Prelude, Marvel: The End of the Beginning
In the infinite upon infinite cosmos of the multiverse, universes much unlike, yet eerily like our own are heralded by champions. These champions can come from anywhere. Some descend to their worlds like gods and protect the innocent from the unknown, while others rise from the shadows and battle what they know all too well. To maintain the balance of their respective universes, challengers would always clash against to those who held power, and those challengers brought conflict, and the conflict always brought catastrophe.
Every universe contains at least one artifact capable of destroying it entirely. The nature of entropy dictates such. Some have many, some of them are even living beings. No matter what, those fueled by evil are hellbent on using them for their own gain. Often, their own hubris and belief in controlling these artifacts are what leads to the end of their universes. Ambition consumes all they sought after, and then it consumes themselves. I have seen this pattern over and over throughout hundreds of thousands of realities, for I am the Watcher, I have interfered but once, and shall never do it again. The universes we are about to witness are about to await the consequences of tampering with the ancient forces.
On the universe designated as 203225, its champions clash against their final evil. This was a world of Marvels not unlike the ones you know, with a few stark differences. The greatest being that Captain America, the First Avenger, was a Mexican immigrant named Esteban Rogers. He would be the one to fight alongside the All-Winners Squad to support the Allies during the 1940s. Another being that even after regaining the worthiness of Mjolnir, Thor continued to use the persona of Dr. Donald Blake to live a normal life among humanity between his heroics. Third, much like Earth-199999, Dr. Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, the original Ant Man and Wasp would be heroes of the 1980s instead of founding the Avengers, and thus the Age of Ultron has not yet occurred. The Avengers that herald this universe consist of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, the second Ant Man Scott Lang, Falcon, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Crystal of the Inhumans. The team formed in 2012, they were not the first team of heroes to grace this Earth, but they were Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
What made this world special was how connected every champion was to each other. The Avengers would work with the Fantastic 4, then they would work with Spider-Man, then Spider-Man would work with the X-Men, then Wolverine would work with Defenders, then Daredevil would go work with Spider-Man, then Spider-Man would go work with the Avengers, and then they would meet the Guardians of the Galaxy, then they would meet the Inhumans, then those guys would actively fight the X-Men, and then everyone knows Moon Knight somehow, and nobody is quite sure when he showed up. The working theory is Spider-Man introduced them to someone and cycle continued ad infinitum. The point is that the hero community all knew each other in some way, shape, or form, and eventually, that became very important.
Ten years after the formation of the Avengers, The Mad Titan, Thanos, stands against the ultimate alliance of heroes at his altar constructed for Death herself. The deviant wielded the mighty Infinity Gauntlet, a weapon holding the six Infinity Gems, fragments of the Big Bang itself. With a snap of Thanos' fingers, half of all life would cease to exist. The Avengers, X-Men, all defenders, and guardians of this galaxy banded together to save themselves from Thanos. But in the end, they fell against his power. Even some once villains like Doctor Doom had come to assist in vain.
One would ask, how could such a close-knit community of multiple coordinated super teams fail against Thanos? The answer was these teams never fought anything close to Thanos' level. With Hank Pym retired, Ultron and Vision were not threats to the Avengers. The Kree and the Skrulls were kept away from Earth thanks to Captain Marvel, as were the Shi-Ar Empire because the X-Men never intercepted the Phoenix Force. Kang the Conqueror never bothered to travel back in time to fight the Avengers because the future that was being led to would have already ensured his victory. The Fantastic 4 and the Guardians may have had some experience against cosmic threats like Galactus, Ego, and the High Evolutionary, but those feats were done by sheer luck and very specific plans. The heroes of this timeline never punched that far out of their weight class, and the ones that do, Thanos took out them first before they could all team up.
The Silver Surfer: literally the first one Thanos fought after getting the Power Gem. Captain Marvel: banished her to the other side of the universe once he got the Space Gem. As a Deviant, Thanos was one of the few beings the Eternals were permitted to act against. What did Thanos do about them? Well, there are a series of statues aligning the shrine he built to Death depicting various mythical figures. He got creative with the Reality Gem. The Mind Gem was used to make all the inhabitants of Asgard completely unaware anything was happening in the other realms. Thanos made sure to act on the specific weak Odin was taking his annual week-long nap to recharge his powers, the Odinsleep. He also had Heimdall killed and replaced by his advisor and probably eventual betrayer Mephisto for good measure. The Time Gem was not guarded by the Sorcerer Supreme in this world, but a man called the Gardener, not much conflict there as Thanos briefly dispatched him.
