30 Days of Winter: Day 19 - Alternate Universes *Master Post*

[sandoz_iscariot]

Hello and welcome to Day 19 of our 30 Days of Winter event. Today's theme is Alternate Universes!


Alternate universes have been a feature of superhero comics for decades. They've been home to alternate versions of heroes like Batman and Superman, and introduced new heroes like Rachel Summers and Mayday Parker. Comics have shown different pasts, presents, and futures, where anything is possible. Some examples:



"Days of Future Past" featured a possible future where most of the X-Men have been killed, and mutants are hunted and interned by Sentinels. Considered a classic by most X-Men fans, this alternate universe has been revisited and referenced many times. (Just think of how many times you've seen homages to this classic John Byrne cover!)



Watchmen's alternate universe speculated about what would happen if superbeings and masked vigilantes actually existed and affected real-world events. For example, the intervention of Dr. Manhattan results in the United States winning the Vietnam War.



Though some alternate universes have been dark and dystopian, Spider-Girl has been loved for its positive future for superheroes.



Though DC Comics eliminated the Multiverse in Crisis on Infinite Earths, it has since been restored. Alternate universes will be a fixture of comics for years to come.



What are your favorite alternate universes?

And stay with us for the rest of our 30 Days of Winter event. Tomorrow's theme is Didactic and 'message' comics!
And our full calendar can be found here!

Comments

[arilou_skiff]

I'm fond of a lot of the cracky What-If? and Exiles universes (Magic Universe! Captain America is a vampire universe! Donut-saves-the-Universe!)

[pyrotwilight]

Nono, it was a cheesecake I believe. A great way of showing the Seahorse effect.

[pyrotwilight]

cheese danish, whoops.

[arysteia]

Let's see if third time's the charm...



Canonical proof Their Love is So Pure it stops wars. (Or more cynically, heteronormativity causes wars. But let's go with the romantic interpretation.)

[greenmask]

The chin fixture makes it look like he's bitten off Tony's (..Tashy's?) tongue, kind of.

Still, awww!

[thanekos]

No one favorite in particular, but I have always liked the idea of interacting alternate realities; it's why I keep meaning to watch more Noein, why I like the part of Chrono Cross that's "so then the planet summoned another timeline to fight the future timeline", and why Exiles amuses.

.. and, I suppose, why I'm waiting for Morrison's Multiversity. "before Summer 2011" is enough time, I suppose.

[cherrybomb]

Marvel: 1602. It's an original take on Marvel characters filled with wonderful writing and beautiful art. Plus, it makes my not-so-inner history geek go 'OOOH, AAAH.'

[uadlika]

MOTTO.

At our last 30 days I posted some stuff from it. I just live this universe to itty bitty bits.

[arilou_skiff]

My inner history geek always felt it was wasted. It had potential, sure, but itnever delivered.

[retro_nouveau]

Um... Almost all of them?

DC's "New Earth" and Marvel's 616 are both alternates to each other, so I guess they're my top two favorites... :D

Also, kind of in order:
* DCAU: Original home of Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya, Terry McGinnis (and the DCAU's alternate universes - Brave New Metropolis, A Better World)
* New Frontier
* Earth-Two: Justice Society, All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc. - Kara Zor-L, Helena Wayne, Lyta Trevor-Hall...
* Earth-3: Jokester, Three-Face, Quizmaster vs. The Crime Society
* Exiles - especially the first (Blink, Nocturne, Mimic, Morph, and Magnus & Blink) and most recent to date (Beast (Hank/Simon OTP), Forge, The Panther, The Witch and Polaris)
* Batman: Brave and the Bold (and BatB's alternate universe(s) - Game Over for Owlman)
* Kingdom Come - Diana/Clark OTP
* Earth-Three: Crime Syndicate of America - Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman...
* Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths - actually, there were at least four centrally involved, if not all.
* The three Legions of Superheroes
* Thrillkiller - Batgirl and Robin, Bianca Steeplechase
* Watchmen
* Red Son
* Anti-Matter Universe - Crime Syndicate of Amerika vs. Justice Underground
* Squadron Supreme
* Earth-63 Earth-11 - Superwoman, Batwoman, Wonderman
* The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
* The Incredibles
* Megamind, Metro Man
* Justice Friends - Major Glory, Infraggable Krunk, Valhallen, Samurai, White Tiger, Living Bullet, Capital G, Phan Tone, Silver Spooner
* The Powerpuff Girls, Mojo Jojo, Him, The Rowdyruff Boys (and their alternate universe(s) - The Powerpunk Girls)
* The Tick, Arthur, Die Fledermaus, American Maid
* Mystery Men - Mr. Furious, The Shoveler, and the Blue Raja

The only ones I hate are Earth-Rocks-Fall-Everybody-Dies. Marvel Zombies, I'm looking at you. Oh, and despite much love for Carrie Kelley, everything else about Dark Knight Returns.

[arysteia]

Interestingly, I quite do like Earth-Rocks-Fall-Everybody-Dies AUs and/or dystopias, and always have done, in TV shows and fanfic too. But precisely because I *don't* ever want anything similar to ever happen in the "real" world. It used to be a great way to explore alternate scenarios, without ever damaging your toys. Now that that sort of thing happens in the main verse, these AUs seem to just be an excuse for upping the gore/grotesque.

