Talk about a multiverse of madness. Sony Pictures Animation's sequel "Spider-Man:
Across the Spider-Verse" not only breaks new ground in the superhero genre,
but it also breaks the understanding of the Marvel multiverse at large.
As seemingly established in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," all Marvel movies — at least those in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe and those released by Sony Pictures — co-exist in the same multiverse,
with every iteration of the titular web-slinger just a spell away from one
another. While "Across the Spider-Verse" doesn't violate the guidelines set in
previous Marvel multiverse romps, it does build upon them in ways that could
affect the MCU's defining multiverse project — the Disney+ series "Loki."
"Loki" Season 2 is set to premiere in October 2023, and Season 1 outlined how the multiverse
works, grows, and is maintained across all Marvel properties. Its mind-blowing first-season finale
casts some doubt on the stringency of these rules, as the mastermind behind the multiversal
maintenance turns out to be an unstable Kang variant known as He Who Remains. Where "Loki"
pulled the rug out from audiences in terms of their understanding of the multiverse,
"Spider-Verse" introduces new rules that are seemingly unimpeachable,
especially in regards to the film's defining mechanic — canon events.
A canon event is a moment in a Spider-Person's lifetime that is consistent across all variants
in the Spider-Verse and cannot be changed without risking total
universal destruction. This includes tragedies like the death of a loved one.
"And then I looked at my uncle and…"
"Uh, let me guess. He died?"
When this concept is explained at the Spider-Society headquarters, a hologram
shows an image that looks similar to "Loki's" branching representation of the multiverse.
Interestingly enough, an eerily similar concept is introduced in the Disney+
animated series "What If...?," referred to as "absolute points."
"The power required to break an absolute point in time is immense
and nigh impossible to obtain. Yeah, no doy."
The first absolute point delineated as such is the death of Christine Palmer in
the episode "What if... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?"
Over the course of the story, viewers see that absolute points are nearly
impossible to change without some sort of multiversal intervention.
When Doctor Strange Supreme manages to do just that, his world begins to dissolve into blackness.
In "Across the Spider-Verse," Miles Morales inadvertently shows fans what
a decaying universe looks like when he saves the life of the police captain
of Pavitr Prabhakar's Earth-50101. The eerie, all-consuming blackness
bears a resemblance to similar events in "What If...?" and "Doctor Strange in the
Multiverse of Madness." This could mean that in every universe, what audiences see is the
inter-universal apocalypse known as an incursion. What is an incursion? Take it away, Reed.
"An incursion occurs when the boundary between universes corrodes and they collide."
By violating the boundaries between universes, Miles and Doctor Strange
unintentionally altered canon events, or absolute points if you will. Though
this newfound specificity is small, it creates guidelines that, going forward,
could change how heroes and villains deal with the Marvel Universe's newest overarching threat.
"Spider-Verse" also presents a key that could save
the fate of the entire Marvel multiverse in the near future.
"You say the fate of the multiverse and my brain dies."
Until "Across the Spider-Verse," there were only a handful of beings capable
of traversing the multiverse intentionally. Now, there is a possibly infinite number of
Spider-People that possess the ability to travel the multiverse and seemingly prevent incursions.
As seen on Earth-50101, Miguel O'Hara and his team are able to keep the blackness at bay by arriving
on the scene immediately. This is a skill that neither Doctor Strange nor "Loki's" TVA have been
able to pull off. As the second season of "Loki" continues to explore and elaborate upon how the
multiverse works, it will likely come up against the subject of incursions and how they are caused.
That could lay the groundwork for Loki to discover a way to prevent incursions himself,
thus staving off the inevitably messy aftermath of Kang's meddling in the multiverse. It would be a
fitting end to the character's story, as he learns how to maintain order without the quasi-murderous
ideologies of Miguel O'Hara and He Who Remains. Instead of pruning, Loki could stimulate growth.
"Big metaphor guy. I like it. Makes you sound super smart."
Narratively, a focus on growth would be the polar opposite of The Infinity Saga's ethos,
which communicated that victory demands sacrifice. As skillfully as this message
is conveyed, it would be fitting for the new era of the Marvel multiverse
to usher in something different by embracing the ability for comic book
stories to evolve beyond reader's wildest imaginations, without all the nihilism.
The perfect place to set up this much-needed shift would be in films
like "Across the Spider-Verse" and TV series like "Loki," which tell stories
about the wonders of expanding worlds and the potential beauty of creative evolution.