Warning: SPOILERS for A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6Civil War's iconic ending. It seems that Marvel is no longer willing to let its events have a significant impact on its universe, and the company has definitively moved away from the motto "nothing will ever be the same again".
In February 2007, one of Marvel Comics' most important events, Civil War, ended in a way that few fans would have expected. Rather than having things go back to the previous state of affairs, as was the tradition in these big comic books crossover, Iron Man's pro-registration faction's victory at the end of Civil War changed the Marvel Universe to its core, setting up a new status quo for every character. This decision was built on the previous example of House of M and then became the norm, with following Marvel events such as Secret Invasion and Dark Reign all leading into the following one, contributing to creating a long, overarching narrative design that embraced the entire Marvel Universe.
This trend, however, has long since come to an end, and Judgment Day is the ultimate proof. In this event, the dead Celestial called the Progenitor is resurrected to stop a disastrous war between the X-Men and the Eternals, and then goes rogue and tries to destroy Earth. A lot of heroes die trying to stop him (including household names such as Thor), and the Progenitor's wrath devastates the planet, leaving less than a billion people alive. In A.X.E.: Judgment Day #6, by Kieron Gillen, Valerio Schiti, Ivan Fiorelli, and Marte Gracia, the remaining heroes persuade the progenitor that his judgment is flawed, and the space god repents, resurrecting everyone he killed and undoing all the damage to Earth.
Judgment Day Proves That Marvel Has Abandoned The Civil War Formula (And It's Bad)
While 2012's Avengers vs. X-Men), and Marvel events are now just big and loud showcases of the company's properties, with little or no impact on the continuity afterward.
The reason why Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Dark Reign are still considered some of the greatest Marvel events ever (and why they all were or will be adapted for the MCU) is that readers felt that they could finally believe the "nothing will ever be the same again" promise. The stakes felt real, and so it was easier to invest in the stories and suspend disbelief. Now, instead, when watching the Progenitor kill the most important heroes or wipe out humanity, nobody believed that these actions would stand or have any real consequences, which ultimately hurts the quality of the story. Judgment Day's ending proves that Marvel Comics has completely abandoned the Civil War formula, and the result leaves a lot to be desired.
