Marvel Just Turned a Major Crossover Into Earth X’s The Walking Dead

Marvel's Earth X prequel kicks off by making what happened in a forgotten crossover the most important event in the history of the Marvel Universe.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marvels X #1, by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, Well-Bee and VC’s Cory Petit, on sale now.

The ever-growing Marvel Multiverse contains well over 2,300 iterations of the Marvel Universe, but few of them are as wild as the world of Earth X. In that dark alternate timeline, everyone in the world developed superpowers, and Marvel’s remaining heroes evolved into bizarre reflections of their former selves as they faced the threats of a strange new world.

Originally, this dystopian parallel reality was envisioned by Alex Ross in a series of sketches meant to serve as Marvel’s answer to DC’s Kingdom Come. In 1999, Marvel explored this world further through Jim Krueger and John Paul Leon’s Earth X miniseries, which spawned two more cosmic, psychedelic sequels, Universe X and Paradise X.

While those stories saw Green Goblin become President of the United States, Thanos obliterate the concept of death and J. Jonah Jameson transform into a donkey, it was never totally clear how a relatively normal Marvel Universe descended into such chaos.

Now, Marvels X is starting to fill in some of the gaps in Earth X history. This prequel series kicks off by following the young David as he watches his familiar world crumble into a grim anarchy reminiscent of The Walking Dead.

When Marvels X #1 begins, David is playing with cardboard cutouts of the Avengers as his family watches news reports about a viral outbreak that traps people in cocoons and gives them superpowers. Although mutants are initially blamed for the outbreak, those symptoms are the unmistakable hallmarks of Terrigenesis, the process that turns humans into frequently freakish Inhumans.

As the original Earth X established, Black Bolt, the Inhumans’ king, released the Terrigen Mists around the world to help the Inhumans better blend in with a superpowered society. Like several aspects of Earth X, that idea became unintentionally predictive in the following years.

In the 2013 crossover Infinity, Thanos launched a massive attack on Earth while most of the Avengers and Earth’s other heroes were in deep space. At the end of the crossover, Black Bolt activated a Terrigen Bomb that spread the Terrigen Mists around the world.

In the subsequent storyline Inhumanity, the Terrigen Cloud activated the latent powers of Inhumans all over the world. While this Terrigen Cloud ushered in a new generation of heroes like Ms. Marvel, and proved to be lethal to Marvel’s mutants, life largely continued on as normal for most of the Marvel Universe. As the Inhumans receded into the background in the wake of Inhumans vs. X-Men, the importance of Inhumanity faded into memory as subsequent crises consumed the Marvel Universe.

However, Marvels X essentially reimagines Inhumanity as the most important event in the Marvel Universe.

As this issue reveals, society largely collapses shortly after Terrigenesis starts turning people into Inhuman “mutants.” While most of Marvel’s classic heroes are around in at least some capacity, they weren’t able to stop humanity from turning on itself as it evolved into something that no one completely understood.

While the fates of David’s parents are never revealed, the transformation process is seemingly at least partially responsible for the death of David’s grandmother and drives his sister away to parts unknown.

Much like the survivors of The Walking Dead, David is forced to scavenge for basic supplies and relies on the kindness of strangers for food and transportation. Despite the Green Goblin mask he wears to disguise himself, the still-human David must evade a roving band of marauders who want to eat him. While the last-minute intervention of a friendly truck driver saves him, David sets his sights on New York, where he’s placed all of his remaining hope in finding a hero who can set things right.

Given the desperation and the near-total societal collapse that Marvels X depicts, it’s not hard to imagine how fringe groups and unlikely leaders could come to power by offering any semblance of order.

When it debuted, the world of Earth X initially seemed impossibly removed from the traditional Marvel Universe. But by showing how quickly the world can descend into chaos, Marvels X has already done a lot to prove that Marvel’s strangest future is a lot closer than it seems.