Before the stars came to be… when the galaxies were mere cosmic dust… there existed the first being in the Universe. Though his name would later become synonomous with destruction, it is from the creation of Galactus that we mark the beginning of the Universe.
The last survivor of a dead cosmos, he was transformed into the feared planet devourer at the birth of the Universe we know.
Among the earliest races of beings to evolve and build mighty civilizations in the expanding new Universe were the mysterious Celestials and the various races of the Elders of the Universe.
Another significant race to appear was that of the Watchers, who took upon themselve the task of observing the other races but were sworn never to interfere with them.
In time there arose the Kree and the Skrulls, whose galactic empires were in conflict for millions of Earth years.
But it was the enigmatic, nearly omnipotent Celestials, who first took notice of the seemingly insignificant world we call Earth.
The Celestials first arrived on Earth roughly one million years ago to experiment on humanity’s ancestors.
They created two new races, the godlike Eternals and the grotesque Deviants, while giving mankind’s forbears the genetic potential to one day produce super-powered beings.
25,000 years ago the Kree performed similar experiments on primitive humans, who, as one of the Kree sentries later discovered, became the highly evolved race of Inhumans.
Meanwhile, great human civilizations arose in Atlantis, Valusia and elsewhere, only to be destroyed by the Great Cataclysm. 3,000 year later, sunken Atlantis would be settled by the water-breathing ancestors of today’s Atlanteans.
After the Cataclysm there was a new age of warriors and wizards on the surface, in which a sword-wielding barbarian rose to become the greatest monarch of his time.
Still later, powerful otherdimensional humanoid beings descended to Earth to seek worship as gods from the people of ancient Egypt and Greece and from the Norsemen. These were the times of legend, when beings such as Hercules and Thor first walked the Earth.
And when the gods departed, mortal heroes rose in their place…
For example, in medieval times in England, the original Black Knight defended King Arthur from the many threats to his reign at Camelot.
More centuries passed, and then new heroes arose in the 19th century American West. The adventures of Kid Colt, the Rawhide Kid, the original Night Rider, and the Two-Gun Kid, became legends.
With World War I came the first costumed heroes. But there were only a few, like the first Union Jack, and their careers ended with the war.
In World War II Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, at the forefront of millions of other valiant Allied soldiers, proved that men needed no super-powers to soundly defeat Nazi menaces.
The age of the super hero had not truly arrived. But the lives of certain individuals were moving in fateful directions, and that age drew even nearer. And then a momentous day arrived…
Imagine it is a mere handful years ago. It is the fateful day that four people will attempt to make their first flight to the stars, an attempt that will have far-reaching significance for the future of the Universe. On this same day, the lives of other individuals who will also have dramatically important effects on that Universe proceed quietly on, like the calm before some cataclysmic storm.
The world had lost sight of Captain America, whom cold seas had placed into suspended animations, to be found and worshipped by Eskimos who, having no idea who he was, supposed him a deity of some sort.
His ex-partner, the Sub-Mariner, had been deprived of his memory by an adversary, and was now no more than pathetic derelict living on the streets of New York.
Nick Fury had become a colonel assigned to the C.I.A., but he longed to get out from behind a desk and to plunge back into action.
Soon the C.I.A. would send inventor Tony Stark on a secret mission to a conflict in Afghanistan. But for now Stark revels in his life as a playboy, free of the burdens he will bear when he becomes Iron Man.
Another scientist, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, finds himself labouring for the government on a secret test of a new weapon he has invented, the gamma bomb that will turn him into the monstrous Hulk.
And still another scientist, Dr. Henry Pym, is now ready to test whether certain sub-atomic particles he has discovered can shrink a human being in size.
Not everyone is so busy. Take Dr. Don Blake, who feels a sudden desire to take a vacation to Norway. Although he does not know it, it is there he will reclaim his true form, that of Thor, God of Thunder!
On the other hand, Professor Charles Xavier has rarely traveled far from his mansion since he was crippled years before. For some time now he has tutored Jean Grey in using her powers. Both of them are mutants. Soon, he will have other students, a team of mutant X-Men.
Dr. Stephen Strange has recently returned from his own travels and taken a house in New York's Greenwich Village. He is now ready to act on his own, having been trained in Asia to be a Master of the Mystic Arts.
Meanwhile, Matt Murdock and his best friend Foggy Nelson are studying to begin their careers in law. It is not as a lawyer that Murdock will bring his father's killer to justice, however, but as the masked Daredevil.
And a much younger student, Peter Parker, soon to become the amazing Spider-Man, escapes from the taunts of bullies into the world of science that he loves.
Testing faster-than-light space travel, scientist Reed Richards, Susan Storm and her younger brother Johnny, and pilot Ben Grimm sneak off into space in a rocket. In space, the four are bombarded by cosmic rays. The auto-pilot lands the ship back on Earth, where they find themselves physically transformed and possessing remarkable new abilities. Sue can turn invisible. Ben has transformed into an orange, muscular "thing" with super-strength. Reed's body became highly malleable, allowing him to stretch into any shape. Johnny's body bursts into flame, and he can fly. Thus these four friends become the Fantastic Four, first of a new generation of Super Heroes.
And the Marvel Universe goes on.
