Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: The Sliding Timeline
Marvel has what’s known as a “sliding timeline”. Unlike DC, which just likes to reset the universe every couple of years, Marvel characters slowly age as time goes on. It was stated in the past that for every three years in real time, the Marvel universe ages one year. This means that events that happen years and years apart, actually happen fairly close together.
What does this mean for your game? Quite simply, it allows you to reference an event in the comics that took place in the 80s, as though it took place only a decade ago.
Additionally, I have assembled a master list of the Marvel Sliding Timeline, that matches up really, really well. There are a few issues, including Peter Parker and Mary Jane getting married very, very close to their engagement. I guess when you know, you know!
I hope you enjoy it. I took 2011, and began working backward in three year chunks. If an event took place in the first of those three years, it took place in the first four months, and so forth.
I’ve tried to cover most events here. I’ve taken pieces from this X-Men focused one and added it in here, while also including events from most of the heroes. If you need to know when an event from the comic you’re reading takes place, calculate starting with 2012, and work your way back.
|
Year |
Event |
|
1994 |
April – Fantastic Four are formed. May – Hank Pym bombards himself with Pym Particles, becoming Ant-Man. June – Hulk is created. July – Thor is cast down from Asgard. August – Peter Parker (age 15) is bitten by a radioactive spider, becoming Spider-Man. September – Tony Stark dons the Iron Man suit for the first time. December – Professor Charles Xavier rounds up a bunch of precocious teenagers and forms the X-Men. |
|
1995 |
January – Matt Murdock takes up the mantle of Daredevil. June – Sue Storm and Reed Richards are married. November – Galactus appears to destroy Earth, but is repelled by the Fantastic Four. |
|
1996 |
February – Kingpin steps up as a criminal overlord. June – Aliens murder the secret X-Man Changeling who was in the form of Professor X at the time. |
|
1997 |
April – Captain Stacy is killed by Doctor Octopus. |
|
1998 |
February – Spider-Man (age 19) witnesses Gwyn Stacy’s death. October – Professor X assembles a new X-Men team, including Wolverine and Colossus. |
|
1999 |
Peter Parker graduates college at the age of 20. Tony Stark slips into heavy alcoholism. |
|
2000 |
June – She-Hulk is created. July – Jean Grey becomes possessed by a primordial cosmic force known as Dark Phoenix. To nourish herself, she consumes a distant star, which supernovas and kills billions of confused aliens. Another alien race known as the Shi’ar condemns Jean to death in a trial by combat. Jean commits suicide to prevent herself from destroying the universe. |
|
2001 |
February – Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is wrecked by an alien race known as the Sidri. May – After malevolent extraterrestrial parasites known as the Brood transform Professor X into the giant insect, he transfers his consciousness to a cloned body and can walk again. June – Wolverine’s fiancée Mariko Yashida is mind-controlled, stands him up at the altar. July – Cyclops marries Madelyne Pryor, a clone of his dead girlfriend. He is unaware of this at the time. November – She-Hulk joins the Fantastic Four. December – Spider-Man dons the Symbiote suit in the Secret Wars: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are transported to another planet to battle. |
|
2002 |
July – The Mutant Massacre — the Morlocks, a group of homeless mutants who live in the sewers of New York, are systematically eradicated by Sabretooth and the villainous Mr. Sinister. The winged X-Men Angel is crucified and his wings are amputated. August – Jean Grey’s alive again when her body is found in a healing capsule at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. Turns out Dark Phoenix was never Jean. September – Peter Parker proposes to Mary Jane Watson. December – Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are wed. |
|
2003 |
January – Eddy Brock becomes Venom. May – Mister Sinister blows up the X-Mansion. Madelyne Pryor realizes she’s a clone of Jean Grey, goes crazy, and then helps open a gate to Hell over New York. Demons pour into Manhattan and mailboxes eat people. Madelyne tries to kill the X-Men and Cyclop’s new girlfriend, Jean Grey. When that fails, Madelyne commits suicide. July – Atlanteans, influenced by Set, attack the surface world. August – Scarlet Witch realizes her twin children are just magical figments of her imagination. |
|
2004 |
January – The X-Men and New Mutants are captured by Genosha. Genosha’s government is overthrown. November – Magneto rips out Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton. Professor X lobotomizes Magneto in return. |
|
2005 |
November – Professor X and Magneto form Onslaught, and most heroes are sent to a parallel universe. |
|
2006 |
February – The heroes return from the parallel universe. April – Karen Page dies. |
|
2007 |
