History CrisisCrossover / MarvelUniverse

** 2014 kicked off with ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato Jr. It is a murder mystery about the killing of Uatu the Watcher and the heroes' buried secrets which he has personally witnessed but kept to himself being leaked out to the superhero community. (It's highly reminiscent of DC's ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004.'') The culprit was [[PutOnABus exiled to the moon]], forced to watch the Earth as Utatu once did for their troubles.

* In 1989 came the ''Comicbook/Inferno1988'' crossover, in which demons from Limbo staged an invasion of New York City. The storyline was mainly an X-Book storyline, as ''Inferno'' resolved longstanding plotlines involving Jean Grey's doppleganger Madelyne Pryor, the Madelyne/Cyclops/Jean Grey love triangle, and Illyana Rasputin's ApocalypseMaiden, but the effects of the X-Over was felt in just about every Marvel book published at the time, leading to the introduction of a new Avengers roster, the Thing being restored to human form[[note]]this occurred post-''Inferno'', but was the result of the Human Torch going to his overpowered Nova Flame mode during ''Inferno'' and being unable to power down; when Ben was tossed into the machine being used to restore Johnny's normal state, Johnny emerged in full control of his flame, and Ben emerged a normal human[[/note]], and the Jason Macendale Hobgoblin becoming half-demon (after getting his ass kicked by Harry Osborn, while dressed as Green Goblin).

* 1993 brought the Marvel world ''ComicBook/BloodTiesMarvelComics'', a sequel to the ''ComicBook/FatalAttractionsMarvelComics'' BatFamilyCrossover that involved both the Avengers and X-Men teams traveling to Genosha to save ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}'s daughter Luna Maximoff from the predations of the mutant extremist Fabian Cortez. This rescue mission was complicated by the arrival of Exodus, the DragonAscendant to Magneto since ''Attractions'' and a mutant of SuperpowerLottery-level power. Heavyweights from both the Avengers and the X-Men clashed with Exodus, and in the climax he fought off the entirety of both teams singlehandedly before being brought down. Due to the Avengers traveling to Genosha without the approval of the UN, this resulted in them being stripped of their charter and their West Coast team being disbanded.

** First the BatFamilyCrossover ''ComicBook/AvengersDisassembled'', where Comicbook/TheAvengers start getting attacked on all sides out of nowhere. It's eventually revealed that the assault came from the Scarlet Witch, whose powers had grown to RealityWarper levels and driven her mad. She's stopped and placed in the care of her family (Magneto and Quicksilver), but the losses are so great that the Avengers disband (though the ComicBook/NewAvengers form shortly afterward after a mass supervillain breakout).

** This is followed by ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'', the follow-up to ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'' storyline ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' where, days before ''Civil War'' happened, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt and Mr. Fantastic voted to shoot Hulk into outer space. He ended up crash-landing on the hellish gladiatorial world of Sakaar, where he eventually led a revolution, overthrown the tyrannical Red King, and became the planet’s new ruler, at last finding happiness… and then the ship Hulk was sent on blew up, killing a good chunk of the population including his queen and unborn child. Needless to say, Hulk got pissed and fans get five issues of Hulk delivering karmic beatdowns towards Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and just about anyone else who gets in his way, as well as crossover issues in or with Comicbook/TheAvengers, Comicbook/GhostRider, ComicBook/HeroesForHire, Comicbook/IronMan, ComicBook/AntMan, Comicbook/ThePunisher, and the ComicBook/XMen, not to mention a Prologue issue with a story that features the ComicBook/MiniMarvels filling in the background.

** The big crossover of 2011 was ''Comicbook/FearItself''. While the world is in a state of underlying fear and paranoia (from events both in-universe and in the real world), the Red Skull (II aka Sin, daughter of the original) frees a Norse god that scares even Odin called the Serpent. The Serpent then summons hammers that turn selected superhumans into his followers "the Worthy", causing the powder keg of fear to explode among the people.

