Wolverine and a band of other heroes once came up against a dark future ruled by one of Marvel’s most consistent recent threats.
In recent years, the Roxxon Corporation has come to be seen as one of the most consistent threats in the Marvel Universe, endangering lives and coming up against the likes of Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk, the Champions, and plenty of others. They’ve been routinely exposed and defeated by the heroes — but what happens if they win?
The events of the Wolverine: Weapon X storyline “Tomorrow Dies Today” by Jason Aaron, Rod Garney, Mark Hoffmeier, and Jared K. Fletcher introduced a reality where the Roxxon Corporation took over the world — a dark future that could still potentially come to be, where all of human life is monetized and controlled by Roxxon.
Shortly after the time-spanning events of Captain America: Reborn, Wolverine and the other Avengers find themselves contending with a series of attacks carried out by a time-traveling band of Deathloks. The cybernetic soldiers are being sent back from a possible future set over twenty years ahead of the present-day to ensure an easier time for the Roxxon Corporation, which rules the world in this reality after gaining access to the Deathloks research conducted during “Dark Reign. Using this information to improve the agents and make them next to unstoppable, Roxxon was able to mass-produce these “Peaceloks” and turn them against the public. Much of the aging superhero community was overwhelmed and killed within two decades, with any protest being cut down and Roxxon effectively taking over every facet of humanity.
All that remained to fight them were a handful of new superpowered beings, along with a handful of remaining heroes — such as Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Punisher. Working with the new generation, the remaining heroes did their best but steadily lost more and more allies such as Spider-Man and Punisher (both of whom were eventually overwhelmed). To defeat this resistance, Roxxon uncovered the secret of time travel and sent a squadron of Peaceloks to the past — killing the resistance before it could grow. In the future, what remained of the resistance fought back, hoping to bring down the time-portal that allowed the Peaceloks to slaughter them and potentially even travel back themselves and change the past — ensuring that Roxxon can spread even further into the galaxy to dominate all life.
The future Wolverine sacrificed himself as a distraction to target the Peaceloks moving into the past — the final mutant alive in this reality succumbing to a barrage of acid that melted his adamantium skeleton to smoldering sludge. In the present day, Wolverine and the rest of the Avengers try to contain the Peaceloks before they kill every major member of the Resistance, including a young woman named Miranda who was able to learn from her future self. Ultimately, one of the Peaceloks is exposed to emotion and turns on the others — bringing down the other Peaceloks and halting the attack. Wolverine took the new Deathlok-Prime under his watch, with this incarnation of Deathlok remaining an ally and weapon for others, including Cable.
Notably, the deaths that occurred due to the invasion weren’t reversed, and it was never confirmed if this future was truly prevented. There’s a chance that this could still become the ultimate fate of the Earth-616 timeline, especially when Roxxon makes powerful in-roads against heroes like Thor and the Hulk. They’ve even been coming up against the Champions recently, which could put them on the path towards targeting young heroes before they can become genuine threats. This dark timeline is a stark reminder about what could happen if Roxxon could fully thrive — and the darkness it would unleash not on just Earth, but the entire Marvel Universe.
