Earth 2122 first
appears in Excalibur #21, and I find it very interesting so here’s a
post on it!
– The biggest difference in this world is that
America was never liberated from Britain and thus is still a British
colony to this day. In this world’s history, an ancestor of Tony
Stark’s signed the Declaration of Independence, and thus was
sentenced to death for treason along with Jefferson, Hancock,
Franklin, and Adams. As a result, Tony Stark/Iron Man is determined
to avenge them and make America free as they wanted. However, he is
willing to go to far greater, darker lengths to do it than his fellow
“Sons of Liberty” (this universe’s Avengers, who are rebels
against the British control) More on this later in the list!
–
Iron Man mentions that the Sons of Liberty includes a Captain
America, but we don’t know who the other members are, or if this Cap
is also Steve Rogers
– Another big
historical difference is that WWI didn’t happen, and
so most of Europe is dominated by Kingdoms and Empires, including
Prussia and Austria-Hungary.
-In this universe, Nightcrawler is an agent of Imperial
Prussia, and an enemy of Great Britain
– The Shadow King
secretly rules the Hellfire Club. He keeps Selene and Emma on leash
(Emma dies due to psychic backlash from Jean Grey) and Mastermind
serves him. Shaw and other members who are prominent in 616 are not
shown, so they may be dead, elsewhere offscreen, or never even joined
the Inner Circle in this universe.
– Tony Stark pays the
Shadow King for him and Mastermind to brainwash and take control of
Jean Grey, rather like the Hellfire Club did in the 616 Dark Phoenix
saga. Tony’s plot is is to use her to kill the world’s leading
monarchs while they’re gathered in Great Britain with the Queen for a
conference at the World Summit. Jean ends up resisting the control,
but dies as a result when Rachel Summers (visiting from 616) is
tearfully forced to kill her when the Shadow King enters her
already-dying body. When Rachel goes to the Hellfire Club to seek
vengence, Stark and the Shadow King decide she’ll do just as well.
Rachel appears to be under their control, but it turns out she was
faking and foils their plot. To her ire, however, the Shadow King
escapes.
– The Shadow King
still has the body of Amahl Farouk, so he clearly did not ‘die’ in
confrontation with Xavier in this universe. Xavier is alive and well
too, suggesting either their fight ended in draw or they never had it
at all.
– Xavier’s school is in Britain in this universe.
Rather than being vigilantes working independently for mutant
equality, the X-Men are elite operatives for the British Secret
Service. The school serves as the training grounds. We see two
students, Wolfsbane and Cannonball, and Banshee seems to be a teacher
(an accident foreshadowing of how he would go on to teach Generation
X in 616 during the 90s) Jean is stated to be the first X-Man. The
head of the school is Professor Xavier, who is assisted by Moirs
MacTaggert, his Chief Deputy. Beast can be seen on a screen, and
Cyclops is mentioned, though neither are shown in person.
–
An alternate version of Cable exists in this universe, as does
Archangel, who is an X-Man (I think Cable is too). This Archangel is
female, and she and Cable have some kind of history that makes her
dislike him, though it is never stated what. They
– The
Captain Britain of this universe is called Crusader X, and his real
name is Bran Braddock. Rather than a blond British man like Brian
Braddock, Bran is Native American. A Native American man being
Britain’s national hero is a very interesting idea, and I’d be
intrigued to know more about him. He says he’s heir to one of the
proudest, most honored names in England, so my guess is that in this
universe, his father is still an Englishman named Braddock, while his
mother is Native. But I guess it’s also possible he’s pure Native and
descended from a Native family that moved to the UK long ago. It’s a
very different world history so I guess it’s possible that Native
American immigrants (or just Americans in general) moving to the UK
might be common in this world. His being Native may also be why,
unlike other Captain Britains, he has “tracking powers” since the
“Indian tracker” is an old stereotype and this was the 1980s. In
later appearances, he is drawn as a white man with blond hair like
616 Captain Britain because I guess someone forgot this very
important detail (not that people of Native descent can’t have blond
hair, but he had long black hair, and while he could have dyed
it…pretty sure artists just forgot. AWKWARD.)
– Just as the
616 Courtney Ross is the ex of 616 Captain Britain, so too is this
universe’s Courtney the current girlfriend of Crusader X. However,
she doesn’t look like Courtney, she looks exactly like an older Kitty
Pryde, to the point that 616 Excalibur believe she is this universe’s
Shadowcat until she tells them her name. This was part of a dropped
plot about there being some connection between Shadowcat and
Courtney/Saturnyne/Sat-yr-nin (all alternate versions of the same
woman)
– As in 616, there
is a W.H.O (Weird Happenings Organization) set up by the
ordinary
human
twins
Alistaire and Alysdane Stuart, who
work with Crusader X to
investigate people, places, things and events that occur outside the
normal realms of possibility. Alistaire
is the leader and Alysande is Chief Scientist. They also work with a
policeman named Dai Thomas who, as in 616, dislikes superhumans
because his wife died in a superhero battle. For those who don’t
know, these are also also recurring characters in the 616 Excalibur
series. As a note, in 616, Alysande is the Brigadier and Alistaire is
the Doctor, but in this universe, their positions/titles are
reversed.
kiragecko 