The Best Marvel Events of All Time, Ranked

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The Marvel Universe is home to an endless supply of iconic heroes and villains. These characters often remain mostly separate from each other. Spider-Man remains in his New York City-centered bubble, while the Avengers tackle worldwide issues, the Fantastic Four venture into science-fiction realms and deep space, and the X-Men remain mostly isolated in their corner of the Marvel world.

When the worlds of these characters collide, however, the results are often epic. Marvel Comics events are often built up for years prior, allowing for characters and storylines to evolve and grow and slowly lead to a satisfying and emotional payoff. From the likes of the paranoia-filled Secret Invasion to the grandiose science-fiction heights of the Annihilation saga, Marvel has brought some of the boldest, most inventive large-scale events in history to the comic book landscape.

8

Siege Brought Heroes Back Together After Endless Strife

The Avengers Hadn’t Truly Re-Assembled Since Before Civil War

The 2000s into the 2010s were a difficult time for the Avengers. After the earth-shattering events of Civil War, Iron Man and Captain America remained at odds until Cap was seemingly killed by an assassin in the final moments of that event. With Thor gone from Earth after also apparently dying, it seemed the three core Avengers would never assemble again. Eventually, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor all returned to their roles as solo heroes, but their relationships with one another were seemingly irrevocably changed.

Hitting the heroes with Civil War and immediately following it up with the terrifying Secret Invasion, Marvel refused to give their characters a break. Secret Invasion eventually led to the villainous Norman Osborn rising to power and forming the Dark Avengers, a team of villains disguised as classic heroes, determined to take control of the superhero community by all means necessary. When Norman’s plans eventually led him on a warpath toward Asgard (now floating in the sky above a small Oklahoma town), the true Avengers were forced to come together once again for Siege, an epic showdown between heroes and villains to determine the fate of Asgard and the world as fans knew it. Siege is one of Marvel’s darkest events, but finally seeing the central Avengers fighting side by side after years apart was an incredible payoff to a hugely impactful story.

Heroes Turned on Heroes In One of Marvel’s Biggest Events

After a tragic accident involving a super-team known as the New Warriors results in the deaths of countless innocents, the superhero community is faced with a moral dilemma. They can either register with the government and operate as sanctioned operatives under the law, or they can be arrested. Finding themselves on opposite sides of the issue, Iron Man and Captain America form two groups of opposing heroes that face off against each other. Considered one of the best Avengers eras, Civil War shook the status quo of the Marvel Universe in incredible and exciting ways.

With Iron Man on the side of the law and Captain America a fugitive from justice, Civil War gave fans an endless number of iconic moments, character relationships, and jaw-dropping twists and turns. From Spider-Man’s story of struggling to pick a side to the Fantastic Four breaking apart over the issues at hand, the event was a powerful one, and it shook the status quo of the Marvel Universe for years to come.

6

House of M Changed Mutantkind Forever

Wanda Maximoff Altered Reality and Chaos Ensued

After her mental break and subsequent healing efforts during the events of Avengers: Disassembled, Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, was a broken individual. The children she had with her android love, Vision, were gone, and she was alone in the world. This loneliness led to her using her reality-warping powers to create a new universe where mutants were the dominant social group and her father, Magneto, ruled. One of the best Marvel books to read in one sitting, House Of M is an engaging, dark look at the Marvel Universe and the terrifying scale of the Scarlet Witch’s power.

The event that followed found the heroes of the Marvel Universe slowly realizing the world they were living in wasn’t real. Coming together to face off against Scarlet Witch and her cabal of underlings, the heroes managed to right Wanda’s wrongs, but at a terrible price. In the iconic finale, Wanda utters the words “No more mutants” and throws Mutantkind into chaos. Stripping countless mutants of their powers while simultaneously making it impossible for new mutants to be born, Scarlet Witch all but wiped mutants off the face of the planet. Only a small number retained their powers, and they were forced to spend the following years desperately trying to rebuild what had been taken from them.

5

Messiah Complex Gave the X-Men Hope

The Birth of a Mutant in the Wake of House of M Was Game-Changing

After Earth’s mutant population was decimated by Wanda Maximoff, the mutant corner of the Marvel Universe was in a terrifying place. With only a few dozen active mutants operating on the planet, the X-Men and their allies searched endlessly for a means of reversing the Scarlet Witch’s reality-altering spell. With no new people unlocking their X-gene across the planet, the X-Men were beginning to lose faith that their future could be saved until the sudden birth of a mutant child—the birth of Hope.​​​​​​​

When they detect the birth of the first mutant baby since House of M, the X-Men race against a number of villainous groups to secure the child and protect her. Mutant-hating groups like the Reavers and the Purifiers faced off against the X-Men with the fate of their species hanging in the balance. The child, Hope, was eventually taken by Cable into the future to keep safe and be raised as his daughter, seemingly away from danger. Tense and emotional and grand-scaled, Messiah Complex was one of the boldest events in X-Men history, and it defined the X-books for years to come.

