Narcissism in the Multiverse

What would be best is if writers/corpos try their hardest to experiment or show new sides of a multiverse. Rather than doing an edgy mirror, they could try something more wacky. In any case, I’ll dissect a few stories here that can serve as foundations later in literature. First, I wanna talk about the ‘normie’ Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Cause they don’t have any established characters.

In that film, we see Joy and Evelyn struggle with the untamable power of multiverse transport. You see, a device had been created–that I will call the Level Selector–which allowed the user to ‘possess’ a variant of themselves. The variant of course existed in another plane of existence in whatever different form that world’s history could bring them to. They could then access the variant’s memories and powers before returning to base. There was a process to visit within only a certain degree of separation but that’s the only thing unique about this multiverse. The fact that the variants branch from each other rather than supposedly existing in parallel lines. So the multiverse event they experience is not a crossover but a visitation. They don’t visit the universe their selves and thus don’t get to meet their variant. This is the safest possible Level Selector and also the most powerful. This Level Selector is used best though when you know yourself the most. The process of Joy and Evelyn getting lost among their variance means they both love themselves and needed to do it in order to improve themselves alone. This level of selfishness then only pushes Joy to suicide and even convincing her own mother of such a plan. This destructive narcissism is luckily defeated by the optimistic narcissism of Waymond. He affirms that a good life of mundanity is basically as good as any life in the multiverse, as long as it was with his happy wife. He’s happy to do laundry and taxes as that is what impacts them and all their world needs.

That’s cool an all but as the Level Selector begets someone heartless like Joy, it doesn’t let her bend the multiverse in such a way to make herself happy. It has a range that sucks and even preludes that since the universes aren’t parallel, then they could eventually intersect. Even Rich Waymond and base Waymond could share the same desire for Evelyn. No, I mean, if we’re gonna explore the multiverse, it better be by a narcissist who wants to bend it truly for himself. That’s why Joy sucks compared to Rick Sanchez.

Rick Prime, an unmatched genius of man, had decided to make his own Level Selector at some point. This was pretty basic, just portal and boop, new universe. You can interact with your variant, there is literally no limit to how ‘far’ you travel, and you can remain there without brining the rest of your original universe with you. Rick becomes a perfect version of Kang; the Cosmic Tourist. Now Rick can go back in time to meet Cowboy Rick, or forward to meet Cowboy Rick because Cowboy Rick is also traveling the multiverse!

Let’s define the 4D thing real quick to not completely lose you normies. The first dimension is the X axis, forward and backward. Y axis, up and down. Z axis, into and out of. Then finally, a W axis, after and before. We’re 3 dimensional beings in the way that we can always choose to move in the first three but the fourth is a choice made for us. We’re always moving toward after at the same rate. Going really fast, like the Flash, can cause you to reach the after ahead of the rest of us but we’ll get there anyways. I’ve always thought of the W axis as circles/spheres rather than lines like the other three and today’s coordinate would be 6/25/2023 Gregorian. With a time machine, it is supposed that one could move after and before just like a car moves in 3d. With Level Selectors, one is able to move beyond the rules of a fucking graph onto a new graph. Whole new level.

Anyways, all of the Ricks discover each other and start interacting for real. They get to visit and have lots of fun. The variants of Rick also decide to build a singular society for themselves and their common partner Morty. Of course, Morty just gets bullied in the society while the Ricks hold high status and still disrespect each other. The society wasn’t made so that the Ricks could beneficially support each other but because every and each of them are narcissists dissatisfied by anyone else. One Rick lording over another allows them to feel better about themselves so even the worst variants are allowed to exist there just to get discriminated. This is despite the fact that each Rick is supposedly the smartest being in their home verse. This society is a Cosmopolitan, a civil settlement for the whole multiverse. There are a countless number of them but the Rick-est of all is the one we follow, supposedly. There’s some fan discussion on whether the Rick we meet in S1E1 is the exact same as now (we know Morty has changed along with the family) especially considering there are a bunch of Ricks and Mortys with super similar relationships and supposed history among the multiverse. So much so, there’s even a Jerry daycare in the same scheme of the Rick Citadel.

