Epic comic events that crossover to various titles and bring heroes together to take on a larger threat than usual have become a mainstay of the Marvel Universe, and fans have come to expect a new event almost yearly if not even more frequent given the increased sales that usually come with the event.
However, the frequent use of crossover events requires creators to work with all of the various teams and characters ongoing storylines, which doesn't always make for the most impactful of storylines as the Marvel Universe quickly returned to the original status quo, which we'll be exploring a bit further today with a look at a few Marvel events that didn't leave a mark.
10 The Evolutionary War And Atlantis Attacks' Crossovers Were Very Self-Contained
Marvel explored a new form of crossover events beginning in 1988 with The Evolutionary War by Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart, Louise Simonson, Chris Claremont, and Steve Gerber, which ran through all of the ongoing annuals to tell stand-alone stories about the High Evolutionary and his plans to evolve the world with a genetic bomb that was stopped by the Avengers, though the event didn't change much beyond establishing the new Annual crossover.
1989's Atlantis Attacks by Greg Pak hardly even featured Atlantis as the Lemurians took center stage in their attempts to bring about the return of the god Set on Earth by finding the Serpent Crown and gathering the Brides of Set in a connected storyline that remained self-contained in the annuals.
9 Acts of Vengeance Only Managed To Establish A Few Villainous Rivalries
The villains of the Marvel Universe were organized together by a disguised Loki during 1989's Acts of Vengeance (by Dwayne McDuffie and Terry Austin) crossover event, which saw them launch an attack against heroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four by making them fight villains they weren't used to dealing with normally.
However, the attacks failed and Loki's tenuous partnership amongst villains like Magneto and Red Skull led to the establishment of an ongoing rivalry between the two, though not much lasted from the event beyond Spider-Man's brief appearance as Captain Universe.
8 The Infinity Gauntlet Launched Much More Impactful Events Than Itself
1991 saw the debut of the iconic The Infinity Gauntlet by Jim Starlin, George Pérez and Ron Lim which saw Thanos gather the Infinity Gems to form the Infinity Gauntlet for the first time, which allowed him to wipe out half the population of the universe and a number of the heroes who assembled to stop him, all to impress Death.
While the event would become an influential series that would later factor into a number of characters' storylines like Thanos and Adam Warlock, it mostly served to launch sequels like Infinity War and Infinity Crusade that laid the foundation for later storylines involving the Infinity Gems/Stones and the Marvel Universe largely returned to the normal status quo after each event.
7 Maximum Security Turned Earth Into A Prison And Back With Little Impact
The Kree Supreme Intelligence attempted to keep Earth and its heroes out of galactic business by transforming Earth into a cosmic prison planet during 2000's Maximum Security (by Kurt Busiek) event, which also featured the threat of Ego the Living Planet as it tried to merge with the Earth.
The storyline was short-lived and featured less popular characters like U.S. Agent and Quasar in main roles. While Earth dealt with the influx of intergalactic criminals and was nearly transformed into a new Ego, the end of the event saw nearly everything put neatly back in place with very little effect on the rest of the world.
6 World War Hulk Reached Every Corner Of The Universe Without Much Consequence
After the Illuminati's decision to send Hulk off-planet during the Planet Hulk storyline ended in tragedy, he returned with a powerful army of Warbound during 2007's World War Hulk (by Greg Pak) to take revenge on the various leaders of Marvel's main factions.
This led to a number of tense, building-destroying battles that saw Madison Square Garden turned into an enslaved gladiatorial arena. Yet after Hulk was defeated and imprisoned along with his Warbound, Stark Tower was almost instantly rebuilt and there was little consequence to his war against Earth.
5 Fear Itself Was A Brutal Asgardian War That Didn't Result In Many Lasting Changes
Matt Fraction's 2011 event Fear Itself featured a worldwide Asgardian war led by the Serpent God of Fear and his army of transformed heroes and villains who wielded enchanted hammers and became known as The Worthy, which saw the assembled Marvel heroes equip themselves equally in order to take them down.
The event featured some big moments that included the return of Thor and the death of characters like Bucky/Captain America, though most were undone before the event was even finished and Fear Itself was forgotten by heroes and fans as things quickly returned to normal. Even Paris, which was turned to stone by the Grey Gargoyle, was soon returned to normal
4 Chaos War Saw The Universe Restored To The Status Quo After Near Extinction
Hercules assembled a team of heroes and deities known as the God Squad to take on the demonic entity known as Amatsu-Mikaboshi/Chaos King, who sought to wipe out the multiverse and retore a realm of nothingness in Grek Pak, Fred van Lente and Khoi Pham's Chaos War.
While the Chaos King nearly succeeded in wiping out the multiverse, Hercules used his enhanced powers as the new All-Father to not only stop Chaos King but also restore the universe back to its normal status. Hercules experienced some changes and Alpha Flight returned, but the Marvel Universe still moved on in a similar fashion after Chaos War.
3 Shadowland's Transformed Hell's Kitchen Returned To Normal Very Quickly
Daredevil found himself possessed by The Beast of The Hand in Andy Diggle and Billy Tan's Shadowland event, which saw the dark hero establish a new headquarters in Hell's Kitchen known as Shadowland that served as both a prison and a temple for The Hand to spread their dark influence on New York.
A number of street-level heroes including a new Power Man were included in the event that turned on Daredevil after he killed Bullseye. Daredevil even committed suicide after he was freed of possession, though he was resurrected before the event finished and Hell's Kitchen was quickly restored to normal after the finale, though Black Panther did set up shop in town briefly.
2 Inhumans Vs. X-Men Failed To Change Much About Marvel's Outliers
Marvel's mutants and Inhumans have always been the outliers of the superhuman community, though they were pitted against each other in 2016's Inhumans vs. X-Men event from Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire that followed up on the release of the Terrigen Mists globally during the Infinity event.
While IvX managed to remove the threat of the Terrigen Mists that were causing the mutant plague known as M-Pox, the ultimate conflict between the two groups fizzled out and left them in nearly the same position they were before the event, though new team rosters did form out of the chaos.
1 The War Of The Realms Only Furthered Thor And Jane Foster's Storylines
Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman's work on The Mighty Thor saw Jane Foster transformed into a new version of the hero while Malekith the Dark Elf assembled the various Realms under his leadership to launch a war against Midgard/Earth in 2019's The War of the Realms.
While the event crossed over to a large number of titles and featured huge transformations for characters like Daredevil, the massive war only served as a finale to Aaron's run that launched new paths for Thor and Jane Foster/Valkyrie while almost everything else returned to normal.