I was reading the wiki article on Captain America where there are references to alternate Captains America in places like “The Mutant X Universe” and “The Ultimate Marvel Universe.” Could one of you comic authorities explain this to me? In the Marvel comics I read as a kid in the 60’s and 70’s, I don’t remember them getting into alternate realities outside of the occasional “What If?” story.
Generally speaking, Marvel doesn’t crossover its alternate universes that often. In fact it wasn’t until recently that I noticed that they even considered What If comics as other actual universes. If you see references to Marvel-616, that is the main Marvel Universe that the Marvel books take place in.
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes is a very good resource for helping to clear some of the confusion up.
Sure. Well, just like we imagine a “Marvel Universe” or a “DC Universe” - meaning a shared fictional environment in which all of a set of stories take place, we have alternate Marvel or DC Universes.
For example, the Marvel Universe could be discribed as “our world, but Superheroes emerged.”
The Mutant X universe could be described as “the Marvel Universe, twenty years later.”
The Ultimate Universe would be “the Marvel Universe, with modernized sensibilities. The superhero thing just getting started.”
Marvel regularly publishes in a few different universes, at the moment. There’s the Marvel Universe; The Ultimate Marvel Universe; The Supreme Power Universe, and Spider-Girl.
Also, there are What If? specials that allow us a sneak-peek in brief at alternate Marvel U’s, and the Exiles series that involves hopping from parallel world to parallel world.
Past alternate Marvel Universes include the Squadron Supreme Universe; 2099; Mutant X; and the ‘New’ Universe.
Help at all? I could answer more specific questions…
These other lines can pretty much be considered “What If?” stories writ large.
For example, the Ultimate line is a group of comics (Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, the Ultimates, etc) that take the heroes and basically reboot them with updated origins and slightly skewed perspective (for example, the Ultimates is basically the Avengers, but reimagined as a morally gray team of government operatives). The idea is that there’s less baggage for the writers and readers alike, and more open territory for stories (in theory, anyway). The Ultimate comics share a common universe, but they haven’t contacted the regular Marvel universe (called 616 by fans). Not yet, anyway (and there was a fakeout where the Ultimate Fantastic Four found a universe that looked like 616, but it turned out they were all zombies, Marvel Zombies is the expansion of that story).
So, yeah. Marvel’s a big old Multiverse, it’s just that the different universes don’t interact with one another.
Menocchio’s correct w/r/t the Ultimate Universe and the Supreme Power universe, etc., but Marvel also has alternate universes with which it does sometimes cross over. For instance, Supreme Power is a remake of Mark Gruenwald’s mid-'80’s series Squadron Supreme, which took place on an alternate earth wherein the world’s superheroes (analogues of D.C.'s Justice League for the most part) took over the planet in order to “better protect it.” One of the members of the Squadron, Nighthawk, later came to the “main” Marvel Unvierse to recruit help to topple the Squadron’s despotism.
More typically, Marvel used alternate “timelines,” universes that were the same as the main MU until some point of divergence. E.g., in the timeline of the Guardians of the Galaxy, astronaut Vance Astro spent centuries in cryosleep. When he woke up, he had manifested mutant powers of telekinesis. During one of the Guardians adventures, Astro went back in time and encountered his teenage self, Vance Astrovik. The meeting somehow manifested Astrovik’s powers as a teen, which had never happened to the adult Astro. Young Astrovik never became an astronaut or spent time in cryo. But Even though this version of Astrovik’s life unfolded differently than had the past of the adult Vance Astro, Astro still continued along – they were just separate timelines. In one, Astro became an astronaut and a member of the Guardians; in the other, Astrovik became a member of the New Warriors and murdered his dad.
–Cliffy
Thanks to all.
Which is the only survivor of the MC2 universe, which…was interesting. It was a ‘future’ Marvel Universe, but would be better described as ‘the present of the Marvel Universe if time moved at the same rate it does in the real world’.
There was Spider-Girl (the daughter of Spider-Man), The Fantastic Five (the continuation of the Fantastic Four - Reed was a brain in a robot body!!! That looked like Herbie!), an Avengers book (lead by Jubilee), a book about the daughter of Wolverine and Psylocke (I can’t remember her name), J2 (Juggernaut’s son, IIRC. Some relation to Juggie) had his own book, IIRC…
There were also a couple more I’ve forgotten.
There was a long-running storyline in which Dr. Doom was stranded on an alternate Earth and became a sort of neo-feudal warlord with lots of loyal followers. New York was partially submerged and under the dominion of Atlantis. Was this expanded into a full alternate-continuity or was it basically a Doom/ FF adventure?
That was a part of the aftermath of the Onslaught crossover/debacle that led into the “Heroes Reborn” schtick. All the non-mutant, non-Spiderman heroes of the MArvel U and Dr. Doom and Bruce Banner entered Onslaught’s “energy field” to absorb and dissipate his energy - mutants would have only strengthened him or something - sacrificing themselves. Well, tiny Franklin Richards instead made them an alternte Earth to live on, and shunted them there. The iconic Marvelites were then handed to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld.
This is widely regarded as a colossal mistake, and Marvel quickly realized that, and undid the whole thing, bringing everyone back to the real Earth.
Doom didn’t ride along with everyone else on the return trip, and had to get a separate ride back.
To expand on that, the whole MC2 universe grew out of one of the last issues of What If? Vol 2, based on the end of the Clone Saga materials - asking what if Pete and Mary Jane’s daughter had lived.
The What If? issue proved popular, as it was honestly more true to Spider-Man than his own titles at the time, and the MC2 line was launched, including J2 and A-Next. The sideline titles faded soon enough, leaving only Spider-Girl, which does “okay” in sales, I’ve heard from time to time.