Counter-Earth (comics)

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In the fictional Marvel Universe, the hypothetical planet known as Counter-Earth has thrice been created, each time as a near-duplicate of Earth.

[edit] The High Evolutionary Counter-Earth

The first Counter-Earth was built by the High Evolutionary with the help of at least some of the Infinity Gems (Marvel Premiere #1, published in 1972). It was home to Reed Richards' twisted counterpart, the Brute, as well as to Necromancer, a counterpart to Doctor Strange. It had very few superheroes and had Adam Warlock as its champion for a length of time in the early 1970s, fighting mainly the Man-Beast and his allies. It was eventually moved away from the solar system by the Beyonders (Marvel Two-in-One #61-63) and destroyed during Infinity Gauntlet.

• This version of Counter-Earth (albeit with some differences, such as the existence of animalistic counterparts of various Spider-Man-related characters) appears in the cartoon Spider-Man Unlimited.

[edit] The Goddess' Counter-Earth

The second Counter-Earth, dubbed Paradise Omega, was built by the Goddess, using the Cosmic Egg, a collection of 30 Cosmic Cubes (Infinity Crusade #1, published in 1993). Unlike the other two Counter-Earths, it had no animal life at all and served as the base for the Goddess' chosen heroes. Its existence was only brief; it was destroyed at the end of Infinity Crusade #6 by Thanos telling the Cosmic Egg to self-destruct.

[edit] The Franklin Richards Counter-Earth

The third and current Counter-Earth was built by Franklin Richards in the transition from Onslaught to Heroes Reborn. It briefly hosted the reborn Fantastic Four and Avengers, and was, for a short time, rechristened Planet Doom when Doctor Doom managed to conquer it. It originally inhabited an alternate "pocket universe" which was created at the same time, but was moved into the "prime" Marvel reality (Earth-616) when the pocket universe's instability caused major planetary upheavals; it was at this point, when this duplicate Earth was placed roughly opposite the true Earth in the same orbit, that it was christened as the new Counter-Earth. More recently the Thunderbolts spent some time there, leaving Jolt behind when they returned. It is currently home to Jolt and her current team, the Young Allies of Counter-Earth.

The Exiles, a team of superheroes from alternate realities, fooled the reality-warping Proteus into going to Counter-Earth instead of the "main" Earth and followed him there. Proteus raised the undersea civilization of Atlantis to the surface, killing all of its inhabitants. The cosmic entities "O" and "Kay" believed that Proteus' presence was the final straw requiring that Counter-Earth needed to be destroyed, and commissioned Proteus to do the job. Proteus gleefully agreed but was stopped by the Young Allies and the Exiles.