After reading DC comic's Kingdom Come, I decided I had to get my hands on Marvel's Earth X, another alternate universe spin on the superhero universe, this time using the characters from Marvel. Once again, Alex Ross, who was behind Kingdom Come, derived this story's concept. Jim Krueger also came up with the concept for this unique story that followed a slightly similar path of Kingdom Come. The 14-part series that debuted in 1999 and has been put together in an astounding 472-page volume, complete with all the original art, dialogue and exciting adventure. I love Manga, but after reading this wonderful story driven tale, I am quickly going back to my roots.

     Earth X, like Kingdom Come, is about a time where super heroes rule the world. With the exception that Earth X contains very few humans at all. In the DC Universe, there were humans caught in the conflicts between the vast amounts of superheroes battling for control of the planet. Here, all the humans have become superheroes. J. Jonah Jameson, the publisher of the Daily Bugle becomes a wretched looking creature with super powers, as does every non-sequential human that we have seen in the pages of Marvel comics. The only human alive is Tony Stark, who has built his armor to prevent the super powers from coming out. Night Crawler, who as a mutant was laughed at, attacked and discriminated against, actually turns human, and is killed for being different from the other heroes. How's that for irony?

     The concept for this story is that a group of beings known as the Celestials planted a seed inside every human being. These seeds give every human being super powers. The seed manifests itself in different ways, for instance Spider-Man's seed germinated when the radioactive spider bit him. Bruce Banner's transformation came about due to the gamma rays that ran through his body, and the Fantastic Four's powers came to life thanks to that fateful trip in space. The whole idea is that something happened to speed up what was inevitable. Without these seeds being planted, Peter Parker would have just died from the bite and the others would have died, too, from the various disasters they encountered. To make matters worse, Reed Richards may have contributed to all this when he used vibranium, a meteorite, to create energy for the planet. The vibranium may have been a contributing factor to species developing new powers. Also, a mist was spread across the Earth, inevitably enabling everyone's powers to manifest themselves. Now, Earth is a place of super heroes and nothing to protect.

     Captain America is an old hero who is still battling such baddies as the Hydra, but is starting to realize all his work is for naught. The Red Skull comes back in the form of a boy who is starting to take over the minds of heroes and leading them in a quest to take over the world, first with the President, Norman Osborne (Green Goblin). Many heroes join Skull's faction even though they admittedly don't want any part of the group. They are powerless to stop him, but often times speak freely about their hatred of the Skull. This new battle with the Skull reinvigorates Captain America who now seeks answers to why all the chaos is occurring.

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Related Topics

• Kingdom Come