the budget for him to engage in some intense destruction, could work wonders. I think Bruce Banner, Hulk's alter-ego, is an interesting character to use in a film as so much depends on the exploration of this incredibly lonely character. Peter David's flagship run on the character would probably be the best place to look for inspiration for much of the character's internal drama, but I think the best place to look for a villain may instead be the Hulkbusters from the earlier Archie Goodwin run, in this case Thaddeus Ross leading a group including Samuel Sterns and maybe even Tony Stark to hunt the Hulk. I would also include not just Betty Ross but also Rick Jones to give the Hulk and Banner someone to play off of. Perhaps this is where we could see Tony is already the hero Iron Man, whether he appears or is merely referenced, or save him for the future while Sterns could become the Leader and be revealed as the main villain, manipulating Ross, or at least set that up for the future. I do think the Ang Lee Hulk film from 2003 showed that this type of story has promise, but the version I think Marvel would make would tone down some of the more exaggerated elements of that version, and have a few more spectacular action sequences. Perhaps David Banner, Bruce's abusive father, could even appear in some way as he did in that film, driving the emotional story onwards to the conclusion. For more connecting elements obviously Banner and Stark are part of the Knights of the Atomic Round Table, and a SHIELD agent could have a presence among General Ross's forces - maybe Clay Quartermain, who was associated with Hulk in the comics, or Jimmy Woo? And could Hulk's transformation be linked to some form of the super-soldier experiment as well, as several other adaptations have done? Either way this alternate Marvel would see Incredible Hulk release in Summer 2002.

2003 will be the first year in this alternate world where i plan to release two films. My approach, at least until the Marvel mainstays are established, is for one new property per year, while the sequels for previous films continue as well. I think as well by this point the success of what is being built, and the references across the films to connecting elements like SHIELD, the super-soldier project, and the atomic knights of the round table, as well as references to the other heroes in each film, show that there is a connected universe here, even without the more overt Marvel post-credit sequences that are a standard of the franchise at this point, which are something that I haven't been willing to speculate upon at this point. Perhaps this is the time where Marvel begins to hire actors not for the standard trilogy deal, but for six appearances, three solo films and three team-ups, something that happened in the real world with many of their characters. And so the first film with one of these new casting contracts, with a goal of building some real cross-film connections, will be Captain America. Now I would want to keep the film in its World War 2 setting, in a similar way to the real First Avenger film, however I also don't think its impossible to deny that having this character in the modern day would be a temptation so soon after the 9/11 terror attacks. I do think keeping the character in World War 2 for at least the majority of the film would be better however, perhaps making a film quite close to the actual First Avenger film in many ways, with Red Skull as the obvious villain, with other villains like Arnim Zola and Baron Zemo as secondary antagonists. For allies the obvious is Bucky, but also perhaps some members of the Howling Commados, such as Dum Dum Dugan and Gabriel Jones. I doubt that the Tessaract as depicted in the MCU would be the macguffin that drives the plot, although the links that has to Asgard could be very interesting without the Thor film preceding it. The ending of the film will see Captain America save the day, lose Bucky and get frozen to arrive in the modern day. Either way Captain America will be around Memorial Day 2003, so around the end of May. 

I would follow this with my first sequel, which I will aim for Thanksgiving, and that is the second Fantastic Four film. In this film I would introduce Namor the Sub-Mariner, and include the chemistry between him and Sue Storm, while also incorporating the wedding of Sue and Reed. There are plenty of Silver Age stories to borrow from to serve as a basis for this story, and I would probably also include Doom in some capacity, perhaps trying to manipulate Namor against the surface world, and leading them into conflict with the Fantastic Four. I might also have hints in the background that the Fantastic Four have become not only beloved heroes, but have perhaps made other scientific discoveries, such as Mole Man's Subterranea, or the development of unstable molecules. Either way Namor and Atlantis will be established, Doom will continue to be a threat, and by the end of the film Reed and Sue will be married.

2004 will continue the trend of having two films, and in this case the first will be the sequel, as Spider-Man will have his second film around Easter. After Doctor Octopus in the first film, and with Norman Osborn looming for a future appearance as the Green Goblin, I think that perhaps a different type of villain may be the best choice, and, taking inspiration from the 2000 Sony Playstation game Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, I think Electro is the perfect choice. In the recent comics at the time the character was undergoing a bit of a revival, and trying to increase his power, becoming a much more formidable villain as a result. One advantage Electro has is that he is one of the few villains in the comics to beat Spider-Man in their first encounter, and so I think a series of escalating battles in the film could be interesting, building Electro as a strong villain, and high-lighting Peter's own intelligence as he tries to use his own skills to improve his technology to defeat Electro. Electro in the comics also stole from Stark technology to increase his powers, allowing that to be established if included here. I think this should also be the film where Norman Osborn debuts, building him as a future villain by showing his interest in Spider-Man, with him perhaps trying to use Electro to capture the hero. Also in this film I think we should see Peter and Mary Jane get together, and her learning his identity, but the fallout of this may indeed be devastating to Harry, leading him into a self-destructive path. Finally if J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle have yet to be introduced then this is the film it should happen in, as Peter can also use his connections there to explore what Electro is up to. This would release around March 2004.

I would then follow this in the summer with a film that I think many fans will have been eagerly awaiting, and that is the debut of the X-Men. I would want the X-Men to already be established, with a new character serving as our introduction to them, and I think either Kitty Pryde or Jubilee would work best in that role. I will choose Kitty because of the story I am planning to use for the film. KItty would face anti-mutant backlash as her powers appear, and would be recruited to the X-Men, a group led by Charles Xavier. While I like the idea of the mutant school being full of students as it is in the Fox films, I don't know how feasible that idea would be. I do think Colossus should be a fellow slightly older student, who Kitty can grow close to. I think other X-Men should be Cyclops, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, and Storm. Storm and Jean would be close, and Kitty could develop a sibling-like relationship with Storm, and Cyclops and Jean would already be an item. The most famous X-Men team member, Wolverine, I would save for a later debut. I would use this film to introduce the concept of mutants, and the distrust they earn among people, with more of them appearing and so it becoming a larger issue. Senator Robert Kelly will start campaigning for mutant registration, but the X-Men will have to come to his aid, investigating an attempted assassination upon him by the mutant Blob. The X-Men will learn from Blob of Mystique and her Brotherhood of Mutants, a group consisting of the seer Destiny, who has foreseen a dark future as a result of Kelly's actions, and the mutants Rogue, Pyro and Avalanche acting as enforcers. The conflict would come to a head as the X-Men attempt to stop the Brotherhood from killing the Senator. There are several issues I am taking inspiration from here, but the main one is the classic story 'Days of Future Past', and I think that epecially with the X-Men and its huge amount of classic stories to draw from that Marvel would want to hit some of those greats. Obviously the 13 or so characters might be a lot to juggle, but I think that films from Marvel and others have proven over the years that it is perfectly possible to introduce and develop a large cast of characters with the right script, with DC's recent Superman film being a perfect example of having a large cast and giving each character enough development and purpose in the plot, and so I think in the right hands this is easily done. Magneto would also not appear, but a suggestion of perhaps some connection between him and the Brotherhood wouldn't be impossible. I would have Rogue, and possibly Mystique, escape capture at the end of this film however. That's my pitch for the Uncanny X-Men film that I am proposing as part of this universe. 

April 2005 will see the debut of a character I imagine people will be surprised I have left for this long given their success in the actual MCU, and that is Iron Man. I have had several mentions of Tony Stark in other properties, as I want Tony to be seen as a celebrity in universe, and already known by audiences. I haven't decided whether he should already be established as Iron Man or not by the time the film starts, but his origins should definitely be revealed here. Now I would want to use Wong-Chu as the person behind his origin, and show a link to the Mandarin, however it's impossible to suggest that attempts to appeal to the Chinese film market, as well as the rise of real-life islamic terrorist groups as a result of the War of Terror wouldn't influence the decision to adapt those elements rather than to use them directly, as this is a decision that we know Marvel struggled with in the real world as well. Regardless of that though I think the main villain of the film should in fact be Advanced Idea Mechanics, and their leader George Tartleton, who I think should attempt to approach Tony to attempt to bing him and Stark Tech into their plans, being a very scientific and futurist "ends justify the means" group. Tony, turning away from weapons development, would consider their appeal, but learn things about them that would turn him against them, perhaps experimentation on superhumans such as Living Laser. This would set up for a conflict between Tony and Tartleton, who would evolve in MODOK with his own experimentation. I think a subplot could involve Stark dealing with SHIELD, who he has been supplying all this time, and they could take an interest in Iron Man. Also as much as the MCU pushed Pepper as Tony's love interest, I would rather see the introduction of Rumiko Fujikawa, as perhaps her father could be looking to merge with Stark to ease its financial troubles. Other supporting cast members such as Pepper and Happy could still appear, as could characters like Leonard Samson and Jennifer Walters, who appeared as supporting characters in the Heroes Reborn run, allowing them to appear further in later projects. Part of me also wants to give the film the title of Invincible Iron Man, to match the extravagant titles the others all have. 

Summer 2005 would see the release of the sequel to the Incredible Hulk. I picture this beginning with Banner on the run, in hiding, and trying desperately to cure himself, seeking help from others. I would have him in Canada, perhaps seeking help from gamma colleague Walter Langkowski, known in the comics as the hero Sasquatch of Alpha Flight, however I think the attempt to cure Banner should be sabotaged, by none other than Sterns, acting remotely and keeping tabs on Banner. This would lead to a Hulk rampage, which would see him come up against Wolverine, acting as an agent of the Canadian government, in a move guaranteed to please and shock audiences. I also think this should be the film that has the emergence of the Grey Hulk persona, with Hulk having more agency of his own, and allowing him to be reasoned with more. I think this should also lead to the creation of Sasquatch, replacing the much more problematic character Wendigo from the comics, and Walter stabilising his transformation somewhat could also give Banner hope for the future. Perhaps Banner is captured, and Department H, Wolverine's superiors, try to help Banner, showing him more kindness than he is used to. Doing this perhaps they track down Sterns, now the gamma-powered Leader, and Leader could also be allied with Abomination, perhaps even having created him specifically to go against the Hulk. I think Heather Hudson should be the leader of Department H, and Wolverine should help the Hulk in a supporting role, similar to Black Widow's role in Iron Man 2 or Winter Soldier. The film would end with Leader imprisoned, and Banner, while not cured, leaving to find another solution. 

