In my last post I opened it with five questions. Only one of which was answered and the rest left with background information to use and sort and try to come up with possible solutions. This post is going to look at answering the remaining 4 and recap the first.
1) How does the Marvel Multiverse Work?
The Marvel Multiverse is made up of an infinite number of concepts with infinite variations. These variations can create alternate universes via time travel however these are finite. For a detailed breakdown click the link found in the first sentence.
2) How does Free Will alter the multiverse?
Answering this question will I believe gives us a stepping stone to the next. It was pointed out in the last thread that certain events are consistent throughout all variations of a concept. The formation of the Avengers, Civil War, Cyclops being Right, etc. All of these things appear to always happen no matter what variation we look at. Dark Reign: Fantastic Four makes this rather clear.
Certain events just transpire and the multiverse operates in a way causing these things to happen. What does this mean? It means we have a bit of a problem in even considering if Free Will exists in the Marvel Multiverse. But this may just be a reflection of the writer vs the story so let’s ignore it for our purposes. Removing the “meta” understanding these characters still have choices and have to respond to events. The dawning of the superhero in the multiverse may be preordained however the players and what they do is under their own control.
So to sum this up, Free Will does not alter the multiverse. What we have is a weird form of Compatibilism in which certain things just happen, there is no stopping it and it’s only a matter of time before they occur. However the details of these events are changeable. It isn't always Stark who spearheads the Super Human Registration Act. The same people don’t always die. Genders are not always the same.
But most importantly these actions don’t create new universes themselves. In Dark Reign we never see Reed explore “ok, same universe different decision” There is no Earth 616B or 616.2 This lack of exploration as well as lack of evidence I believes allows for a rather safe assumption that there is not Natural extension of the multiverse beyond “concept.varation” . The variations play out and that is all they were intended to do. Further splintering are “unnatural” and problematic.
3) How was it first created?
The question isn't concerned with how “The One Above All” created the universe but instead asking what form it was created in. So I boiled this down to three possibilities based on what was outlined in answering question 1.
A) 1 -> ∞
B) ∞ -> ∞*∞
C) ∞*∞
The real question to ask to get at an answer here is can an individual variation of a concept yield new variations of itself? This is exactly what question 2 dealt with and to which I concluded no, it can’t. Extending this up the ladder I don’t see then how a concept would be able to yield its variations. The concepts The Living Tribunal describes are more a categorical method rather than an actual thing to itself. In the last thread I gave the example of each earth being expressed by a whole number representing the concept followed by decimals that represented the variation. (Earth 5.372) Five is the concept, .372 the variant. Five is not a variation though. There is no (“Earth 5”) there are only “Earth 5.X").
Don’t confuse this with the labels used by marvel. I am not saying that “Earth 616” is mislabeled. That is its official number. However the main numbering system doesn't incorporate the idea of conceptions into it for a variety of reasons. Earth 616 as labeled using the system I've explained would just be say “Earth 1.616”.
Anyway, concepts can’t yield variations themselves. So with one swoop we can concluded both options A and B are wrong leaving only options C. The Marvel Multiverse was created as we see it. Infinite concepts with infinite variations all brought into being with one action.
4) How did Nathaniel Richards become the last Nathaniel Richards when there are infinite Nathaniel Richards?
So why go to all this trouble for these last two questions. Well because it starts to show us the magnitude of the problem in answering the final question. But as far as the fourth question here it doesn't give us anything despite the two questions being similar in nature. In fact it just makes it all the clearer that what Nathaniel Richards claims to have done is impossible. But clearly it isn't because he did it. Truth be told I don’t think there is an answer, or at least one that uses actual logic and not comic logic. This appears to really have just been an error in plotting given the manner in which Nathaniel was shown to have completed the task. Like how Superman can accelerate while flying. Makes no real world sense but we still see it happen every issue so you just roll with it. That said we can sorta theorize about some things to get a pseudo answer.
In questions 2 and 3 we set up answers that allowed us to go from a single moment to the infinite. This makes sense in reality. You can take a whole (the multiverse) that is single in nature (there is only one multiverse) and divided ad infinitum (infinite concepts infinite variations). Just like how you can always keep dividing any number. (1, .5, .25, .125, .0625 and so on)
So theoretically maybe within a comic setting the reverse can be accomplished as well. That the individual piece, as astronomically small as it may appear, can just be multiplied up to where it eventually results in 1. We just have to accept that every Nathaniel Richards was gathered up and set to task killing himself. The act of murder being the multiplication and the manner in which he arrived to being the Whole. No this still doesn't clear up the paradox but whatever.
Why is this important? Because it also establishes that the problem in New Avengers of infinite colliding Earths is in fact real and does stand a chance to end with only one Earth remaining. I realize that this seems rather obvious but it’s nice to have some certainty. (even if it’s built off some wonky comic logic and suspension of belief)
5) How are they going to solve this shyt in New Avengers
So here we are, the final question and the one that everyone cares about. So what we are doing is laying out a better map to visualize than the one Reed gives us in New Avengers. We have these infinite Earths that are all variations of an infinite number of concepts. The infinite nature of variations poses a very interesting question I feel. Namely what exactly is being changed via time travel?
If there are infinite variations then it naturally follows that things like Age of Apocalypse, Age of Ultron, or any other time travel story already happened on their own in their own variation. There is no need for someone to go back in time to create or avoid these alternative universes. They already existed! There is already a universe in which the action someone from Earth 616 is looking to cause via jumping back into their own past. You’re just creating a second universe that mirrors another.
What does this mean?
Well if we visualize all the variations of Earth existing within some sort of space we can sort of figure that it’s rather jam packed with very little room for growth. Yes I realize that a space of infinite space should logically mean that there is room for any expansion however as we see with the Incursions taking place this isn’t the case. If there is infinite room for expansion there should also be infinite room between each Earth meaning collision is impossible. And yet here we are. So there’s no room in the multiverse, or at least very little room. Given what we know above then the unnatural creation of new universes is taking up space that isn't there any longer. They are like a cancer and the fall out of Age of Ultron, the collision of Universes, etc. are all symptoms of a multiverse without room for expansion that is duplicating itself in unnatural means.
How do we solve all this?
Avengers issue 24.now I believe shows us a blue print. Tony Stark’s granddaughter travels back in time (and Franklin Richards is sort of pissed at this) to warn the Avengers about a planet that was sent flying at them and is set to collide with the Earth. This should sound really familiar to anyone reading New Avengers only this time the problem isn’t over Universes dying because of this just Earth and the other planet blowing up.
What do they do? The construct a device that allows the Earth and this other planet occupy the same space at the same time. How? fukk if I know man comics and shyt. But the important thing is we now have two planets in the same space not blowing up.
Now this should all start falling together for everyone at this point. If the problem (and that is a big if I realize) is that the multiverse is out of room and the Earths are colliding into each other this solutions looks really good. We now have a means of taking what was originally going to be a collision and allowing these objects share the same space. Theoretically two universes now could occupy the same area.
Problem solved, everyone goes home happy. Is this how it will play out? No idea. I realize that the description of the problem in that the issue is over space may not actually be what is happening. But I think it’s a really good guess. Anyway, your turn now. I’ve laid out the parts explained them and given some context. So stop reading and start creating your own ideas on what’s happening.
Those are plausible theories. Some god-status version of Doom is possible to me as well.
