Illuminati (Marvel)
The Illuminati are a team that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Illuminati were a secretive group of superpowered individuals possessing the most power and influence on Earth-616. They formed a week after the Kree-Skrull War when Iron Man gathered the super human leaderships in Wakanda after he he realized that a unified delegation of heroes could collectively prevent dangerous threats. However, his proposal was poorly received by the others involved such as by Namor the Submariner, the king of Atlantis, argued that such an endeavor would be uncontrollably unpredictable and would lack public support. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, pointed out, however, that their scattered intelligence would be beneficial if communally shared. The master of mystic arts Doctor Strange echoed that such an initiative should be secret and shady, something that would be moderated by the mental abilities of the mutant telepath and leader of the X-Men Professor Charles Xavier. The Inhuman royal Black Bolt rounded up the emerging cabal. However, their host and king of Wakanda, the Black Panther T'Challa vehemently opposed to their covert organization, alleging that superhumans should not decide Earth's affairs solely by themselves and that disagreements within their points of view were expected. Undeterred by Black Panther's speech, the newly christened 'Illuminati' had their first point of discussion raised by Xavier in the form of the living island of Krakoa. (New Avengers: Illuminati v1 #1)
The Illuminati met at the Sanctum Sanctorum to discuss their absentee sixth member Tony Stark after he had dropped from the public eye when he became penniless as his company was taken over by Obadiah Stane. Some of the members debated helping Stark but Black Bolt and Namor stated it would be an insult to Tony’s pride if he was aided and that he needed to come out of his problems by himself. (Iron Man: Legacy v1 #6) Around this time, Stark attempted to rebuild and moved briefly to Los Angeles where his activities drew the attention of the secret criminal society known as the Pride. After learning of them and their Gibborim masters, Stark contacted Doctor Strange who understood the nature of the threat they faced and called a gathering of an Illuminati to deal with the danger. Together, they attacked the Pride and managed to defeat them. They were arrested but their connections allowed the entire incident being forgotten thus resulting in them being freed once again where they continued to plot in the shadows. (Iron Man: Legacy v1 #11)
After acquiring the Power Gem, Mr. Fantastic believed that the Infinity Gems had reappeared and that they were too dangerous to be allowed to remain out for anyone to acquire them. During a meeting with the Illuminati, he convinced the others that they should seek out the remaining three gems as he had the others along with the Infinity Gauntlet. This saw their team distributing into two teams with one seeking out the Mind Gem that was within the collective unconscious of everyone where they had to contend with creatures formed from their minds to attack them. Meanwhile, the other team created a tear in the edge of reality to acquire the Reality Gem from its resting place. The gathering of the two gems led to the manifestation of the last stone namely the Time Gem that was summoned by its compatriots. With all the gems together, Reed Richards had them assembled on the Infinity Gauntlet with this attracting the attention of Uatu of the Watchers who was disappointed in Mr. Fantastic. However, Richards wanted to use the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy the gems but he could not use their power to remove them from existence. The Illuminati decided the collective power of the Infinity Gems was too dangerous to be in any individual's hands due to the temptation of their power. Thus, they decided to split the gems amongst themselves for safekeeping to hide them from anyone that might want to abuse their power. (New Avengers: Illuminati v2 #2)
It gathered to meet to discuss with Iron Man about his formation of the New Avengers with Tony stating that this team was needed to replace the disbanded Avengers. He also consulted them about the superhero known as the Sentry following the supervillain breakout at the Raft. (New Avengers v1 #7) They discussed the induction of the Sentry into the ranks of the New Avengers with them telling Stark to notify them if there was any danger from Reynolds. In addition, they had a brief discussion about strange operations being conducted by S.H.I.E.L.D. (New Avengers v1 #10)
World War Hulk
Secret Invasion
Iron Man came to call the Illuminati together one more time to show them the body of a Skrull that was posing as the assassin Elektra. Stark had come to believe that the Skrull represented a secret invasion of Earth, and that the group was ultimately responsible for the incident due to their prior intervention on the Skrull homeworld from years ago. His suspicions were proven to be correct when Black Bolt revealed himself to be a disguised Skrull and attacked them. The five remaining members were able to barely defeat the Super-Skrull, and its two compatriots after which they began making plans to detect and defeat the remaining Skrulls. However, they soon realised that their efforts were pointless as they could not trust each other as they did not know if any one of them had been replaced by an imposter. Ultimately, each member of the group decided to go their own way, for better or for worse, upon realizing that they have lost far more than just a world: they have lost each other's trust, and have lost the last hope of uniting the superheroes against the Skrulls. (New Avengers: Illuminati v1 #5)
Dark Reign
Quest for the Hood
Though disbanded, Tony Stark called upon the members of the Illuminati sometime after the Dark Reign when he learnt of the Infinity Gems being recovered by a mysterious individual who had badly wounded the Red Hulk. This same figure had claimed the Reality Gem and managed to take the Power Gem from Reed Richards hidden vault in the Baxter Building. During the gathering, Lockjaw transported Medusa in the place of her husband who had perished where together the reformed Illuminati investigated the site of old Attilan to find clues on the identity of the perpetrator. Stark was tracked by Steve Rogers who confronted the gathering of the Illuminati about their activities. (Avengers v4 #8) This exposed the existence of the group to the rest of the Avengers with Commander Rogers being angry at Stark for his secrets and deception. (Avengers v4 #9) Despite this, the heroes worked together in stopping the Hood from attaining the full power of the gems with Iron Man using their power to send Robbin's back to prison. Afterwards, the Illuminati secretly re-convened with Captain America now among their number and did so in secret to keep the Infinity Stones hidden with them being divided amongst themselves for safekeeping. (Avengers v4 #12)