[retro_nouveau]

A lot of dystopias are cool by me, the everybody dies scenarios I don't need are when the population starts out at 8 billion and drops near (or all the way to) zero. You're so right about how the license to kill gets way out of control.

I guess my favorite stories have "to be continued" at the end.

[curlyjo1]

That's the problem with how DC is trying to shoehorn a lot of the Kingdom Come stuff into the main DCU.

KC was cool because it was AU, and they could do drastic things with it, but we like it to stay AU.

[uadlika]

* Megamind, Metro Man

The trailers for that movie were so misleading and bad that I almost didn't see it. Luckily I saw a TV spot that changed my mind, and I'm really glad that I saw the movie. It was really good and executed beautifully.

[retro_nouveau]

Agreed, before I went in I thought Metro Man was going to be completely different. It hit all my high points: excellent three-act-structured story, action, romance, suspense, a little mystery, Metro Man is sexy, humor, and (big extra score bonus here) fun.

Oh, let me add Despicable Me to that list... IT'S SO FLUFFY!

[psychopathicus_rex]

What I found interesting about Metro Man was that he really was as arrogant as he seemed, but he was a genuinely good guy underneath all that, and tried to work past it once he realized how predictable his life had become - also, that neither he nor Megamind held any genuine rancor towards each other, it was just the way the game was played. (That 'well done, little buddy' moment at the end was just heartwarming.)

[icon_uk]

From the first 30 Days of Scans, I still hold that the What if... The X-Men Stayed in Asgard was a whole heap of fun.

[werehawk.livejournal.com]

I really liked old school What If? 3 (Iron Avengers by Jim Shooter - who was pretty cool to talk about it with) and What If? 6 (Ben Grimm as a flying hero: Dragonfly).

Other favorites: Kulan Gath taking over Manhattan/the world from X-men 189-191 and Exiles 69ish. A lot else in the original Exiles series was gold too.

[blackruzsa]

I always enjoy shoving the one time Marvel 3490 universe in random people's faces. XD

[darkblade]

I have a growing fondness for the crakiness of the AUs of Code Geass.

You start with an anime that itself is a rather complicated alternate time line with changes starting in the Roman Empire and just keep going from there, including an entire different calender system that makes it even harder to keep track of everything.

Then you start into the manga...

The main series that is basically the plot of the anime only without the mecha which changes a lot of things.

Suzaku of the Counterattack, the main series except from the point of view of the heroic antagonist and with robotic powered armour instead of mecha.

Nightmare of Nunnally, which is crack personified, the blind and crippled little sister of the main character from the original series gets the superpowers instead and things get weirder from there.

Then you get the standard same story but in a different time series twice with different parts of Japanese history. Neither of which are anywhere as good as the others.

[q99]

-
Nightmare of Nunnally, which is crack personified, the blind and crippled little sister of the main character from the original series gets the superpowers instead and things get weirder from there.
-

Hah, yea, that was great.

[darkblade]

When I first heard the concept I was expecting something like Oracle, unable to physically go to the front lines, wages war through field agents and proxies. Which fits in with the normal Code Geass themes (and can work the chess motif without making me want to hurt someone) but they went all out on the crack and it was glorious.

[q99]

I'm not really sure if I'd call Watchman an alternate universe. It's fairly stand alone and makes no reference to the concept.

---

Marvel's What Ifs? and EXiles are some of the best ideas they've ever had.

[darkblade]

It's more like an alternate universe to reality in that regard. It basically was the real world except superheroes were a real thing and their involvement in world affairs changed history.

[q99]

Oh yea! Gold Digger 59 was one of my favs of all time, where one character meets two of her alternate selves, both older than her, showing what could be.

Scans daily post about it

---

Webcomics, El Goonish Shive has some fun ones, like the AF04 universe where everyone (but Elliot) is different.

Oh, and Drowtales has the "space age" one which is a similar setting to the main one, but in space!

City of Reality has a heartbreaking one involving time travel, where through hard work and dedication, things manage to go right... and then it all gets undone.

[bwhahahabeck]

DC's Earth-11. I have a guilty pleasure for Rule 63.

[retro_nouveau]

Motto! :)

Just noticed for the first time: Kylie doesn't have the crab mask. Wonder why...

[icon_uk]

She doesn't have Kyle's variant costume either.

When Kyle first GL'd up he had the classic costume and revamped it a short while later, maybe Kylie just never bothered.

And I'd also like to nominate the alt-world in your icon, if only for the Black Condor's spiffy black-leather trunks number... Hubba, hubba!

[retro_nouveau]

Maybe Kylie was about to do a new mask, then she saw how it looked on Kyle and changed her mind... :)

I second your nomination, the only reason I didn't was because I didn't want to be called on Mxyzptlk shenanigans. But there's got to be somewhere in the multiverse just like that anyway. Wonder where I was when you posted that again? I always bring out my cover manipulation with bare legs Wonder Warrior. In other news, I've officially added joasakura to retro's List of Favorite ... uh, Sunderscorders for comments made on your post.

