TIMEQUAKE

 

The "TimeQuake" storyline from What If? (Vol. 2) #35-39, March-July 1992.

This was a phenomenally important storyline for the Marvel Universe, as it served as a sequel to Avengers West Coast (Vol. 1) #61-62, and ultimately helped lead into Avengers Forever (Vol. 1) #1-12. It was also the first time Pharoah Rama Tut/Scarlet Centurion/Immortus/Kang the Conqueror's real name was revealed: Nathaniel Richards II.

AWC #42-62 was all about Immortus prepping the Scarlet Witch, our reality's nexus being, to serve as a host for accumulated temporal energy from multiple alternate realities which he destroyed and then gathered said energy for his masters, the Time-Keepers. He failed when Wanda rejected the temporal energy, and so the Keepers forced him to act as the repository for that energy, leaving him powerful, but immobilized and stored in Limbo.

TimeQuake dealt with the Time-Keepers apparently seeking additional temporal energy by arranging the death of four key nexus beings of different alternate parallel realities, leading to the destruction of those realities and, ultimately, all of existence. TimeQuake parts 1-4 followed Uatu the Watcher helplessly observing these four realities as the Time-Keepers attempted to manipulate events to ensure the deaths of these nexus beings, while a third party called the Whisperer intervened to prevent the Keepers' plot, and acquire agents of his own. By the end, 3 out of 4 of the nexus beings were saved which caused the Time-Keepers to fade from existence. The Whisperer was revealed to be Immortus himself, still flush with power and nowhere near as helpless as the Keepers believed as they foolishly stored him in Limbo, which he controls entirely. Immortus then became a wave of temporal energy and threatened to rewrite reality.

TimeQuake pt. 5 had the Watcher team up with the Time Variance Authority to stop Immortus by revisiting his origins and giving him (as Nathaniel Richards II, before he discovered time travel), a type of injection which made him incompatible with the temporal energy, thus preventing him from ever becoming a temporal wave. The plan worked, but the Time-Keepers then re-appeared and were revealed by the true Time-Keepers to be the Time-Twisters, who reverted back to nurturing pods as the Time-Keepers regained dominance and took them back to the Citadel at The End of Time.

It was a remarkably complex story, especially the last chapter, tying together a number of time-based groups and entities (all of whom first appeared in “The Mighty Thor” series) like the Time-Keepers, the Time-Twisters, the Time Variance Authority, and He Who Remains.