In 2006, we have the famous Civil War event, which if you’ve seen the movie you know the drill. Let’s not kid ourselves, just like in Secret Wars it was just an excuse to see superheroes fighting each other. It’s far better justified and the concept makes sense in a way but just like everything else after the 90s it is more depressing and convoluted than plain fun. The Watchmen did the same concept way better, it lasted more than it should and it basically rewrote many characters so they can behave in any way it would excuse the conflict. To its defense, it did have 2 aftereffects, one of which was the assassination of Captain America. Which strangely enough didn’t happen during the conflict and excused its resolution but afterwards, so even that felt weird. In all, Civil War had a lot of untapped potential.
The second after effect was Spiderman revealing his secret identity to the world. This led to villains attacking his home and killing aunt May. Finally, after all these decades of zero character development, something happens in his life that can change him further. And they reset it! In 2007, Peter Parker makes a deal with the devil to make it seem like he never revealed his secret identity. And on top of that, now he is no longer married. Fuck you Marvel for not allowing him to face responsibly and become a father.
In the same year, Bishop is finally becoming part of a highlight. I didn’t talk about his alternative future timeline yet, because it wasn’t relevant after he came back from the future. So, in his version of the future, a mutant killed millions of people which forced the governments of the world to create concentration camps for mutants. Cable on the other hand knows that in his version of the future the same mutant is the one who brings peace amongst mutants and normies. So, when they find this mutant still as a baby, Bishop wants to kill it while Cable wants to raise it properly. This event was called Messiah Complex and it was basically Cable creating another Jesus, because Adam Warlock was apparently not enough. He was taking the baby in different time periods while Bishop was hunting them, and the whole thing was basically a Dr. Who knock off. I didn’t care much about it but it’s important for later on.
Remember that event about Galactus consuming the Skrull homeworld? Well, for all these years they were slowly infiltrating human society, and replacing several superheroes with their men. In 2008 the Secret Invasion event happened, where nobody knew whom to trust, since everybody could be a Skrull. The catch is, the invaders were presented in a very tragic way. They were desperate for a new place to call home and were not generic evil green men. This event was also trying to excuse why many characters were being out of character during the Civil War, since they were impersonators and not the actual heroes. It wasn’t a very good excuse, since they were supposed to be identical in powers and memories. The crisis escalated until several super villains were given the task by the governments of the world to exterminate the Skrulls no matter the cost. It was a very confusing period where the bad guys are heroes, the heroes are untrustworthy, and the aliens are sympathetic. Aside from how hard it was to follow what was going on because of the constant scene switches, this event was good.
This led to the Siege event in 2010. The bad guys get cocky and, like the megalomaniacs they are, invade the realm of the gods. When the Avengers go to stop them, Sentry, that guy who was interesting while we didn’t know if he was really a hero or delusional, loses control and becomes evil. You see, there was this convoluted explanation of everybody getting amnesia to forget he exists, so he won’t revert into his evil persona. It didn’t work out, so he kills a lot of people before Thor kills him. In the aftermath, the governments of the world somehow realize it was a stupid idea to trust megalomaniac madmen, and stop funding them. Also, the Superhuman Registration Act is abolished, which means everything reverted back to the status quo, rendering the events of the Civil War completely meaningless. Fuck you Marvel!
And while this is happening, Bastion attempts to kill all mutants once and for all. Wait, who is Bastion again? Remember that Nimrod thing that came from the Days of Future Past? Well, it morphed into a human named Bastion and joined the military organization that was creating the Sentinels with the purpose of stopping the mutant threat. Seeing how the current Sentinels were not good enough, he opens a portal to his timeline and brings over countless Nimrods to do the job. He is stopped when Hope and Cable arrive after a decade of traveling in time, in an event called Second Coming. Get it? Because Jesus. Hope gets the powers of the Phoenix somehow, which is no longer a force of destruction thanks to the death of Jean somehow, and wipes out the invasion from the future. This event is supposed to trigger the timeline Cable came from, and diverges from the timeline Bishop came from. I didn’t care much about it because although cool in concept it’s about a Jesus figure again.
A whole bunch of things happened the next 5 years, and none of them felt like they were significant in any way. Plus, whatever took place in them was rendered pointless by yet another reset. The second Secret Wars in 2015 was basically throwing everything at a blender, having all characters from dozens of alternative dimensions fighting each other, then creating a world that had a bit of everything, then there is time travel and everything is as before, only different. Adam Warlock is now the Living Tribunal, Galactus revives worlds instead of eating them, and whole other bunch of stuff that changed just because. Just like the first Secret Wars, it was fan service, as well as an excuse to forcefully change character dynamics because the writers don’t know what they are doing anymore. And now there is a second Civil War going on where they have officially ran out of ideas since they are simply making sequels of previous highlights.
And that was all you need to know about the Marvel highlights up until now. I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I hated Marvel getting stupid in modern times.
