Earth X

AUTHOR: Krueger, Jim; Ross, Alex

ARTIST: John Paul Leon (illustrator); Bill Reinhold (inker); Melissa Edwards (colorist); Matt Hollings-worth (colorist); James Sinclair (colorist); Todd Klein (letterer); Alex Ross (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1999-2000

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2001

Publication History

After the critical and popular success of DC Comics miniseries Kingdom Come (1996), a story that featured familiar DC superheroes in a dystopian future, Alex Ross was asked to sketch out similar character redesigns for Marvel heroes for a special feature in Wizard magazine. Jim Krueger provided brief written origins for each of Ross’s new character designs.

While designing these characters, Ross developed a general idea about humanity being mutated, while Krueger suggested the Terrigen Mist as the cause of mutation. The two began to develop a “bible” for the project, realizing its potential beyond the original Wizard feature. Together, they established information, including descriptions and backstory, for nearly every Marvel character.

The Wizard feature was popular and was republished as a separate sketchbook. When this also proved popular, Marvel approved the Earth X miniseries. Initially published as a limited series released monthly from March, 1999, to June, 2000, Earth X consists of an introductory 0 issue, numbered issues 1-12, and issue X, which was both a conclusion and an epilogue to the story. While Ross provided character designs and painted the covers, the art within each issue was drawn by John Paul Leon. The miniseries was collected in a trade paperback in 2001. The popularity of the original series motivated Marvel to publish two additional limited series, Universe X (2000-2001) and Paradise X (2002-2003), with Doug Braithwaite replacing Leon as the primary artist.

Plot

Earth X is intended to provide a twofold glimpse of almost all of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe: a conjectural depiction of these heroes in a dystopian future setting and a unification of all of these heroes’ origins into a single master narrative. Much of Earth X consists of retelling the origins and background of the various Marvel heroes, as well as exploring the prehistory of the Marvel Universe. It is revealed that the Celestials have manipulated the evolution of all life on Earth, implanting a “celestial seed” that enables humans to be turned into superheroes. Their true motive, however, is to develop these superhumans as antibodies to protect the Earth itself, which is actually housing a nascent Celestial “egg.”

The primary story line involves the Inhumans returning to Earth after traveling through space for twenty years. They find that all of Earth’s population has been transformed into superhumans. This mass transformation has caused a food shortage and social and political collapse, and the former Green Goblin is now the unelected president of the United States. There are a number of threats to his domination, including the parasitic hive-mind of Hydra, as well as a new villain, the Skull, whose mind-controlled army marches on New York.

While the Inhumans investigate the cause of the transformation, Captain America searches the globe for a superhero army to stand against the Skull. He recruits Bruce Banner and the Hulk, who are separated into an apelike monster and a blind child; a retired and overweight Peter Parker; Colossus, ruling Russia as the “Iron Czar”; and Scott Summers, now called “Mr. S” by his new team of X-Men-in-training. No matter how many heroes side with Captain America, their fight is futile, since the Skull’s mind-control techniques simply add more bodies to the Skull army.

Meanwhile, Reed Richards, with help from X-51, discovers that the worldwide mutation was caused by Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans, in an attempt to turn the entire population into Inhumans—ending discrimination and prejudice forever. X-51 also reveals the true nature of the Celestials and the danger of their return.

After the Skull reaches New York and kills President Osborn, he is stopped only when Captain America leads a new army of classic “Marvels” (animated clay statues of Golden and Silver Age Marvel heroes). Captain America, hidden inside a clay version of his Golden Age costume, is able to surprise the Skull and snaps the boy’s neck. As he takes the youth’s life, Captain America apologizes for failing him, proclaiming “The war ends here.”

The battle for Earth has just begun, however, as the Celestials approach the planet. Tony Stark launches his entire factory, in the form of a massive Iron Man suit, in a futile attack. Similar attacks by Thor and the Asgardians, as well as Namor’s Atlantean army, fail to slow down the Celestials. Following Richard’s advice, Black Bolt sacrifices himself to call across the reaches of space for Galactus, the devourer of worlds and the only natural enemy of the Celestials. Galactus arrives, fights the Celestials to a standstill, and then removes the embryonic Celestial from the Earth’s core, causing the Celestial host to leave the planet forever.

