Marvel Movies and the Multiverse: Different Worlds, Same People

The Multiverse Theory suggests that every time someone makes a decision, there exists somewhere in the potentially infinite space-time continuum a world where that person made a different decision. Following this train of thought to its natural conclusion, the Multiverse contains an infinite number of worlds, some of which may appear identical to the reality you are currently experiencing and some of which are wildly different.

The Multiverse offers bountiful potential for storytellers. Once it is established as possible, the natural progression is for characters to travel from one universe to another. Travelers may gain a new appreciation for their lives and worlds after seeing how different the world could have been. They may even learn something about themselves, especially if they meet alternate versions of themselves. Travelers can even improve the worlds they visit, even if they are only armed with the knowledge that “things could be different.”

The fantastic world of superheroes easily lends itself to this kind of Multiverse stories. Superheroes and supervillains can meet alternate versions of themselves – a seemingly small change in their backstories can radically change the kind of person they are. They may fight alongside their doppelgangers or even against them.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently building a Multiverse through movies and TV shows featuring superheroes and supervillains exploring alternate versions of their world. The recent movie Everything Everywhere All at Once and the ongoing animated TV show Rick and Morty also revolve around the Multiverse. The animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will soon be getting a sequel called Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. There is plenty of material to compare and contrast.

Rick and Jobu: Pros and Cons of Nihilism

Before focusing on Marvel, it is worth acknowledging some extreme examples of Multiverse stories: the animated TV show Rick and Morty and the art film Everything Everywhere All at Once. These stories take the science fiction premise of the Multiverse to an absurdist extreme for comedy, and the main characters have notable similarities and differences.

A basic tenet of the Multiverse Theory is that anything that can happen will happen somewhere. Anything that could have happened did happen somewhere. A Multiverse traveler can find virtually anything imaginable. And (assuming each universe came about through random chance rather than intentional design) it all exists equally. For some characters, this quickly leads to a nihilistic conclusion: in the grand scheme, nothing matters, no one matters, and no event happens on purpose because every alternative is happening simultaneously.

The cartoon Rick and Morty focuses on a genius scientist named Rick Sanchez who has come to this conclusion after decades of adventuring across space and the multiverse. That nihilistic worldview contrasts with Rick’s narcissistic personality, an unfortunate side effect of his unique intellect and ego. Rick seems to believe that he is the only significant person in the multiverse, and the only things that matter are the things he wants to happen.

This dissonant combination of philosophies makes Rick a surprisingly heroic protagonist, but only when he is helping his family and friends. When Rick finds himself caring about another person, Rick wants that person to survive and succeed; therefore, according to his worldview, their survival and success are included in the only things in the Multiverse that matter.

Season 5 of Rick and Morty revealed one of the things Rick did for the sake of his loved ones: a destructive rampage across the Multiverse. Some time ago, one of Rick’s doppelgangers from another universe was responsible for Rick’s wife and daughter dying. Rick spent years hunting that doppelganger, killing countless other alternate versions of himself along the way.

Everything Everywhere All at Once features another character with a nihilistic perspective on the Multiverse. Jobu Tupaki has mastered the ability to project her mind into versions of herself in alternate universes, and she has done it so much, she has lost the ability to care about anything. Her nihilism is so extreme, she wishes to destroy herself, but only after finding a doppelganger of her mother who shares her worldview and wants to join her in oblivion.

Jobu’s motivations may be similar to Rick’s: in a strange way, she cares about her family, despite being completely apathetic about everything else. But wanting to find a specific version of her mother just to invite her into a pact of self-destruction is hard for audiences to agree with. Rick’s motivations are more understandable.

Jobu also leaves a path of destruction similar to Rick’s on her quest to find a version of her mother she can relate to. However, Jobu destroys various other things and ruthlessly kills everyone in her path simply because she doesn’t believe any of it matters. She is disappointed and bored by the utter lack of challenging obstacles she finds throughout the Multiverse.

Rick’s nihilistic apathy is not quite that destructive; he is much more efficient and focused when pursuing his narcissistic goals. Like most of Rick’s antagonists, the alternate Ricks are generally understood to be evil, simply because they have seemingly abandoned their families and friends, unlike Protagonist Rick. Thus, audiences are more likely to accept Rick’s destructive vengeance quest as anti-heroism.

Kingpin, Scarlet Witch, and Electro: How to Make the Multiverse Work for You

The villains of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and Spider-Man: No Way Home have similar motivations to Rick and Jobu, but they are not nihilistic or apathetic. Rather, they see the infinite possibilities of the Multiverse as a way to get something they think is missing from their lives. In the first two cases, what they’re missing is their family.

In Into the Spider-Verse, Wilson Fisk’s wife and son have died. Fisk plans to use a particle accelerator to access the Multiverse, find alternate versions of his family, and bring them to his universe to live with him. Fisk does not consider the possibility that these people might not want to live with him; he also ignores the possibility of the accelerator causing devastating damage to New York City. Like most villains, he is too obsessed with his own goals to care about anyone else’s interests.

