Marvel Comics Events That Prequels Would Make Even Better

Marvel is known for its event cycle. The publisher used to just one big summer crossover event, but as the success of these comics became more apparent, Marvel went all in on making event books. Most of the time, these event books get comics that build into them, but other times they come out of nowhere. However, even the ones that have a build build-up usually use plenty of room for prequels.

Good prequels reveal information that fans didn’t have but are still hungry for. In recent years, Marvel has put out miniseries that harken back to the publisher’s past, and there’s no reason they can’t do that for many of their big events. These prequels would flesh out the backstories of events like Secret Wars and Age of Apocalypse and make them even better.

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10 House Of X/Powers Of X Is Ripe For A Prequel

The X-Men’s Krakoa Era has been a blockbuster, and it kicked off with the amazing one-two punch of House Of X/Powers Of X. Billed as “two books that are one,” these two comics blew away readers, as writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva took X-fans on a journey through time and space. In some ways, these two books are their own prequels, but they left a lot of stories untold.

For example, a prequel about the actual establishment of Krakoa, highlighting Xavier bringing the X-Men into his plans and establishing the market for his pharmaceuticals. That might seem a little boring, but with the right creative team it would slap. There could be a story about the establishment of Orchis, as Doctor Devo and Alia Gregor create the organization. And, of course, there could be a book about the many lives of Moira MacTaggert, giving readers a more in-depth look at her lives and deaths.

9 Fear Itself Had No Build-Up For The Serpent

Fear Itself, by writer Matt Fraction and artist Stuart Immonen, had a single one-shot about how Red Skull learned about the Hammers of the Serpent back in World War II. However, as far as prequels go, it’s pretty weak because the book’s main villain — the Serpent, the Norse God of Fear — isn’t in it. The main book lets readers know that the Serpent and Odin once battled, but never showed the fight.

A prequel book could give readers that war. Fear Itself isn’t exactly a beloved event and fans have mostly forgotten it. A big reason for that is because it sort of came out of nowhere. While a prequel now might seem like it’s too little much too late, it could change the way fans think about this book. Even if that doesn’t work, it could still be an amazing story.

8 Original Sin Barely Introduced Nick Fury as The Man On The Wall

Original Sin, by writer Jason Aaron and artist Mike Deodato Jr., is another event that isn’t exactly well-loved. However, it did introduce the extremely cool concept of the Man On The Wall. The Man On The Wall’s job was simple. They watched the Earth and protected it from alien and interdimensional threats. The book showed Nick Fury taking over the job in the 1950s, and showed some scenes from his history, but left decades worth of killing out.

A Nick Fury series set in the Man On The Wall years would be excellent. The Man On The Wall was Original Sin‘s best idea and it fit Nick Fury, who was never particularly concerned about morality, perfectly. Seeing Fury figure out how to destroy invading alien fleets and kill Lovecraftian horrors from beyond without the world ever finding out about it would be well worth the price of admission.

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7 The Age Of Apocalypse Has Years Of Stories Left In It

The Age Of Apocalypse aged like fine wine. The 1995 epic spread across ten miniseries and two bookend comics, and told the story of a world where Professor X was killed years before founding the X-Men. This spurred Apocalypse to attack humanity, conquering North and South America, and setting out to destroy all humans. X-Men Chronicles told two stories from the early years of this universe and the tenth anniversary also had some one-shots set before the main story, but there’s so much more to this beautifully layered world.

There are at least twenty years’ worth of stories to tell in The Age of Apocalypse‘s reality. There’s so much to cover, from the conquest of the Americas to Magneto’s endless battles against Apocalypse, to the climactic battle between Cyclops and Logan that left them both scarred forever. The Age Of Apocalypse is still popular with X-Men fans, giving Marvel an opportunity they can’t afford to miss.

6 Inferno Has An Intriguing Future That Readers Need To See

Inferno is a brilliant event series, as well as the turning point of the X-Men’s Krakoa Era. Written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva, and Stefano Caselli, the book’s prequel is seemingly the Krakoa Era books that came before it, but this isn’t completely the case. At one point, Omega Sentinel told Nimrod why she was no longer an ally of the X-Men — she had come from a future where Krakoa allowed mutants to defeat humanity’s attempt to destroy mutants and become the dominant race, so she sent her consciousness back through time to take over her body in the present and help create Orchis.

