Onslaught was a massive crossover event published in 1996 that saw the Avengers, Fantastic Four and even Doctor Doom apparently perish saving the world from the psychic entity known as Onslaught. It's revealed that Franklin Richards used his amazing abilities to create a pocket dimension to save his parents and all the other heroes. The reborn heroes would awaken in this pocket dimension to live out new lives, unaware of their pasts. This event was called Heroes Reborn.
In this new world, the Fantastic Four and Avengers came about under different circumstances, there doesn't appear to be any mutants, there's apparently two Thor's (one created by Franklin and the real Odinson) and iconic events play out differently. These were all published as the second volume of each of the titles; Fantastic Four Vol. 2 #1-12, Avengers Vol. 2 #1-12, Iron Man Vol. 2 #1-12 and Captain America Vol. 2 #1-12. Long story short, the heroes were all eventually returned to the Main Marvel Universe and things went back to some semblance of normality with Heroes Return. The Fantastic Four and Avengers reformed in their respective third volumes and that's where I want to point out a few things relating to the MC2.
Despite the common belief that the MC2 uniformly branches off from the Main Marvel Universe around the time the Spider-Man titles published the Gathering of Five storyline in 1998, the truth is far more complex and far less clear. For example, I've mentioned the Pym Twins once or twice but you'll notice I left out any mention of their birth in the History of the MC2: The Avengers because- given there is supposedly only a 15 year gap between the Main Marvel Universe and the MC2- they shouldn't be adults. Yet, they appear to be full grown adults in A-Next and subsequent appearances.
So, what's my point? Unlike comics published in the 1960's, 70's and 80's, the 90's aren't as clear cut. The heroes of MC2's history is almost entirely identical to that of their Main Marvel Universe counterparts when it comes to comics published from the 60's to the 80's but the 90's are where we start to see changes. So the MC2's Janet and Hank Pym must have conceived Hope and Henry Pym Jr while their Main Marvel Universe counterparts were experiencing the events published during the early 90's. Hopefully that didn't just confuse everyone. Additionally, despite these changes, events must have continued to unfold for MC2 Janet and Hank (and indeed the whole Avengers team) in very much the same way as they did in the Main Marvel Universe. In fact, the same could also be said assumed for the Fantastic Four of the MC2 as well. Why?
This seemingly throwaway line from Franklin Richards during a flashback in Fantastic Five (Vol. 1) #4 goes a long way toward confirming that the events of Onslaught, Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return occurred in the MC2 in some way, shape or form. Ergo, we can deduce that most of the events leading up to that point in the MC2 unfolded parallel to the Fantastic Four of the Main Marvel Universe. We can stretch this to other similar references in A-Next #7, which shows flashbacks to the original Avengers final mission in the MC2. As the team's roster and costumes are very similar to those of the Main Marvel Universe Avengers post-Heroes Return, we can reasonably assume both share similar histories up to that point, with events unfolding vastly differently afterwards.
Much as I'd like to continue pulling at this thread of thought, I think it best to leave things there for now. Needless to say, if you take away anything from this, it's that the 90's (and the very early 2000's) are up in the air and not as set in stone as the rest of the MC2 characters shared history with the Main Marvel Universe. Therein lies the fun of speculating.
Until I find another reason to ramble on about what I'm sure no one else cares about, I remain
frogoat