Similarly, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wanda Maximoff has lost her two sons, as well as her husband. In Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, she discovers there are alternate universes where her children are alive, and she also learns a certain teenage girl has the power to travel between alternate universes. She wishes to find this girl and take the power for herself, and she doesn’t care that the girl would die in the process. She is also okay with killing anyone who tries to stop her from finding this girl and ultimately getting her children back.

The movie Spider-Man: No Way Home features a few super-villains from other universes traveling to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These villains learn that if they are sent back to their home universes, they may be fated to die soon. Although Spider-Man tries to assure them he can help prevent this from happening, they ultimately decide to try to stay in the MCU and destroy anything and anyone who tries to send them away.

The villain Electro embodies the perspective of the whole group. He sees this new universe as a giant buffet of energy to consume, which is very preferable to returning to his old universe where he may be on a path of destruction. His group of villains staying in a universe where they don’t belong would be bad for reality as a whole, but they do not seem to care.

Kingpin, the Scarlet Witch, and Electro have a more optimistic perspective on the Multiverse than Rick Sanchez or Jobu. They don’t dismiss everything as meaningless simply because there is an infinite number of duplicates of everything. Rather, they believe an infinite number of doppelgangers means a potentially infinite number of second chances to fix their problems and find new things they want.

Unfortunately, these villains are just as self-centered as Jobu. Like Jobu, they believe that as long as they get what they want, everyone else can lose their families or their lives. And they are even worse than Rick. Whenever Rick wishes to live with a new family, for example, he chooses one that has lost contact with their version of Rick. He does not try to steal family members away from his doppelgangers the way the Scarlet Witch does.

He Who Remains and Infinity Ultron: “I’m Better than Everyone, Even Myself”

In their Phase Four, the Marvel Cinematic Universe released two TV shows focused on the Multiverse: Loki and What If. The secret antagonist at the end of Loki is called He Who Remains. He and many of his doppelgangers discovered the existence of the Multiverse and promptly went to war with each other; each of them believed he was the superior version. He Who Remains won this war by finding a way to erase alternate timelines, leaving only his own timeline. He then formed a small army of minions to continue “pruning” branches of what he calls the Sacred Timeline; anyone who makes a decision that would result in a divergent universe is condemned to be erased from existence.

From the perspective of He Who Remains, numerous alternate realities freely existing would inevitably lead to chaos and war. To prevent the war starting up again, one timeline needed to be given priority, and he chose his own. He acknowledges that, from the perspective of most people, he is a villain who outlaws free will. He thinks of himself as a necessary evil. Like Rick, Jobu, Kingpin, and the Scarlet Witch, He Who Remains is motivated by a self-centered obsession with having his way.

Marvel’s What If? explores stories taking place in alternate versions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In one episode, an artificial intelligence called Ultron eradicated nearly all organic life on Earth and took over the planet with a robot army. A couple years later, Ultron gathered the six Infinity Stones, the most powerful items in his universe, and used them to spread his destructive influence throughout the galaxy and beyond. Now called Infinity Ultron, he soon discovered the existence of the Multiverse and continued his conquest across other universes.

Like most of the villainous characters on this list, Infinity Ultron is motivated by his belief that he is superior to everyone he encounters, even people from other universes. He is not shown fighting alternate versions of himself, but considering Ultron’s history of discarding old bodies as soon as a new and improved model is ready, it is likely he would react to meeting himself the same way He Who Remains did: fighting for supremacy.

Infinity Ultron and He Who Remains have broader goals than the other villainous characters and even more dramatic methods of pursuing them. They don’t simply destroy obstacles in the way of finding the “perfect” versions of their worlds. They want to destroy absolutely everything that doesn’t meet their personal standards. Both He Who Remains and Infinity Ultron call the expected result “peace.”

Loki(s) and Spider-People: On Power and Responsibility

Anywhere in the Multiverse where super-villains become a threat, a hero will be called to rise up against them. Sometimes, the threat is so great that more than one hero is necessary. In stories about the Multiverse, a team of heroes can be made up of alternate versions of the same hero. Spider-Man has a long history of doing this in the comics, and there are two recent Spider-Man movies with this premise.

When Kingpin first uses his particle accelerator in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he accidentally pulls multiple versions of Spider-Man from across the Multiverse into his universe. They all meet the local Spider-Man, Miles Morales, who is very new to his superpowers and could benefit from his doppelgangers’ training and assistance.

Miles’ primary trainer, Peter B. Parker, fills the archetype of the older, grumpier Mentor Figure. His life isn’t much different from the “classic” Spider-Man audiences would be familiar with, but he has been living that life for a while. His relationship with his wife has fallen apart, and his elderly aunt passed away; with this abundance of experience, Peter B. has developed a lethargic personality. Working with Miles reinvigorates Peter’s passion for life and superhero work.

