Narcissism in the Multiverse

Now there’s been a lot of multiverse content recently and some people like it while others dislike. They feel exhausted already because of Marvel films have highly relied on a multiverse setting for the last 3 years but I think they are a little impatient. They also must only watch these superhero films that are in need of their multiverse arcs to be adapted from the comics that have existed for decades now. The main reason I consider dissenters impatient as well as we have barely explored the limits of a multiverse setting in storytelling. It’s like deep diving 200 feet, seeing all the same fish, and saying the ocean is boring. Like relax.

Now to be honest, throughout literature history, we have had a lot of interesting trials of the multiverse. I will compare some in this article before relating it back to narcissism.

This is usually through a simple “incursion” event in which two universes collide due to some circumstance. I’ll be using some words coming from the Marvel fans since they are the majority in media right now. An example of an incursion is actually the first (and second) Space Jam films. In the Space Jam multiverse, there is a real world with similar basketball stars Michael Jordan and Lebron James while there’s a second world with all of the Looney Tunes characters. Here, Bugs and Daffy head to the NBA’s world to recruit the superstars to play for them in the LT world. Now the incursion here does no damage. These worlds are parallel in the truest sense. They don’t even interact without the portals in between worlds so they definitely don’t disrupt each other’s timelines. Those that visit either universe even undergo physical changes so they interact with the reality at the best level. The funniest moment in the first film is Jordan’s half court dunk.

So that’s a simple incursion, more of a visitation. There’s other examples like this in Fairy Odd Parents’ Channel Chasers or Jimmy-Timmy’s Power Hour. The Chronicles of Narnia, Coraline, Digimon, Bakugan, Wreck it Ralph, and Disney’s Enchanted from the stuff I know as a kid. Each of these have an universe the characters travel to only minutely connected by a portal or some kind of Level Selector. The universes though aren’t connected by an origin and that’s why the incursions may come off harmlessly.

There’s other incursions that actually connect universes than just having characters visit each other. This process of phagocytes might be due to some consequence of the characters that meld the universes together rather than causing the destruction of one. According to my knowledge, this happens literally only once and temporarily, in Megaman: Battle Network. Battle Network is a game series (and anime) where Megaman is a computer program, a net navi, controlled by his human partner Lan. Basically imagine if your computer/phone had an avatar that was connected to all your accounts and shit. Already excelling Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. At one point, the technology of net navis get so advanced that it is invented for them to ‘exist’ in the real world via (what is practically) wifi. The navis are then able to possess their user to give them powers. The net world then directly impact the real world because they were melded although it wasn’t a global thing for too long.

That was a literal Phagocytes (but the only one I know of) although they have always happened in tv through actual crossovers. From the inception of certain tv shows, there would be nothing to connect them to each other considering they never mention each other. But from a tv network perspective, a crossover would be the best way to make an extra buck for the week. Fans from either universe would be exposed to the other side in a way they wouldn’t otherwise thus potentially bringing new fans in. That’s absolutely why I Love Lucy met Superman back in the 1950s…well I don’t about that but it is why the Simpsons would have an X-Files episode. I just found that out, that’s crazy. These crossovers don’t feature any actual universe hopping for the characters but for us fans, it will retcon the fact that they always existed next to each other.

That’s what made the first Avengers film feel so cool, to see it brought together in such a permanent way. Now they were going to intentionally crossover so the universe was technically always one and there were foreshadowing hints. But actual tv shows like Hannah Montana, Suite Life on Deck, and Wizards of Waverly Place could technically combine their universes with an episode having all of their characters. And yes, even in these crossovers, only do the name characters matter the most. One funny thing fans have done with tv crossovers is combine a bunch of media into one universe known as the Tommy Westphall Universe. Using crossovers and references, it would seem most of the tv characters we watch live in a single continuity rather than a varied multiverse. But some fans (stupid ones) get caught up that one actor can represent two or more characters. They can watch Liv and Maddie but get confused that Crazy Steve exists at the same time as Spencer Shay. That does not follow, the actors are acting, they aren’t the actual character.

Besides the TW Universe, my favorite example of phagocytes is the Schneider-verse on Nickelodeon. There’s Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, Henry Danger (naming the good ones) and more that comprise a single universe. There is good consistency with it too considering the Pear phones and that iCarly was a popular internet site even in the other shows. Dan Schneider, the creator of each show, I think started it because he just wanted to reference some inside jokes between his series but has now kept it up for a convenient fall back reference. It’s not too complicated. I don’t even think there’s any plot holes in it unless you think too hard.

There’s other incursions that feature the characters from the alpha universe meeting their Bizarro selves. A different universe were things took place in the exact opposite way in terms of good and evil. It is parallel but also a mirror with an edgy side. The definitional example lies in Bizzaro World, a planet with Bizarro Superman and other DC heroes who are technically villains if not also antiheroes. We see a grand exploration of this setting in Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension where literally everyone is still the same but altered only because Doofensmirtz won in this parallel world. There’s higher technology and characters are more radical. This was also a cool example of a branching parallel multiverse although I will point out that that they visit a series of other universes not having any relation to the good and dark half.