2006 would see the release of two brand-new properties, which would introduce our final characters as we head towards the inevitable Avengers team-up, as well as widening the scope of our universe. The first, in March, would be Ms Marvel as Carol Danvers did not have the Captain Marvel title in the comics at the time - in fact I think the trademark may have still been owned by DC at this point. Ms Marvel would focus on Carol Danvers, an Earth woman and military officer who gains her abilities in the middle of a battle between the Kree and Skrull, two cosmic empires that have set their sights upon Earth as the next staging ground in their war. Ronan the Accuser would work perhaps as the best figurehead for the Kree Empire, while I think the Skrulls would be best represented by Paibok, known as the Power Skrull in the comics. Carol could perhaps encounter Kree warrior Mar-Vell who is trying to prevent the war, although part of me would much rather that she is the only one of the two with powers, similar to the actual Captain Marvel film we got. She could also work at Project Pegasus, perhaps alongside SHIELD agent Wendell Vaughn, better known in the comics as the character Quasar. 

The second release would be in late June, and would see the debut of Thor. I imagine this film to play out very similarly to the actual Thor film we got, with Thor being humbled and exiled to Earth, and Loki scheming to seize the throne of Asgard. Personally I would prefer Ymir as a villain instead of Laufey, or that he could perhaps be used instead of the Destroyer. Either way I would expect this to cover a lot of the same ground as the actual released MCU film, with a similar supporting cast including Jane Foster, the Warriors Three, Lady Sif, Heimdall, Odin, Frigga, and others. SHIELD could also have a role, in a similar way to the actual film. Either way by the end I would expect Loki to be lost, Thor to remain on Earth, and perhaps for Asgard to be cut off from Earth for the time-being. Again I have a temptation for this film to be called The Mighty Thor, in a similar way to the other adjective-led titles that echo the classic comics of the Silver Age. 

2007 will be the year this first Phase, for lack of a better term, comes together, as we will get three films this year, as well as our first television series. First will be the second entry in our Uncanny X-Men series, as the events of the first film, and the continuing rise of mutants and other superhumans, prompts the US government to take action, spurred on by the mysterious Bastion, who has developed the Sentinel program alongside Bolivar Trask. The activation of this Operation: Zero Tolerance leads to several mutants being gathered as potential threats, including the X-Men, Wolverine, Rogue, and new characters Nightcrawler, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, as well as probably several other cameos. I think this could allow the addition of fan-favourite characters Wolverine, Rogue and Nightcrawler to the X-Men, and develop Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch into heroes of their own. We could perhaps learn that they are Magneto's children, but have left him after disagreeing with his methods, showing that while Magneto is still absent he is preparing for war, casting a long shadow over the X-Men.In fact one of Bastion's goals could be using Xavier to locate Magneto using Cerebro, in a similar manner to the events of the second X-Men film, and Bastion could be revealed to have encountered Magneto in the past as well, which has led him to make this decision for war.  For a character I plan to include later I would also include the Juggernaut/Cain Marko, a prisoner and stepbrother of Xavier, who could be interrogated by Bastion to gain insight into Xavier. In the comics Juggernaut is powered by a mystic gem, although many adaptations have given him mutant origins, but I would stick with the mystic gem source for his powers as it could be a hint of further thinsg to come. In the end I think Senator Kelly could help the X-Men to stop Operation: Zero Tolerance, and Jean's powers could grow, allowing her to overwhelm Cerebro and defeat the manipulated Xavier. I don't want to do a straight adaptation of the Phoenix Saga, but the connection that Grant Morrison's New X-Men title gave of Phoenix being an extension of Jean's natural powers I think could still be explored here, laying groundwork for the future. I also think that just like the real X2 in our world this would be the best time to feature a larger student body of characters, such as Iceman, Jubilee, Siryn, Multiple Man, etc, as they could all get brief moments to shine as they are introduced trying to escape Bastion's soldiers and Sentinels. It could also be used to introduce other characters in cameos, something the real X2 had planned with Beast, Gambit and Marrow among others. Juggernaut would also escape in the aftermath, as he works as a possible recurring villain for many characters in the future, but is someone I definitely have plans for in the future. This would be released in late April. 

In mid-July it would be followed by the film that brings the Avengers together. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Ms Marvel would be supporting characters of a sort however, as I would use this as the chance to have Nick Fury really get explored, bringing the Avengers together, with the final Knight of the Atomic Round Table scientist Hank Pym and his wife the Wasp becoming key parts of the new team, alongside SHIELD marksman Hawkeye, and the recruited Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. I think I would also like to take the approach from the Ultimate line of comics that Wasp is a scientist herself as well, and possibly similar to those comics I might also make her a secret mutant, although I would want her and Hank's relationship to be much more stable than the depiction in that comic. I would also like to include Rick Jones in some way if I could, as in the comics it was actually he who bought the team together. Rick has a very interesting comic history and has been linked to several major heroes including the Hulk, the Avengers, Mar-Vell, and he even served as a modern-day Bucky alongside Captain America, as well as manifesting a cosmic power called the Destiny Force that helped bring an end to the Kree-Skrull War. The idea of the team, after the Operation: Zero Tolerance fiasco, is to create a superhuman response team, and with this goal in mind Hank Pym has created the AI Ultron to help monitor the world, however Ultron will break free, and become the team's first enemy, with the Avengers teaming up to stop him. Ultron could also create the Vision to strike back at the Avengers, but Wanda could help him turn against Ultron, allowing them to defeat the new threat. Essentially there's a lot here from Age of Ultron in my version, and that's mainly because of my love of Ultron as a character, and how I have planned to use his origin to continue elements from previous films. At the end of this the Avengers might split, in a similar way to the first Avengers film in the MCU, but the core of Hank, Wasp, Wanda, Quicksilver, Vision and Hawkeye will remain under SHIELD.

Speaking of SHIELD, they would be the focus of my first television series. Obviously there was an actual Agents of SHIELD series in our world, using mostly original characters, however I would like the show to focus more on actual comic characters, and so I would have Black Widow as the female lead, alongside Jimmy Woo and G.W. Bridge. Nick Fury could have some minor appearances to oversee the group, and there could also be some other original supporting characters, but I want this to be a team that is designed as a more black ops response team. Their first season would see them going up against Hydra, with the mutant Von Strucker twins as the main villains, and several other episodes could perhaps include other minor Marvel characters, or recurring sub-plots like the Tinkerer helping to arm other villains with advanced technology, or the introduction of the cyborg Deathlok, or mercenaries like Solo, or vigilantes like Night Thrasher - all characters unlikely to get their own films but with rich potential that can be explored in multiple episodes across future seasons. Likewise the real-world Agents of SHIELD series included adaptations of minor comic villains such as Blackout, Blizzard, Whiplash, Absorbing Man, Graviton, and Mister Hyde, and its again highly likely that this series could do something similar.

Finally, aiming for a holiday release, would be the conclusion to the Fantastic Four trilogy, and it seems that many of the ideas I have for this have been realised in some form or another in the recently released Fantastic Four: First Steps, as I would have this film feature the birth of Franklin Richards, while also adapting the classic Galactus trilogy from the Silver Age, and I would also try to incorporate Doctor Doom, trying to claim either Galactus or Franklin's vast powers for himself. The coming of Galactus could also see guest appearances from other Marvel heroes, such as Spider-Man, Tony Stark, Thor, Jean Grey and Charles Xavier, as they all try to reach the Silver Surfer and get his help to stop Galactus. Obviously the original Galactus trilogy is the main comic book inspiration at play here, but there are many other stories and adaptations with Galactus that can be used, especially the Heroes Reborn version in which Doom featured prominently. Galactus will be driven from the planet, the Silver Surfer will be free, Doom will be defeated, and the Fantastic Four will go off to raise Franklin, stepping back in some respects from their current role as the premier superteam. Now this does mean that there are plenty of fantastic (pun intended) villains of the team that I have skipped over, such as the Wizard and the Frightful Four, Diablo, Red Ghost, and others, but I do think for the trilogy of films I have covered the three biggest. 

Phase Two - Expanding the Universe

So after fifteen entries in this alternate Marvel Cinematic Universe, the first trilogy complete, and the franchise beginning to expand beyond the cinema screen, I want to continue this expansion, and to start moving the combined universe towards a big upcoming event, while at the same time developing distinct corners of the universe for groups of heroes to interact. Now I won't necessarily go into as much detail as I have with some previous entries, mainly as I am not as well-read in some of these characters as I am with others, but they are all indeed popular characters I think Marvel would use. 

The first entry of this new phase of this alternate MCU will be the sequel to Captain America, which will launch for Memorial Day 2008. I would include Rick Jones as a supporting cast member, maybe even having him take on the role of Bucky, and also include the debut of the Falcon, perhaps with an origin more closely aligned to his MCU depiction rather than his comic origins. For the villain I believe the modern Baron Zemo would be the best inclusion, perhaps linking him as a descendant of the original, and while Helmut himself would not be a Nazi he would be seeking vengeance on Cap over a matter of honour. The film would end with a peace of sorts being made between them, but Zemo still at large. 

