Marvel Illuminati members, a covert organization of superheroes, is currently operating.The Illuminati now exists in the MCU. Well, had an Illuminati, because in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is currently streaming on Disney Plus, the Scarlet Witch nearly wiped out the entire crew.As moviegoers are aware, the MCU Earth-838 versions of Charles Xavier, Black Bolt, Captain Marvel, Captain Peggy Carter, Baron Mordo, and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four made up the secret team of heroes tasked with making impossibly difficult choices to preserve the Multiverse, at least until Wanda Maximoff gave everyone but Mordo horrifying onscreen deaths in her pursuit of America Chavez.Additionally, as Marvel Comics fans are aware, the crew and their purpose in Multiverse of Madness appear slightly different in the MCU than they do in the Marvel Comics Universe.

Still from the trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Marvel Studios credit for image.) (new tab opens)There are five more original Illuminati members in comics besides Professor Charles Xavier, and their covert activities in the Marvel universe range from obtaining the Infinity Stones to battling the cosmic entity the Beyonder.In the actual world, the name “Illuminati” has come to refer to a variety of alleged powerful secret organisations that, according to several well-liked conspiracy theories, secretly control many facets of international society.

But in the Marvel Universe, this conspiracy theory is taken to a whole new level, first by making it a concrete part of Marvel continuity, but also by elevating the group from being a covert cabal of enigmatic figures to being a group of six of Marvel’s most potent heroes who secretly carry out risky and world-ending missions to maintain the stability of their reality.And what good and awful things have the Marvel Comics Illuminati committed? We’ll dissect it right now.

The Illuminati: who are they?

• After the Kree/Skrull War storyline, Iron Man formed the original Marvel Universe organisation known as the Illuminati, first as a sort of “think tank” to try and create what Tony Stark refers to as a “superhero government,” based on his realisation that the heroes of Earth could have done much more to prevent the Kree/Skrull War’s effects had they been more communicative about their collective encounters with the Kree and Skrull.
• Stark, Xavier (leader of the X-Men), Reed Richards-Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange (Sorcerer Supreme), Namor the Sub-Mariner (King of Atlantis), Black Bolt (King of the Inhumans), and Black Panther are present at this first meeting, which was retroactively depicted in 2007’s New Avengers #7 (King of Wakanda).
• All those present, with the exception of Black Panther, agree that they should stay in touch in order to exchange information and coordinate their actions, even though the group rejects Stark’s suggestion for a superhero bureaucracy (which he later somewhat implements in the story “Civil War” as the Super-Human Registration Act). Black Panther declines, noting that in his opinion, such an organisation is most likely to swiftly cross its boundaries in possibly dangerous ways.
• Unfortunately, as time passes, T’Challa is partially proved to be correct. As mentioned, the group first meets to trade intelligence throughout the New Avengers: Illuminati limited series, but they soon start carrying out their own missions and operations in secret, with the majority of the organization’s biggest tricks ultimately backfiring on them.
• Even though compiling a complete list of the Illuminati’s failed attempts to manipulate the Marvel Universe would take a long time, their list of “best hits” illustrates the sort of influence they have had on the series’ events.
• The Skrulls acquire the ability to shape-shift covertly as a result of a botched operation, giving rise to the narrative Secret Invasion .
• The Illuminati tries to re-empower the secret hero the Sentry while purging him of his evil dark side the Void, instead opening him up to manipulation by Norman Osborn and the destruction of Asgard. • The Illuminati attempts to re-empower the Hulk by banishing him to the planet Sakaar in the story Planet Hulk (more on that momentarily).
• Reed Richards assembles the Infinity Stones in an effort to destroy them, but instead incurs the wrath of the Watcher, forcing the members of the Illuminati to safeguard one of the stones (Stark is forced to safeguard the Reality Stone, Xavier to safeguard the Mind Stone, Namor to safeguard the Time Stone, Black Bolt to safeguard the Space Stone, Strange to safeguard the Soul Stone, and Reed himself is forced to safeguard the Power Stone). Despite failing the first time, they are relatively successful on their second effort.
• The last scene with the Beyonder really starts a series of events that results in nothing less than the complete death and rebirth of Marvel’s entire Multiverse, despite several weird plot beats that violated established chronology and were subsequently revised or disregarded entirely.
• But before then, the Illuminati would experience something of a death and rebirth, with the original group breaking up during the Civil War and its aftermath, and its members ending up split across the many factions.
• The Infinity Stones error would be the impetus for the Illuminati’s reappearance and the disclosure of their secrets to the whole Marvel Universe, so they wouldn’t be dormant — or hidden — for long.

The Marvel Universe’s Illuminati

One of the earliest laws of physics asserts that for every action, there is an equal and opposite response, and in the case of the Illuminati, that philosophical theory remains true, as many of the great scientific minds of Marvel’s Illuminati can confirm.Following the one-two punch of Secret Invasion and Civil War, Norman Osborn is named the leader of a new SHIELD-like agency that he calls HAMMER, which he immediately begins utilising for his own evil purposes.

Osborn establishes his own secret society of supervillains (DC, please don’t sue me!) that consists of Doctor Doom, the Hood, Loki (then in her disguise as a woman), Emma Frost, and, strangely enough, Namor—who was still technically a member of the then-dwindling Illuminati at the same time. Osborn also takes on the role of Iron Patriot to form his own Dark Avengers team.

