MARVEL UNIVERSE #1: An origin of HYDRA!

[starwolf_oakley]

In 1998, Roger Stern started a series simply called MARVEL UNIVERSE, that seemed to be a look into the secret history of the Marvel Universe. The first three issues showed the Invaders, one of the many origins of HYDRA, and Peter Parker's grandfather.

Yes, Peter Parker's grandfather.



Most of the issue is Captain America, the Human Torch and Namor fighting a new threat. There are also recaps of their origins. Now they gather together for information.



Will Fitzpatrick is Peter Parker's maternal grandfather. Probably great-grandfather now, thanks to sliding time-scales. (See UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN #-1, also by Roger Stern, for more.)



These events are from Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #2-4.











Say what?

Comments

[astrakhan42]

All those books from the future, and not a single one about how to raise your kids so that they don't grow up into incestuous mutant-hunters. He's probably got a sweet book on Satan Claw maintenance though.

[shakalooloo]

Ah, how I long for one day, in an MCU movie, someone to utter the words 'Satan Claw'...

[icon_uk]

We'd probably find out it was actually an Infinity Gem...

[byc]

Did Strucker even have it before he was captured?

[velador]

"All those books from the future, and not a single one about how to raise your kids so that they don't grow up into incestuous mutant-hunters."
To be fair, the problem might not be that common xD

[astrakhan42]

Maybe not the mutant-hunters part, but Darth Vader, Tywin Lannister and Ultimate Magneto at the very least could probably find most of the book useful.

[q99]

-Yes, Peter Parker's grandfather.-

I always disliked this sort of thing. Normal everyperson type of characters turn out to be descended by ultra-high-level secret agents and all this stuff.

It can't just be, 'a WW2 soldier,' or 'low-ranking secret agent who only played a small supporting role'.

[locuatico]

that being said, i feel it is preferable to his parents being secret agents.

[q99]

Yea, that's the biggest example of the problem.

Heck, I'm surprised they aren't spider-themed secret agents.

[zylly]

Yeah, I've always hated the Peter's parents being secret agents thing. If I had my way, they'd have been teachers who died in a mundane car accident.

[full_metal_ox]

That's a major reason that I've become disillusioned with the concept of the Wold Newton Universe--this desire to create a Grand Unified Chain of Everything has a tendency to turn heroism into an elite dynasty into which one must have been born.

(This is particularly dissonant when applied to Ditko-created heroes, because choice and free will were always relentless themes of Ditko's--Peter Parker, having been touched by the fantastic, chose to ignore a moral responsibility, suffered the direct consequences, and then chose to accept that responsibility. Stephen Strange chose to stop being a self-centered douchebag, and discovered that acceptance of responsibility may bring great power. Even his slaphappiest character, Squirrel Girl, is on record as saying, "I don't need luck--I eat nuts!")

(And am I the only Star Wars viewer desperately hoping that Rey's biological parents will turn out to be--nobody we've ever heard of before?)

[starwolf_oakley]

Well, there's not that much wrong with Peter Parker's parents being special agents. They don't have to be Peggy Carter level, just two people who wanted to serve their country with an element of anonymity.

I like the idea that Peter was born to do what he does, it just took getting bit by a spider to do it the WAY he does.

[q99]

Yea. A single-origin comic universe isn't necessarily a bad idea- everyone has the same virus (Wild Cards), event (Rising Stars), trigger (Worm), or similar, but trying to retrofit that onto an existing universe just makes things feel smaller, unlike a universe that starts with one and grows from there.


-(And am I the only Star Wars viewer desperately hoping that Rey's biological parents will turn out to be--nobody we've ever heard of before?)-

Oh no, you are not!

[bradygirl_12]

The Secrets of the Future!

All there in good ol' books. :)