What if… Spider-Man Far From Home Really Expanded the Multiverse?
With the finale of Marvel Studios' "Infinity Saga" and Spider-Man: Far From Home, pretty much with every piece of media that comes out about the MCU, speculation has run rampant about everything from the fate of the world post-Thanos, to whether or not Aunt May and Happy Hogan are (insert clever sex joke here). Nothing has compared to the theories that have popped up with the revelations that Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio is from another reality, even though we discovered that it isn’t so. However it did open a new door to a series of “What If” scenarios in the MCU.
For those that don't read comics much, Marvel's Multiverse has been a staple for Marvel publishers since 1939. The idea is simple, there are an infinite number of universes, some with subtle differences while others are nothing alike:
The main Marvel comic world is designated Earth-616
The Ultimate Universe is Earth-1610
The MCU is Earth-199999
Even our actual reality is a part of it, Earth-1218 (also known as Earth Prime)
MCU: Spiderman - Mysterio Team Up
Since Marvel comics' universe is meant to be one long, continuous story, this allows creators to play with characters in unique ways, follow storylines down different paths, and even build entirely new realities with brand new characters.
This leads us back to that line from Mysterio, "we could use someone like you in our world". Now, knowing that Mysterio is historically a con artist and liar, we should take this with ALL the salt. It is not realistic that instead of being… Which wouldn't be a fun article to write OR read. So assuming that he is telling the truth and he did come from an alternate reality, what does that mean for the future of the MCU?
Fantastic Four: (L to R) Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben Grimm
‘Fantastic’ New Adventures
With an expansion of the Multiverse and the creation of Disney+, this allows Disney HQ to add some new branches to the MCU family tree. With its recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Marvel was able to buy back movie rights to some of their most important franchises, including the first family of the Marvel Universe – The Fantastic Four.
Being able to skip the origin story for Sue, Reed, Johnny, and Ben, and reintroducing the world to a fully-fledged Fantastic Four, this would be the only way to do the family real justice. Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios and the man who has guided the universe so far, has shown an unprecedented faith in his audience, and allowed certain characters to enter the universe in medias res. No one ever needs to see Uncle Ben or Bruce Wayne's parents die anymore, and we don't need to see the Fantastic Four come to terms with their powers EVER AGAIN.
F4 : A Older Version
If the Marvel Universe can give us a fully formed family, with middle aged Reed and Sue, a Johnny that is still cocky and confident, but has mastered his powers, and a Ben that knows his rocky exterior doesn't make him a freak, we could witness a brand new form of comic book movie story telling. We are used to the hero with the secret identity and the one that lives in the open, but what about the hero that steps beyond that. The Fantastic Four are, at their core, explorers. We could be introduced to new universes and explore previous ones like the microverse, with new eyes. We could witness the dawning of a new type of hero with the Future Foundation, a collection of the galaxies brightest children being taught to solve problems before they begin. We could see people who are not just heroes, but celebrities, scientists, philosophers, emissaries and envoys. Of course, that would present an issue in the form of...
A Whole New Level of Villain
The most glaring flaw in the MCU is the lack of truly great villains. Either they are an evil version of the hero, like Iron Monger and Whiplash or they show promise in their villainy but are killed off too soon (I'm referring to EVERY villain in Black Panther).
The best of Marvel's villains pose more than just a physical threat to the heroes:
Loki grapples with his perceived inadequacy when compared to his half-brother, Thor and cannot understand why he loves the fallible human race so much.
Helmut Zemo witnessed the Avengers create a monster in Ultron, destroy his country fighting him, and kill his family in the process, yet they are viewed as savior's the world over.
Thanos is the last survivor of a race that wiped itself out fighting over dwindling resources and has vowed to do whatever it takes to stop that from happening across the entire universe.
