Earth-9008 (Napoleon Wins)
Type: Alternate Earth, Divergent Earth
Environment: Earth-like
Usual means of access: Time-travel, vibrational attunement
Dominant Life Form: Humans
Representatives: Napoleon I
First Appearance: Avengers West Coast#61 (August 1990)
History: (Avengers West Coast#61 (fb) - BTS) Earth-Napoleon wins diverged from Earth-616 in 1812, when Napoleon I successfully invaded Russia. However, presumably Immortus erased this timeline soon after.
(Avengers West Coast#61) - Agatha Harkness receives an image of Earth-Napoleon Wins while investigating Immortus.
Comments: Created by Roy and Dann Thomas and Paul Ryan.
For those of you who think they might have accidentally stumbled into a War and Peace site, I will explain. Around issues#50-61of Avengers West Coast, Immortus was shown erasing various alternate timelines. Most of these timelines were shown in quick cameos of a page or two. Interestingly, they generally did not involve divergences related to usual Marvel characters, but rather historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln. Although a few of these alternate Earths received two to three page sequences showing Immortus erasing them during this run of AWC, apparently Earth-Napoleon Wins did not, and was only mentioned in AWC#61.
An odd sidebar is that many of the historical figures shown in these quick vignettes (Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon) came at points of history after Immortus' native world (Other-Earth) had diverged from Earth-616. Immortus' world diverged from the history of Earth-616 (and that of the real world) around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, since in Immortus' world, the Dark Ages never happened. This was established in Fantastic Four I#272-273.
However, as also shown in those Fantastic Four issues, during
the pre-modern era, Nathaniel Richards from Earth-616 travelled to Other-Earth
and became an important leader there. As established in a back-up in Captain
America Annual#11, Richards had historical records of Earth-616 figures such
as Captain America with him, so he may have also had records about Elizabeth
I, Abraham Lincoln, et al.
--I'd say Immortus, who sought to be the whole master of all time, has
extensive records on every single timeline--Snood.
Napoleon at Marvel
One of the earliest Marvel Napoleon appearances occurs in Timely's Red Raven Comics#1 (April 1940), in the Magar the Mystic story. In that story, Magar summons Napoleon's ghost to help the French against the Germans. Probably begrudgingly, Napoleon tells Magar to summon the ghost of Wellington, his British enemy. Solomon, Mata Hari, Houdini, and Edison also appear in this story.
Napoleon has made very few appearances in more recent comics, but in the days of Atlas he showed up rather more frequently. Accounts of his life, including the Battle of Waterloo, appeared in Man Comics#22-24 and Battle#28. In fantasy titles, Napoleon appeared in Mystic#44, Uncanny Tales#13, and Tales to Astonish#13. In Adventures Into Weird Worlds#21, Napoleon I was depicted in Hell with Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, as both refused to vouch for the soul of Adolf Hitler.
As for more recent appearances...well, Napoleon was mentioned in the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo, so he may have appeared in the Marvel Classics Comics#17 adaptation of the novel. In Doctor Strange III#15/2, Napoleon is mentioned in connection with the Malachy Prophecy, since Napoleon's 1801 Concordat with the Vatican is seen as part of a turning point for the papacy, as it may involve another coming of Chthon, possibly (according to Doctor Strange Annual#2/2) connected to Varnae.
At Epic, Napoleon appeared in Amazing High Adventure#3 in a Mike Mignola tale of his 1798 Egyptian adventure. Napoleon's expedition occurred so that he could use Egypt as a base from which to attack Britain's Indian territory and cut off the British supply line. Though not a successful battle, Napoleon's soldiers did uncover the Rosetta Stone, which allowed Egyptian hieroglyphs to be decoded.
Napoleon Not Actually French
Napoleon, by the way, was not really French. His family was from Corsica, an island acquired by France from one of the Italian countries (Italy did not exist as one country at this point in history) one year before Napoleon was born. Earlier than that, the Buonapartes (the original spelling) had lived in Florence as late as the sixteenth century. Napoleon himself spoke Italian, often reverting to it in times of stress.
Other Napoleons
Napoleon I was followed by only one other Emperor of the French named Napoleon, his nephew Napoleon III, who took power in 1852. Napoleon III took that numbering since he knew that Napoleon I had wanted his son by an Austrian Hapsburg princess to rule; however, after Napoleon I's defeat at Waterloo (see below), this Austrian son never ruled, since the previous Bourbon royal family was restored in France. (Napoleon III was himself deposed in 1870 and moved to England.)
After his death in the early 1820's, Napoleon II's body, since his mother was an Austrian princess, was not returned to France, but kept within the crypt of the Hapsburgs. However, oddly enough, Adolf Hitler in 1940 allowed the French government to have Napoleon II's body and it was accordingly buried next to Napoleon I's corpse.