** 2012 brought ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', where the Phoenix Force is returning to Earth and has chosen Hope Summers as its new avatar, leading the two major {{Super Team}}s of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse to clash over whether this will mean the resurgence of mutantkind (for the X-Men) or the destruction of humans and mutants alike (for the Avengers). Epic ConflictBall ensues. The series ended with Comicbook/{{Cyclops}}, Emma Frost, Magik and Colossus becoming fugitives, Professor X dead at Cyclops' hands, and Captain America formed the [[Comicbook/UncannyAvengers Avengers Unity Squad]] to keep something like ''AVX'' from ever happening again.
** Spring of 2013 brought ''Comicbook/AgeOfUltron'', resurrecting Ultron after his cosmic hijinks and the end of humanity with it. Interestingly, the storyline already starts off with Ultron succeeding in taking over the Earth, with the surviving heroes attempting to mount a resistance to stop the robotic villain's rule. Then it quickly turns into TimeyWimeyBall nuttiness with no real impact on the other titles. Any tie-ins in other books were labeled "AU", and had no impact on their respective running storylines. The major impact came at the end of the story, with the debut of ComicBook/{{Angela|AsgardsAssassin}}, and ComicBook/{{Galactus}} being teleported to the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, setting the stage for ''ComicBook/CataclysmTheUltimatesLastStand''.
** Meanwhile, Summer in 2013 brought ''Comicbook/{{Infinity}}''. Building off a storyline from ''Comicbook/TheAvengers'' main book, it centers around heroes dealing with two major cosmic threats, one a new cosmic enemy called the Builders and the other ComicBook/{{Thanos}} leading a new invasion army, hitting the planet Earth at nearly the same time. Despite the name and use of Thanos, WordOfGod says that the event is not intended to be a sequel to the similarly named ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' and its sequels.

** Fall of 2014 brought ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' by Rick Remender. Spinning out of the events of ''Comicbook/UncannyAvengers'', the threat of the Red Skull takes on new heights as his new powers begin to turning the lives of Comicbook/TheAvengers, the Comicbook/XMen and even several noteworthy Marvel villains upside down in his bid for domination. [[Characters/AntManHeroes Cassie Lang]] and Brother Voodoo are returned to the world of the living during this event.

** In 2013, the Ultimate line had ''Comicbook/CataclysmTheUltimatesLastStand'', which deals with the aftermath of ''Age Of Ultron'' with the Ultimate heroes banding together to fight off Galactus.

* ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984'' was the first Crisis Crossover. Really, it was twelve issues of good guys and bad guys beating each other up in various and creative ways in order to promote a toy line, still, it was a blast. Sometimes you buy a comic to read good guys fighting bad guys. Relatively little impact on the larger Marvel Universe. A few things did change following it:

* The sequel, ''ComicBook/SecretWarsII'', was less successful. The Beyonder, the omnipotent being behind ''Secret Wars'', took on human form and wandered around doing stuff, with the heroes making mostly-futile attempts to interfere with him and Mephisto trying to kill him. Generally considered a failure, partially due to its inescapable nature, with nearly every comic Marvel published at the time tying in somehow, and partly because the concept of the Beyonder trying to get used to being a human led to lots of {{Narm}}. A good example of what not to do.\\\
While very little changed in the Marvel Universe following the event, ''Secret Wars II'' is notable as a legal footnote to the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' franchise by featuring an EarlyBirdCameo of [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Marvel Transformers]] antagonist Circuit Breaker. Marvel editor Bob Budiansky gunned for her to debut in this story so that she would become the copyright of Marvel rather than ''Transformers'' owner Creator/{{Hasbro}}, causing the latter's 2005-2022 comics licensee Creator/IDWPublishing [[ScrewedByTheLawyers no small amount of headaches]] in reprinting Marvel's ''Transformers'' comics in the 2000's.