They are all murderers, criminals, and villains for sure, but you understand what has led them to their actions. Complex heroes need complex villains and ones that last more than A SINGLE FRIGGIN MOVIE. Being able to see Mysterio play a hero character, even if most of us are expecting a mid-movie heel turn, is something we haven't seen yet. The idea of him pairing with the Vulture in a version of the Sinister Six is exciting. Being able to see the High Evolutionary or Kang the Conqueror (pictured right), villains who see themselves, not only as heroes in their twisted ways, but as the future of mankind, would open up the world to questions of right and wrong and not just "be bad, get power".
Victor Von Doom?
Dr. Victor Von Doom
Of course, we can’t talk villains without mentioning possibly the greatest villain of all time, Dr. Victor Von Doom. Possibly the most intriguing character Marvel has ever created, his intelligence rivals anyone and everyone you can think of, he has a powerful control of magic, an army of robotic clones, and... oh yeah… is a leader of his own country and beloved by his people. What would the ramifications be of attacking a villain when it might ACTUALLY be considered an act of war? What about defeating his technology only to be confronted by a magical retaliation? Or attempting to bring him to justice to find his people rising up TO PROTECT their beloved leader. Doom's threat to the world isn't his power or intelligence, impressive as they are, but his legitimacy. He is the leader of a world power whose machinations are felt across the planet. Uncovering his wrongdoing is difficult, proving it even harder, defeating him almost impossible, and if you can manage all of that, the ramifications of doing so can upset the balance in the world. Not even Thanos can be considered as comprehensive a villain. Doom could present a unique and different villain to nearly every hero in the MCU while still providing a jumping off point for other, lower level antagonists.
The Next Generation of Heroes
So many new villains mean new heroes are required and, yet again, the Fox acquisition provides. For the 7 of you who saw Dark Phoenix, you know that the once groundbreaking X-Men franchise went out with the softest and wettest of farts. The relaunching will have to be done with extreme care and patience since the audience's good will has been completely used up (or more accurately, beaten to a pulp, lit on fire, power bombed through a table, THEN used up… then had it's dog kicked or something).
Since the actual method of bringing them into the universe is worthy of its own friggin mini series, let's assume they are successfully introduced to the universe and take it from there.
Just as the Fantastic Four can expand the definition of what a superhero movie could be. The X-Men could redefine how non-comicbook movie fans view the genre. Being, inherently, stand-ins for the persecuted "other", the X-Men have spent their 56 year existence fighting fear, racism, bigotry, and literal annihilation. Their greatest enemy isn't Magneto or Apocalypse, it's hatred.
X-Men
From humans who mistrust them to aliens who see them as abominations to themselves who form extreme divides based on how they cope with that external pressure, the story telling potential is so much greater than the base level “coming out” allegory we get time and time again. What would life be like for a group of teenagers growing up in a world that hates and fears them? How would their lives change as mutant terrorists/freedom fighters kill humans, or as they see innocent mutants harmed and abused in horrible ways just because of what they are?
Now how do you think their psyches would morph as they come to realize that, although there are far less of them, they have powers that make them literally superior to regular humans. Not every movie needs to end in something getting punched or blowing up, these movies could be slices of life, romantic comedies, coming of age dramas, that just so happen to have characters with special powers. The idea of having an X-Men movie with the school and team fighting Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants, followed by a story involving a young mutant couple trying to live their lives, followed by Deadpool and X-Force doing special ops for a shadowy government agency, followed by a horror movie involving humans escaping a crazed mutant, is genuinely exciting.
The mutants aren’t just a franchise of superhero movies, they are a major piece of their own universe that could diversify the current Marvel world in exciting new ways.
The Universe is No Longer Balanced
The heavy use of the Infinity Stones and time travel in Infinity War and Endgame poses an issue for future movies. They're game breaking elements that need to be taken off the table or else upcoming conflicts lose all danger. Look closely and you might notice that Far From Home has already provided a solution, or at least hinted at it. Mysterio allegedly claims to have been pulled from another reality, PULLED. He didn't choose to step through a portal and use magic to explore a new land, a crack in his world opened up and sucked him into the one we know as the MCU. Although these were later proven false in the movie, Avengers Endgame added their own dazzle to it prior by altering the infinity stones in some way……
All in all, the MCU is damaged…..slightly.