Following this in early summer would be the third Spider-Man film, which finally sees the debut of the Green Goblin. I would have Norman's breaking point to becoming the Goblin come about not just as a result of super-soldier experimentation, but also as a result of Harry's spiral. In the comics Harry actually had a brief time where he became addicted to drugs, around the same time as the iconic 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died' storyline, which is what prompted Norman in that story to return to his Goblin persona. So yes in this story I would have Harry in a bad place, and while Peter is trying to help, the Goblin will blame Peter and Mary Jane in part for what is happening, and would learn of Peter's identity as Spider-Man. While I don't want to kill off Mary Jane in the same way as what happened to Gwen Stacy (obviously), I think it is possible that MJ is put into real peril, and that Peter may think she has died, leading to a vicious attack on the Goblin that does lead to Norman's own death, just as it did in the original story. I think that Peter and MJ might also separate for a while over this, providing a somewhat downer ending to the trilogy. 

Later in the summer, in the break between seasons of SHIELD, I would have a television miniseries, which would be the New Mutants. The original New Mutants team has an enduring popularity in the comics, and I think it highly likely that Marvel would try to capture a teen market using those characters, and so I would have the students of Moonstar, Cannonball, Karma, Sunspot, Cypher and Wolfsbane, perhaps not as Xavier's students, but Emma Frost's, and learning of her connection to the Hellfire Club they break away from her, and have to deal with the villains. Sebastian Shaw would be a good secondary villain, as the mastermind of sorts to Emma's schemes, and the idea of teens rebelling against corrupt authority figures is a well-worn trope, even being explored in the comics of the time in Runaways, as well as the actual New Mutants film that was released, so I think its a good one to use. Other students that could remain allied to Emma and the Hellfire Club could include James Proudstar and members of the comic Hellions. I imagine this being between 4 and 8 episodes long, depending on how they choose to use the budget. 

For the second season of SHIELD the show will continue much as it has, however the overarching plot of the season will involve the criminal organisation Zodiac, and the Scorpio Key. This is a plot from the comics and the main villain is actually the estranged brother of Nick Fury, so I think it could be a very good story to explore, and a long-form season of television is the best place to do that, with the show running on the traditional tv season schedule of September to May with a winter break in the middle.

Around November the final part of the Hulk trilogy will land. While I think Banner and the Hulk would be trying to work to make peace with each other as part of this story, perhaps with the help of psychologist Leonard Samson, I think I also want to take elements from later parts of Peter David's run, namely the storyline 'Future Imperfect', which sees an alternate future where the Hulk, now known as the Maestro, has taken over the planet and eliminated the other heroes. Banner could find himself in this timeline in a similar way to the original comic, being bought there by the future resistance movement, which could include members of the Pantheon, a secret group created as supporting characters for Hulk in the late 90s. In the comics the time machine used is the one belonging to Doctor Doom, and so perhaps a future version of Doom could also be present, similar to the more heroic version of the character from the 90's 2099 comic line. There could also be elements of other dark futures depicted in the comics, such as the aforementioned 'Days of Future Past' storyline. By the end of the film however I want the Maestro defeated, and Banner and Hulk to have approached a new understanding in their relationship, with an awareness of what dark paths their future could hold. 

The final project of 2008 however will be another new series, designed to fill the winter break in the season of SHIELD. In the real world this was how the shows Agent Carter and Inhumans debuted, and in this world an idea that I can see getting developed is the Daily Bugle. In then-recent comics at the time the idea of journalists in comics had been covered with the titles Pulse and Frontline and obviously characters like Ben Urich and Robbie Robertson had been prominent supporting characters for heroes like Spider-Man and Daredevil for decades, and there is also the advantage of using these characters to really explore the more grounded "world outside your window" approach to its storytelling that Marvel in the comics has been known for. As a result I think the series should have Frontline character Sally Floyd and Marvels character Phil Sheldon as its primary protagonists, with Robbie Robertson, Betty Brant, Gloria Grant and Phil Urich as supporting characters. I envision it as more of an episodic series, with several minor characters adapted from the comics, really playing with the idea of New York city being the central location of so many of Marvel's characters, however if there was to be a "big bad" I think the character of Tombstone, due to his links to Robbie Robertson. Jonah, if he appeared at all, would be a cameo role, keeping the majority of his performances to the big screen, in a similar way to how Agents of SHIELD used Nick Fury in the opening and closing episodes of its first season.

In 2009 as well as continuing all three tv shows of New Mutants (focusing on the Demon Bear storyline), SHIELD (with Taskmaster as the big bad), and Daily Bugle (with Mysterio as a big bad, perhaps by posing as a hero and then being exposed in a similar way to Far From Home), we will also be getting sequels to Ms Marvel (in the early part of the year, and I think Moonstone or the Brood would be the ideal villains. I would like Moonstone for a later plot but Carol's history with the Brood is worth adapting as well, and Monica Rambeau would work well as a new hero to be introduced) and Thor (later in the year, with either Malekith or Hela as the main villain, perhaps Malekith due to him attempting an eternal winter and how that could play into the marketing. Maybe the two could even be allied?). Thor should ideally return to Asgard for a while at the end of the second Thor as well I think, to deal with the damage caused by the villains. However for the big May release I would have a film focused on Wolverine. The character has already been established, and could now be explored more fully, with Sabretooth being an obvious first villain, and perhaps exploring some of the backstory of his changes at Weapon X. 

For 2010 while the existing series continue I would add two premium streaming series, in a similar manner to the Defenders series that Marvel released on Netflix in the real world. I think that two could release in this first year, focusing on the heroes Daredevil and Luke Cage, giving a more grounded and street-level look at the universe as the characters deal with crime stories. For Daredevil, released early in the year, the main villain would be Kingpin, perhaps with the villain Bullseye featured as well, while for Luke Cage, towards the end of the year, I think Diamondback makes the most sense as the first villain. These shows may indeed end up being very similar to the series we actually ended up with in the real world. For the other shows SHIELD will feature the villainess Viper leading a new Hydra, The New Mutants will tackle the anti-mutant hate group Reavers, led by Hellfire Club member Donald Pierce (and perhaps this could introduce the character of Warlock), and the Daily Bugle team will try to expose the Tinkerer, the genius behind many super-villains advanced equipment, or alternatively trying to expose the schemes of the villain the Mad Thinker. 

For the films however we will have the sequel to Iron Man in April, and I would look to see him come against the Mandarin, perhaps with the giant alien dragon Fin Fang Foom serving up some spectacle. The big summer film would feature the sequel to the Avengers, and in this film they would be going up against the former MCU big bad of Kang the Conqueror. I think Kang is an incredibly interesting villain and serves very well as a big threat, and in the comics he has also encountered the Fantastic Four and Doom as well, and even believed for a while that both Doom and/or Reed were his ancestors, and so bringing Reed, Sue, Franklin and Doom back to team with the Avengers, perhaps with Johnny and Ben to aid them, as it has been a couple of years since the Fantastic Four were together on screen. There are many other great Avengers that could debut as new heroes as well, such as Wonder Man, Tigra, Moondragon, and even the former X-Man Beast, but I think the mix of the Avengers and Fantastic Four is enough to have here. Kang has an interesting connection to Rick Jones as well and so he could also be included in some way as a supporting character. The final film of the year though, aiming for a Thanksgiving release, will be a solo film for the Silver Surfer. For this film I think there are many great possible villains, but if I was really overseeing this universe then I would want to include the High Evolutionary, who was used brilliantly in the last Guardians of the Galaxy film in our world. I think he's a perfectly amoral villain to challenge the still discovering himself Silver Surfer, as a lot of this film would deal with the character finding his own independence from Galactus, who could appear in a supporting role via flashbacks to the character's history. 

In 2011 the two new streaming series will be She-Hulk, a more light-hearted take on the universe as the character deals with wacky cases, inspired by the recent run of comics at the time, and I think Absorbing Man and Titania could work very well as recurring threats if necessary, and that we could perhaps see them marry as they are in the comics, making a villainous power couple. I think about how the actual She-Hulk: Attorney At Law show that we got featured Marvel characters such as Leapfrog, the Wrecking Crew, Mr Immortal, Man-Bull, Porcupine, and El Aguila, and how this show, as well as others I have suggested such as SHIELD and Daily Bugle, could use these and other minor characters from throughout the comics canon, including lesser-known mutants and Spider-Man villains due to the expanded rights of this alternate universe. The second streaming show will feature the character of Punisher. I think this could help to balance the budget slightly, as I imagine She-Hulk to be a more expensive show, while Punisher could be made for a much more modest budget and still look incredible. My primary villain of choice would be Jigsaw, who has been adapted in our world in both the Punisher Defenders Saga series, as well as the Punisher: War Zone film. New Mutants would feature the magic wielding mutant Selene as its villain, and allow the group to recruit Magma. SHIELD will introduce the villainess Madame Masque, and perhaps also her father Count Nefaria. And finally I'm not sure if Daily Bugle would return for a fourth season, or if the previous one would have been the final, but I think if it did continue it could perhaps introduce a hero alongside whatever villain is introduced, and my choice would be another Steve Ditko creation, the New Warrior team member Speedball, and for a villain I would like to see Nitro. 

I think we could also see 4 films this year for the first time, with the third Captain America coming out in February for Presidents Day, and adapting the incredible 'Secret Empire' storyline, which sees Cap and his allies finding a conspiracy in the government that extends all the way to the President, and I also think it would be great if this overlaps in someways with the season of SHIELD concluding around the same time, featuring Viper's new Hydra, who could perhaps be associated with the Secret Empire in some way. In the film I think the Serpent Society work well as the Secret Empire's enforcers, especially the villain Sidewinder, leader of the group and recently played by Giancarlo Esposito in Captain America: Brave New World. An important part of adapting this particular storyline is that it sees Cap step away from his identity as America's representative, becoming disillusioned with the country. I'm doing this because I've noticed a pattern in the actual MCU for the final film in the trilogy to leave the lead heroes in a fragile position - Iron Man 3 sees Tony destroy his armours, Civil War sees Cap and several other Avengers on the run, Ragnarok sees the destruction of Asgard and Mjolnir and the death of Odin, Guardians Vol 3 sees the team break up, and Infinity War obviously saw half of the universe wiped out. The only real exception to this rule so far is Quantumania, but apparently that was originally planned to end with Scott and Hope trapped in the quantum realm, so it was considered. In a similar way I wish to do this with my own films - the Fantastic Four trilogy ended with the team stepping back for a time, Spider-Man ended with Peter and MJ separated, Banner changed his relationship with the Hulk at the end of his trilogy, and now Captain America will end with Steve no longer as Captain America, at least for now.