Historical Background
For some relevant historical background; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, had managed to subdue much of Europe thanks to his armies. However, the British remained outside of his control, since they had a much stronger navy than France. So, Napoleon hit upon the idea of an economic blockade: the Continental System. With the Berlin Decree of 1806, Napoleon banned the importation of British products into mainland Europe.
However, Russia on December 31, 1810, left the Continental System and resumed trade with Great Britain. With about 655,000 men Napoleon attacked Russia-actually too many soldiers, since leading, feeding, and supplying that many men was hard in hostile territory. Napoleon arrived in Russia in June 1812. The Russians, rather than engage Napoleon in a decisive battle, retreated, forcing Napoleon to follow. The French fought the Russians at Borodino, which Napoleon did win, but the Russian army continued to withdraw and pursued a scorched Earth policy; cities and towns were burned to the ground to prevent the Napoleonic army from comfortably encamping there. On September 14, 1812, Napoleon found the devastated Moscow. By the time Napoleon returned to Europe, 400,000 of his soldiers had died, while 100,000 had been imprisoned.
Though Napoleon managed to return to France from Russia in 13 days (an amazing feat at that point in time), and raised an army in the early months of 1813 when his enemies started to gang up on him after seeing Napoleon humiliated in Russia, his glory days were over. In October 1813, at the Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon was defeated. He was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
Though Napoleon later returned from Elba to France on March
1, 1815, to form a new army in another attempt at glory, that was only to
face, 100 days later, his Waterloo (and 150 years later the embarrassment
of the ABBA song). (Benito Mussolini wrote a play about this time called
The One Hundred Days, which is appropriate, since as noted above, Napoleon
was actually Italian.)
Boo! ABBA rocks!!! I have special appreciation for the song Waterloo, as, in
the Simpson episode where Homer was reunited with his mother, Old Man Burns
(who'd wanted vengeance on her for years for killing his biological weapons)
drove up triumphantly in a tank, and had Smithers play the tape he'd prepared,
Wagner's Flight of the Valkyrie (that's the Elmer Fudd, "Kill the Wabbit" song
to you and I). As Burns stands there, basking in his moment of glory, the song
suddenly cuts out, playing instead ABBA's Waterloo. Figuring that Burns would
never catch up with Mrs. Simpson, Burns had taped over it.
His Legacy
Napoleon stands at number seven of the ten men to have conquered the most square miles. From 1796 to 1810, Napoleon conquered about 720,000 square miles, with his Grand Empire encompassing France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, and Spain.
Napoleon also remains important due to his nimble statesmanship. His legal system, the Code Napoleon, is still used in many European countries and even in Louisiana. Napoleon spearheaded freedom of religion in Europe, and reformed the courts and schools of France.
Napoleon's overactive military agression was, one must admit, a tad too rambunctious. Napoleon's own personal goal for Europe entailed establishing a unified, pan-European state comparable to the United States of America, a "federation of free peoples". This "United States of Europe" idea has somewhat come true with the European Union.
Napoleon deserves credit for extending the Code Napoleon to the lands that he conquered, stamping out feudalism and serfdom. Each country had a constitution including the rights of a free person, all males enfranchised to vote, and a parliamentary body. Reformed, Napoleon-modeled administrative and judicial systems emerged in these countries. The schools were placed under the control of a central body, with free public schools starting up. Anyone who wanted higher education and had the talent could get it, with class or religion irrelevant. Each country opened a place of learning to encourage the arts and sciences. Prominent scholars such as scientists received funding for their work.
However, Napoleon also had a negative impact for France itself, since his many wars resulted in a considerable reduction of the French population due to casualties of adult males in combat. Due to the expotential nature of the increase of population in Europe in the 1800's, the loss of one million men had a serious impact on future French demographics. This weakened France, since Germany ended up with a higher population than France in the 20th century.
France today stands at number 5 on the list of most defeated nations in modern history.
In the movies, many sources list Napoleon as the most often portrayed historical figures, with some listings going up to about 200 films. However, these lists probably include silent films, foreign films, tv movies, and so forth. Napoleon was the subject of quite a few period costume dramas in past decades, such as adaptions of Tolsoy's War and Peace, but probably the most famous relatively recent portrayal of him was in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Ahh...the French
Napoleon wore red so that if he
were injured in the field of combat,
his troops would not be disheartened by the sight of him bleeding.
In the same tradition, the current French army has taken to wearing
brown pants...
ba-dump-bump, tish!!
Thank you, thank you...
--Snood...I take full credit/blame for
this last one!!
Actually, our own Will U tells me:
That little
joke has also been accredited to Lord Admiral Nelson.
by Per Degaton
Clarifications: Not to be confused with:
Napoleon I should not be confused with:
images: (without ads)
Avengers West Coast#61, p17 (main image)
Last Updated: 06/28/05
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