But the Rickest Rick would be “c-137” which doesn’t designate him anywhere near Rick Prime. This Rick is real rebellious and lonely, deciding to stick against the Citadel at any chance given and just drag Morty on whatever overcomplicated metaphor the writers decided to cook that week. This Rick would go on to obliterate the Citadel after they tried to assassinate him. This causes the Rick-Morty culture to decay until a new “evil” Morty arises in the newly founded cosmopolitan. When our main duo finally meet “evil” Morty, he explains the Central Finite Curve, the possible reason why their Level Selector works so fluently without causing timelines to blend. Imagine that the multiverse is a series of bubbles put into a blender. The curve selected by the Citadel is a specific collection of those bubbles in which Rick is the smartest man alive.

So of course the only Ricks we meet are geniuses, with only their specific character flaws serving to how much smarter they are compared to each other. But holy shit imagine how much narcissism you have to have to make a multiverse only around you where you are the smartest and exclude the ones where you aren’t. That was the crazy thing I learned from the newest season and I realized this was the basis others have unintentionally used for other multiverses. Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon, or whoever wrote this specific piece had just described the most convenient rule of this type of setting so late in the game.

When people talk about the multiverse in Marvel media, there is an idea that they are just talking about different types of characters. This variant of Iron Man and that one. But there’s one specific event that every Marvel fan has at least heard about because it has happened a few times. The Spider-Verse Event. The Spider-Verse is a multiverse-crossover setting with some very convenient rules around why there’s always a Spider-Man. Using Rick’s science, it would explain the Finite Curve for the Spider-Men but let’s look at these events and compare each Spider-Men.

Spider War arc (1994-1996 cartoon): the series ends with a two-part episode in which a Spider-Man (beta we will call him here) is sort of recruited by the Beyonder and Madame Web to save a universe under assaults from a Carnage possessed Peter Parker. Coming to his aid are Spider-Carnage’s clone Ben Riley and 4 other variants inspired by some comic stories (such as the Man-Spider). There is another that depicts MCU haters’ idea of Holland’s ‘high tech’ Spider-Man. This was more of just a classic crossover where the only worlds built are the beta one (built from the whole show) and the Carnage one where everything’s gone awry. There is no Level Selector as the Beyonder and Madame Web are just apart of the writing team. The plan from Spider-Carnage is to use a bomb on an interdimensional portal to obliterate like every universe. This is such a funny prank considering that symbiotes like Carnage can communicate across universes, but it is derived from the fact that this Peter has lost both May and Ben and basically has no good reason to live. He is helped by Ben Riley’s Kingpin, Goblins, and Smythe. Eventually, Spider-Beta follows Spider-Carnage to the Parker-tech universe and has that variant of Uncle Ben talk him down into killing the symbiote and thus himself. At the end of the episode, the end of the series, Prime Peter meets Stan Lee (since one of the variants is an actor from a regular world) from the real fucking world. A Stan Lee that is writing Spider-Man comics, amazing. So this was kind of a clash of a crossover with the Clone storyline, an alt reality piece, but also a tagteam of interdimensional variants fighting together. This is actually then very unique amongst all media from my knowledge, to have the five of them team up with no fighting or anything. It does come out that Beta still leads the storyline mostly but I don’t think this was ever done before ever. I think they did it this way to celebrate, make fun of, and include the Ben Riley arc from the comics along with other stories they didn’t get to accomplish in the show’s scale. I call this one Beta because his show adapts most of what they can from the Amazing comics which is the special 616 universe. So maybe this one belongs in the beta branch of that verse but there is no official designation for him.