Now the universes in our first example were detached from the each other and of course universes that go through phagocytes become each other. Universes that branch from each other come from the theory of multiverses; if you make one decision, one version of you will live in the opposite decision. Why we worry about such things is beyond me. This alter you is dubbed ‘variant’ by Marvel Media. It is their darker variants that Phineas and Ferb meet in the film. The variant will exist on their own branch in the timeline and interacting with yours is an incredibly bad incursion. Before hand, the only division between Megaman and Lan was space, they were still on the exact same branch of the time line. Same thing for Jordan and Bugs or the characters of Schneider’s series on Nickoldeon. But there’s a time and space division between you and your variant that DID decide to ask out your crush. The incursion from visiting them might cause phagocytes (in which everyone would be confused for their double) or the universal law may permit the destruction of both worlds to keep things simple. Theoretically. For storytelling, it has never actually happened in real life.

The oldest recorded canon we got for the human race is the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the piece, you learn about this really strong king that the gods can’t really do nothing about. That’s fine and that’s probably because the Sumerians who were ruled by him thought he was that fucking cool. In the story, there is a part where Gilgamesh meets the man who survived the Great Flood who is named Utnapishtim by some scholars. In this ‘Sumerian’ universe, he is the man who created a large boat for himself and some animals to survive the Great Flood and then repopulated the Earth. This is inspired by the fact that Sumer (in modern day Iraq) suffers seasonal monsoons. On the other side of the Fertile Crescent and centuries later, the Jews have their own story. In the ‘Hebrew’ universe, Noah survives the flood as delivered by God but he never meets no king Gilgamesh. He just repopulates the Earth. Now the Sumerians are long dead by the time the Jews are codifying Genesis but they were apart of the same larger culture group I call Sham (from the Arabic term for north) including Akkadians, Phoenicians, Canaanites, Arameans, Assyrian, and Babylonians. They each could have had their own story about the Great Flood but we haven’t recovered everything. For now though, one could abstract that Utnapishtim and Noah are variants of each other with support of multiverse theory. That will be my way of explaining it lmao.

With branching timelines, it is fun sometimes but most of the time boring to explore the simple Bizarro world. I will critique writers for relying on characters just being edgy and dark compared to the brighter world when they could just get wacky with it.

Why do incursions have to be disastrous, why can’t the universes just merge? Why are both universes at stake? I think that part of the theory, the destruction due to time confusion, just helps writing the story. It’s just narratively convenient that the realities are at stake so there’s only ever one or two incursions. It saves the writer from doing anything more and so even the other universes the characters travel to can be underwritten cause it’s not going to see it again. Writers don’t have to rely on it all of the time, such as in Phineas and Ferb.

Only last thing with the multiverse setting is the concept of pocket dimensions. This exists in Marvel media too, nice. Pocket dimensions exist within their parent’s timeline just in a different space. Technically the internet in Battle Network is a pocket dimension but other examples have characters traveling to and fro with great ease. There’s the Wizarding World in Harry Potter as a perfect example. Nothing too unique, just usually that they have to be kept secret from the general population which I find shitty and boring narrativly speaking.

General audiences are of course undaunted by the convenience or inconvenience of any multiverse/timeline confusion. We have no limits of which character can meet each other. I would say generally, people always get over hyped over certain crossovers and thus the actual product may be disappointing. Some may find crossovers as a cash grab but hey we live in capitalism, nearly everything is made to make some kind of money. It’s like critiquing two Youtubers doing a collab as a cash grab, come up with something new. There is fear from folks that feel like major corporations will use there huge ip for shitty multiverse/crossover stories. They have no faith in how funny it may turn out to be and would not like another Ready Player One. But now that we know how broad this setting is, I don’t believe anyone is truly tired of it.

There’s also a rising sense of globalism across the world which I recognize at three levels. In the Classical era, there were four major civilizations; the Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese. But they are far separated and basically only mix in border regions. The Mongolian Empire is able to unite Eurasia in a single globe scheme with their Silk Road trade and massive spread of the Bubonic Plague. Then the British Empire united the globe to a second level during the 19th century. Massive trade across the seas to every continent (that people live on) with money eventually brought to British hands. It would be directly succeeded by the Americans in the mid 20th Century. Lastly, the Internet would, disgustingly, unite the globe to a third level as you are now not simply trading with people you will never meet but even having sex with them. Virtually. Disgusting. Anyways, the higher levels of globalism will be reflected in the art we make as characters more and more live in a united or similar world. So the multiverse setting might end up being an excuse to explore that rather than a convenient cash grab.

Basically, it’s gonna keep happening.