For the big Spring release I think we could see the third X-Men film, which finally brings the team against Magneto, and gives Xavier some development as we explore the history of the two. Magneto I see threatening the world, perhaps affecting the world with an EMP, something he has done several times in the comics, and was most recently seen in X-Men '97, and the X-Men will have to stop him, perhaps with the aid of Quicksilver and possibly Mystique. The biggest things I want to include here are from the 90s storyline 'Fatal Attractions', where Wolverine has his adamantium skeleton removed by Magneto, leaving him badly wounded, and Xavier wipes Magneto's mind, leaving him comatose. In the comics Colossus also joined Magneto's followers, but I do not think I would include that element here, however I do want the X-Men to splinter as a result of Xavier's actions, with it forming a rift between him and Cyclops. In comics at the time Cyclops had taken much more of a leadership role for not just the X-Men but what remained of mutantkind after House of M, while Xavier was disgraced in the eyes of many X-Men due to previous actions coming to light, and I want something similar in this final part, as Xavier is asked to leave by Scott, who feels betrayed by the actions of his father figure. The X-Men might remain together, but they have left the man who's dream they follow. I haven't wanted to speculate on the deaths of any major characters, mainly because I think there are many better, and often more satisfying, ways to end a character's story and induce drama, and so as a result I haven't wanted to suggest where characters could die, but it would make sense for a member of the team to die here if that choice was made, although I think Wolverine's injury is consequence enough. I think Quicksilver might choose to stay and look after his father. 

Finally I would aim for the summer and holiday film releases to be new entries for Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four respectively. For Spider-Man I would introduce the fan-favourite character of Venom by adapting the symbiote suit from the comics. There would need to be another villain in the first part of the story, but I wouldn't want it to be a major character, like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 did with Sandman, but perhaps a villain with simpler motivations such as Rhino or Scorpion, to allow the rivalry between Peter and Eddie Brock to be at the forefront. I would also want to see Peter reconcile with MJ here, but only after losing the symbiote suit. In fact it could be interesting if Black Cat served as the secondary villain, exploring a more flirty relationship with Spider-Man, making Peter Parker realise that MJ is who he wants, and serving to progress Peter's story if not Spider-Man's. Fantastic Four would see the introduction of the hidden race of Inhumans, with leader Black Bolt, his wife Medusa, Johnny's love interest Crystal, and the villainous Maximus all taking prominent roles, and I think at the end Crystal should leave with the team, to explore the real world.

2012, the year in our world that we got our first Avengers film, will be the year here where our third Avengers film would debut, being the big summer release, preceeded by the third Iron Man film in spring, and the first Black Panther in Black History Month. The final film of the year would be the sequel to Wolverine, following up on the fallout from his injuries in the third X-Men film. It would also see the conclusion of SHIELD's fifth and final season leading up to it, and the final season of New Mutants, as well as the streaming debuts of both Jessica Jones and Iron Fist alongside Daredevil's second season. This is around the time in the real world where more prestige cable and streaming shows became more common, hence why the shows are moving in that direction.

For Black Panther I think the villain needs to either be Killmonger, inspired by the classic first solo Black Panther story in Jungle Action, or alternatively Kraven the Hunter, who he encountered in Priest's legendary Marvel Knights run on the character. In fact as I think this film would do best taking many elements from Priest's run, as well as Reginald Hudlin's later run from a few years prior, perhaps Kraven might work best, and Killmonger could be saved for a sequel. Ideally I would like to introduce the concept of Wakanda and the Black Panther in a previous film if possible - perhaps the second Avengers film, or a Captain America or Fantastic Four film, but I'm not sure how easily that could be accomplished. Perhaps hints to Wakanda could have been placed in a similar way to the early references to Stark Tech or SHIELD, so that it is not a name unknown to audiences. Steve Rogers, Reed Richards, Luke Cage and Storm of the X-Men could be interesting guest characters to include in cameo or minor roles, hinting at connections to T'Challa. 

Jessica Jones should drop around early March for International Women's Day in my opinion, with the first season exploring her manipulation by Kilgrave, a plot point from her first Alias comic that was explored brilliantly by the first season of the show in our world. Jessica would also be the most recent character adapted in this way for this alternate MCU, but her comic was so popular that I think its a very deserved inclusion. Iron Fist would be much later in the year, and ideally focus on Danny Rand's return home and his connections to the Steel Serpent. The original series in our world wasn't well received for many reasons, but I think there are a variety of things that could create a great series, and a tighter focus is the biggest one. I have no plans here for a Defenders style crosover between these street-level heroes. Instead there are simply small crossovers and references to acknowledge that they are all part of a shared world in the same city. Daredevil season two, released between the previous two shows, will focus on the Hand and Matt's history with Elektra, inspired by many of the classic Frank Miller comics of the 80s. New Mutants final season will see our team of wayward kids encountering Xavier's estranged son Legion, who is sought by the villainous psychic entity the Shadow King. At the end of this I would want the team to get approached by one of the X-Men, ideally Cyclops, and have an offer extended for them to join the school. 

For the third Iron Man I would want to adapt the classic 'Armor Wars' arc, with Tony's tech being stolen by Ghost and sold to his rival Justin Hammer. The 90s cartoon did a very good adaptation of this story that could serve as a blueprint, as Tony's paranoia leads to him attacking many villains and even other heroes believing they have stolen his tech, with characters like Stingray, Beetle and Controller perhaps getting adapted from that version. In the comics Tony even comes up against his close friend Steve Rogers over his actions, before culminating in a final confrontation with Justin Hammer's new Firepower mech, and if War Machine has been established over this series then he could also clash with him as well. I think this is a great story to explore for a trilogy closer, as it really digs into Tony's psyche, and has a lot of moving parts that work best when a lot of groundwork has been laid previously. By the end of the film perhaps, like in the MCU, Tony has destroyed his armours, retiring his Iron Man persona. 

For the third Avengers film I am unsure which of two classic stories I would want to adapt. The options are either the 'Korvac Saga', where a future human who gains Galactus's power cosmic threatens the entire universe, and the Avengers have to sacrifice themselves to stop him, or 'Under Siege', where Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil attack the Avengers in their home base. Now I think both of these are great stories, worthy of adaptations, and able to bring together a variety of elements from previous stories, but if I was to pick then I would lean towards 'Under Siege', as its is much more straight-forward than the 'Korvac Saga', and introduces some characters I would like to use in the future. Now I have shown my version of Zemo to be a bit more honourable and not an out and out villain, so there will need to be some adjustments to his motivations as to why his group attacks the Avengers, but I think there are enough plot threads at play, especially with Steve Rogers and Iron Man having both gone rogue recently. Perhaps in this universe Zemo and his group are hired by the government to bring the Avengers to justice, believing they are harbouring fugitives, with Henry Peter Gyrich, a government figure linked to both the Avengers and the X-Men in the comics, letting them off the leash and giving them too much power. As for the villains I want to use, well my choices are the characters of Goliath, Screaming Mimi, Moonstone, the Fixer, and the Beetle, and anyone aware of comic storylines might be able to work out why. The villain Blackout is also used in the comic by Zemo, manipulated by him, and eventually dies in this story, and so he might also be a good inclusion. This is where some of the new Avengers heroes could possibly appear, or the current main group could hand over to the new team, but it may also be interesting to see Captain America and Iron Man return, reborn as it were, to lead a new team of heroes.

For the second Wolverine film I would have the character, still healing as a result of what Magneto did to him, and more vulnerable than he has ever been before, head to Japan to recuperate. In many ways this story would be influenced by the classic 'Japan Adventure', which heavily inspired 2013's The Wolverine film, however Wolverine has always had a particular villain closely linked to his time in Japan that I would want to explore, which is his former sensei Ogun, now a malevolent spirit able to possess others. Ogun could threaten Wolverine's connection to his love interest Mariko Yashida, and there are several other mutants related to Mariko, such as Sunfire and the Silver Samurai, who could also appear, as well as Lady Deathstrike, another Japanese villain who could serve as an excellent physical opponent to Logan. By the end of the film Wolverine would be more stable than he has been, but has perhaps lost Mariko, who in the comics he had to mercy kill when she was given a slow-acting poison. I think it might be interesting to have him remain in Japan, however he could also return to Canada, but he should not return to the X-Men yet. 

And so as many stories are starting to wind down, and we are now 12 years into this saga, I think its time to start building to a big conclusion.

Building to the Big Event

So over the next couple of years I would want this alternative MCU to keep its recent trend of diversifying its characters, but also bringing together and paying off some of the recent plotlines across the films. 

Now I will acknowledge that in our real world the Infinity Saga took around 11 years from the release of Iron Man to reach its conclusion in Avengers: Endgame, and then afterwards the content became much more centralised, with it all coming from Marvel Studios as opposed to Marvel TV, and what was a side story became less clear. My previous podcast episode goes into a lot more detail on all of this. However I would ideally like to make it more obvious in my universe what is a side story. For example it may be worth Daredevil, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Punisher, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist having a special Marvel Knights banner, clearly indicating to audiences that they are a separate part of the universe. Elements from them may appear in the films, but it is not essential to watch them to enjoy the film series meta-story. And as many of those shows start to approach their third series and fifth year of production it might be worth another banner or two being developed for similar avenues of the universe, specifically a Horror or Cosmic banner, as I look towards new series for characters such as the vampire hunter Blade, the demonically possessed Ghost Rider, and space police officer Nova, as more premium streaming series start to debut alongside the new Knights releases. So expect Blade alongside the second seasons of Luke Cage, She-Hulk and the Punisher, Ghost Rider and Nova alongside Jessica Jones season two and Daredevil season three, and as we head to 2015 I would hope to see Blade's second season alongside more of Iron Fist, and then either more of Luke Cage (perhaps teamed with Jessica Jones as their relationship begins to build) and She-Hulk, or possibly a full crossover Marvel Knights series featuring the full cast of heroes together. These seasons of the Knights shows could also introduce more heroes to join alongside the others in the full team, such as the runaway teen duo Cloak and Dagger, martial artist Shang-Chi, cyborg Misty Knight, skilled swordswoman Colleen Wing, and perhaps even the bizarre Squirrel Girl. 

