For millennia, the Earth was little more than a curiosity to prevailing empires of the Milky Way galaxy. It was common practice to track worlds visited by the Celestials for scientific study, but Earth became more interesting when the Fourth Hosts of the Celestials deemed the dominant species worthy of continued evolution. Between this and its strategic location in the war between the Kree and Skrull empires, Earth and its humans became the subject of closer inspection. The planets reputation for resisting both overt and covert conquest began to spread throughout the galaxy, but there would be a singular event that even drew the attention of the great Shi’ar Star Empire. The humans, who have barely mastered space flight, managed to repulse Galactus the World Eater, a feat that even civilizations millions of years more advanced have never accomplished. With more gods and more superpowered beings than any species in the known universe, Earth became the fulcrum of an intergalactic cold war, with the major powers both desperate to control it, but fearful of its potential.

When the Shi’ar priest of the M’Krann predicted the reemergence of the Phoenix Force, there was little surprise that it would choose a being from Earth as its host. Now the planet Earth had elevated itself to universal threat, but still possessed the power to protect itself from retaliation. The empires had learned by this point to develop their own cadres of power beings to mitigate the “Earth problem”. When the Earth was exposed to a genetic pulse wave that triggered an exponential increase in superpowers, the repercussions extended to the farthest reaches of the universe. A council of major empires was convened to determine how best to deal with a world that has both saved and threated them all. After lengthy deliberation, it was the judgement of the council that the Earth would be off limits to any and all non-Terrans. Visiting Earth would be an offense punishable by death and any off-world Terrans would be subject to immediate exile back to Earth. Secretly the empires feared that whatever effected the humans may also effect non-humans, tipping the balance of power throughout the universe.