* Also worth mentioning are ''Fall of the Mutants,'' in 1987, which was mostly confined to the X-Books; ''Evolutionary War,'' in 1988, which made its way through the Marvel summer annuals ([[WeirdCrossover including]] ''Series/{{ALF}}'', which Marvel was doing a licensed comic for at the time) and featured the High Evolutionary; 1989's ''Atlantis Attacks,'' also running through Marvel's summer annuals for that year to celebrate the ComicBook/SubMariner's [[MilestoneCelebration 50th anniversary]], as heroes fought off an Atlantean invasion; and other X-Book X-Overs like ''X-Cutioner's Song'' and ''X-Tinction Agenda,'' each of which made significant, if not always lasting, changes to the X-Status-Quo.

** The first installment, ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'', did the idea of a crossover right; only a few books were part of the crossover and almost all of them were books with a good reason to be part of the crossover, mainly those that dealt with things of a magical or cosmic bent (ComicBook/DoctorStrange, ComicBook/{{Quasar}}, etc) that the main mini-series was about to begin with. There were only a few anomalies that didn't quite fit, like the Hulk or Cloak & Dagger. Unfortunately, the sequels ''ComicBook/TheInfinityWar'' and ''ComicBook/TheInfinityCrusade'', roped-in practically every single other Marvel title whether it worked or not.

* ''ComicBook/TheCrossing'' ran through the Avengers books in 1995 as well. The premise was that Iron Man had been under the mental influence of Kang the Conqueror for years, and had now turned against the Avengers outright; the only way the Avengers could defeat him was to pluck a younger Tony Stark, untouched by Kang, from an alternate timeline, and in the end, "evil" Tony was killed off. This turn of events was [[AudienceAlienatingEra not well-received]], to say the least.
* There's also the ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' saga in 1996, which was famously [[ExecutiveMeddling hijacked by editorial]] to set up Avengers and Fantastic Four's continuities being rebooted from scratch outside the Marvel Universe via ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn''. However, [[AudienceAlienatingEra this reboot was short-lived]], and the subsequent ''ComicBook/HeroesReturn'' storyline not only brought everybody back, but [[ResetButton undid the damage done by]] ''ComicBook/TheCrossing''. Thank you, [[RealityWarper Franklin Richards]].