As a result of the schemes of this so-called Cabal, the novel Siege tells the tale of Loki’s ascension to the throne of Asgard, which at the time was floating high above the town of Broxton, Oklahoma as its own independent city-state rather than existing in a different realm of reality. Instead, after his ambitions to conquer Asgard fail, Osborn deploys his Dark Avengers, especially the Sentry (who as we previously know was unwittingly pulled into Osborn’s camp by the Illuminati themselves), to destroy it and bring it tumbling to the earth.The Illuminati are compelled to reunite in order to heal the division brought on by the Civil War at this point as some of their past failings start to resurface.

After Osborn’s Cabal was defeated, the Hood—a villainous mobster who dons a demon-possessed cloak—started assembling the Infinity Stones that had been kept secret by the Illuminati into his own Infinity Gauntlet utilising the demonic power of the hood. Naturally, this prompts the Illuminati to reunite and, more importantly, forces them to inform the other Marvel heroes of both their existence and their deceptions.

While Black Bolt, who was previously thought to be dead, is replaced in the Illuminati by his queen Medusa, and Captain America is brought into the fold as the new guardian of the Space Stone, the Illuminati’s mistakes come home to roost with the rest of the heroes mistrusting the group members for new reasons.This starts a new round of macrocosmic issues for the Illuminati, beginning with Avengers vs. X-Men, in which Namor and other mutants are taken over by the Phoenix Force, killing Professor X and causing fresh divisions among the Marvel Universe’s heroes.As a series of incidents known as “Incursions” start to force the many realities of Marvel’s Multiverse to actually collide with one other and be destroyed, those metaphorical cracks in the Marvel Universe also start to become tangible.

Ironically, Black Panther forms a new Illuminati to look into answers to the issue. This new group includes Captain America, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Namor, Doctor Strange, and Beast of the X-Men, who took Xavier’s position on the team when he passed away in Avengers vs. X-Men.When Captain America uses the Infinity Gauntlet to split the worlds as they collide, the Illuminati ultimately succeeds in stopping one of the ‘Incursions’ between other planets before they reach the Marvel 616 Universe. The Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Stones are destroyed as a result, therefore this comes at a high price.

Capt. America protests to any strategy that entails being directly responsible for killing an entire Universe, even to save their own, so the Illuminati start creating a doomsday weapon that can destroy other realities before they crash with the main Marvel Universe. As a response, the gang momentarily mind wipes Captain America, erasing all of his memories of their previous exploits.Cap ultimately realised what the Illuminati had done to him, including mind-reading him. Even if the Avengers are once again tense, it’s too late to halt what’s happening. In the end, the Illuminati are unable to halt the Incursions, which turn out to be the work of the Beyonders, an omnipotent species linked to the Illuminati’s former adversary of the same name.

Only Doctor Doom is able to stop all of the Marvel realities from being destroyed completely. He does this by combining his knowledge of science and magic with Owen Reese’s ability to manipulate reality. Together, they created Battleworld, a collection of the remnants of various Marvel realities that Doom was able to save. As a result, Marvel’s whole Multiverse is destroyed and recreated in the 2015–16 Secret Wars resurrection story—that whole “death and rebirth of the Multiverse” thing.

As far as readers and characters in the Marvel Universe are aware, the Illuminati hasn’t reformed since that time, but there’s always a chance we’ll discover of fresh covert exploits and deceptions that have taken place behind the scenes since the group was first introduced.

In the MCU, the Illuminati

One Illuminati faction, namely the one from Earth-838 of the MCU Multiverse, was shown by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In truth, the Illuminati are the ones who give realities names in their universe; Earth-838 Christine Palmer, a consultant for the organisation, says they gave Earth-616, the centre of the Marvel Universe, its name.(Ignore the fact that, according to Loki, the TVA also came up with these names; the Multiverse’s crazy is what it is.)

Doctor Strange was formerly a member of the Illuminati in their dimension until he lost control of his multiverse powers and triggered an Incursion, which is what the MCU refers to as a breach in the veil between worlds (with similar definitions in comic books).This prompted the Illuminati to do what they usually do and decide to assassinate Doctor Strange in order to mend the gap between the worlds.

In addition, the MCU Earth-616 Doctor Strange also brought about an Incursion, as revealed by Clea in the movie’s mid-credits scene. This may have been due to his participation in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but he appears to have more tools at his disposal to fix the situation than his Illuminati counterpart.Since Baron Mordo’s death isn’t seen on screen in Multiverse of Madness, there are almost no Earth-838 Illuminati remaining; yet, we can’t rule out the possibility that he could survive.

That sliver of optimism suggests that Earth-838 could still have heroes, and given that Stephen Strange has already learned of the idea on Earth-616, the idea may also have been seeded in the main MCU.What’s the overall meaning? We’re left to worry about the Incursion that the core MCU Doctor Strange initiated, which will probably become a significant narrative element sooner rather than later, since the MCU Illuminati seems to be at a dead end for the time being (pun intended, Sam Raimi style).

In comic books, when incursions started happening on Earth-616, it resulted in the Multiverse rewriting the Secret Wars event; recently, major Marvel Studios figures have begun using that term.The filmmakers of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, Joe and Anthony Russo, have expressed a desire to helm a Secret Wars adaptation that expands on the themes of their earlier Avengers movies. It’s possible that we’re now approaching that exact aim.