Shatter Dimensions (2010 Game): Mysterio has stolen and then shattered (in a fight) the Tablet of Order and Chaos which falls into different dimensions, for funsies. With it shattered, Madame Web recruits the Spider-Man OG, Spider-Noir, Miguel O’Hare, and Ultimate Spider-Man since each of the shattered pieces of the Tablet are lost in their dimensions. You go through the game as each one, defeating each variant bad guy and unite the pieces. Mysterio steals the completed tablet and ascends to the final boss battle. The 4 Spiders unite and kick his ass. Here, again there’s isn’t a Level Selector as Mysterio or the Tablet break the borders for the final battle. The 4 don’t even get to interact fully till the end. The Spider-Man OG is supposed to be from 616 but this event isn’t tied to any comic event. With branch theory we can assume one 616 variant had to do this whole quest while the other simply defeated Mysterio in the first interaction and then continued the rest of their comic story. Oh man, imagine how many 616 branches exist because of bullshit like this! This is a nice crossover story that celebrates the Noir, Miguel and Ultimate variants along with the original. The four characters also have different playstyles so it is a good video game in that aspect. Realistically, this is the first one where all involved truly fight together and one doesn’t become more important. This is also one without any incursion but Mysterio still exists as a multiverse threat.

Spider-Men (2012 comic): In this short bit, Spider-Man OG is fighting Mysterio who trips him into the Ultimate universe. Another variant of 616 does not suffer this. For the last 12 years in the comic medium, the Ultimate universe has been built as a canon and centralized setting just like the main 616 (unlike something like Noir which is just from a single story). Ultimate is designated as 1610. The Ultimate Peter has now died and so when main Peter goes to meet the other Spider-Man, it is actually Miles Morales. They have a tussle and then befriend each other. Peter meets Aunt May and a living Gwen Stacy in a crazy reunion. Ultimate’s Tony Stark is able to figure out Mysterio’s location so that Peter can jump portal and return home. This is another basic crossover which would serve as the first crossover between 616 and Ultimate. It was a short one but it could have been permanent with Mysterio’s petty ass. The only threat in is that Mysterio wanted to trap Peter in a universe in which he is dead since he controlled the Level Selector. But they all trick Mysterio and trap him in 1610 since he knows Peter’s identity. He would stay there until the Secret Wars II reset the multiverse but acted sick and weak the whole time. That means he suffered in an incursion on a personal level. This is the second and last time he will be involved it seems, guy is probably horrified.

Spider-Verse (2014 comic): This is the largest and maybe most complex of these events so I will mess up in summarizing it. Recently, the OG Spider-Man has had his mind switched with Doctor Otto Octavius who thus becomes the “Superior” Spider-Man cause of his ego. This is technically the main Spider-Man here since we follow like 20 Spider-Men that are introduced in this much longer story arc. In universe 001, there is no Spider-Man I guess but there is this family called the Inheritors that are trying to obtain the Spider totems that the Master Weaver makes via the Web of Life. So the Inheritors eliminate each Spider-Man and it is prophesized one of them is supposed to beat the Inheritors. Otto and the Miguels, and the Peters, Gwens, the single Miles, Japs, and so many other ones (including an Uncle Ben Spider-Men) either ban together or get wiped out by Morlun. Everyone is traveling along a Web of Life (a spider version of a Finite Curve) with their little Level Selectors. Many universes are explored and most are from existing storylines. They also even have Drake Bell Spider-Man for some reason. Many of the Spiders fucking die here but eventually Otto is able to defeat Morlun. The Inheritors are placed into a radioactive universe where they could supposedly suffer and die. This was a layered crossover but also obviously made to be the definitive Spider-Verse arc. It introduces the Finite Curve centered around Peter Parker (especially that of 616) not because of his own machination but as it is his destiny that this character exists. This means the narcissism is actually coming from the writers who see fit that the Marvel multiverse hinges on the existence of a Spider-Man in whatever form that can take. There are some repeat variants here but I don’t think the Noir and Miguel here are the exact same as the video game. This arc serves as another challenge for Otto in his role as a Parker so at least he should remember this.