This sort of mentor-protege relationship is very easy to set up in a Multiverse story. Audiences don’t necessarily need to see the backstory that made the mentor so grumpy. They can just be told the mentor is a more experienced version of the main character.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, one of the villains – the Green Goblin – kills Spider-Man’s Aunt May. In his time of grieving, he meets two alternate versions of himself from across the Multiverse. They comfort him and encourage him to continue trying to help the villains. They remind him of the moral ideal he fights for as Spider-Man: with great power comes great responsibility.

In return, the MCU’s Spider-Man helps the other Spider-Men to accomplish more than they could on their own. With his past experience on superhero teams, MCU Spider-Man has faced more significant threats than the other two, so he can guide them, despite being younger.

However, MCU Spider-Man still needs guidance himself. At the end of the movie’s climactic battle, Spider-Man wants to kill the Green Goblin out of revenge for his aunt’s murder. One of the other Spider-Men stops him. This is the Spider-Man who has experience with how terrible the Goblin is, as well as experience fighting the temptation of revenge. He helps MCU Spider-Man avoid crossing that line and stay a good and responsible hero.

If a hero is not available to rise up against a villain, an anti-hero or even a villain will do if her goals are in conflict with the arch-villain’s goals. Audiences are encouraged to root for the character whose goals will benefit the most people. In the Loki show, that role is filled by main characters Loki and Sylvie.

Loki and Sylvie are both variants of Loki, a recurring antagonist of the MCU. Loki is separated from the main timeline after the Avengers stop him from conquering Earth. He then meets Sylvie, a version of Loki who was born female and spent most of her life being chased by He Who Remains’ forces. Sylvie feels personally affronted by He Who Remains’ attempts to prune her from existence, and she believes he is wrong to erase other timelines, as well. She wants to kill him to prevent him from doing it anymore.

He Who Remains explains his motivations to Loki and Sylvie: he believes his rule is better than the chaos of a free Multiverse. He warns them that if he dies, more dangerous versions of him will be set free to wreak havoc. Sylvie suspects he is lying, and even if he isn’t, killing him is worth it to her. Loki, on the other hand, believes removing He Who Remains from the metaphorical throne is too risky.

The audience is faced with an interesting moral dilemma between freedom and safety. Sylvie believes He Who Remains’ rule is too restricting on people’s free will. He Who Remains has seen and experienced the worst possible results of free will. Both of their motives are partly selfish but also beneficial for “the greater good.” However, He Who Remains wants to destroy the majority of the Multiverse so that the people he spares can live in “peace.” Sylvie’s greater good includes the entire Multiverse’s free will.

The “peace” He Who Remains is pursuing is relative. There is still plenty of conflict within the so-called Sacred Timeline, but from He Who Remains’ perspective, that is better than different universes going to war with each other. He Who Remains has the ability to hold back Multiversal war and chaos, and he decides it is his responsibility to do so. Sylvie finds an opportunity to stop him from controlling the timeline, and she decides it is her responsibility to do it.

In addition to responsibility, Sylvie wants revenge for what He Who Remains and his army has done to her. In No Way Home, Spider-Man must choose between getting revenge and doing the responsible thing. Loki trying to stop Sylvie mirrors alternate universe Spider-Man stopping MCU Spider-Man from killing the Green Goblin.

The Question of Scale

Introducing the Multiverse can add an epic scale to a story. Powerful resources and allies can come from other universes, but unexpected and exotic threats can appear as well. Entire universes can hang in the balance when a villain wants to protect his own reality and reject all alternatives. Some actions that affect alternate universes can spiral out of control to endanger all of reality.

However, not every superhero story featuring the Multiverse has Multiverse-level stakes. Most of Spider-Man: No Way Home focuses on helping a group of villains with the problems that doom them to destruction. This plotline could have happened if all the characters were from the same universe. The same could be said of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and most episodes of Rick and Morty.

This is not necessarily detrimental to the quality of the movies, however. Superhero stories tend to focus on individual characters. Even when the heroes are saving the whole world, they are also dealing with their personal struggles. The stakes are still raised because these heroes have a lot of power and therefore a great potential to influence the world, so the personal decisions they make can have far-reaching consequences.

This highlights a major difference between heroes and villains. Infinity Ultron and Rick Sanchez, for example, have similar levels of power and perspective. They can destroy, rescue, or forever change entire universes with hardly any effort, so individual lives do not necessarily matter to them. When Rick chooses to care about people, then, he is making a notably heroic choice. He could easily justify nihilistic apathy, just as Infinity Ultron does. The same principle applies to Jobu, the Scarlet Witch, He Who Remains, and even Kingpin with his particle accelerator.

Villains teach the audience what not to do. As Jobu and her doppelgangers ultimately learn, things like family and kindness still matter, even after great tragedies. Kingpin, the Scarlet Witch, and Electro learn that only looking out for ourselves leads to peril and isolation. Infinity Ultron and He Who Remains demonstrate how villainous it is to restrict the freedom of others in the interest of peace.

While we do not have the power to shatter the fabric of the Multiverse, we can still decide to use the power we have responsibly, like Spider-Man. Just as we are upset when villains apathetically dismiss people, we should put effort into caring about people. Even if the Multiverse is real, we can find purpose in our lives.

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