Marvel is the master of the dark alternate future storyline. Even since 1980’s “Days of Future Past”, Marvel’s multiversal attentions have usually been on dark worlds made possible by the mistakes of the heroes. The ’90s, an underrated decade for comics, has one of the absolute best Marvel alternate universe stories of all time —The Age of Apocalypse — but there’s another that is amazing but rarely talked about. Earth X, by Alex Ross, Jim Kreuger, and John Paul Leon, has its origins with DC’s blockbuster Kingdom Come. Fans loved Alex Ross’s future for the DC Universe and Wizard magazine basically asked him to do Kingdom Come in the Marvel Universe. Ross conceived of a Marvel future where everyone has gained superpowers, and what that would mean for the planet. The issue of Wizard sold out and Marvel decided to make it a reality.
Earth X spanned fourteen issues, telling a story that wore its love of Silver Age Marvel on its sleeve. It was a tremendous work, and is as much a love letter to Marvel as it is a brilliant story. The ’90s aren’t usually thought of as a good time to be a Marvel fan; there were some good books, but there was also a paucity of all-time great stories like previous decades and proceeding decades would have. Things had started to change by the end of decade, and Earth X is a perfect example of Marvel’s glow-up, and deserves much more credit than it’s gotten since it was released.
Earth X Gives the Marvel Universe a Disturbing Origin
Earth X is something of a complicated series. The Watcher, mysteriously blind, recruits X-51 to act as his eyes for what Uatu says is the end of the Earth. Each issue starts with Uatu explaining the history of various Silver Age Marvel heroes, as well as Golden Age heroes like Human Torch, Namor, and Captain America, which leads into the story. Earth X takes place on an Earth where everyone mysteriously gained superpowers at some point in the past. The superheroes and supervillains of the world are still around in different capacities, with a beaten and battered Captain America fighting for a country he no longer believes in. A new threat rears its head — the rise of mind-controlling teen named the Skull — and Cap is forced to look for help. Meanwhile, the Inhumans have returned to Earth, with a warning from space. It’s all intertwined with the origin of superpowers on the Earth, and why all the various accidents gave people powers when they should have killed them. Each ends with info pages filling the reader in lots of background for the story, as X-51 is ordered by Uatu to look for certain individuals, and the Watcher waxes poetically about the characters, their lives, and the true purpose of humanity.
Earth X is the kind work where you can enjoy it if you barely know anything about Marvel other than its existence — each issue begins with an origin page that digs into its character rather deeply, giving readers everything they need to know. Krueger does a tremendous job of digging into what makes each character tick and laying it bare for readers, making every single character relatable. Their trials and tribulations inform the events of their lives in this future, all leading them to the ultimate manipulator. There are multiple threads to the story, some of which seem completely disparate, yet all of them weave together in the end to create a full tapestry that will change the way you look at the Marvel Universe. Earth X often feels like a juggling act that reaches the most entertaining crescendo you can imagine, with the Earth being saved by a parent being reminded of their greatest failure and a loss they can never replace… because to do so would be to doom the universe. It’s heady, brilliant stuff.
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Like Kingdom Come, part of the fun is seeing the various future interpretations of Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains. Cap is bald and scarred, draped in a torn American flag, with only his shield standing up perfectly to the rigors of his endless wars. Iron Man lives within his own technological bubble, and created the Iron Avengers, robotic versions of the dead Avengers led by the Vision. Spider-Man is an overweight loser, Mary Jane is dead, and their daughter is the new host for the Venom symbiote. The Hulk is split in two, with Banner in a child’s body, while the Hulk becomes a mindless gorilla-like creature under his command. The Thing is married to Alicia Masters, with two kids living most of his best life. Reed is posing as Doctor Doom after Doom killed Invisible Woman and Human Torch. Namor burns for his sins. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s also the secrets of Black Bolt and the Inhumans, Cyclops founding his own team of mutants, an immortal stuntman named Daredvil traveling the country, the fate of the Avengers, the reason everyone has powers, and the history of the Earth. Everything about the story is intriguing, drawing readers further and further in.
Now, as a word of warning, Alex Ross does not draw the fourteen issue series. He did character designs and helped with the writing, also doing the fantastic covers, but the actual pencils were done by John Paul Leon, with inks by Bill Reinhold. Leon was one of the industry’s great unsung talent before his 2021 death, his unique style more stylized than polished and better for it. His panels are detailed and packed with characters and action. His character acting is amazing, and there’s never a page that doesn’t look he gave it every ounce of his skill into. Reinhold’s inks gives Leon’s pencils a brooding, dark feel that feels right for the story. A lot of fans get disappointed by Leon’s art after expecting Ross, and that’s unfair. Leon and Reinhold are able to capture the darkness of this Earth, with Matt Hollingsworth’s colors giving the world just the right palette. This is a world where everyone has superpowers. What was once fantastic is now common day, and Hollingsworth’ colors give the world that feeling of place that experienced marvels, but as the marvels multiplied, they sucked the life and color out of the world. The art is a major part of why Earth X is such a great story. There’s so much visual storytelling on a level that the readers perceives just from the style choices made by the art team. It’s one of the strengths of the comic medium and it makes sense that Earth X is so good here; after all, Ross may not have drawn the story, but he was there, working with Kreuger, Leon, Reinhold, and Hollingsworth. Finally, legendary letterer Todd Klein, a master at creating multiple beautiful fonts seems like he’s decided to show off with this one. There are so many individual fonts in this book it’s not funny, and all of them work. Lettering doesn’t often get attention — an argument can be made that a letterer is doing their job if they aren’t noticed — but Klein is always special, a master. Earth X‘s visual identity is an important part of its storytelling, and this team gel with Kreuger and Ross to give readers a brilliant tale.
Earth X Is a Cut Above the Rest
Earth X‘s legacy wasn’t exactly helped by its predecessors. Earth X was beloved by critics and did well enough with readers that Marvel allowed Ross and Kreuger to complete their trilogy, with Universe X and Paradise X coming next. These stories aren’t bad, but they are way more opaque than Earth X, highlighting later eras of Marvel, and can’t really match the first. This cycle of diminishing returns really hurt Earth X, and that has played a big role in the fact that the book seems forgotten, while Kingdom Come and the more recent Avengers: Twilight get all of the attention.
This is unfair to Earth X. This is a meticulously laid out story, with thrills that readers will remember for years to come. If it didn’t have it’s hopeful cliffhanger ending, it would probably be considered perfect. However, it still is. Earth X showed a love and understanding of the Marvel Universe that few titles can match. It’s hard to call it a “fun” experience, since the story can get very, very grim, but it definitely feels like an old school Marvel comic, but in a very modern sense. There’s a constant sense of discovery, the kind of manic energy that Stan and Jack brought to the old Marvel Universe. Earth X is fantastic, and it deserves a place among the most beloved stories of all time. It’s perfect for any level of Marvel fan. Marvel, honestly, doesn’t have a lot of great one volume stories that you can can drop on people and be like, “This is Marvel,” unlike DC. Earth X is that type of story, and if it wasn’t for Universe X and Paradise X‘s fumbles, it would be praised to this day. However, it still deserves that treatment. Go get a copy. It’s a brilliant read.
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