August – The Legacy Virus is stopped by Colossus sacrificing his life. |
|
2009 |
May – Secret Wars: Nick Fury attacks Latveria July – Avengers Disassembled: Scarlet Witch destroys the Avengers. August – Colossus comes back from the dead. September – The New Avengers are formed. November – Scarlet Witch reforms the world, creating House of M. |
|
2010 |
January – Extremis: Iron Man’s suit is upgraded significantly. Most mutants in the world are stripped of their powers. April – Civil War: The heroes take sides, and war between them leads to Captain America’s Death. June – Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage is erased. August – The Initiative is established, creating teams in every state in America. September – World War Hulk: Hulk returns after his exile, and nearly conquers the earth. November – Secret Invasion: The Skrulls make their move, revealing themselves to the world. The heroes stop them but at the cost of Norman Osborn taking over SHIELD. |
|
2011 |
January – Dark Reign: Norman Osborn founds the Dark Avengers. March – The X-Men form Utopia off the coast of California. June – Daredevil takes over as leader of The Hand and builds The Shadowland. July – Norman Osborn invades Asgard, but is destroyed. The Superhero Registration Act is repealed. September – Fear Itself: The Asgardian God of Fear is sowing fear and doubt among Marvel’s Superheroes to use it against them. October – Spider-Island: The Jackal has given to every New Yorker spider-like powers, even heroes and villains. |
So basically the entire Marvel Universe, though it started in the 50s/60s-ish in real time, REALLY actually only goes back to the mid-90s?
That seems very weird.
How we account for Punk Storm? That era of the X-Men was clearly in the 80s. There are also in-continuity references to 9/11 that would make no sense since during that time things were being set up for Inferno.
I love what you did here, but I think the sliding timeline idea gets tossed aside very quickly in favor of plot and story, which leaves us then having these geeky conversations.
Daniel M. Perez´s last [type] ..[Fiction] Parati
According to Marvel, when they mentioned the Sliding Timeline back in the 70′s or 80′s, basically said you just throw out anything that doesn’t quite fit. 9/11 still happened, just much earlier in Spider-Man’s career.
So basically, according to Marvel, just make it up. So typical of them.
I think events happen more or less concurrently with their real-world counterpart year, or at least era. So the X-Men were founded in the 60s (we all saw how awesome that was), the Morlocks era happened in the 80s, Genosha et al in the 90s, etc.
That, or we apply the sliding timeline to the new Ultimate universe and use that.
Personally I’d just use my approach. The art, language and references in the stories pretty much tell you when they happen.
Daniel M. Perez´s last [type] ..[Fiction] Parati
The problems that Daniel mentions by applying real-time to the Sliding Timeline are the sort of thing that Deadpool would have a ball with.
Alzrius´s last [type] ..Finding a Path to the Dinner Table
Why Deadpool? (I’m terribly out of touch with the Marvel Universe.)
Daniel M. Perez´s last [type] ..[Fiction] Parati
EXCELSIOR Dice Monkey!
As for Deadpool, he is generally insane, and so out of touch with reality, that he realizes he is a comic book character and constantly breaks the fourth wall (He will talk to the audience, skip panels to avoid an enemy, and guess what’s going to happen based on panel flow.) If anyone is out of touch with reality enough to realize that a sliding timeline is messing with everyone’s head, (including his) its Deadpool. One more reason to love the Merc with a Mouth.
Wow, Deadpool used to be this badass assassin who could take on all of X-Factor when I last saw him. I’m glad I stopped back then.
But thanks for the explanation.
Daniel M. Perez´s last [type] ..[Fiction] Parati
Yeah, once people realized Wade Wilson was completely stolen (in looks, in attitude, in name, and in just about everything else) from DC’s Slade Wilson, it became a lot harder to take him seriously, so people started having fun with him. Some of the resulting runs (Gail Simone’s Agent X, Fabien Nicezia’s Cable & Deadpool, and Joe Kelly’s Deadpool) are actually some of my all-time favorites.
Also, while I generally agree the best thing to do is just estimate the time periods based on style, dialog, etc., (and at the risk of either providing too much editorial leeway or stepping over the lines of good taste) the sliding timeline here, at least, DOES provide a fairly valid explanation for 9/11, since She-Hulk joining the FF and Venom both occur after the Secret Wars, which would logically then take place around September, trapping the heroes off planet at the time.
@Jeff, yes, it makes sense at the moment, but within a couple of years, when the timeline has to be shifted again, those won’t coincide.
Of course–it just struck me that at this particular moment, that aspect of the timeline synched up and grabbed my attention.
Whoa, that timeline is awesome.
I never imagined so much has happened in the Marvel universe.