For the films I want to have a big event across two films with a big bad between 2014 and 2015, in a similar way to Infinity War and Endgame, and I believe that I have set up enough groundwork for the story I want to tell, which I will explain more for shortly. But before then several other stories need to come to a conclusion. 

Firstly the third Ms Marvel, which if possible I would like Carol to take the Captain Marvel title in, would see Carol, alongside Monica Rambeau and Wendell Vaughn, going up against a major space empire that I haven't explored yet, with the Shi'ar Empire. The Shi'ar are usually connected quite strongly with the X-Men, however Carol spent a lot of time with them in the comics and so Shi'ar character Deathbird is one of her major villains. The Shi'ar have also gone to war with the Kree in the comics, who Carol still has a connection to, and so many that could be the case here, as they strike at the weakened Kree. This could also be a great time to debut Peter Quill as well perhaps, who could bond with Carol as a human who feels more drawn to outer space than to Earth. Another possible inclusion could be the daughter of Mar-Vell, Phyla, who in the comics at the time was in possession of the Nega Bands as the current Quasar, and another member of the then-new Guardians of the Galaxy. I imagine Phyla as much younger and more headstrong, allowing Carol to mentor her slightly. The main villain could however be the Kree Supreme Intelligence, sabotaging its own people to allow the Shi'ar to win their war, just as it did in the 'Operation: Galactic Storm' crossover. For the ending of the film I think Carol should make a decision between Earth and Space, and my view is that she should leave Earth for outer space permanently, perhaps remaining with the war-ravaged Kree.

I would follow this with the third Thor movie, which I would use to introduce other pantheons of gods, specifically the Greek god Hercules, who will team up with Thor to take on the Egyptian god of death Seth, who could be attacking the other patheons, something he has done in the comics a few times. I think it could be a lot of fun to see the somewhat gregarious Thor forced to be the straight man against the much more exuberant Hercules. Valkyrie would also be a good ally if she has yet to appear. I feel like Thor would have lost many allies in his previous film, such as the Warriors Three and possibly Sif, putting him a very unfamiliar position here. Part of me is even thinking that perhaps Hela shouldn't appear in the previous film, with Malekith teaming up with Surtur in that one so that the goddess of death could team with Seth here. The end of the film could maybe feature Seth, as the Serpent God, representing the Midgard Serpent, and Thor dying after their final battle, just as in the final battle of the classic myth of Ragnarok, with a teaser that Thor will return, due to the cycle of death and rebirth that the Norse pantheon has gone through several times in the comics at this point. In fact it could become clear to Thor during the course of the film that this all stems from what Loki started in the first film, meaning he knows his fate, and thus bringing the entire trilogy full circle. In fact a good final tease might not be with Thor's return, but with the "return" of Loki in a new guise, as after the large Ragnarok of the mid 2000s 'Disassembled' storyline Loki returned as a woman. Hercules should return to Earth at the end though, perhaps with his final scene in a bar. 

The later half of 2013 would see the release of a sequel to Silver Surfer, bringing the character up against Thanos, and I would also include Gamora and Nebula here as well. Thanos being such a nihilist works very well as a villain for the Silver Surfer, as Thanos' desire for death is almost purposeless in the comics (the more resources motivation was an MCU invention), and it would work very well against the Surfer I think, and he would inspire Gamora to finally rebel against her father. The other film would be a debut film for Doctor Strange, exploring more of the magical side of the universe, and laying groundwork for more unusual threats to come, and we see Strange training and discovering his abilities. I imagine in many ways this would probably be very similar to the film we received in our world, even featuring Dormammu as the main villain, and would bring new attention to a classic Marvel hero.

For 2014, besides the big event film, I think the two primary releases should be a sequel to Black Panther, and a solo film for Venom. Black Panther would feature whichever villain I did not use in the previous film, and would ideally feature Storm and possibly Namor in supporting roles, as comics of the 2000s helped to build the romance and rivalry T'Challa has with each of them respectively. Venom's most logical villain would be Carnage, but there many of Spider-Man's other villains he has tangled with over the years, such as Silver Sable, Sandman and Scorpion, and so one of those could easily be included instead, especially as there wouldn't be the studio desire to use those characters as headliners for their own films such as Sony wanted to do in our world. I would also try to have a new Hulk film, revisiting the character for the first time in a while, and hopefully adapting the 2006 fan favourite 'Planet Hulk' storyline, taking the Hulk off-world to Sakaar, where he goes from a slave gladiator to a warrior king. I am unsure whether to have Hulk return to Earth here, but I do like the idea of the consistently shunned character having a happier end for this film. 

And then we come to the big event film. What I want to do is bring together the X-Men and the Avengers, who up until now have been somewhat separate, even with possible crossovers of characters like Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Storm and Beast. Now this separation is something that has existed for a lot of their comic life as well, as the tribulations of Marvel's mutants rarely intersect with the heroics of Earth's mightiest, however there are times, usually during larger events, where the two teams have either allied against a larger threat, or on occasion have come to blows, with hero versus hero struggles being something that Marvel seems to do much more commonly than other superhero publishers. And I have one particular storyline in mind for this crossover, for which I have laid groundwork in prior films, and which I mentioned previously here:

Onslaught.

The 'Onslaught Saga' was a somewhat maligned crossover from the mid-90s that is often seen as a perfect microcosm of the excesses of that decade that led to the comic book crash. It was borne from the extremely popular X-Men titles, picking up plot threads from several of their previous yearly crossover stories, and introduced a powerful new villain who threatened every hero in the universe, with every ongoing title at the time having at least one issue as part of the story, usually at the hands of the Sentinel army that the villain unleashed to lay siege to New York City. In the end, the villain was only defeated with the apparent sacrifices of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Bruce Banner (but not the Hulk), and the unwitting Doctor Doom, leading to these characters getting relaunched in the Heroes Reborn titles, which was later revealed to be a pocket universe subconsciously created by Franklin Richards to save them. The biggest twist however, revealed in the opening of the story after months of build-up across the X-Men titles, was that Onslaught himself was an alternate personality who has possessed founder of the X-Men Professor Charles Xavier, a persona that was created at the moment when Xavier mind-wiped Magneto, combining the worst impulses of both men. Now the biggest disadvantage to the film is not having those months of build-up - we haven't had the unstoppable Juggernaut punched across North America with the only clue to his attacker being the word Onslaught, or self-proclaimed "herald of Onslaught" battling several X-Men that were abducted in the middle of the night, or Senator Kelly finding a Sentinel base mysteriously empty with only the word Onslaught written on the computers - and so we would need to include that build-up in the first film. 

Now despite its reputation I think Onslaught is a villain that has some promise for an adaptation. In fact he already had one adaptation of a sort, appearing as the end boss of the Arcade ladder in Marvel vs. Capcom. The thing is even the best and most famous comics can have issues, and the actual film and television adapations we have had in our world, whether live-action or animated, have rarely adapted the comic stories directly, often using them a springboard to reinvent the idea and streamline it. So in this case the comic story 'Onslaught' would be the first draft, and the film events would take heavy inspiration from the comics while not necessarily hitting every beat of the story exactly, and sometimes including elements from other storylines. However I also will freely admit that while I have some ideas on how to bridge this story across two films, how to incorporate elements of it from what I've set up already, and even other ideas from the comics I could use to really improve this storyline, I don't know necessarily how to start it. But as this is my big conclusion, I am going to try my very best, and present a full pitch of what these films would look like.

X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught - Part 1

I'll try to go for a Five Act structure in this outline as best as I can, as I think that structure will work best here. Remember that several major characters are out of action, with Thor presumed dead, and Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, Gamora, and Star-Lord are all off-world.

Hank Pym, using his robotics experience, is helping to decommission one of Bastion's Sentinel facilities, in a large island base off the coast of New York, found by Stingray. However when he and Wasp arrive at the base they find that the SHIELD agents there have been put out of action, and the computers have been wiped. The only word left in the system is the word "Onslaught". Sensing that this could be a sign of something dangerous, he tells the other Avengers.

Meanwhile at the Baxter Building, Franklin, now a young boy, is playing with another child, a child who he calls Charlie, and who seems much more intelligent than a boy of his age should be, however when Sue comes to see him, we learn that she cannot see Charlie, and believes that he is imaginary. She expresses concern to Reed about Franklin's development, and he says he will solve it, seeing it as no different to any other problem. 

At the Xavier School Cyclops is struggling with running the school and overseeing the X-Men, and Jean suggests he reach out to Xavier, but he refuses. It is clear that it is causing tension between them, and Jean leaves to clear her head, only to be approached by a new psychic mutant who touches her mind. They meet in the city, but the mutant, Max, expresses a disdain for Xavier when she mentions his name while talking about the school, saying that he knows all about Xavier, and knows the secrets he hides, and he shows Jean some of Xavier's darkness, including him using his powers to strike back against the bullying of Juggernaut and defeat him, tormenting Cain by making him relive his own traumas again and again. Jean is shocked and horrified. Max leaves, but says he will stay in touch with Jean. 

In Alaska, Juggernaut, hiding out in a cabin, is attacked by an unseen assailant. Juggernaut crashes to the ground in New York, having been punched from Alaska. The Avengers immediately respond to the damage, as does Spider-Man. Juggernaut wakes up, screaming the word Onslaught. Captain America says they need to contact the X-Men, and Jean answers the call, saying she will come to see them. 