With the threats of the Skull and the Celestials finally gone, Captain America and Richards light their “Human Torches,” devices that will return Earth’s population to normal. X-51 officially takes over for Uatu, but pledges to be a more active “watchman” for the planet.

Characters

•X-51, a.k.a. Aaron Stack or Machine Man, the narrator and current watchman of Earth. X-51 is summoned to the blue area of the moon by Uatu, the former watchman. His humanity has literally been stripped away, and his circuitry and inner workings are covered only by a translucent shell. His bright-red optic sensors are the only elements of his design to retain any coloring. Despairing the loss of his human “face,” he fights to maintain his individual humanity and self-determination, even when it requires deceiving Uatu. After he realizes the true nature of the Celestials and the danger they pose to the Earth, he defies Uatu by interfering and assisting the heroes.

•Captain America, the primary protagonist, is almost one hundred years old, and his supersoldier physique is weathered and scarred. He wears an American flag wrapped around his torso, and his bald head features a prominent scar shaped distinctly like his trademark letter “A.” For the first time in almost a century, his resolve is beginning to falter in the face of endless war.

•Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, no longer active as his alter ego, controls his Iron Avengers (robotic versions of the now-dead Avengers) from his airtight mechanical control room. He resembles Howard Hughes in his eccentric isolationism—Stark believes that his quarantine has left him the last unmutated human on the planet—and in his gaunt, frail appearance and long, unkempt hair.

•Reed Richards, after the dissolution of the Fantastic Four (Invisible Woman and the Human Torch are killed in battle, alongside Dr. Doom), has moved into Dr. Doom’s Latverian castle. Longhaired and unkempt, Richards now wears Dr. Doom’s armor as he silently roams the empty castle. He wrongly blames his experiments for humanity’s mutation, but he returns to action to help X-51 stop the Celestials.

•The Skull, Earth X’s initial antagonist, is a teenage boy who wears clothes with a blood-red version of the Punisher’s skull symbol. He often sits on a throne made from an empty Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing (MODOK) shell. He is callously evil, maliciously treating everyone around him as playthings and tools. As the sole remaining psychic on Earth, he has powerful mind-control abilities that give him a growing army of former heroes and villains.

•Celestials are the true antagonists in the story. A mysterious race of omniscient, godlike beings, they appear as mile-high suits of bizarre armor.

Artistic Style

The visual style of Earth X is noteworthy for combining the styles of two very different artists. Ross, whose sketches formed the earliest foundation for the comic, created multiple covers for each issue. Ross is not only one of the best-known comic book artists of the 1990’s and 2000’s but also one of the few superhero artists whose popularity is recognized outside of comic book fandom. His artistic style is characterized primarily by detailed, sometimes hyperrealistic characters. His pictures are often paintings (rather than simply inkings and colored-pencil sketches). Typically, Ross uses photographed models as the basis for his character designs and scene compositions.

Ross’s participation is limited to the covers and initial character sketches; however, his perspective on the nature of these familiar superheroes is an influence on the art. While Ross has sometimes been criticized for presenting overly idealized physiques and poses, in a book such as Earth X (as well as some of his other works, such as Kingdom Come), even the most heroic characters are notably flawed. Ross’s character designs merge the mythological nature of comic book superheroes with the frailty of age and a general sense of impotence.

These character designs are in sharp contrast to Leon’s art for Earth X. Where Ross is especially detailed, Leon uses relatively minimalist designs with a fairly dark color palette. Perhaps most noticeable are Leon’s thick lines and extremely heavy shading; in fact, most of the panels within the book are dominated by undifferentiated black shadows. Leon utilizes a variety of creative and innovative layouts, including widescreen-style splash pages and panels arranged in concentric circles. This distinct visual style and page layout is used most effectively in the many flashbacks found throughout Earth X. Every issue begins with several pages that summarize character and background origins, and Leon is able to balance his own distinctive style with otherwise familiar images.