As for the Soul Gem, it was in the forehead of Guardians of the Galaxy member, Adam Warlock. It was upon learning of Warlock's potential, that the remaining heroes assembled. Their only shot at survival was to protect Adam Warlock at all costs, and somehow get the Infinity Gauntlet off him amid all that. But because they were so, horribly outmatched, Thanos swept through all of them, and ripped the Soul Stone from Warlock's forehead like a piece of popcorn shell from a tooth.
Captain America's shield was shattered to pieces by the Power Gem. Thor's hammer was transported via Space Gem to the other end of the universe where Captain Marvel is. Crystal was ironically transmuted into a crystalline statue by the Reality Gem. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Moon Knight were all aged to decrepit husks of their former selves by the Time Gem. Many heroes were warped into minions of Thanos by the Mind Gem, the corrupted horde managing to incapacitate Scarlet Witch. And poor Storm, she had the worst of it. Thanos had used the Soul Gem to fragment her soul into hundreds of different selves, leaving a cluster of Ororos and Munroes dazed and aimless. Doctor Strange had been run ragged trying to protect as many heroes as possible from the destruction that unfolded, but even he ran out of tricks to pull, and the first casualty that came of this fight was Peter Parker, Spider-Man. The only one left unscathed after the Mad Titan's tirade was an unlikely "hero", it was Erik Lensherr: Magneto.
The once archnemesis to the Children of the Atom joined Charles Xavier's legion in service of protecting mutant-kind. No human amongst the alliance had the naivety to trust Magneto, but Charles Xavier, his brother in arms and rival of mind, vouched for him. When the Master of Magnetism and the Mad Titan faced off in the rubble of the altar, both exuded an air of confidence. Thanos smirked at the old man, "This universe has failed us both, Magneto. We are both exiles from our people, freaks, and we were forced to watch them die. A snap of my fingers will provide the karmic retribution against this fatally flawed dimension. Do you wish to be a witness to our mutual success? Or will I have to send you to Death?" he asked slowly stepping forward.
Magneto seemed unfazed, "To force the world to a premature conclusion is cowardice. You are an impatient child who skips to the end of a storybook. The world will end, but the beauty is in its persistence. The flicker of hope in a bygone dream," He responds, looking back at a fallen over Professor X. "And I know your dream is meet Death yourself. And if mutants, and everything else, are to persist, you must meet your retribution for those you have failed. So why don't you be a witness to our mutual success?" he asked with a sly grin creeping across his face.
Thanos was outraged, "You dare?!" he yelled as he held out his left arm and tried to activate the stones to eradicate Erik by closing his fist, but nothing happened. Thanos' hand remained open palm, and the gauntlet remained inert. Conversely, Magneto was holding out his hand, a translucent, blue field emanated around it. He was using his magnetism to forcefully keep Thanos' hand open, preventing him from using the Gems. "A glove made of Uru, how novel. It's a metal I seldom interact with. Its field was hard to fully manipulate. It took time for me to get a proper grip on it, so I had to stall with idle chitchat. Sorry it took so long, Charles." Magneto said cockily as he slowly advanced forward.
The Mad Titan grew further enraged. He began charging at Magneto, ready to grab him by the helmet with his free hand. In response, Magneto raised up Iron Man from a hole in a wall and yanked him forward to slam into Thanos. But Thanos was undeterred. He kept running until Magneto picked up and threw Colossus at Thanos, then Wolverine, then a series of other human metal projectiles until the purple behemoth slowed to a crawl. The deviant tried to swing at the old man, but Magneto always made sure he was just out of reach. Once Thanos was stopped, Magneto raised him into the air by his arm like a ragdoll. "You held the most powerful objects in the universe in a metal glove. That was your mistake." Magneto taunted as he removed his helmet to reveal his wispy white hair. He sent it towards the suspended gauntlet.
Charles Xavier watched in horror at what Magneto was about to do, "Erik, what are you doing?" Magneto ignored Charles as he peeled the pieces of the gauntlet off Thanos' hand and onto his helmet like pieces of paper mâché. Not until the pieces of the gauntlet holding the stones were firmly connected Magneto's helmet in formation like a crown, did he turn to face Charles. "What I always set out to do, Charles, to make a better world for our people." Erik answered, "I can feel the power surging through this helm. I have one shot to make everything right this time."
"But what about the dream? Peaceful coexistence!?" Charles called out, slowly crawling his way towards Erik, "Beauty in persistence? Did that mean nothing?"
"Not nothing. I shall keep your message to heart, Charles. Humanity shall remain, but I am starting my life all over again, and my new world will be one where you never held me back." Magneto answered putting on the helmet. Professor X tried to stop him telepathically, but the Mind Gem within the helmet prevented any assault even without Erik directly wearing it. The old man's eyes glowed white, and Universe-203225 began to shift.
