Marvel: The Lost Generation

EXPLANATION OF DATES

Modern Marvel Universe:

When I set out to create the timeline I had to work out a starting point for the modern Marvel Universe - universally accepted as starting with 'Fantastic Four (Vol I) #1'. With this in mind I made an arbitrary decision to say that the fateful adventure of the world's greatest quartet was in 1990, and the last decade of the 20th Century would work something like this:

ISSUES	YEAR
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #1 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #50	1990
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #51 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #100	1991
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #101 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #150	1992
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #151 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #200	1993
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #201 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #250	1994
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #251 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #300	1995
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #301 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #350	1996
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #351 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #400	1997
Fantastic Four (Vol I) #401 - Fantastic Four (Vol III) #21	1998
Fantastic Four (Vol III) #22 - Fantastic Four (Vol III) #71	1999
Fantastic Four (Vol III) #72 - Fantastic Four (Vol I) #121	2000

As you can see this leaves some scope for the modern Marvel Universe to be a decade.

Set Dates:

Quite a few issues contain dates for stories, a good example of this is 'Cable #94', in this issue Cable gives the history of the Dark Mother and quite a few years are given - thank you Marvel.

Other dates were obtained from people ages, or from stories set '10 years ago' for example.

Example from dates (1):

Peter Parker is supposed to have been 15 when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. This would mean that he was born in 1975 (according to my timeline), and the events in 'Untold Tales of Spider-Man #-1' in which Mary Parker discovered she was pregnant had to happen approximately 9 months before - I settled on 1974.

Example from dates (2):

'Alpha Flight (Vol I) #2 - #12' gave backup stories of events in the life of the Alphans, i.e. Michael Twoyoungmen is Shaman, fifteen years before his wife died and his daughter was 10 years old at the time.

'Alpha Flight (Vol I) #1' came out the same month as 'Fantastic Four (Vol I) #257' - this means, according to my calculations, it would place in 1995. Therefore we can work out that Kathryn Twoyoungmen died in 1980 and Elizabeth Twoyoungmen was born in 1970.

Historical Dates:

Quite a lot of issues, especially relating to pre 'Fantastic Four (Vol I) #1' events can be tied into historical events.

A good example of this is the shooting of John F. Kennedy (22nd November 1963). 'Marvel: The Lost Generation #4' takes place one day before this tragic event, where as 'Wolverine #49' portrays events that happened two days after.

Some dates that have been set in certain stories have had to be altered to fit historical events. In 'Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22' the sorcerer Magnus is said to have been the lover of Morgan Le Fey in 554 A.D.. We know from 'Iron Man (Vol I) #150' Morgan was trapped in her castle by Merlin before King Arthur died a few months later. Historically King Arthur and Mordred both died at the Battle of Camluan in 537 A.D. so Magnus's date of 554 A.D. has had to be brought forward 20 years to 534 A.D. in order for the events, as laid out by Marvel Comics and Arthurian Legend, to fit the historical data.

Conclusion:

I hope that's cleared up my dating solution. Any questions please email me at porterr@bridgwater.ac.uk and I will only be too willing to answer them.

