Earth-20052

'''Status Report

Report Author:' Captain Reginald Pines of the Pathfinder-class multiversal recon ship, Could-have-been King''.

Subject: Earth-20052.

Authorized access to this report is restricted to current members of the board of directors of the Ad infinitum merchant guild.

My crew and I discovered Earth-20052 on a routine expedition through neutral sector delta 036. Primary analysis revealed that this Earth is a variation of Earth-616 or as it more commonly known through the multiverse, the Marvel Earth. The name is driven from the multitude of famous superpowered heroes and villains that habit that reality. Are many of them well known because of Earth-616 status as mother earth, a world with thousand known variations that can directly trace their existences to the mother earth. All are a different variation of Earth-616 and often radically different from each other, but all include the marvelous individual that give this multiversal group its name. Amonsgt the marvels are great heroes such as Amazing Spider-man, the Fabulous Fantastic Four, the Astounding X-men, the Incredible Hulk and the Awesome Avengers. Also home to vile villains as the Dastardly Doctor Doom, the Mischievous trickster god Loki, Scheming Sinister Six and Magneto, master of magnets. Earth-20052 has many of those individuals, but after further analysis, it came very clear that many of Marvels that inhabit Earth-20052 don´t share the same identities as their multiversal counterparts.

To sum the most significant change that makes Earth-20052 different from other marvel earths in the multiverse, it seems that marvels appeared a bit later than on most earths, resulting in person taken on a superhero or villain identity are often different from those that typically assume them across the multiverse. For example:

Tony Stark is not Iron Man on this earth. Instead of finishing his first armor to escape his imprisonment by the terrorist, he was caught and tortured for his trouble. US armed forces eventually rescued Stark from the terrorist but not before lasting damage was done to his body and soul. After returning to the States, Stark become a recluse, obsessed with perfecting his armor design. Meanwhile, Stark enterprise was taken over by the businessmen Obadiah Stane. Stark eventually broke his seclusion when he approached ex-shield agent Clint Barton to find a link between Stane and terrorist group Ten Rings. Barton accepted, and soon after that the Invincible Iron Man first appeared to the public, spectacularly stopping the Ten Rings from destroying Times Square.

Similar variants are all over this earth.
 * Steve Rogers, the first Captain America, was never put in suspended animation at the end of WW2. Instead, he pushed for the continuation of Project: Rebirth and formation of the Captain America program. Currently, the newest Captain America is former air force Captain Carol Danvers, chosen out of hundred candidates to continue Captain America legacy as the sixteenth person to bear that name.
 * Budget cuts for the gamma bomb forced desperate dr. Bruce Banner to partake in illegal human experimentation for a shadowy military cabal. Hundreds of prison inmates were exposed to gamma rays, many of them gaining superpowers, most of them being wrongfully convicted man named Luke Cage, who would become infamous as the Incredible Hulk.
 * Scientist Reed Richard developed unexpected muscle degenerative disease at age twenty-three, and so his research into cosmic rays was significantly hampered for many years. It would be in hand of Johnny Storm, Reed brother-in-law, and his intrepid crew of explorers to become this earth version of the Fantastic Four.
 * A young psychiatry student Jean Grey,  inspired by theories of famed mutant expert turned drug addict Charles Xavier about mutant-human coexisted formed with other young mutants the superhero team X-men to make the dream of mutant equality a reality.
 * And the university student Peter Parker, who accidentally found the notes of late Dr. Hank Pym about hypothetical particles that could alter the size of objects and livening begins. Perfecting Pym research, Peter and his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, created the Parker-Watson Particles and became the size changing Giant-man and Giant-woman.

Many more variation of familiar identities exist, and that include the villains. On Earth-20052 the names  Doom the conqueror, Baroness Mystique and Goblintron and his masters of the sinister are much feared.

Earth-20052 is a fascinating specimen amongst the Marvel earth and a potential market for guild members. Our recon, however, has found evidence that history of this earth has been manipulated to a great extent by an unknown party. For what reason, I don´t know but the relative proximity of this reality to an area controlled by the Union of Protected Worlds, it´s possible that superpowered begins are being grown as a secret army for a surprise assault against the Union. The most likely culprits are the Maskmakers (or least they are the most obvious suspects, but after they were exposed of their involvement in the plundering of earth-2930 I don't think they are crazy enough to attract the wrath of Lord Protector again). Other likely suspects are Council of Kangs, the Divine Design, the Parliament of Doom, and the Lighthouse. Nothing has been found that links the manipulation to any of those groups but until a full investigation can be performed, I recommend that travel to this earth should restrictive to selective guild members.