Web-Warriors Arc (2014-2015 cartoon): The Disney XD writers for their Ultimate Spider-Man show were obviously inspired and decided to do their own Spider-Verse arc. In this one, a recently jail escaped Green Goblin is traveling with the Siege Perilous which makes portals. Drake Bell follows him to each verse and helps the local Spider-Man who got their blood stolen by the Goblin. Goblin’s plan is to literally use one morsel of blood from Miles, Miguel, Noir, Spider-Girl, Spider-Ham, and Spider-Knight to transform into a Spider-Goblin. Sure dude. At the end, they all team up and kick his ass back to Norman Osbourne. Drake Bell does have some kind of disagreement with each Spider’s personalities or aesthetic but is able to find union with his variants for the third time out of five events so far. The story itself isn’t narcissistic since Goblin is looking for Spider blood rather than just stumbling into them via convivence. This would be the third time Miles is involved and fourth for Noir and Miguel but why is Ham here again? This is also probably the slowest arc to experience considering the episodic nature and the lack of multiversal threat which leaves no tension. Disney XD had a habit of having Drake just co-host Spidey adventures with some other superhero like Strange or Wolverine so this was just more of that. Considering Drake didn’t get solo stories, I wouldn’t even consider the appearances as a cameo but more like of a “guess what hero we are collabing with today?” so this is less a crossover and just another collab. What do you call that, when a decently popular celebrity invites another celebrity on their show just cause? Oprah? A podcast? Oh just a talk show okay then.

Into the Spider-Verse (2018 film): a computer animated film, in this piece we see a Miles Morales that is given the same universal designation as Ultimate and he even experiences the same Parker death as the Ultimate. But I’ll call this B-1610 since his story is different otherwise. Here, Kingpin is involved in building his own Level Selector which malfunctions actually causing a few other Spider people to arrive. It has to be rebuilt so while that takes place, Miles meets Peter B Parker (who’s real old), Spider-Gwen, Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham. Excluding B Parker in a literal sense, each of these Spiders have had variants in the comic event. While they are here, they experience personal incursions as ‘glitches’ since their atoms are not from here. The Spiders team up defeating B-1610’s Doc Ock, Prowler, Tombstone, Scorpion, and Kingpin (2nd event for bro). They shut down the Level Selector and thus are able to return home although Miles will truly miss them. This is perhaps the first team built to be super familiar rather than professional partners. They are also able to help Miles grow into the superhero role dissimilar to A-1610. There is also a crush between Gwen and Miles which might be the first variants to feel so under my knowledge. Loki and Sylvie are perhaps second. This was a loose adaption of the comic story although centering on Miles and minimizing the volume of Spiders. It’s nice to finally have a theatric event since normie audiences could be introduced to a Spider-Gwen or the others. One nice part, because this was a highly animated film, even though we didn’t see other verses, the aesthetic of each universe followed them with their design. Otherwise, the main character actually doesn’t go anywhere for once.

No Way Home (2021 film): in this piece, we finally get the live action version which takes a different direction than everything else so far. The first cartoon established Madame Web’s necessary inclusion (who would show up a second time) and then the main Spider-Man will still rise above his variants as it is his show. The video game then let’s each Spider-Man shine while the comic shows a more complicated and even conflicted team up. For the live action, first of all, the two other variants are brought into Holland’s universe just because he messed up Strange’s spell. Actually, the effects of the spell simply brings those who know Spider-Man is Peter into this universe kind of as karma. The two other universes impacted have villains who know who Peter is so those villains are also invited. For most of the plot, Holland is fighting these villains alone and even fights Strange who serves the same role as Madame Web here. So that’s crazy.  Eventually, he meets Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield who help him gather the villains so that they can be cured before Holland repairs the spell. Interestingly, the two must’ve just been the closest universes as before the spell is repaired, now other universes are beginning to breach. They are stopped from starting a Multiverse of Madness and everyone goes back to their universes. There is no Level Selector here, they are just summoned because of the ridiculous rules around magic. This is the smallest event only including 3 Spidey’s but they do get to bond and basically have no issues with each other. The villains involved could be considered variants…if they existed in Holland’s universe. Considering that Dafoe is unable to find a variant Norman Osbourne, this universe is weakest in the volume of Spidey-baddies. This was a crossover and also celebrations of Spider’s film career although Holland didn’t get to the other identical New Yorks.

Multiverse of Madness (2022 film): not a Spider-Verse event as much as it is an anti-Spider-Verse event. Here we meet America Chavez whose superpower itself is a Level Selector. She can just travel verses like Madame Web and Beyonder could in the 90’s show. She has landed in 73 verses, BUT she has never met a Spider-Man. Somehow, some way, the only time she could’ve, she met Strange instead. She also met a “Defender” Strange before “Avenger” Strange and later fell into a “Illuminati” Strange-centered universe before sending Avenger into “Sinister” Strange’s universe with Wanda’s influence. In the land of Sinister and the Illuminati, there is no evidence of a Spider-Man. How lucky is America to fall into the Finite Curve of the Stephen-Verse instead of the Spider-Verse? But see, this is story-related narcissism. The movie is about Strange so only his variants are important.

