With the Marvel multiverse becoming a trendy topic among geeks and pop culture fans—especially now that the MCU is in its “Multiverse Saga”—some new fans might be wondering how those alternate reality cross overs happen in the comics.
We had Avengers: Endgame give us our first hints at characters meeting their variants, followed by Marvel’s Loki having the god of mischief banding with other wildly different Lokis stuck in the Void. From there, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, after messing up Doctor Strange’s spell, met with the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of the Web-Slinger in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Other Spider-Men also crossed over in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and in its sequel Across The Spider-Verse. And speaking of Doctor Strange, he also traveled the multiverse in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
That’s a lot of alternate realities clashing, which can make the multiverse a bit confusing (although we do have a brief guide to the Marvel multiverse here). But for fans who enjoy seeing the contrast between variants of the same character, or how crazy the multiverse can get, the comics are a great next stop in this multiversal journey. So keep on reading and pick which series is going to be your next portal to the endless realm of possibilities that the multiverse is!
Spider-Verse
By Dan Slott, et al
The event that inspired the animated Spider-Man movies by Sony, Spider-Verse is one of the biggest multiversal crossovers in Marvel Comics. It features not only our beloved Earth-616 Peter Parker, but also a myriad web-slingers, new and old.
When the villain Morlun and his family of Inheritors begin to murder Spider-Men across the multiverse, the Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius in Peter Parker’s body) gathers an army of spider people from different realities to put an end to the carnage. Here, you’ll meet some of your favorite Spider-Men (and Women), including Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Punk, Jessica Drew, Spider-Man Noir, and many more. And I do mean many more.
Exiles (2001)
By Judd Winick and Mike McKone
What best way to explore the multiverse if not with a team dedicated to jumping from reality to reality? It all starts when six mutants from different universes are forced to band together in order to save their own realities from being destroyed. And the way to achieve that? Saving other realities from being destroyed by fixing events that were’t supposed to happen. But things won’t get any easier when another, not-so-moral team of reality hoppers crosses their path.
The cast includes Blink from the Age of Apocalypse comics, Nocturne from the universe of the X-Men: Millenial Visions comics; and newcomer variants of Thundertbird, Mimic; and Magnus Lensherr, son of Magneto and Rogue from Earth-27. Other members get recruited as they visit other realities, but with each new reality we get a new glimpse of the craziness of the multiverse.
Spider-Men
By Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, et al
Speaking of Spider-Verse, why not talk about the one series where Earth-616 Peter Parker first met Miles Morales? During a brawl against the master of illusions Mysterio, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man gets sucked into a portal to Earth-1610, the original Ultimate Universe. There, he meets Miles Morales, the younger Spider-Man who succeeded the late Peter Parker of his universe. That leads to some of the most fun interactions and alternate reality comparisons out there, but also some heavy, emotional moments. And don’t expect Miles Morales to be the only superhero Peter Parker will meet!
What If…? (1977/1989)
By Various Authors
The concept that inspired Marvel Studios’ What if animated show, What If…? asks readers the question of what would’ve happened in a version of the Marvel Universe where events had veered off the course they took in the main continuity. Those slight shifts in the timeline brought about some of the wildest stories out there.
While What If…? stories are still published to this day in their own one-shot or miniseries formats, the first and second series (from 1977 and 1989 respectively), might be good places to start. Not only do theyu have some interesting ideas, each issue tells a different story, giving you bite-sized windows into the multiverse.
Discover what would’ve happened if Captain America never became frozen in WWII, or if Doctor Strange had become a disciple of Dormammu instead of the Ancient One. What if instead of his brother Cain Marko, Professor Xavier was the one to become the Juggernaut? And how would Vision conquering the world instead of becoming a force for good would have affected history? You’ll get answers for all those questions, and many more.
The Variants
By Gail Simone and Phil Noto
Perhaps flashy showdowns aren’t your thing and you’d rather read something more self-contained? Why not take on a mystery case alongside private investigator Jessica Jones? The trouble for our titular character arrives when she finds herself face to face with variants of herself from across the multiverse. How did they get here and who’s behind their arrival? Discover the answers to those questions as Jessica Jones wrestles with confronting the potential lives she never got to live, like her former idetities of Jewel and the Knightress. And maybe a shield-wielding star-spangled Jessica?
Guest-starring Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Daredevil, and more.
Battleworld
By Christos Gage and Marcus To
Villain Michael Korvac is back and has created a new Secret Wars-like patchwork planet made of pieces of Earths from different timelines and universes. Alongside them, he also kidnapped heroes from across the multiverse to fight each other for the right to exist in his new unified timeline. Will they survive the dangers of that world? Will they be persuaded by Korvac’s promises of a more just universe? And more importantly, can they defeat a dictator whose powers equal to a god’s?
In the story, Hank Pym of Earth-616 meets a version of his wife Janet van Dyne a.k.a. The Wasp from a universe where her Hank died right after the formation of the Avengers. Together they will join forces with a Bucky Barners from WWII, Storm from the Days of Future Past, a recently spider-bitten Spider-Man, Kushala The Spirit Rider, a Luke Cage from his Power Man years, a Carol Danvers from her Warbird years, and King Thor from the future. But they aren’t the only superpowered people in this new Battleworld.
Secret Wars Journal/Battleworld
By Various Writers
While I left the flagship Secret Wars (2015) title out of the list for being too obvious a choice for a pre-Doomsday/Secret Wars reading checklist, I think two particular tie-in series of the event deserve a spot here for readers looking for a quick dive into alternate universes. This particular edition collects both Secret Wars Journal and Secret Wars: Battleworld (as well as other bonus titles). These two series follow a more anthological take on Battleworld, giving us glimpses of stories set in various domains of the multiversal patchwork planet created by Doctor Doom. The stories range from serious to nonesense and you’ll find a bit of everything.
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