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By Chris Snellgrove | Published
You can instantly make many Marvel fans cringe with one word: multiverse. The multiverse was intended to add some spice and flavor to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it soon became a narrative crutch that emphasized fun cameos over actual storytelling. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is the biggest offender in this regard. Many fans want Marvel to abandon this narrative crutch entirely, but I have a different recommendation, true believers: Instead of focusing on endless multiversal cameos in the main universe, Kevin Feige and his team should give us entire movies set in other universes.
Make mine multiverse
In other words, my suggestion for Marvel’s multiverse moving forward is that we should have a “variant” of the And if…? television series applied to feature films. Like the comics it’s named after, that show presents how wildly different a familiar universe would be if something different had happened to change the timeline. However, I don’t think the MCU should be limited to simply “what if?” cartoon tales and should instead take a page from Sony’s book by creating the live-action equivalent of the Spider-Verse movies.
To keep things simple, Marvel could simply look to its own publishing history for ideas on which multiverses would make for awesome movies. The easiest thing would be to adapt the original Ultimates line of comics, which featured different, updated versions of iconic heroes as a way to attract new readers who might otherwise be intimidated by decades of comics history.
A movie or even an entire series of movies set in this universe would provide the perfect excuse to bring back dead MCU heroes like Iron Man while retooling as needed… after all, it was these comics that originally gave us a Black Nick Fury (modeled after Samuel L. Jackson, no less). Plus, just like the original comics, these movies could take everything fans and writers loved about the old universe while also giving everything some much-needed modernization.
So many Marvel Multiverse options
But Marvel comics have given us other multiverses that could make for great feature films, including Earth-65, the original home of a Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) who faces off against an evil version of Matt Murdock. Sure, making a live-action Spider-Gwen movie would mean Marvel would need to collaborate with Sony again, but both studios could use a win. At this point, Marvel hasn’t done anything good lately other than Deadpool and Wolverineand Sony’s only big superhero hits have been the Venom and Spider-Verse movies. Frankly, a live-action movie focusing on Spider-Gwen (something fans know) could be a much-needed hit for both studios.
As a long-time Marvel comics nerd, I think there are other multiverses that need the big screen treatment, including the Squadron Supreme (they’re like the Justice League but cool). Additionally, while we need to get the MCU X-Men proper before we can get multiversal mutant cinema, the Age of Apocalypse and Powers of X comics represent, respectively, old and new versions of multidimensional mutant storytelling. Heck, if Marvel can get over its moratorium on Hulk solo movies (where’s our live action? Planet Hulk movie, cowards?!?), a Future Imperfect movie would be, well… perfect.
In addition to giving Marvel fans great new movies to enjoy, this approach would keep the MCU endlessly fresh. New actors could be cast in old roles, even as current actors could act against type as wild versions of familiar characters. Disney writers would have carte blanche to adapt the best of the multiverse comics or simply create something new completely from scratch. What I’m saying is that it’s time for something very special. And if…? Adventure: What if Marvel stopped worrying about preserving its own sacred timeline and could just tell the kind of cool, self-contained stories that won over so many fans in the first place?
The ball is in your court, Marvel. And if you need a creative consultant to give you this really obvious advice on a regular basis, my rates are pretty reasonable. Especially compared to Plan A, who continually brings truckloads of cash to Robert Downey Jr. whenever he’s worried his franchise is failing.
