As we just saw, the 2015 Secret Wars was advertised as the end of the original Marvel Universe.
While this was mostly a marketing tool… the previous universe will be *spoiler alert* reset to the previous status quo for 99.99% of characters… it got me thinking.
Especially since it was ALSO the ending of the original Ultimate Universe.
So taking that into consideration, how long did other “universes” last?
Please note that some of these eventually had a continuation of some sort, so I’m just counting based on when they were first “supposedly” ended.
Also this is BY NO MEANS intended to be a comprehensive list, just a few superhero universes that come to mind.
1) The Marvel Universe, Golden Age included: 76 years (1939 to 2015)
Secret Wars advertised the beginning of the Marvel Universe starting from 1961 with the first Fantastic Four story. While that’s TECHNICALLY correct, it was also continuing from its Golden Age roots, even if it wasn’t called Marvel.
And I think it’s fair to start counting from the original Human Torch.
The connection between the Fantastic Four and the Golden Age was so strong that Namor returned in Fantastic Four #4.
2) The Marvel Universe, Silver Age included: 54 years (1961 to 2015)
A stricter classification. But is it strict enough? See another entry further below.
3) Earth-Two until Crisis: 48 years (1938 to 1986)
Another one you probably expected. This is counting from the very first Superman story up until Crisis On Infinite Earths, even though the concept of Earth-Two is younger than this.
4) Superboy until Crisis: 41 years (1945 to 1986)
On a technicality, since he’s still being published in the Golden Age… but Superboy debuts in More Fun Comics #101 and he’s not removed from continuity until Crisis.
5) FemForce: 40 years (1985 and ongoing)
I’ve brought them up so many times for the hero origins, and this might be the last time since they don’t tend to pick up existing characters past the Golden Age (they would cost money).
2025 marks the fortieth anniversary of the longest running comic book that nobody knows about… seriously, it took me a while to verify that it’s still technically being published.
I’ve only read a couple dozen FemForce issues, so I can’t say if their universe gets destroyed at some point. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this is the universe that eventually gets the lead?
6) The original Legion: 36 years (1958 to 1994)
I might have mentioned this one at some point.
And while the 5YL era did introduce A TON of retcons, it still keeps a big part of the original stories.
The so-called “Retroboot” also keeps a lot of the original continuity, but it has a gap in publishing history of DECADES so it’s kind of its own thing for the purposes of this analysis.
7) Spawn: 33 years (1992 and ongoing)
7) Savage Dragon: 33 years (1992 and ongoing)
By comparison, as of 2025 both titles are still ongoing. Savage Dragon in particular holds the distinction of STILL being penciled and written by the original creator, throughout the entire series.
I’m absolutely certain both universes have gone through more than a couple of universal reboots, so by the rules of the other ones they’d definitely be ranked lower.
I’m not familiar enough with those characters (especially Spawn, which I haven’t read since like 1993) to pinpoint when that happened.
But to put things into perspective… Spawn and Savage Dragon have been published longer than the entries below!
8) The pre-Crisis multiverse: 25 years (1961 to 1986)
It sure feels like it lasted longer than that, doesn’t it? But it was introduced on Flash #123.
9) Wildstorm: 18 years (1992 to 2010)
One of the success stories from the Image founders, especially after being acquired by DC Comics that integrated (more or less successfully) into their universe. But they ceased to be independent in 2010.
10) Quality Comics: 16 years (1940 to 1956)
The published is a couple of years older, but the superhero universe showed up in 1940 and some are still being regularly published. And by “some” I mean Plastic Man, but others are around.
11) The Marvel Universe’s Earth: 15 years (1961 to 1976)
I could be mistaken, but I believe Doctor Strange vol2 #12 is the first time in the Marvel Universe that Earth is destroyed.
This run is absolutely wild. Earth is completely destroyed, with Doctor Strange as its only survivor, but later Eternity re-creates the planet with a dream.
So really everyone except Doctor Strange technically starts from 1976.
12) The Ultimate universe: 15 years (2005 to 2015)
While the “death of the Marvel Universe” from the 2015 Secret Wars was a marketing gimmick, they really DID kill off the original Ultimate Universe.