Charlie encourages Franklin to use his developing powers, and Franklin is able to change reality around him, but only briefly. When Ben and Sue come in to check on Franklin he loses control and things shift back. Charlie stops him from telling the adults about his powers. 

That night Storm, Nightcrawler, Sprite/Kitty and Cyclops find themselves suddenly in an unfamiliar battleground, approached by a powerful and mysterious new mutant who wants them to join him in the coming conflict against humanity. They are on the astral plane, and the rest of the team find them unconscious. When they try to find out what has happened Xavier returns, and helps them to make contact with the others, just as the team overpower the mysterious mutant supremacist, allowing for the X-Men to reawaken. The action is enough for Cyclops and Xavier to make a tentative truce. 

Jean talks to Juggernaut, who says he knows who Onslaught is, but he can't remember, and needs her to go into his head to remove the mental block. Meanwhile with Tony and Hank's help Vision connects to the Sentinel network, to search for clues as well, but the act overloads Vision, disabling him. Cap observes as Jean starts to her mental exploration into Juggernaut's mind inside Avengers mansion. He talks with Rick, Hawkeye and Falcon over his concern of the new threat, suggesting that Onslaught's interest in the Sentinels suggests he's anti-mutant, and that he wants to get more help from and for the X-Men. Just as he is about to ask Rick to contact the X-Men Tony calls and tells him about Vision. 

Cain's use of the name Onslaught is heard by witnesses, meaning the Daily Bugle is trying to run a report on it, which Peter Parker is trying to learn more about, especially when Jonah links it to a rumor of the Sentinel system going down, something Gyrich was asked about at a press briefing. Peter volunteers to investigate for them and Jonah agrees. 

In the Baxter Building Reed is talking with Ben about Sue's concerns for Franklin. He reveals that he has been monitoring unexplained power surges around the world, and he recently noticed a large one in the Baxter Building, and he is worried that it may be linked to Franklin's new friend. Ben suggests they ask Franklin about Charlie. 

Xavier says he has become aware of new threats to mutantkind, and that he thinks the X-Men need to be more proactive in fighting these threats. Storm and Cyclops are concerned about what he is saying, remarking that it feels very unlike him. Xavier, angered, says that if they can't be the team he needs them to be then maybe he needs new allies, and leaves. Nightcrawler suggests that Xavier sounds like the mutant they encountered on the astral plane, while Sprite suggests he sounds more like Magneto. Storm expresses concern, and asks Nightcrawler to follow the Professor discreetly. 

Cap, Falcon and Scarlet Witch arrive at the Sentinel base to help Vision, but shortly after they arrive the base powers on, revealing that the Sentinels are being mass produced, and it then traps them inside. 

In Juggernaut's mind Jean sees Onslaught, the mutant supremacist from earlier, and is horrified, breaking contact. She wakes and shouts for help, but none of the Avengers are there. Panicking Cain asks what she saw, but she tells him to run. She goes to explore the mansion but it twists around her, while Juggernaut runs out into the streets, which are eerily empty. As the mysterious mutant appears to Juggernaut and fights him again, being identified as Onslaught by Cain, Max appears to Jean, saying that she can't tell her allies what she knows. She realises that Max is Onslaught, and as Cain is brutally attacked by Onslaught Max shifts into his true identity, Charles Xavier. He unleashes his powers on Jean. This all happens on the astral plane, and Hawkeye and Wasp watch in horror in the real world as Jean collapses and Cain starts to flatline. While this is happening Nightcrawler is also spotted by Xavier, who influences his student's mind to escape from him, before walking away, leaving his wheelchair behind. 

Ben takes Franklin out for a hotdog and attempts to talk to him about his friend, but Charlie is there and threatens Franklin to remain quiet. Ben talks about how people, especially kids, should never have to do anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, and that if anyone is making them feel that way then they need to tell someone they trust, and says he's always there to help Franklin. At this Charlie appears, and angrily lashes out at Ben, sending him flying, and transforming into Onslaught, using his powers to prevent Franklin seeing what is actually happening. Ben fires a distress flare, which is seen at the Bugle and Avengers Tower, causing Spider-Man, Wasp, Tigra, Wonder Man, Hercules, Photon, and Johnny and Crystal (who are on a date nearby), to respond to help, where they begin to battle Onslaught. Both Ben and Johnny try to get through to Franklin, but he only sees Charlie. 

At the Tower, Hawkeye and Rick watch over Jean, and desperately try to contact the X-Men or other Avengers, while Moondragon and Beast try to help stabilise Jean. The X-Men are trying to find Xavier when they get Rick's call, and they split, with Cyclops, Sprite, Colossus, and Rogue going to New York while Storm and Nightcrawler continue searching for Xavier. 

In the island base the Sentinels begin to activate, and Cap, Hank, Wanda, and Falcon battle to keep Vision safe while Tony tries to stabilise him, as his systems go into freefall. Wanda manages to save them by overpowering the Sentinels, but thousands of Sentinels have launched, and Hank realises they are heading towards New York City. 

The Sentinels begin to arrive, destroying the bridges and blocking the tunnels, and even assaulting Avengers Tower, The Baxter Building, and the Daily Bugle. Onslaught taunts the heroes, and Wasp takes charge, sending Wonder Man, Photon, Human Torch and Spider-Man off to help people. Fortunately the X-Jet arrives, and Cyclops sends Colossus to help while he and Rogue help oppose Onslaught. Sprite tries to help Franklin however, reaching out to him, but Charlie holds her back with a field she tries to phase through. Onslaught continues to battle the heroes, using incredible powers to beat them back, but he suddenly sees Jean, fighting him even while unconscious, staggering him, while at the same time helping Sprite to get Franklin's attention. While Onslaught is already staggering, the area is suddenly cleared, as Sentinels are destroyed - Reed and Sue have arrived, and Sue demands that Onslaught gets away from her son. 

In the Sentinel base Tony gets Hank to help him stabilise the Vision, while Cap and Wanda try to make contact with the other Avengers or SHIELD. They cannot contact outside, but they do pick up the news, learning of the Sentinel attack in New York. Wanda pushes her powers to the limit to try and affect the locks, eventually succeeding, and Cap sends Falcon to fly ahead to New York and learn what he can while he takes the jet with Wanda to search for more allies. Vision wakes, but has been overridden by Sentinel programming, and turns on Tony and Hank, defeating them. 

Upstate Storm and Nightcrawler seemingly encounter Xavier, and he says that he hoped of his all the X-Men that they would be the members he could convince to see what he was trying to do, but Storm says he sounds like Magneto. Xavier retorts that maybe Magneto was right, reminding them of the violence they have seen, the violence that motivated Magneto, and how even the humans can't stop fighting amongst themselves. Mutants can only be free by force, and once they have control they can keep humanity safe as well. Nightcrawler says to Storm that he feels like a mixture of Xavier and Magneto, to which she agrees, and she attacks, trying to subdue Xavier, but exposing him as an illusion. Storm sends Kurt back to the school while she flies to New York. 

As Onslaught physically battles Reed and Sue, on the astral plane he struggles against Jean, who is channelling her enormous power against him. His focus divided, Sprite manages to get past Charlie to talk to Franklin, who becomes aware of what is going on and gets scared. Charlie tries to deal with Kitty, but her mind is less vulnerable to psychics, and she fights back. Franklin, scared, creates his own blast of power, which accidentally affects all of the heroes nearby, including Kitty and his parents, knocking them unconscious. 

His physical body freed, Onslaught turns on Jean, beating her into submission, and in Avengers Tower Beast watches in horror as his friend's lifesigns begin to fail, while Moondragon desperately tries to enter Jean's mind to help. Meanwhile Charlie, now more sinister than ever dominates Franklin, capturing him, and absorbing his physical form onto the astral plane. Onslaught's powers greatly increase, and with the phrase "behold my mighty hand", a tagline of the character in the comics and prior adaptations, Onslaught unleashes a powerful attack that devastates the city, and is indeed felt around the world - disrupting power sources and causing mental anguish. The Sentinels are unaffected however, and round up the unconscious heroes. 

As Onslaught psychically addresses everyone on the planet, including characters such as Nick Fury, Namor, Black Panther, Quicksilver and Magneto, Mystique, Heather Hudson, General Ross, Baron Zemo, Mary Jane, and Wolverine, as well as heroes we have seen already like Cap, Falcon, Wanda, Storm and Nightcrawler, he constructs a large Citadel in Central Park, warping reality. He says that humanity's greatest heroes have fallen, and the time of mutantkind is now. He is here to lead mutantkind into a new age, and in doing so he will protect humanity from itself. He warns the people of the world not to oppose him, or they will all end up as the heroes have. We see the Sentinels take many of the heroes into custody, including the Avengers at the Tower, Reed and Sue, Wonder Man, Photon, Human Torch, Colossus, Sprite, Hercules, Tony Stark and Hank Pym. However several heroes escape capture. Spider-Man returns to his identity of Peter Parker, while in the sewers below New York we see Cyclops, Rogue, Wasp, Tigra, Thing and Crystal on the run, and Storm heads back to the school. Cap, Falcon and Wanda's jet however loses power, and plummets into the water off the coast of New York. 

In the final part of his message Onslaught simply warns that he has the most powerdul mind on the planet, is able to affect the entire Earth, and can change reality at a whim. He can learn who means to oppose him and neutralise them before they even act, and he already knows what many would do if they could, as we see Sentinels arriving in the UN Assembly and taking it hostage. He says that as long as he is unopposed they will all remain safe. 

Cyclops turns to his group and says that they may have lost, but this is only the beginning. When Wasp asks him why he thinks that, he says he can see something that Onslaught can't, and we hear the voice of Jean, and see the flicker of psychic flames, while in the Tower, the Sentinels are unable to locate Jean's body.

