White Event
Encyclopedia
The White Event was a fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al occurrence which played a key role in Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

' New Universe
New Universe
The New Universe is a comic book imprint from Marvel Comics that was published in its original incarnation from 1986 to 1989. It was created by Jim Shooter, Archie Goodwin, Eliot R. Brown, John Morelli, Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco and edited by Michael Higgins.In 1986, in honor of Marvel Comics'...

 line.

New Universe

The White Event was the name given to a mysterious blinding flash of light which bathed the Earth on July 22, 1986, at 4:22am EST. In the wake of this strange event many people began to develop paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

 powers, and some also mutated physically, in ways which seemed to defy medical science.

It was later revealed that The Old Man, one of the wielders of the immensely powerful cosmic artifact known as the Star Brand
Star Brand
The Star Brand is the name of a number of similar fictional comic book objects of power all of which exist in the multiverse created by the shared universes of Marvel Comics...

, had attempted to rid himself of his unwanted power by transferring the Star Brand onto an asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 near Earth. However, the Brand required a living being's will in order to control it, and when placed in an inanimate object, a flood of power was released, infusing many human beings with a fraction of the Star Brand's energies. A similar accident called the Black Event would occur on December 19, 1988 when Star Brand wielder Ken Connell tried to get rid of the Brand by placing it onto a free weight
Free weight
Free weight can refer to:* Molecular mass* a type of Weight training#Equipment used in exercise, including among others barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells....

, resulting in a massive blast of energy which totally destroys the city of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

.

newuniversal

In the new Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...

 series newuniversal
Newuniversal
newuniversal is a comic book series by writer Warren Ellis, artist Salvador Larroca and colorist Jason Keith, published by Marvel Comics. The series is a re-imagining of Marvel's New Universe concepts, launched to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the New Universe's creation in 1986.As with the...

, a reboot
Reboot (continuity)
The verb reboot, in media dealing with serial fiction, means to discard much or even all previous continuity in the series and start anew with fresh ideas...

 of the New Universe, the White Event is the largest and most recent of four similar events (the previous three have been described as "failed White Events") and occurs at 06.49 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...

, March 2, 2006. Unlike the New Universe version, the effects of the White Event are initially felt mostly on the side of the Earth that was bathed in its light. The Event is caused by the Earth passing into a new area of space with different properties than the norm.

Another such event, the Fireworks, took place on April 26th 1953 at 9:00 EST. The Fireworks created three known superhumans, all North American. It appears that none of the them possessed the power of the Nightmask
Nightmask (newuniversal)
Izanami Randall is a character from the newuniversal imprint of Marvel Comics, and is one of the four initial superhumans created by the White Event in 2006 . newuniversal, designated Earth-555 in the Marvel Comics multiverse, is a re-imagining if the New Universe imprint from the late 1980’s...

, whose purpose is to guide the world's trasition more smoothly. All three superhumans were killed in 1959 by agents of the US government's Project Spitfire
Project Spitfire
Project Spitfire is a fictional comic-book intelligence agency appearing in the newuniversal comics published by Marvel Comics. Created by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca in newuniversal #1, it is tasked with monitoring and, if necessary, killing superhumans.-Fictional history:On April 26, 1953,...

.

Project Spitfire believes that a third event took place in 1888, but only created a single superhuman, who later died in World War One. No further details about this event have been revealed.
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