** This is followed by ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'', the follow-up to ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'' storyline ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' where, days before ''Civil War'' happened, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt and Mr. Fantastic voted to shoot Hulk into outer space (because, frankly, the conflict was gonna have enough problems ''without'' having to deal with the Hulk). He ended up crash-landing on the on the hellish gladiatorial world of Sakaar, where he eventually led a revolution, overthrown the tyrannical Red King, and became the planet’s new ruler, at last finding happiness… and then the ship Hulk was sent on blew up, killing a good chunk of the population including his queen and unborn child. Needless to say, Hulk got pissed and fans get five issues of Hulk delivering karmic beatdowns towards Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and just about anyone else who gets in his way, as well as crossover issues in or with Comicbook/TheAvengers, Comicbook/GhostRider, ComicBook/HeroesForHire, Comicbook/IronMan, ComicBook/AntMan, Comicbook/ThePunisher, and the ComicBook/XMen, not to mention a Prologue issue with a story that features the ComicBook/MiniMarvels filling in the background.
** ''ComicBook/{{Secret Invasion|2008}}'', in 2008. After the ninja assassin Elektra is killed ([[DeathIsCheap again]]), the Avengers discover that "Elektra" was actually an alien Skrull impostor ''pretending'' to be Elektra. Both characters and fans quickly started wondering who ''else'' could be a fake, fueled by WordOfGod explaining that the infiltration went back for years. On top of all the problems from the last few Crisis Crossovers (Captain America dead, the Avengers fractured and preoccupied with fighting each other rather than actual threats, and the X-Men have had their power drastically reduced), throw in the [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia]] of double agents and it sure would be trouble if the aliens decided to invade now that every force that could be expected to stand up to them has been crippled... Ultimately, while Earth wins, Iron Man is still blamed for [=FUBARing=] the superhuman response, S.H.I.E.L.D. is dissolved, and control of the rest is handed over to the media darling who killed the Skrull queen on live TV; the leader of the BoxedCrook team the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}: Norman Osborn. That's right, the Green Goblin is head of the government's superheroes. Yikes.
** This led to a pseudo-example called ''ComicBook/DarkReign'', which details Osborn's tenure as the leader of the DarkerAndEdgier SHIELD called HAMMER, during which time he sets up and leads his own EvilCounterpart to ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' (as well as the ComicBook/XMen and a couple of others), dressing up psychotic supervillains to disguise themselves as the heroes, whilst pursuing an aggressive domestic and foreign policy and consolidating his power by allying with major players like Loki, Namor, Emma Frost and Doctor Doom ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the Hood]]), whilst once again starting to descend back into Goblin-related madness. WordOfGod is this was not an "event" like the previous examples but it did lead to many mini-crossovers as pretty much every Earth-bound hero found themselves in conflict with the maniac plus it ticks most of the boxes anyway (save that its longer), and it's worth mentioning because the conclusion to it was...
** Finally in 2010, we have ''ComicBook/{{Siege}}''. [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] had previously moved Asgard to Earth, and Osborn and Loki aren't happy (Osborn because it's foreign territory on US soil, Loki because Asgard isn't in its own realm where it belongs). So Loki convinces Osborn it would be a ''wonderful'' idea to take his army and ''attack gods''. Naturally, Thor and everyone connected with the Avengers goes ''"OhNoYouDidnt!"'' and goes to kick his ass. But the real problem wound up being [[spoiler:the Sentry: immeasurably powerful, mentally unstable (to put it mildly), and Osborn's no longer holding his leash.]] In the end, Osborn is ousted and the resurrected Steve Rogers (no longer ComicBook/CaptainAmerica) takes his place, beginning "The Heroic Age" by ending Superhuman Registration, formally reuniting the fractured Avengers teams, and bringing the Big Three (himself, Thor, and Iron Man) together on the same side for the first time since before ''Avengers Disassembled''.
* Alongside that grand arc, Marvel also released Crisis Crossovers for its cosmic properties (i.e. alien races and space-borne heroes who can't be expected to care about the political squabbles on Earth):
** The first one came in 2006 during the ''Civil War'', titled ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}''. It featured Annihilus, ruler of the Negative Zone, making a grand and destructive invasion into the regular universe that left a great deal of heroes dead, utterly destroyed the Nova Corps, dealt a harsh blow to the Kree Empire, and utterly shattered the Skrull Empire, going so far as to destroy the Skrull homeworld (which motivated the Skrull race to activate their sleeper cells in the above ''Secret Invasion'' to conquer Earth as a new homeworld). Ronan the Accuser was forced to MercyKill the Kree Supreme Intelligence to temporarily stave off the collapse of their empire. It took the power of Galactus himself, in an all-consuming rage, to end the threat of Annihilus.

** While not directly related, this is now being followed in 2009 by ''ComicBook/WarOfKings''. Part-way spun out from ''Secret Invasion'', one of the people replaced by a Skrull was Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans. In response, the Inhumans decide they can't live in hiding any more, so their giant city on the moon blasts off for outer space, and after picking off several leftover Skrulls they conquer the remains of the Kree Empire, who created them in the first place. This sets up a war between the Kree Empire and the Shi'ar Empire, itself now under the heel of the psychopathic ''ComicBook/XMen'' villain Vulcan, with the Nova Corps, the Starjammers and the Guardians of the Galaxy caught in the middle.