Between Parts 1 and 2

Now by this point my alternate Marvel Studios has reached an expected four films per year, however I don't necessarily want to have films sandwiched in between the two chapters of Onslaught if I can help it, as these would ideally be big summer event films released almost a year apart. So that raises a conundrum as to how to approach those other films. 

Now in our world there were two MCU films released between Infinity War and Endgame, and several tv series. The series, developed and released by Marvel TV, were all treated by production as happening before the events of Infinity War, and based on the timelines shown in the shows and worked out by the fanbase, that does indeed seem to be the case. The two films however, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel, both took different approaches. Ant-Man and the Wasp takes place on the opposite coast of America, not long before Infinity War, and features characters with no presence in that first film, however it develops the Quantum Realm, an important plot point of Endgame, and features a tie-in to that film in its final scenes. Captain Marvel on the other hand is a prequel set decades earlier, and features a lead with a minor but important role in Endgame, and its final scene serves as a direct lead-in to Endgame. 

Now for Onslaught Part 2 the biggest unrevealed point is the suggested link between Onslaught and Magneto, and in the comics this was discovered by Wolverine as part of his 'Onslaught' crossover issues. Now this will need to be explained in the film, and Wolverine's third film is due, but I don't think that plot requires the whole film, and Wolverine was helped to discover this in the comics by the mystical character Gateway and Elektra, who was helping him at the time, and neither of those are present to help him here. There are no other plot points I have planned to include at this time that cannot simply be introduced in a better way in the second Avengers/X-Men: Onslaught film. 

Now I think the aforementioned fourth Hulk film could be a perfect entry to appear in between the two Onslaught films, meaning the films released in 2014 are, in order, Black Panther 2, Venom, X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught 1, and Hulk 4. If we move the release of Avengers/X-Men: Onslaught 2 to the second film release of the year, then we only have a single slot to fill, and for me the best option is Doctor Strange 2. I think Doctor Strange could have plenty that could engage him and keep him away from the majority of this story, and I believe that the best story to use could be an adaptation of the storyline "Triumph and Torment" which sees Doctor Doom requesting Strange's help to free the soul of his mother, who is being tormented in the afterlife by Mephisto, who is essentially the devil. It is possible other mystical elements could be included, such as Clea, or the Black Knight's Ebony Sword, but the biggest goal is to show not just Strange's morals clashing with Doom's, but exploring a much more sympathetic and understandable side to the villain. They could return from their adventure to the Sanctum Sanctorum to hear Onslaught's words, only for the now more magically skilled Doom to leave to make plans of his own. This also puts them back on the board for the sequel, alongside other heroes who have yet to have prominent roles. 

I'm not going to go as in-depth for the sequel idea, as while a lot of the set-up was quite clear in my head there are many factors that could affect how a sequel to that comes together. Looking at the real-world Avengers: Endgame for example the decision to kill off certain characters as their contracts ended, as well as the extended run-time given to this concluding chapter, and the return of certain characters using the time travel elements probably game together later on, and thinking about how time-travel was a solution just makes it even more clear to me that the set-up had left them in a particular place where only something drastic could get them out of it. I'm reminded of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds", and how the first part ended on this incredible cliffhanger after an hour of high-tension and drama, only for the next instalment to meander a bit before a deus ex machina to get them out of it, which came about due to the showrunners and writers saying they felt the first story was so good it had backed them into a corner. In fact this seems to be a common thing - doing the dramatic set-up is easy, and writing your way out of it is harder, and can lead to a some what disappointing finale, and I think any story done in this way can have issues with this, from Avengers: Endgame, Doctor Who, Pirates of the Caribbean, Back to the Future, The Matrix and many others. So while I'm sure that I could eventually write all the intricacies of a very satisfying conclusion, I have already been working on this blog post for months at this point, and so I want to just go through some of the broad strokes and get to the conclusion. 

Avengers/X-Men: Onslaught - Part 2

I'm going to list all the multiple plot lines at play separately, until they inevitably intersect.

The film starts after a brief time jump. Onslaught's control seems to be absolute, however his Sentinel forces only challenge threats to his domination, as we see when several criminals riot in the damaged New York. Perhaps characters like Mary Jane, the cast at the Bugle, street level heroes like Daredevil, Luke Cage or Punisher, or Black Cat could give us a better look at what this all means for civilians. 

Inside the Citadel:

Franklin is now trapped on the astral plane, almost inside Onslaught. he is terrified, and Charlie appears to try to calm him, but Franklin recognises Charlie as a threat now. Charlie transforms into Max, and says that he needs Franklin's power to realise his dream, and that every mutant must be required to make sacrifices for the greater good if that is what is necessary, and demonstrates that Xavier has, revealing the catatonic Charles. Franklin recognises Charles and when Max leaves them alone Franklin tries to talk to him, saying he remembers meeting him a while ago when Charles came to talk to his parents. Charles wakes from his stupor and puts on a brave face to encourage Franklin, saying that he will do everything in his power to keep the boy safe and get him home. They investigate, and find Max with Rick Jones imprisoned. It seems that Franklin's abilities have revealed that Rick has fantastic power at his fingertips, and that this was what has led to him being so integral to the forming of the Marvels, from Banner's transformation, to the founding of the Avengers. Its a Destiny Force, an intrinsic ability of humanity that could rival the Power Cosmic used by Galactus, and that with it Onslaught could be truly unstoppable.

The powers Onslaught is absorbing from Franklin allow him to start affecting reality, starting with transforming his body, and then beginning to affect New York. He shows his new abilities to some of the heroes he has imprisoned, such as Sprite, Colossus, and Hawkeye, and proudly boasts to Reed Richards that using his son's powers he will do more good for the world than the Knights of the Atomic Round Table ever dreamed of. Reed, Hank, Tony and Beast find themselves together, desperately trying to use their intelligence to find a way to escape, but Onslaught maintains a negative effect upon their minds, leaving them clouded, and just as with Juggernaut they find themselves in psychic illusions as they attempt escape after escape. 

Some of the other heroes Onslaught has captured are being kept unconscious, their minds combined in an illusion. Sue Storm, Moondragon, Hercules, Wonder Man, Photon, Human Torch and Rick Jones are stuck in this world, and they encounter each other, connecting their minds, perhaps as a side effect of Moondragon's abilities. Eventually they all managed to connect, escaping the illusory world they find themselves in, and when Moondragon attempts to reach out to the real world they realise that Vision has been placed as a guard to keep them trapped, but Wonder Man is able to reach Vision underneath the Sentinel programming, by exploiting Vision's concern for Wanda. However he is trapped as well, as Ultron's programming has reasserted itself, and the heroes have to battle the robot to escape, but Sue especially cannot be stopped. They will succeed, and wake, but it will take the loss of the Vision to do it. 

The Heroes Beyond: 

Peter Parker will be investigating what is going on, using his connections at the Bugle to try to learn what has happened to the rest of the heroes, and trying to find out what the response from the rest of the world will be. Will SHIELD or the Army intervene to help? However Manhattan is essentially cut off as a result of both the Sentinels and Onslaught's attack. Spider-Man will start investigating what happened to other heroes, seeing the destruction at Avengers Tower, and that everyone is missing from the Baxter Building, when he is contacted by Doctor Strange, who invites him to the Sanctum. There he teams with Cyclops, Tigra, Thing, and the Wasp. Crystal has gone back to seek aid from the Inhumans, while he has sent Rogue to help the X-Men. Strange explains that inside the Sanctum they are safe from Onslaught, as the magic wards protect them from psychic detection. They know they need to break into the Citadel and find Onslaught, and save their allies. Jean psychically manifests, and reveals that she can keep them safe, protecting them from Onslaught beyond the Sanctum. It is unclear what is happening to Jean, but her powers have dramatically increased, and she seems more of an astral construct than a physical being. Cyclops attempts to reach out to her, but he also knows they have a mission to do, and him and Wasp plan their assault. 

Wolverine returns to the X-Mansion, reuniting with Storm and Nightcrawler. The others haven't been seen since Onslaught's attack. Storm tells Logan about the connection they believe that Onslaught has to Magneto, and they decide they need to investigate it, and at that point Rogue returns, having made her way back from Manhattan, saying she can help. She explains about Jean, who appears to them as well, and says she can keep them safe as well. They take a second X-Jet to Magneto's base, where the mind-wiped Magneto is being looked after by Mystique and Quicksilver. Rogue, with Jean's guidance, touches Magneto in order to try to learn what happened, and Wolverine to borrow his healing abilities, as Jean's mind links them all. Rogue acts like a circuit, allowing Logan to see what happened when Xavier wiped Magneto's mind, as everything dark in Magneto, what we recognise as Max, reached across and bonded with the dark and subdued parts of Xavier, what we recognise as Charlie, and the resulting fusion of the worst parts of both men created the being now known as Onslaught. All because Xavier gave in to his worst impulses to damage Magneto's mind in this way. This is why I chose the name Max for the persona, as this was revealed in the comics as Magneto's birth name, despite his assumed name of Erik being much more well known, as a hint to comic book fans as to what was going on. Jean's influence helps to restore Magneto, but he absorbs some youth from Wolverine as well due to a feedback loop as his powers interact with Rogue's, restoring him to a much more youthful and vibrant appearance, perhaps with a recasting depending on the age of the actor chosen to play Magneto, as this is something that has happened a few times in the comics so that a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor can still be a menace to a group of younger heroes. If Rogue has also not had her flight and superstrength so far in these films, abilities that in the comics she gained from Carol Danvers, then this could be how she gains them, absorbing them from Magneto in a similar way to her Age of Apocalypse counterpart. Magneto, Quicksilver, and even Mystique realise the need to stop Onslaught, and join the X-Men to head to New York. 

