Why the Marvel Universe Is Being Destroyed in May

— -- The Marvel Universe you've known for decades is coming to an end quickly.

"Time Runs Out. Everything Ends," reads the lead-in text for on Marvel's website for an upcoming project, "Secret Wars."

"Secret Wars" was announced late last year and this week it was more fully explained: Basically, Marvel plans story lines that will destroy alternate universes comic fans are familiar with, forever changing the current landscape as they know it.

Marvel’s senior vice president of publishing, Tom Brevoort, said all the divisions of the comic giant are involved and that the saga begins with an Avengers failure to save the world, according to Entertainment Weekly.

The story centers around "incursions" that happen when alternate universes collides with another and at least one gets obliterated, EW reported.

So, this obviously has big questions attached, such as what happens when your world might be destroyed. Do you fight to destroy to other world to save yourself?

Apparently, Earth and the Ultimate Universe will suffer an incursion, meaning one has to go and things are going to change big time. A new world will form and a new comic series will emerge, replacing some current ones.

Does this mean characters will die?

“The Marvel Universe as you know it is done,” Brevoort said. “The Ultimate Universe is done.”

This will all begin on May 2 with "Secret Wars" #0, then "Secret Wars" #1 on May 6.

Disclosure: ABC News is part of the Disney Corporation, which also includes Marvel.