Themes

Like many superhero comic books, Earth X engages themes of good versus evil and the nature of heroism. The book utilizes familiar, established characters as a way of positioning itself against the themes found in typical Marvel superhero series. Earth X is in the unique position of reinforcing the significance and importance of Marvel superheroes while simultaneously redefining the collective origins of the Marvel Universe and the heroic motives of the individual heroes and villains.

Earth X emerged from the question: “What would superheroes look like in a world where everyone gained superpowers?” Despite the prevalence of superhumans, the heroes still stand in stark contrast to the rest of the population. While the average person in this setting might have horns or wings, they are never depicted as behaving out of the ordinary. Additionally, Leon subtly emphasizes the difference among superheroes, as they are the only characters in the book who show clearly the effects of significant aging.

Superheroes are also distinguished by their actions, but the ongoing fight against evil has a clearly dangerous, harmful side effect. Even the best-intentioned heroic actions have long-lasting effects that not only threaten innocent people but also lead to the downfall of the heroes themselves. Captain America’s efforts to stop the Skull repeatedly backfire, as the former’s troops are incorporated into the latter’s army; when Captain America is forced to kill the Skull himself, it results in a symbolic and thematic destruction of the values of the Golden Age superhero.

Earth X expands beyond the actions of individual heroes and frames its story within the larger cosmic history of the superhero universe. By suggesting the role of the Celestials in every stage of human and superhuman evolution, Krueger and Ross argue that any traditional notions of good and evil are simply the results of Celestial manipulation. This theme of predetermination is taken even further, as Earth X suggests that the ultimate stage of human evolution is not the development of individual powers but the ability to completely redefine one’s fundamental identity based on the beliefs and perceptions of others—a state seen in both the Asgardians, who behave like Norse gods only because others believe they are gods, and the new Galactus, who becomes a compassionate defender of Earth once his human father tells him he possesses that trait. These potentially subversive questions of predetermination are never fully resolved by the end of Earth X, as the very attempt to stop the Celestials represents free will and self-determination.

Impact

Earth X combined two common aspects of superhero comic books from the Modern Age—it was a widely promoted and hyped limited series featuring a variety of Marvel’s flagship characters and a noncontinuity “imaginary story” in the tradition of Marvel’s What If . . . ? series or DC Comics’ 1990’s Elseworlds imprint. Earth X was released during a time when Marvel stopped publishing its alternate universe series (the second and third volumes of What If . . . ? were released in 1998 and 2005). Earth X is categorized alongside this series as part of Marvel’s “multiverse” books.

The most evident legacy of Earth X can be seen in the two follow-up series. Universe X addressed the aftermath of the battle with the Celestials, when the planet’s axis shifted as the result of the missing core and the mutated population resisted Richard’s “cure.” This series focused on the reincarnated Captain Marvel, as well as many of the secondary characters in the Marvel Universe, as Mar-Vell and Captain America collected devices that would eventually destroy Death itself. The third series, Paradise X, focuses on alternate time lines and attempts to connect all of the story properties ever published by Marvel Comics into a single (relatively) coherent narrative.

Earth X was initially considered as an extension of the dominant Marvel narrative continuity. While Krueger and Ross altered details of some of the heroes established origins, the series was assumed to depict Earth-616 twenty years into the future. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Volume 12 was published in 2009) later established the Earth X series as Earth-9997 and suggested that Earth X actually depicts present-day events in an alternate universe. This accounted for later changes to various character developments in the Earth-616 universe.

Further Reading

Busiek, Kurt, and Alex Ross. Marvels (1994).

Krueger, Jim, and Doug Braithwaite. Paradise X (2002-2003).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Universe X (2000-2001).

Waid, Mark, and Alex Ross. Kingdom Come (1996).

Bibliography

Kreuger, Jim, Richard Case, and Alex Ross. The Earth X Trilogy Companion. New York: Marvel, 2008.

Ross, Alex, and Chip Kidd. Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross. New York: Pantheon, 2003.

Smith, Roberta. “Art in Review: Alex Ross.” The New York Times, December 1, 2000.