5 Reasons Multiverses Are Bad for Comics

The multiverse has become one of the most talked about aspects of superhero universes, especially in recent years. While the idea has been around in science fiction for decades, it was the MCU starting to focus on its own multiverse that made the general pop culture take notice of the concept. In comics, multiverses have long been an integral part of the tropes of the superhero for decades. One of the interesting things about this latest bout of multiversal madness is that it isn’t focused on DC Comics, the usual home of multiversal shenanigans, but instead on the less important and fleshed out multiverse of Marvel Comics and its various adaptations. Over the years, though, both companies have used the idea in very different ways to tell every kind of story you can imagine.

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For many, the multiverse concept is an indelible part of superhero stories. We all have our favorite alternate universes and alternate universe stories, but let’s be real for a moment – the best of these are few and far between. Multiverses complicate things immensely (why do you think Crisis on Infinite Earths happened 41 years ago?) and it’s time to admit that we don’t really need them. Multiverses are bad for superhero comics and these five reasons show why.

5) Too Many Alternate Universe Revolve Around Apocalyptic Scenarios

DC brought the multiverse into comics in the Silver Age, but as with many superhero tropes, it would take Marvel to bring it to the next level. “Days of Future Past” changed comics forever in 1980, taking the X-Men to a dark alternate future where Sentinels ruled the Earth. This was one of the first major dystopian alternate universes and it would open the floodgates for so many others. Since this two-part story dropped, we’ve gotten hundreds (honestly, it’s probably actually thousands) of dark alternate futures or just alternate Earths where evil is in charge. It’s become one of the most cliche multiverse tropes and it’s a lodestone around the neck of multiverse stories. A good dark alternate future can be a lot of fun, but most of them are just grimdark slogs that no one really needs to read. For every great dystopian alternate Earth, there are a hundred forgettable ones, gumming up the works and making even the good ones look bad.

4) They’re Used to Break in the Most Boring Ways

One of the fun things about alternate universes is getting to see things that you don’t usually get to see. It’s the place where you can get relationships that you’ve never seen before, where you can have the X-Men run by Magneto or Spider-Man as the Punisher or stuff like that. It’s supposed to be a place where readers and creators can explore concepts and relationships in new ways, which is why it’s so disappointing that so many alternate Earths go in such safe directions. For example, “Age of Apocalypse” is a beloved story, but instead of giving us all-new relationships, we just got stuff like Logan and Jean or Magneto and Rogue. Unfortunately, this is the rule and not the exception. Too many times, alternate universes are used to make boring choices like those. The entire point of an alternate universe is that everything is different and it’s more fun to see something like, for instance, Wolverine and Hercules as a couple than it is to see something like Captain America and Scarlet Witch. We don’t need to see worlds where Superman married Lana; show us one where he fell in love with Fire or something like that. Alternate universes are carte blanche to do the most insane stuff, but too often are we given the most safe differences ever.

3) The Marvel Multiverse Is Essentially Worthless

One of the most interesting things about Marvel bringing focus to the multiverse again is that the Marvel Multiverse is honestly pretty sorry. Unlike DC, Marvel never really focused on their alternate Earths, instead using them for What If…?, showing readers what would happen if Marvel events played out differently. While these worlds were fun for one and done stories, they didn’t make for great continuing narratives. Alternate universes like “Days of Future Past”, “Age of Apocalypse”, Earth X, Avengers: Twilight, and the like are all popular, but they’re all basically the same. While Marvel does have its share of numbered Earths, like DC, very few of them are worlds unique enough to return to. Marvel decided years ago that their multiverse wouldn’t be as important to the overall continuity as their distinguished competition’s was and it’s led to them having the most cliche alternate universes ever. Whereas DC creates worlds that you can tell numerous stories in, Marvel went for a more one and done approach and it’s hobbled their multiverse.

2) Most Alternate Universe Stories Are Forgettable

So, throughout this list, I’ve brought up various classic multiverse stories that everyone loves. Some of the most well-known stories in comic history are multiverse stories, which could give you the idea that most multiverse stories are amazing, but this is not the case at all. In fact, most of them are completely and totally forgettable. Convergence is a perfect example of this; this 2015 DC event was meant to be a major multiverse story and yet most people couldn’t tell you what it was about. What If…? has given readers some amazing stories over the decades, but most of them never get talked about. Silver and Bronze Age DC has a million multiverse stories and most of them are completely lost to time. These stories rarely matter, so it’s much harder for them to stand out. In fact, sometimes fans will just skip these kinds of stories instead of engaging with them. The vast, vast majority of multiverse stories have been forgotten, unable to stand the rigors of time.

1) Too Many Multiverse Stories Are Simple

What If…? is one of the best ideas in comics. Allowing creators to take classic Marvel stories, tweak them, and present what would have happened is an idea that has proven to have legs, but it’s also an indictment of why so many multiverse stories are bad – they’re so simple. So many multiverse stories are just little changes to the status quo blown entirely out of proportion. For every world with its own history like Earth-Two or Earth-6160, you get a thousands Earths that are just the mainline one with a little change or a dark future caused by a death or one of a hundred little differences that keep things entirely too simple. If you look at the best multiverse stories, they work because they embrace the concept of change and create worlds with numerous differences. Look at something like Earth X; the trilogy of stories set in this future completely changed the face of the Marvel Universe. It was complicated, but that was why it was fun. The same thing can be said for something like “Age of Apocalypse” or even Flashpoint. Too many multiverse stories keep it simple and it hurts the concept overall.

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