Avengers vs. X-Men
During the Avengers versus X-Men conflict, Captain America called a meeting of the Illuminati in the hope that Namor would answer the summons and help bring about an end to hostilities. He appeared after the other members of the group left but refused to stand down in the battle. (New Avengers v2 #29)
Incursions
After an attack at Wakanda, the Black Panther came to learn of a crisis known as the Incursions whereby alternate Earth's were crashing into one another forcing the inhabitants to destroy the counterpart world or face the destruction of their universe. He had managed to capture a figure known as the Black Swan and called forth a meeting of leading heroes to reform the Illuminati over the handling of this new threat. (New Avengers v3 #2) Beast later joined the team, after receiving Professor Xavier's infinity gem through his last will and testament. (New Avengers v3 #3) With intelligence from the Black Swan, the Illuminati came to understand that the only way to save their universe, and the one colliding with theirs, was to either destroy the other Earth colliding with their own or destroy their own world. They resolved however to find a peaceful way of averting the crisis. (New Avengers v3 #2) The group attempted to use the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to avert an incursion. While wielding the gauntlet, Captain America succeeded in pushing away the other Earth, but in the process the Gauntlet broke, and the gems shattered. Despite having failed and lacking any other method to peacefully avert an incursion, Captain America vehemently refused to go along with the idea of building weapons to destroy other planets, even if such weapons would only be used as a last resort. Finding themselves at an impasse, the rest of the Illuminati agreed to remove Captain America from the group, wiping his memory of their existence. (New Avengers v3 #3) The members of the Illuminati began working on solutions to destroy other worlds. Iron Man began working on a partial Dyson Sphere to power a weapon Reed Richards named "Sol's Hammer". Doctor Strange retrieved a forbidden tome, with a spell that could destroy a world at an immense cost. T'Challa and Reed developed a large armory of world-killing devices reverse engineered from the world-destroying weapon Black Swan had used. When another incursion occurred, the Illuminati were unwilling to use their arsenal, resolving to at least try and save the other Earth's population. Before they could attempt to put any plans into place however, they were confronted by Terrax the Truly Enlightened, herald of Galaktus, who had led his master to the Earth in order to destroy it so that their universe would be spared any future incursions. He told the Illuminati to leave, but they engaged him in battle, managing to knock him out, and took him back to their hideout in the Necropolis while Galaktus consumed the other Earth, averting the incursion. (New Avengers v3 #4)
The final incursion drew near, which pitted the last two remaining universes against each other, Earth-616 and Earth-1610. As the final incursion raged, and the heroes of the two worlds fought each other, Steve finally confronted Tony for having betrayed his trust. The two fought to the death, while the great battle between Earths raged around them. (Avengers v5 #44)
While the heroes of Earth-616 managed to take the upper hand in the ensuing battle due to their larger population of superhumans, and the intervention of the Phoenix, the two worlds still collided. The only members of the Illuminati to survive the destruction of the Multiverse were Mister Fantastic and Black Panther who were aboard the life raft created to survive the multiverse's end. They were joined by several other heroes, teleported onto the raft by Manifold.[51] After the Multiverse was no more, the life raft found its way onto Battleworld, a patchwork planet created from the remnants of destroyed universes by Doctor Doom. (Secret Wars v1 #3)
Overview
Members of the Illuminati tended to each represent a unique interest in humanity and were obligated to share this information with one another. Their goal was to help each other and the world whenever they could do so. The existence of the group was initially a deeply held secret and even kept hidden from those closest to its members in an effort to protect their loved ones. (Avengers v4 #9)
To verify each other, Illuminati members used the sign and countersign "Memento Mori" and "Illuminatus", respectively. (Secret Wars v1 #3)
Members
- Iron Man :
- Mr. Fantastic :
- Charles Xavier :
- Dr. Strange :
- Namor :
- Black Bolt :
- Captain America :
- Black Panther :
- Beast :
- Hulk :
- Amadeus Cho :
- Captain Britain :
- Hank Pym :
Notes
- The Illuminati were created by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven where they made their first appearance in New Avengers v1 #7 (July, 2005).
Alternate Versions
- In What If? Age of Ultron v1 #4 (2014), an alternate timeline showed a world where Captain America died. This led to the Illuminati turning Frank Castle into the new modern age Captain America with an improved super-soldier created by Reed Richards. Afterwards, Tony Stark implemented the Captain Americorps initiative placing a Captain America in each state in America.
In other media
Television
Films
- In Planet Hulk, the Illuminati make a brief cameo appearance in the setting of the direct-to-video animated film.
- In Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, the Illuminati appeared in the setting of the live-action film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On Earth-838, they were shown to had consisted of Captain Peggy Carter, Black Bolt, Maria Rambeau, Reed Richards, Charles Xavier and formerly Doctor Strange. Their universe's Stephen Strange was also a member until he drew too much power from the Darkhold thus damaging reality leading to his execution and subsequent replacement by Karl Mordo. They arrest Stephen Strange of Earth-616 and America Chavez for threatening the multiverse, but all save for Mordo are killed by the Scarlet Witch.
Video games
- In Marvel: Contest of Champions, the Illuminati were referenced in dialogue in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearances
- New Avengers v1: (2005)
- Iron Man: Legacy v1:
- Avengers v4:
- New Avengers v2:
- New Avengers: Illuminati v2:
- New Avengers v3:
- Ultimate Invasion v1: (2023)
External Links
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