** This is followed by ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'', the follow-up to ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk'' storyline ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' where, days before ''Civil War'' happened, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic shoot Hulk into outer space (because, frankly, the conflict was gonna have enough problems ''without'' having to deal with the Hulk). He ends up on a hellish gladiator planet, which soon explodes due to the ship Hulk was sent on blowing up. Needless to say, Hulk is pissed and fans get five issues of Hulk delivering karmic beatdowns towards Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and just about anyone else who gets in his way, as well as crossover issues in or with Comicbook/TheAvengers, Comicbook/GhostRider, ComicBook/HeroesForHire, Comicbook/IronMan, ComicBook/AntMan, Comicbook/ThePunisher, and the ComicBook/XMen, not to mention a Prologue issue with a story that features the ComicBook/MiniMarvels filling in the background.

** 2014 kicked off with ''ComicBook/OriginalSin'' by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato Jr. It is a murder mystery about the killing of Uatu the Watcher and the heroes' buried secrets which he has personally witnessed but kept to himself being leaked out to the superhero community. (It's highly reminiscent of DC's ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis.'') The culprit was [[PutOnABus exiled to the moon]], forced to watch the Earth as Utatu once did for their troubles.

** 2011 had a smaller example in the form of ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'' which saw everyone in New York receive spider powers. While this would normally be a BatFamilyCrossover or just a regular storyline in ''Amazing Franchise/SpiderMan'', a multitude of tie in mini series and one shots focusing on everyone from the Avengers to the Kung Fu heroes as well as tie-in issues running in the monthly titles of both ''Venom'' and ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules''.

** ''Comicbook/{{Civil War|2006}}'', in 2006. The deaths of the New Warriors and the city of Stamford, Connecticut at the hands of Nitro leads to a backlash against all heroes and a political push to get heroes to register their secret identities with the US Government, via the Superhuman Registration Act. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic decide to back the new law and lead the charge to do so, while Captain America leads the anti-registration side of the super-hero community, as he sees the whole Registration Act as a bad idea. Needless to say, it all ends in horror as Captain America is defeated, denounced as unpatriotic, and assassinated, and Iron Man being handed full-control over SHIELD.

** ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', 2008: After the ninja assassin Elektra is killed ([[DeathIsCheap again]]), the Avengers discover that "Elektra" was actually an alien Skrull impostor ''pretending'' to be Elektra. Both characters and fans quickly started wondering who ''else'' could be a fake, fueled by WordOfGod explaining that the infiltration went back for years. On top of all the problems from the last few Crisis Crossovers (Captain America dead, the Avengers fractured and preoccupied with fighting each other rather than actual threats, and the X-Men have had their power drastically reduced), throw in the [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia]] of double agents and it sure would be trouble if the aliens decided to invade now that every force that could be expected to stand up to them has been crippled... Ultimately, while Earth wins, Iron Man is still blamed for [=FUBARing=] the superhuman response, S.H.I.E.L.D. is dissolved, and control of the rest is handed over to the media darling who killed the Skrull queen on live TV; the leader of the BoxedCrook team the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}: Norman Osborn. That's right, the [[Comicbook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]] is head of the government's superheroes. Yikes.
** This led to a pseudo-example called ''ComicBook/DarkReign'', which details Osborn's tenure as the leader of the DarkerAndEdgier [=SHIELD=] called [=HAMMER=], during which time he sets up and leads his own EvilCounterpart to ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' (as well as the ComicBook/XMen and a couple of others), dressing up psychotic supervillains to disguise themselves as the heroes, whilst pursuing an agressive domestic and foreign policy and consolidating his power by allying with major players like Loki, Namor, Emma Frost and Doctor Doom ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the Hood]]), whilst once again starting to descend back into Goblin-related madness. WordOfGod is this was not an "event" like the previous examples but it did lead to many mini-crossovers as pretty much every Earth-bound hero found themselves in conflict with the maniac plus it ticks most of the boxes anyway (save that its longer), and its worth mentioning because the conclusion to it was...
** And finally in 2010, we have ''Comicbook/{{Siege}}''. [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] had previously moved Asgard to Earth, and Osborn and Loki aren't happy (Osborn because it's foreign territory on US soil, Loki because Asgard isn't in its own realm where it belongs). So Loki convinces Osborn it would be a ''wonderful'' idea to take his army and ''attack gods''. Naturally, Thor and everyone connected with the Avengers goes ''"OhNoYouDidnt!"'' and goes to kick his ass. But the real problem wound up being [[spoiler:the Sentry: immeasurably powerful, mentally unstable (to put it mildly), and Osborn's no longer holding his leash.]] In the end, Osborn is ousted and the resurrected Steve Rogers (no longer ComicBook/CaptainAmerica) takes his place, beginning "The Heroic Age" by ending Superhuman Registration, formally reuniting the fractured Avengers teams, and bringing the Big Three (himself, Thor, and Iron Man) together on the same side for the first time since before ''Avengers Disassembled''.

