Range of Influence of Marvel Time
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:22 pm
We all accept that life on Marvel-Earth is subject to a phenomena known as "Marvel Time" which causes time to pass for its inhabitants at a rate that is (generally) somewhere between one-fourth to one-third as fast as time passes in our "real" world. As a recent issue of the Official Index to the Marvel Universe stated, "Most events in Marvel comics are subject to the sliding timescale - for those in the Marvel universe it has been less than 15 years since FF #1, '61." And there are any number of examples in which a character in a newly-published story states that an event depicted in a comic published "X" years ago actually occurred "Y" years ago (where the value of Y is much less than that of X). However, all the examples that I can think of are set on Earth. Off-hand, I cannot recall any story set in outer space in which Marvel Time is so evidenced.
This leads me to wonder if perhaps some writers are under the impression that Marvel Time only affects Marvel-Earth itself and not the rest of the universe in which Earth-616 exists (let's call in Reality-616). Is there any basis for my speculation? Does anyone happen to recall a storyline in which a "cosmic event" was described as occuring more recently than its publication date? For example, the FF's first contact with the Skrulls in issue #2 would, according the the OIttMU, have taken place close-to-but-less-than-fifteen years ago since it took place soon after their public debut in FF #1. For the Skrulls, how long ago was that encounter? Was it the (Skrull equivalent to) nearly-15 years? Or close to the almost-50 years that was when the story was published?
And what about other cosmic events? The Kree-Skrull War storyline from Avengers #92-97, the death of Captain Marvel from Marvel Graphic Novel #1, Secrets Wars, Secret Wars II, Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade, Annihilation - are all of these events subject to Marvel Time or not? You'd think that they are, that Marvel Time is a universe-wide phenomena, but I'm just not sure if it has ever been established in-story that it is. And there have certainly been stories in which the writers have, knowingly or otherwise, really not taken Marvel Time into account. And then, of course, there's Bendis.
Don Campbell
This leads me to wonder if perhaps some writers are under the impression that Marvel Time only affects Marvel-Earth itself and not the rest of the universe in which Earth-616 exists (let's call in Reality-616). Is there any basis for my speculation? Does anyone happen to recall a storyline in which a "cosmic event" was described as occuring more recently than its publication date? For example, the FF's first contact with the Skrulls in issue #2 would, according the the OIttMU, have taken place close-to-but-less-than-fifteen years ago since it took place soon after their public debut in FF #1. For the Skrulls, how long ago was that encounter? Was it the (Skrull equivalent to) nearly-15 years? Or close to the almost-50 years that was when the story was published?
And what about other cosmic events? The Kree-Skrull War storyline from Avengers #92-97, the death of Captain Marvel from Marvel Graphic Novel #1, Secrets Wars, Secret Wars II, Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade, Annihilation - are all of these events subject to Marvel Time or not? You'd think that they are, that Marvel Time is a universe-wide phenomena, but I'm just not sure if it has ever been established in-story that it is. And there have certainly been stories in which the writers have, knowingly or otherwise, really not taken Marvel Time into account. And then, of course, there's Bendis.
Don Campbell