About ten years after they should have pulled the plug, in my opinion, but in fairness it DID give us Miles Morales.
13) Fawcett Comics: 13 years (1940 to 1953)
Before DC Comics basically sued them out of existence. Considering their impact and the HUGE amount of comics published, it sure feels like they lasted considerably more than this.
Of course a lot of characters are still around thanks to DC.
14) The MC2: 13 years (1997 to 2010)
The universe mostly stayed alive thanks to various relaunches of Spider-Girl, which was honestly the only part of this imprint that people cared about.
If you’re a Spider-Man fan, do yourself a favor and read Spider-Girl because it’s AMAZING.
Everything else can wish for “meh” if they’re lucky.
15) The reboot Legion: 10 years (1994 to 2004)
This will be next after the 5YL. Considering it didn’t last as long as the previous incarnation, it’s incredible how much content they managed to fit. Expect the retrospective to spend A LOT of time in this period.
16) Malibu Comics: 8 years (1986 to 1994)
I admit that I don’t know much about them, but they were briefly the hot new property before they were acquired by Marvel. Aside from Ultraforce and maybe Prime, I don’t think anyone else is known by anybody but the fans.
Marvel continues to do absolutely nothing with the characters it bought.
17) post-Crisis DC: 8 years (1986 to 1994)
I’m not entirely sure the DC Universe wasn’t temporarily destroyed at some point before this.
It’s a landmark for some books that are radically changed, and barely a blip for most.
18) New 52: 5 years (2011 to 2016)
Possibly DC Comics’s worst received reboot, to the point of slowly going back on nearly everything it changed… I think? I haven’t read much of this.
19) The threeboot Legion: 4 years and 10 months (2004 to 2009)
This lasted from November 2004 until September 2009.
Which is both a lot and not enough.
20) The 5YL era: 4 years and 10 months (1989 to 1994)
In an AMAZING coincidence, it’s the same length of the retroboot! From November 1989 to September 1994.
21) Marvel 2099: 4 years (1994 to 1998)
Exactly 4 years in fact, with the first books being published March 1994 and “2099: Manifest Destiny” ending the imprint in March 1998.
It’s received several revamps, to various degrees of success.
I was astounded by figuring out the pre-Crisis multiverse was published for only 25 years, or that the Ultimate universe lasted longer than Fawcett Comics. The latter especially doesn’t feel real.
The poor New Universe never gets any love. Although I gather Hickman sort of revived Star Brand during his Avengers run.
Not by me! I’m a huge fan of the original Starbrand run. Might consider doing a mini-retrospective one day, actually.
In terms of lenght, the New Universe would go at the bottom of the list since it only lasted 3 years (1986 to 1989).
There’s been a couple of attempted relaunches, and the Starbrand is around in the Marvel Universe.
I loved Nightmask and Justice. In fact, there’s a brief Peter David run that is missing from the eulogy post you wrote. Peter David’s run on Justice was fantastic, and had both his trademark character work and his humor. One of his jokes from its penultimate issue is a great one that I have told over multiple times, though it’s too visual to relate here.
Never cared much for Star Brand, though.
Every so often, a creative gets the “original” idea of breaking all the toys in the box.
Then Corporate says, “Hey! Those toys belong to me! Put ’em back together so they can keep making money!”
Not just comics, either. Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes – then brought him back. Ian Fleming killed off James Bond – then brought him back.
Sadly true. Sometimes we’re lucky and when corporate breaks the toys because they’re not making enough money, if the public protests they bring the toys back to keep making money.
Unfortunately it’s rare, and sometimes the new toys suck.
Also very, very rarely, the creator wants to break everything because he’s done but someone else continues the work. Again, sometimes we’re lucky and it’s still geat, sometimes we’re not and it sucks.
The “What If” stories could be seen as a minimalist version of this. You get to break the toys, then say it never happened.
Although – I guess you could try to argue that every “What If” story was a very short-lived universe, or world within the multiverse. Earth-72435627, where the Fantastic Four had different superpowers: Dec. 6 1977 – Dec. 6 1977.