(1) Agent Colby; Ambassador Zorn; Axis; Black Fox; Black Jack; Captain Edvard Hugo; Captain Hip; Captain Zankor; Mary Carmody; Chimera; Dr. Khadijah;
Dr. Cassandra Locke; Dr. Mime; Effigy; Emperor Dorrek VII; The Eternal Brain; Firefall; Jim Fitzpatrick; Rossalyn Fitzwilliam-Dare; Flatiron; Frank;
Gadfly; Gene; The Hipster; Howler; Jameel; Katyusha; Kid Justice; The Knight Templar; Liberty Girl; Alexander Locke; Major Mercury; Mako; Miriam;
Morph; Mr. Justice; Nightingale; Nocturne; Oxbow; Pixie; Positron; Princess Zafina; Rapunzel; Rebound; Reflex; Riot-Act; Rumor; Scimitar; Scythe;
Squire; Sunshine; Typhoon; Unnamed Character #1; Unnamed Character #2; Unnamed Character #3; Unnamed Character #4; Unnamed Character #5;
Unnamed Character #6; Unnamed Skrull; Vulcan; Walkabout; The Yankee Clipper (II); Yeti; Ulysses Bloodstone; Bucky (III); Byrrah; Captain America (IV);
Diablo; Doctor Druid; Doctor Strange; Fandral the Dashing; Nick Fury; Hogun the Grim; Hurricane; The Human Torch (II); Ikaris; The Invisible Girl;
Krang; Mr. Fantastic; Namora; Odin; Tony Stark; The Sub-Mariner; The Thing; Thor; Uatu the Watcher; Valkyrie; Venus; Volstagg the Voluminous;
Fritz Von Voltzmann; Vyrra; Warlord Kro; The Yellow Claw; Zawadi; The First Line; The Monster Hunters; The Warriors Three; The Carmody Institute;
The Castle of the Lion Throne; The First Line's HQ; The Foxhole; Tranquility City; Yeti's Temple; Effigy's Spacecraft; The Flying Fox; 3-D Man
The Ancient One; Barrington; Black Widow (II); Cable; Tad Carter; Sean Cassidy; Chinook; Cloc; Cold Warrior; The Comet; The Confessor; Carol Danvers;
The Dark Beast; Magrite Deveraux; Diabolik; Dr. Volkh; Electro; Elmer; Epsilon Red; Amahl Farouk; Emma Frost; Golden Sun; Golden Woman; Gorilla-Man;
Matthew Grayson; The Great Video; Gabrielle Haller; Janice Hollenbeck; Heather McNeill Hudson; The Human Robot; Jann of the Jungle; Kestrel;
Moira MacTaggart; Magneto; Kurt Marko; Marvel Boy; Irené Martinez; Mastodon; Maverick; Tobias Messenger; Miss Zunbar; Alyssa Moy; Mystique;
Omega Red; Mary Parker; Richard Parker; Psi-Borg; Puck; Reb Ralston; The Red Skull (II); Lucy Robinson; Alexander Ryking; Anastasia Sablinovia;
Ernst Sablinovia; Sabretooth; Wilhelm Schultz; Scout; The Sentry; Silver Fox; Skull-Face; Howard Stark; Maria Stark; Rachel Summers; Suwan;
Bolivar Trask; Lawrence Trask; Tanya Trask; The Twister; Ivan Trefkov; Amelia Voght; The Void; Vole; Victor Von Doom; Watchdog; Weapon Alpha;
Wildcat; Wolverine; Jimmy Woo; Brian Xavier; Charles Xavier; The 50's Avengers; The Half-Fulls; The Hellfire Club; The Promise; Team X;
The V-Battalion; Avengers Warehouse; Castle Masada; Hellfire Club - Hong Kong; Hellfire Club - New York; The Explorer's Club; The WatchTower;
The Silver Bullet; Skrulls; Adam-II; Agent Axis; Alfie; The Angel; The Asbestos Lady; Baron Blood; Baron Strucker; Baron Zemo (I); Beauty Butcher;
The Black Marvel; The Black Panther (II); The Black Widow (I); The Blazing Skull; Der Blitzangriff; Blonde Phantom; The Blue Blaze; Blue Bullet;
Blue Diamond; Bucky (I); Bucky (II); Captain America (I); Captain America (II); Captain America (III); Captain Kerosene; Captain Terror; Captain Wings;
Captain Wonder; Citizen V (I); The Challenger; Crimson Commando; Dr. Death; Dyna-Mite; The Face; The Falcon; The Fiery Mask; The Fin;
Dominic Fortune; The Fox; Frankenstein's Monster (I); Dr. Basil Frankenstein; Dr. Emil Frank; Future Man; General Phillips; General Saunders; Ghost-Girl;
Golden Girl (I); Golden Girl (II); Golem; The Hood; The Human Meteor; The Human Top; The Human Torch (I); Dan Hurley; The Hyena; The Iron Cross;
Isbisa; Jack Frost; Khor; Dr. Kitagowa; Komtur the Teutonic Knight; Knuckles; Ku-Shi; Lady Lotus; Madame Death; Major Mapleleaf; The Master Interrogator;
Master Man (I); Matsu; The Mighty Destroyer (I); The Mighty Destroyer (II); Miss America; Miss Fury; Miss Patriot; Neptunia; Oskar; The Parrot; The Patriot;
Professor Erskine; Professor Horton; Prototype; Sabbath Raven; The Reaper; Red Guardian (I); Red Raven; The Red Skull (I); Dr. Sam Sabuki;
Jeff Sandervilt; Die Säuresspritze; The Scarlet Scarab; The Shark; She-Wolf; The Silver Scorpion; Sky Shark; Special Agent X; Spider-Queen;
The Spirit of '76; Spitfire; The Stinger; Stonewall; Strong-Man; Sun-Girl; Super-Sabre; Thin-Man; The Thunderer; Thunderfist; Tiger Man; Tim;
Tommy Lightning; Toro; Tubby; U-Man; Union Jack (I); Union Jack (II); The Vision (I); Volton; Warrior-Woman; Whitewash; The Whizzer;
The Yankee Clipper (I); Der Zahnmörder; Arnim Zola; The All-Winners Squad; Battle-Axis; The Crusaders; The Invaders; Kid Commandos; The Liberty Legion;
The Super-Axis; Das Vernichtung Kommandos; The Young Allies; Albion; American Eagle (I); Black Panther (I); Crimson Cavalier; Doorman;
Sir Henry Manners; Phantom Eagle; Sir Waltham Pierce; Cornelius Shaw; Esau Shaw; Jacob Shaw; Silver Squire; Sir Steel; Jack Smithers; Tommy;
Freedom's Five; Hellfire Club - London; Captain America (V); Nathaniel Essex; Rebecca Essex; Abigail Harkness; Lady Grey; Elizabeth Shaw;
Hiram Shaw; Obadiah Shaw; Sarah Shaw; Daniel Summers; Oscar Summers; Wallace Worthington; Hellfire Club - Philadelphia; Amergin; Angus; Balor;
Black Knight (I); Black Knight (II); Black Knight (III); Bennet Du Paris; Gervasse; Prester John; Lady Janice; The Lady of the Lake; Lady Rosamund;
Morgan Le Fey; Magnus; Merlin; Modred the Mystic; Mordred the Evil; King Arthur Pendragon; Sahreed; Valinor; Bear Brother; Firehand; Talisman (II);
Talks-To-Spirits; Tyndar; Ssith; Willow-Dancer; The Tribe of the Moon; Absalom; Apocalypse; Burke; Candra; Crule; Adam Destine; Albert Destine;
Dominic Destine; Florence Destine; Garth Destine; Gracie Destine; Kay Destine; Lance Destine; Maurice Destine; Newton Destine; Samantha Destine;
Sherlock Destine; Vincent Destine; Walter Destine; William Destine; Gideon; Nicodemus; Saul; Selene; Unnamed Genie; The ClanDestine; The Externals,
and the likeness(es) thereof are Trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc. and are used with permission.