Inferno‘s background is just too intriguing not to delve into. Omega Sentinel’s story was a cool moment in the book, but it was only a moment. Getting to see Krakoa defeat the forces of humanity arrayed against it would be amazing, and make a wonderful counterpoint to the rather depressing end of Krakoa that Fall Of X is giving readers. It served as a great counterpoint to Moira MacTaggert’s many lives, where she witnessed mutants always losing, and inserted a tiny bit of doomed humanity’s perspective into the story.

5 House Of M Did Very Little Worldbuilding

House Of M shook up the Marvel Universe and ended by beginning Marvel’s long marginalization of mutants. The meat of the story takes place in an alternate universe created by Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, where mutants are the dominant species and Magneto leads the world alongside his royal House of M. Written By Brian Michael Bendis with art by Olivier Coipel, the main book had nearly no world-building and most of the tie-ins ignored the possibilities as well..

A prequel to House of M could give readers more of this alternate reality. For example, how did Magneto and the mutants gain their power over the world? How did Charles Xavier die? How did Ms. Marvel become the world’s greatest hero? Any writer worth their salt would have a great time writing a prequel to this story.

4 Secret Invasion Still Hides a few Secrets

The entire point of Secret Invasion was making readers question everything. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Leinil Yu, the book actually had a lot of prequel issues in the New Avengers and Mighty Avengers tie-in issues to the event, but in the end, Marvel left a lot of this story untold. There are still years worth of stories, as Veranke struggles to keep her people together between the destruction of the Skrull Homeworld and their invasion of Earth.

Veranke’s journey before she ever led the Secret Invasion on Earth would be great to see. There are a lot of stories in those intervening years; the Skrull Empire was destroyed and Veranke wasn’t even completely in control of the remnants of her empire. How did she and her cadre survive? Where did they get the technology they needed to bioegineer themselves using what the Empire had discovered when they were experimenting on the Illuminati? How did they decide which heroes to replace? A prequel book could answer all of those questions and look at the invasion from the Skrulls’ perspective.

3 Secret War Has Some Some Holes In Its Plot

Secret War was writer Brian Michael Bendis’s first major Marvel event. Joined by artist Gabriele Dell’Otto, this story tells the tale of Nick Fury’s secret war against Lucia Von Bardas, Latveria’s leader at the time. Fury drafted several heroes, including Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Captain America, Daredevil, and Black Widow, to topple her regime and then relieved them of their memories. A year later, when they were attacked by a group of tech-themed villains, they had no idea about Von Bardas or his quest for revenge..

Secret War does contain its own prequel, but there’s an entire year of Lucia Von Bardas rebuilding her power base and working behind the scenes to recruit her villainous army and get ready for war. That could be a very cool story if done right. Secret War is way better than it gets credit for, and a prequel could help raise its profile.

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2 X Of Swords Has An Entire Interdimensional War Readers Need To See

X Of Swords was the Krakoa Era’s first event. The twenty-two-part story ran through every X-Men book and outlined the battle between Krakoa and Arakko, a lost island of mutants and Krakoa’s sister island. The two islands once formed a living mutant continent called Okkara, home to an ancient mutant civilization led by Apocalypse and his wife Genesis. Okkara was invaded by the demonic hordes of Amenth, who split the land with the Twilight Sword. Genesis led an army of mutants on the Arakko side into Otherworld to fight off the demons and protect Earth, making Apocalypse promise to create a powerful army in case she lost.

X-Men (Vol. 5) shows some of the conflict between Arakko and Amenth, but there are thousands of years of war still undiscovered. X-Men fans love the mutants of Arakko that appear in X-Men Red, so seeing them spend millennia fighting demon armies, getting into their history and lineages, would make X-Men fans happy. X Of Swords was pretty bloated in places, but there’s still more story to tell from it.

Secret Wars (2015) is a Marvel multiverse masterpiece. Written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Esad Ribic, this story was the culmination of years of Hickman-written books. This should mean there’s no ground left for a prequel to tread, but there is. Between the first and second issues, there’s a rather large gap where Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, and Molecule Man create Battleworld and when readers see Battleworld.

There’s a lot the Secret Wars prequel could dig into. It seems like Battleworld had existed for a long time when readers first saw it, mostly so it could surprise readers as they learn the secrets of the book. However, since the comic has come out and all of those secrets are already well known, a prequel series set during this interregnum would be perfect for readers. Secret Wars (2015) is a beloved event, and getting a prequel would make fans happy.