First Appearance: Fantastic Four #13 (April, 1963)
History: The Blue Area of the Moon was an artificial, Earth-like environment in the Luther Crater. The Blue area was first discovered by the Fantastic Four. They discovered the area contained the ruins of an alien city and the Citadel of Uatu the Watcher.
The Blue Area was created by the Skrulls one million years ago as a testing site for the Cotati and Kree. An equal number of Kree and Cotati were left in the Blue Area to see what they could accomplish. The Kree built the Blue City that fills most of the Blue Area, while the Cotati created a complex but subtle ecosystem. When the Skrulls judged the Cotati’s achievement greater, the Kree rebelled and killed the Skrulls and Cotati. They took the Skrulls’ starship and abandoned the area.
The Blue Area was rarely visited over the millennia that followed. Then a decade ago, the Fantastic Four and the Red Ghost both landed there. In the years since, the Blue Area saw increasing traffic. The area was used as the site for the trial by combat of Phoenix and the X-Men against the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. When the pollution on Earth became too deadly to the Inhumans, they sought the aid of the Fantastic Four to help relocate their home of Attilan. With the assistance of Mister Fantastic, the entire city was transported to the Blue Area where it remained for quite some time. During a period in which the Watcher was absent from his home, Nathaniel Richards attempted to plunder the technology stored there. Instead he triggered a trap that sucked the citadel into a vortex and threatened to destroy Attilan in the process. It was saved by the Fantastic Four, who reduced the city down to size and took it aboard their ship the Stealth-Hawk. Attilan was later returned to Earth and restored to its natural size on the risen continent of Atlantis. SHIELD later constructed an outpost on the Blue Area where they kept the Supreme Intelligence a prisoner. The Blue area was also where the opening salvo of the Destiny War between Kang and Immortus began. After a turbulent time on Earth, the Inhumans eventually returned to the moon, moving Attilan there once again. After the Secret Invasion of Earth, the Inhumans left the moon for the stars where they took control of the Kree empire.
In more recent times, the Blue Area was the resting place when the Living Tribunal after he was defeated in battle. Later the Watcher was murdered on the moon by an unseen assassin, leading to an investigation by the Avengers and other heroes to learn the identity of his killer. Ultimately, Nick Fury was exposed as Uatu's killer and as punishment the Watchers forced him to take Uatu's place, trapping him on the moon and dubbing him the Unseen.
Alternate Realities: Earth-90816 (What If? Vol 2 #16)
As Empress Lilandra teleported the X-Men to the Blue Area of the Moon and sentenced Phoenix to death, the mutants challenged the Shi'ar Imperial Guard to trial by combat. Suddenly appearing from the Hyborian Age, Conan mistook the Phoenix for his beloved Red Sonja and took out Cyclops with a large rock, sufficiently shattering the psychic rapport shared with Phoenix. Without that rapport, and without Wolverine to hurl Colossus at her, nothing prevented Jean Grey from transforming utterly and completely into her dark persona before she could destroy herself, unleashing the full fury of Phoenix.
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