Outside New York, on the SHIELD Helicarrier, Nick Fury picks up the signal from Cap's jet, and recovers the three Avengers. Wanda's powers kept them as safe as could be, however all three are worse for wear. Fury has developed psi-blockers that he can equip them with, a device provided to them years ago by Xavier himself, allowing them to plot what to do about Onslaught. Cap says they need allies, armies even, and Fury agrees. Cap asks for a jet and heads to Wakanda, where he recruits the Black Panther, having fought alongside T'Challa's grandfather in the role during World War II. He will also recruit Namor, whom he also has a history with, bringing the armies of Wakanda and Atlantis to bear. Fury continues to disseminate the psi-blockers and soon they recruit more allies, including Sasquatch and Heather Hudson from Department H and General Ross from the US Army. Cap even requests that Baron Zemo be allowed to join him, so that he can help strategize to get them into Manhattan, behind the lines. While the army prepares, Cap leads himself, Falcon, Wanda, Zemo, Sasquatch, T'Challa and Namor (or maybe characters like Nakia or Okoye and Namorita, depending on if they've been introduced previously, as that would allow T'Challa and Namor to lead their armies later) into New York, to attempt to break into Onslaught's Citadel and rescue the other heroes, while Fury gathers the army to assault the Sentinels. 

Meanwhile Doctor Doom has been monitoring everything from Latveria, and making plans of his own. He knows of Franklin's powers, and has learned how powerful Onslaught has become, and he wants this power for himself, however he also wants to save Franklin and free Reed and his family, so that his greatest enemy will be in his debt, thereby proving that he is superior. Using his magic and science, Doom warps himself to the Citadel, where he frees Reed, Tony, Hank and Beast, his former friends in the Knights of the Atomic Round Table, and warps them to the Baxter Building, allowing their minds to clear. He then goes to confront Onslaught directly. Reed and the others rearm themselves, the fog in their minds lifting, and they prepare for battle. 

The Final Confrontation:

As Cap's team and Cyclops' team break into the Citadel they manage to free others, with Cap's group saving Hawkeye, Sprite and Colossus, while Cyclops and Wasp find Sue and the others escaping their own imprisonment. Doom challenges Onslaught directly, saying that he doesn't deserve his abilities, and that only one as enlightened as he truly deserves to dominate the world. Onslaught's powers go up against Doom's magic and his tech, and while Doom does hold his own, he is beaten back, and he flees to the Baxter Building himself, saying that Onslaught is simply too powerful. Jean connects with the other heroes, sharing the knowledge of what Onslaught is, and this gives Reed an idea. Charles and Franklin try to battle to save Rick, with Xavier having a psychic battle against Max, while Franklin and Rick work together to unlock his ability in order to defeat the villain. Jean senses what is happening on the astral plane between Charles and Onslaught and tries to help, but is unable to reach Charles. Instead she links with Franklin and Rick, and helps Rick tap into his power, allowing him to free himself and Franklin, returning them to the physical plane, weakening Onslaught, and causing the Citadel to begin to fall apart. Max overpowers Charles in retaliation, burying him down and subsuming him. At this point the X-Men and Magneto arrive, with Quicksilver and Wanda helping everyone to escape safely while Magneto challenges Onslaught directly, calling out Charles and destroying what remains of the Citadel. Iron Man, Goliath and Beast join the fray, but Reed is still frantically working on a solution, and he asks Doom for help, something that boosts Doom's ego and he agrees to do. Onslaught summons all of the Sentinels to him, just as Fury, the Wakandans, and the Atlanteans arrive to support our heroes. The battle is truly joined, and many of our strongest heroes will go up against Onslaught in brief battles, including Magneto, Sue Storm, Human Torch, Jean, Cyclops, Iron Man, Captain America, Wanda and Doctor Strange, but it will be Doom and Reed that are able to turn the tide, as using a device they have constructed they blast Onslaught, literally tearing the being from Xavier on both the astral and physical plane using a combination of science and sorcery. Doom however tries to seize what remains of Onslaught, to claim its power for himself, but Magneto creates a singularity to destroy Onslaught utterly, and Doom is caught in it, disappearing alongside the villain. 

With the battle over, the heroes rebuild. The Richards family and the Fantastic Four are reunited. Rick Jones is unable to access the Destiny Force again, but is disturbed by the idea of it, leaving in the night. Charles has lost his powers as a result of Reed's device, and leaves the school to Scott. Magneto sequesters himself away, warning the Avengers and X-Men to do better to prevent a human/mutant war like the one Onslaught tried to create. Several of the Avengers step down, perhaps dealing with injuries, or with other issues. I again haven't listed any possible character deaths, besides Vision, who would inevitably be rebuilt as he was in the MCU, and Doom, but I think Jean should also be lost here, having evolved to almost a higher plane of existence. This could affect Scott, causing him to also leave the X-Men as well, with Storm remaining to run the school. My overall goal would be that like Endgame in our world this story is a conclusion to several ongoing character arcs, with major recurring characters like Cyclops, Jean, Captain America, Iron Man, Reed and Sue, Rick Jones, Doom, Hank Pym and Xavier being removed from the board, at least for the meantime. Now some could indeed die, falling in battle during this story, but I don't want it to happen in any way like the Onslaught comic, which was infamous for the "deaths" it caused. 

What Comes Next?

So that is the big story conclusion, but just like in our world I doubt it would be the end of this universe, as the Marvel Universe has many more characters and stories ripe to appear in the future, and I already have some ideas as to what meta elements I would introduce in future stories.

For starters I would conclude 20156 with two more films. Namely a 5th Spider-Man film that could see the hero going up against the Sinister Six, as I believe all of those villains have been established across my universe somewhere. And I would follow this with a third Wolverine film, which would see the hero return to Canada, and see the debut of the Canadian team Alpha Flight. For a villain I think it could be interesting to see a ghost from Wolverine's past that could also expand our world somewhat, namely the Soviet mutant supersoldier Omega Red. 

Beyond this while I don't have a finalised schedule as I have had up until now there are two major teams I want to see get adaptations. Now it would be possible for the Avengers and X-Men to continue with rotating memberships, but I also want to see the inclusion of the Thunderbolts and X-Factor. X-Factor would feature the government sponsored mutant team, featuring Quicksilver and Mystique, as well as mutant inventor Forge, the former X-Man student Angel, and young magnetic-powered mutant Polaris. Overseen by government agent Valerie Cooper, the team could try to put a new spin on mutants, to make a team that could earn public trust. We could see characters like the mutant popstar Dazzler, anti-mutant activist Cameron Hodge, and even the eternal villain Apocalypse across the X-Factor stories. Thunderbolts however would focus on the original version of the team, of Baron Zemo and his team from Under Siege adopting more heroic identities. Now in the comics this was done after the supposed demise of the Avengers and Fantastic Four during the Onslaught Saga so that the villains could earn the public trust by posing as heroes to gain access to incredible power with the international government access and databases that the Avengers had access to. However as my third Avengers film showed I am trying to take Zemo and his team in a more anti-heroic direction anyway, and so this is a take on the Thunderbolts idea without the malicious intent, being instead almost a rebranding of the team from that film as government operatives, perhaps blending ideas from the black-ops iterations of the team used in more modern comics at the time. there are plenty of villains they could face from either their own comics, or unexplored villains from other heroes, such as the Frightful Four, who could be attempting a more played straight version of the original Thunderbolts intentions 

I would also want to continue to build the less superheroic sides of the universe, perhaps blending elements and characters from the large and small screens in a way we haven't seen before, but which has become somewhat common for modern Marvel in our real world. With Nova already introduced as a cosmic hero I think Star-Lord would be another great character to focus on, perhaps even allowing a version of the Guardians of the Galaxy more similar to the one we know in our world eventually, with Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Drax, and maybe other characters yet to be adapted like Bug. Also Adam Warlock could be a great character to feature in a third Silver Surfer film, and this could lead to the founding of the Infinity Watch to protect the Infinity gems from Thanos, as well as a return for characters such as Phyla and Carol Danvers. On the horror side we could see the addition of characters like the living vampire Morbius, the monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone and the mystically powered Moon Knight, and they could join with Blade and Ghost Rider, as well as Doctor Strange perhaps, as the Midnight Suns to battle the demon Lilith. Other characters who could appear here include Nico Minoru of the Runaways, Man-Thing, and Werewolf-by-Night.

Beyond that I think the next step is to begin adapting more modern stories. Civil War for example could serve as the basis for a story bringing the Avengers and Thunderbolts into conflict. The X-books have multiple crossovers in their history such as X-Cutioner's Song or Decimation that could serve as the basis for either team-up stories or sources of conflict between the teams, especially if characters like Cable and his commando team X-Force are introduced. The horror and cosmic elements could blend with the main universe with stories such as Inferno and either Annihilation or Maximum Security respectively. Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and other annual crossovers could be used to inspire character arcs or plot elements. And of course you could also return Hulk to Earth for a World War Hulk adaptation. 

Conclusion

As you can see while I have obviously taken some liberty with the stories I have presented here, using some of my own ideas and preferences to influence the stories I wanted to tell, I think the overall result isn't all that dissimilar to what we could have gotten should the stipulations I laid out for this thought experiment had actually come to pass. We would have a worlds where we could see not just the Avengers teaming up, but the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man also being present as part of a grand shared narrative universe, where events in one story can not only be referenced but also influence another. 

In our world Marvel Studios is far from perfect, despite its strong success, and I doubt that would also differ in this alternate universe I have created, but I do have to admit that I am proud of what I created here. I put a lot of thought and effort into this, really trying to work out what was the best thing to do with each character I wanted, and how to adapt and fit every story I wanted to tell with the universe that I was building. Overall I think this single blog has been well over nine months of work off-and-on, between all of the research, rereading various comics and other things, and if you have read it all then all I have to say is thank you, and maybe consider supporting me so that I can do more fun experiments like this. 

I'm sure that I may be back in the future to either do a follow-up to this, or another similar thought experiment, either for Marvel or for another of my favourite fandoms, so please make sure to follow me if you haven't already so that you can see these when I share them.

Until next time my friends I want you to all do the very best that you can to look after your physical and mental health, and I look forward to speaking to you all again soon.

Bye for now

- Garhdo