4

Infinity Was a Two-Pronged Epic

Groups of Heroes Simultaneously Fought Threats on Earth and In Deep Space

During superstar writer Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers and New Avengers, he built both storylines to lead into the events of Infinity, a story focused on two world-ending threats at once. With Captain America leading a group of Avengers into deep space to confront a villainous group known as the Builders, Earth is left without many of its heroes. This opens the door for Thanos to unleash an assault on the planet, hoping to find his secret son, Thane.

Featuring epic action, emotional stakes, and a myriad of underrated characters getting a chance in the spotlight,Infinity is one of the very best Marvel events in recent history. The event even introduced the iconic Black Order, which later appeared in the films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. From the Inhuman king Black Bolt’s one-on-one face-off with Thanos to Captain America and Thor’s iconic showdown with the Builders, the event fires on all cylinders, giving Marvel fans exactly what they want from an event of this scale.

3

Secret Invasion Was Packed With Twists and Turns

An Undercover Alien Plot Caught the Marvel Heroes Completely Off-Guard

Teased and built up for years in advance, Secret Invasion is the gold standard for slowly built-up events paying off brilliantly. With characters that fans have known and loved for years being revealed as shape-shifting Skrulls, everyone and anyone was a suspect. Secret Invasion was packed with distrust, paranoia, and exciting sci-fi action, and it set up the future of many Marvel characters in brilliant and exciting ways.

With the tie-in stories for each character practically being as essential as the core event title itself, Secret Invasion made fans feel like it was sincerely impossible for the heroes to overcome their foes. Brilliantly set up and executed over a long period, the story revamped the alien Skrulls and made them a viable threat to the earth, as well as allowing for characters like Bucky Barnes, Norman Osborne, and Spider-Woman to be the focus of a major Marvel event. One of the very best events ever published by Marvel Comics, Secret Invasion has had a lasting impression on the comic book community.

2

The Annihilation Saga Made Marvel’s Cosmic Heroes the Stars

Nova and the Soon-To-Be Guardians of the Galaxy Face an Intergalactic War

With the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe somewhat stagnant in the early 2000s, creators Keith Giffen, Andy Lanning, and Dan Abnett brought life and excitement back to the stars with Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. Richard Rider, aka Nova, took center stage in a terrifying war waged on the galaxy by Annihilus, ruler of the Negative Zone. Characters like Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser, and Super-Skrull each try to face the threat alone but ultimately realize they must unite to battle the Annihilation Wave.

Revamping long-forgotten cosmic heroes, the Annihilation saga is a high-water mark for Marvel’s science-fiction-focused events. With real stakes, terrifying threats, and epic showdowns, the journey of Nova, Drax the Destroyer, Silver Surfer, and their companions to bring peace to their corner of the galaxy and stop the endless death is an emotional sci-fi odyssey unlike anything Marvel has produced before or since. Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest set the bar for the future of Marvel’s cosmic universe, sparking a resurgence of excellent characters and stories from that realm of Marvel Comics.

1

Secret Wars Is a Miraculous Achievement in Comic Book Storytelling

Worlds Collide In a Mind-Bending Multiverse Story Rooted In Personal Conflict

Built up over dozens of issues across a number of Marvel titles, Secret Wars is the perfect comic book event. Not to be confused with the classic 1984 event of the same name, Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 Secret Wars brings together heroes from across the entirety of the Marvel Universe in a densely-packed, wonderfully comic-booky battle for survival. When the heroes of the Marvel Universe realize that the multiverse is collapsing in on itself and destroying Earths one by one, they fight to stop the inevitable, only to realize there is hope for survival, but not for success.

What follows is Doctor Doom’s creation of Battleworld, a world made up of fragments of previous universes. With Doom as the leader of this one remaining world and his powers at the level of a god, the remaining Marvel heroes are in the fight of their lives, with everything at stake. The face-off between Doom and his long-time nemesis, Reed Richards, is nothing short of mind-blowing, and it makes Secret Wars one of the most impactful Doctor Doom stories released. The emotional payoffs for every aspect of the Secret Wars story, as well as all the build-up, are magnificent. Secret Wars is the ideal Marvel event and is arguably one of the best comic book events overall.

“}]] From Secret Invasion to Civil War, Marvel Comics has had some of the most acclaimed events in comic book history.  Read More