[icon_uk]

Forgive me, but "Sunderscorder"?

[retro_nouveau]

Not at all, it's "* Be sure to pronounce that underscore.", of course! :D

[icon_uk]

Ah THAT post, not the one I had linked to in the previous post. Gotcha! :)

[psychopathicus_rex]

Plastic Woman. Holy CRAP, I... I think I just went a little weak at the knees.

[badficwriter]

Ack. I have a whole alt worlds Spidey/DD I was going to do....dern Christmas shopping.

[pyrotwilight]

Ah so many AU's so little time.

Marvel
Lots from the Exiles were so much fun.

I'd really love to see more of Nocturne's world since we've only seen a bit of it during a story to show what she did right before becoming unhinged in time.

Magnus' world as well would be great to see more of since we have a heroic Magneto and Rogue who're married but we don't know why/how and the like and apparently an evil Nightcrawler, but that's all we know.

I'm STILL waiting for Marvel to use their collective brains to publish the story Gregg Schigiel and Jay Faerber wanted to do as a continuation of What if 114 with the Avenger kids of Battleworld, he's sounded very interested in doing so (Gregg, the artist).

I will forever hold a place in my heart for Spider-girl's universe which was filled with awesome. It's a shame too as far as lines went it'd have been/was so much more fun than the overall Ultimate universe was. I mean imagine having J2, Fantastic Five, Wild Thing, Spider-girl and the like as an ongoing line. That would've been great! And I will miss my Sassy Speedstress Bluestreak.

The What if...The Avengers fought Galactus universe was rife with possibility too. Having a US liked Doom, no Watcher as Uatu interfered with Galactus and no Captain America or Fantastic Four, which would lead to so many different things

Earth/Universe/Paradise X too was a masterpiece of writing, though I hear Paradise X is generally frowned on. Still, seeing Spider-girl/Venom being dissapointed in her dad who continually laments losing Gwen Stacey was worth the prices of buying trades all by itself.

DC

New Earth-3: DC wasted this world by offing Jokester and Duela and never mentioning Three-Face and Talon after wards in any capacity, it was likely one of the most poignant story related to Countdown too.

Anti Matter Universe: Never was a big fan of this until Trinity since Enigma and his daughter Stephanie were one of my favorite parts of the story. Reading a story about a guy who's a hero doing bad things, mostly out of rage for his loss of his family and eventually coming to accept it, granted it was a bit forced on him, was great. Stephanie herself was a great character and that's with barely saying a word throughout the entire series.

The Team Titans were essentially an AU which crossed over with the main universe and had a lot of great story potential but editorial messing made it very messy and confusing at times before they decided to never mention it again.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Seconded on the Avengers kids one - that was chock-full of goodness.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm not sure if I have a FAVORITE, exactly, but most of the Elseworlds are at least worth a look. The 'Elseworlds Finest' featuring a '20's pulp version of Bats and Supes was pretty cool - also 'Green Lantern: Evil's Might'.

[arilou_skiff]

Oh yeah, it had a comic so it counts, but the Going Rogue revamp of Praetoria for City of Heroes is rather nice.

[abates]

Transformers: Hearts of Steel! Steampunk Transformers? Mark Twain fighting a giant robot jaguar with a chair? Oh yes!

It's a pity IDW haven't published any more alternate takes on Transformers like that.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

WHY HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS BEFORE NOW?

I simply must have this comic :D :D :D

[myniamh]

Does Excalibur's Cross Time Caper count as an AU? Not all the stories/universes that were shown were visited by the 616 team.
My favourite was the Epic Heroic Battle world where a Dalek asks Alistair Stewart if they've met before. XD

[recognitions]

Aren't they all alternate universes, though?

[ogrebear]

Alternative REalities is one of the reasons I love comics... seeing what might have happened if a character had zigged instead of zagged.

Some favs:
The 'Cross Time Caper'
1602
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1-2 (there is no others)
Red Son
Kingdom Come
All of MC2
Earth X
Early Exiles - esp that one where they find Wolverine in charge of Alpha Flight, and the last series published (dig that Beast).
Lots and Lots of the What If books.. esp What If Spider-Man joined the FF and the 2 sorta sequels; Rick Jones had become the Hulk?; Dr. Doom had become a hero?; Gwen Stacy had lived?; Captain America had been elected president?; Spider-Man's Uncle Ben had lived?; the Avengers lost the Evolutionary War?; the X-Men had stayed in Asgard?; Kraven the Hunter had killed Spider-Man?; Namor had joined the Fantastic Four?; Spider-Man had kept his six arms?; Death's Head I had lived?; Wolverine led Alpha Flight?; the New Fantastic Four had remained a team?; What If Bruce Banner was savage and the Hulk intelligent?; all the participants of Secret Wars had been trapped on Battleworld?; the Scarlet Witch hadn't acted alone?; Doctor Doom had kept the Beyonder's power?;

And finally the fantastic/cracktastic: the Impossible Man possessed the Infinity Gauntlet?

[aaron_bourque]

The DCAU or MC2 (aka Spider-Girl Universe).