Marvel Mangaverse

Concept and Creation

The Marvel Mangaverse is a series of graphic novels that used Amerime* style art. It was published from 2000 through 2002, and a sequel entitled "New Mangaverse" was published in 2005. The series was ultimatly left open ended, during the "Rings of Fate" story line, and was met with mixed reactions.

*Amerime: distinctive faux manga style characterized by lazy face designs based on decades-old Japanese anime & heavy hybrid American comic book style influences that clash. The end result is that the art looks neither American nor Japanese & the style is generally looked down upon by both comic book & manga readers. A popular example of the style's usage would be the cartoon Avatar: The Last Air Bender.

History

In the beginning, a living energy force called the Lightgiver seeded this universe with sentient life, with twelve worlds becoming the first of many to evolve such life. One world became an evil placeruled by mysterious tyrant Mephisto who spread the forces of anti-life and disease across the universe, quickly finding and turning the Skrulls into merciless warriors willing to destroy other civilizations from within. The Watchers realized the threat Mephisto presented and allied themselves with the more tolerant Kree, trading their vast knowledge for protection. A bitter enmity developed between the Kree and Skrulls, leading to warfare on an almost unimaginable scale. The Skrulls tapped into the substance of Mephisto's world to create the anti-life virus called Galactus, which devoured the life forces of many worlds. In responce, the Kree created warriors called the Captains to defend other worlds from its depredations.

Years ago, the Keepers, who were the real power behind the terrorist group HYDRA, tricked a ridiculed Dr. Bruce Banner into building an Energy Well to tap into what he thought was an extradimensional source of clean safe energy to power a satellite gun. In reality, what Banner had found was an Ethereal Realm populated by banished gods and monsters. The Keepers planned to use the gun to secretly bring the Elder Gods back to rule Earth, but shoddy construction caused the gun to backlash and create a twenty-four-hour worldwide blackout. Once power was restored to the world, S.H.I.E.L.D. attacked the hidden HYDRA base in Central Asia, where field agent Antoinette Stark found a nearly insaned Banner. Years after partially suppressing his memory with a cerebral driver, Stark had Banner rebuild the Well, but HYDRA agents kidnapped him and inadvertently caused Banner to summon the gigantic extradimensional moster called the Hulk. While the Hulk terrorized New York City, encountering heroes such as Spider-Man and the Ghost Riders ( Johnny Blaze and Daimon Hellstorm), Baron Strucker invaded Stark Island and summoned Dormammu to Earth. As the heroes battled HYDRA's forces, Dr. Strange used Banner as a conduit to channel the god Thor to thwart Dormammu and the Hulk, but victory cost the lives of both Banner and Stark.

Life began to return to normal. Spider-Man resumed his quest to avenge his uncle's murder and avoid induction into Baal's Shadow Clan, while the X-Men dealt with the electromagnetic demon Magnus and the attempted kidnapping of Jean Grey by the Hellfire Club. A month after defeating the extradimensional Annihilus, the Mega-Scale Metatalent Responce Team Fantastic Four was contacted by Uatu The Watcher to find the son of th e late Kree guardian Captain Marvel. They found the teenaged Marvin Ellwood, who, with the help of the alien Inhumans, killed the approaching Galactus. While the United Nations debated recent events and the current world situation, a new Dr. Doom (T'Challa's younger sister and the real Dr. Doom's former apprentice), who was furious at the perceived lack of aid given to victims of Galactus, attacked them. After killing three members of the Iron Avengers, Doom was confronted by her older brother Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange and his assistant Tigra, and was eventually killed.

Some years later during an incident on Earth-616 involving a rampaging horde of mutated alternate reality incarnations of The Thing, Reed Richards contacted multiple versions of himself and The Fantastic Four from various alternate worlds who were also experiencing the same phenomenon in order to find a solution to the problem, amongst the conglomerate of alternate Fantastic Fours were the Mega-Scale Metatalent Responce Team Fantastic Four of Earth-2301.