Across the Spider-Verse (2023 film): we return to Miles (B-1610) who comes across the Spot. The Spot is a transdimensional being able to create portals to other parts of the Web of Life. I would say the Web of Life unofficially and finally reappears in this verse as Miles travels to a Spider Citadel. The Citadel is founded by a Miguel O’Hare and inhabited by at least 100 Spiders including the new recruit Gwen from the last film. This citadel could only exist if there is some kind of Finite Curve as Miguel only recruit specific variants. Gwen and Miles first reunite before following the Spot to a universe inhabited by a beta Pavitr Prabhakar (whose alpha variant would be in the comic). After rescuing him with a beta Spider-Punk, the four travel to the Citadel. Miles is brought to Miguel to receive detail on the meta fate of every Spider-Man. They must also suffer events to keep the entire Web of Life alive. To do this, Miles needs to let his father die. Because of Miles’ refusal to his father’s fate, he has to fight against all his variants and escape back to his home verse. Due to the Level Selector taking the DNA of his spider blood, he is sent to universe 42 (the spider came from 42 to B-1610 due to Fisk’s machine) and meets his variant Miles “Prowler”. Gwen recruits her own Spider rebels to come against Miguel’s elite team of Jessica Drews (black pregnant variant) and Ben Riley (dramatic variant). Their battle will conclude in the third film. So far, this film establishes something more than the fact that Spider-Men are connected via the Web of Life but also the meta device known as “canon events”. These are necessary events in a Spider storyline that define who they are and keep them similar. If they were too dissimilar, they might destroy the multiverse although this is all a theory from Miguel. Despite how experienced he may be, his theory has plot holes that should be filled in the next entry. To be clear, every Spider-Man experiences the exact same “canon events” with their archetypical characters, none of them have any unique events so these type of memes misread the film. This film is a continuation of the Miles trilogy but also a celebration involving many one off cameo’s of at least 2 dozen named Spiders. Also with most of the ones we meet, they should be considered beta variants of their counterparts who have appeared before. Animated Spectacular Spider-Man does show up here but it’s not like we will ever see if he remembers this in his own show later on. Also it’s not like Miguel is inviting everyone that he could, he probably only invites the ones that could understand their meta fates as Spider-Man’s entire characterization is built around saving someone no matter what. We just Holland save villains in his fragile universe so his ass isn’t near to getting recruited. Miguel needs losers who accept their fate, he needs betas.

Quick sidenote about canon events, they don’t need to be in any multiverse setting regularly but its fun to see a Spider-Man character poke at it for a writing device here. Miguel is simply complaining how Marvel writers always choose to cause Peter to suffer. Every Uncle Ben death, Stacey moment, or even evil scientist has to be covered to make a full Spider-Man. This even happens to Holland who Maguire jokes to Ned about “my best friend turned evil so could you” and the three of them comparing alien encounters. MCU fans think he only became a real Spider-Man because Aunt May died. The canon event explanation is hilarious when you think of it that way. I don’t think though that these writers are establishing that Miles will suffer in the next film to fulfill a rule but rather to just round him out. His mom could die instead. Even the happy-go lucky Pavtir was going to suffer here under the guide of a regular writer. Basically, if one thinks Peter Parker should have “everrrrrything you want”, just go read the original Amazing Fantasy, Marvel doesn’t!

So with each Spider-verse event, we do see a concrete way of how a multiverse should work, especially with a narcissist point of view. Existence should not only bend around the Spider-Man but also reflect him. Of course, universes without him can exist but not to him. They are outside of the Finite Curve. There can also be other curves. The Devil-Verse, the Pool-Verse, the Odin-Verse, the Stark-Verse, and the Fantastic-Verse. Anyone who has variants could eventually start isolating those universes to create a curve and then make their own Citadel. Anyone who is a narcissist that is.