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** 2012 brought ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', where the Phoenix Force is returning to Earth and has chosen Hope Summers as its new avatar, leading the two major {{Super Team}}s of the MarvelUniverse to clash over whether this will mean the resurgence of mutantkind (for the X-Men) or the destruction of humans and mutants alike (for the Avengers). Epic ConflictBall ensues. The series ended with Comicbook/{{Cyclops}}, Emma Frost, Magik and Colossus becoming fugitives, Professor X dead at Cyclops' hands, and Captain America formed the [[Comicbook/UncannyAvengers Avengers Unity Squad]] to keep something like ''AVX'' from ever happening again.

* In 1989 came the ''Comicbook/Inferno1988'' crossover, in which demons from Limbo staged an invasion of New York City. The storyline was mainly an X-Book storyline, as ''Inferno'' resolved longstanding plotlines involving Jean Grey's [[CloningBlues doppleganger]] Madelyne Pryor, the Madelyne/Cyclops/Jean Grey love triangle, and Illyana Rasputin's ApocalypseMaiden, but the effects of the X-Over was felt in just about every Marvel book published at the time, leading to the introduction of a new Avengers roster, the Thing being restored to human form[[note]]this occurred post-''Inferno'', but was the result of the Human Torch going to his overpowered Nova Flame mode during ''Inferno'' and being unable to power down; when Ben was tossed into the machine being used to restore Johnny's normal state, Johnny emerged in full control of his flame, and Ben emerged a normal human[[/note]], and the Jason Macendale Hobgoblin becoming half-demon (after getting his ass kicked by Harry Osborn, while dressed as Green Goblin).

** The major crossover of 2022 was ''ComicBook/JudgmentDayMarvelComics'', as the Eternals went to war with the mutants of Krakoa for being Deviants, with the Avengers caught in the crossfire. When the dead celestial of Avengers Mountain was reawakened to try and stop the Eternals' "programming", all sides discover to their horror that the new god takes no sides, and will instead judge every person on Earth by its own [[BlueAndOrangMorality standards]]. If more people are found lacking than not, then it will destroy the Earth and everyone on it.

* There's also the ''ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}'' saga in 1996, which was famously [[ExecutiveMeddling hijacked by editorial]] to set up Avengers and Fantastic Four's continuities being rebooted from scratch outside the Marvel Universe via ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn''. However, [[DorkAge this reboot was short-lived]], and the subsequent ''ComicBook/HeroesReturn'' storyline not only brought everybody back, but [[ResetButton undid the damage done by]] ''ComicBook/TheCrossing''. Thank you, [[RealityWarper Franklin Richards]].

* ''ComicBook/TheCrossing'' ran through the Avengers books in 1995 as well. The premise was that Iron Man had been under the mental influence of Kang the Conqueror for years, and had now turned against the Avengers outright; the only way the Avengers could defeat him was to pluck a younger Tony Stark, untouched by Kang, from an alternate timeline, and in the end, "evil" Tony was killed off. This turn of events was [[DorkAge not well-received]], to say the least.

* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel had one with ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'', meant to be the last title in the Ultimate Universe before it got relaunched as Ultimate Comics in 2009. The plot involves Magneto plotting revenge on the Ultimates for the murder of the Scarlet Witch, [[KillEmAll killing absolutely everybody in the process]].