With the excessive use of the stones, ‘Cap and Tony's Time Travel Adventures’ allowed a still evil version of Loki to escape with a stone that couldn't possibly be there because they went further back and to an earlier version of it from the past. We can assume that Steve Rodgers did his best to put them back with as little residual damage as possible, but not even here is perfect. These small ripples in the past could possibly create massive paradoxes throughout time and history. And the most dangerous part comes from the fact that these corruptions in the universe are so bad that it's affecting OTHER universes…thus it's entirely possible that reality as a whole might be in danger, and it seems like the best method to correct this decay is to cut out the cause of it.
With that being said, it's not hard to imagine Galactus coming to Earth now and marking it for destruction. After all, his cause is cruel but just. He does not kill and destroy for pleasure; he simply is the embodiment of destruction throughout the galaxy. Since he cannot be killed without ending the universe itself, the collective Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, Asguardians, and even villains would have to team up to find a way to turn the Devourer of Worlds away…..
… Only to have Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave break from the Negative Zone to crush Earth before it causes more damage.
… Followed by the Builders, cosmic, multiversal, world builders, who have returned to fix their mistake by erasing Earth from existence.
All of this leading to the ultimate destabilization of the Multiverse, creating incursions of other universes, untold destruction and reshaping, and what could even be the end of MCU as a whole…..
A Multiverse of Variation
That got… Dark. Let's lighten crap up a bit! Because there are other, WAY cooler versions that the Multiverse shenanigans could take place: Like a live action Spider-Verse!
Certain school friends of Peter Parker have some very interesting names. The most obvious being MJ, but also Eugene "Flash" Thompson, Cindy Moon, and even a young criminal by the name of Aaron Davis. All of them become, or are affiliated with, Spider based heroes in some way or form, and even if they are mundane humans in THIS universe, who is to say that we can't see Spinneret, Agent Venom, Silk, and Miles Morales' Spider-Man (pictured right) in live action pose?
We could see amazing team ups and crazy alternate versions of Spider-based heroes, much like the hit Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse movie from last year! They could universe travel, team up, go on cool adventures, get chased by Spider-based superheroes by multiversal vampires who kill and eat them. Lose countless friends and allies in a desperate fight for survival…… Positive! I have to stay positive!... We could see the… Return of Steve Rodgers, Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff! Phew! Found something nice to talk about.
This universe has lost some key heroes over the past decade, but imagine being able to get them back from an alternate reality? Or getting to see gender swapped versions of our heroes? Or seeing versions that have taken different paths in life? The possibilities are (literally) endless. Marvel comics have been playing around a lot recently with "What If" stories that make small changes to a character and see how the universe would change from it. They even based a huge event around Captain America being a secret Hydra operative.
Steampunk Iron Man
Since genre mixing is extremely popular at the moment and the basic superhero movie has essentially run its course. Logan, Captain America: Civil War, and Thor Ragnarok show that when studios take risks by expanding into other genres, great things can happen. The Multiverse expanding takes that mixing to a whole new level. Steampunk Iron-Man or the Salem Witch trials with Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch, these could be great one-off palette cleansers in between major movie events.
Let's Get Crazy
What if: Zombie Apocalypse Live Action
But, you know what, let's get nuts. How about a series of movies where our beloved heroes fight and fall to a zombie outbreak, then use their undead and super powered bodies to take over other worlds and eventually universes?
Or a reality where Captain America falls to the Red Skull in World War 2 and we get to witness a Hydra/Nazi controlled America be saved by a band of freedom fighting "Avengers"?
Hell, what about the Pet friggin Avengers??? Who doesn't want to see the team up of Spider-Ham, the Mighty Throg, Devil Dinosaur, and Ms. Lion (Aunt May's fluffy dog) fight the Pets of Evil Masters or the Great Fun Fang Foom?
I am aware that this article has (essentially) been a slow descent into insanity via excitement over the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the past release of Far From Home and the beginning of Disney+, an entire new chapter of Marvel storytelling is beginning and we should all be anticipating great things to come…
