Is Multiverse Overused?
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 7:13 pm
The answers a bit more complicated then you may think.
Take for example the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the MV is often talked about at the time of this writing there have only been 5 stories in the series that deals directly with the MV, 3 films (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and two shows (What If..? and Loki). And it's barely been talked about with only WandaVision doing so.
Part of the reason MV feels like it's being overused is thanks, in part, to DC which is honestly the most guilty of dealing with MV more then any other company and that's mostly thanks to how they often have so many different series and continuities running at once. We have two Superman series, one of those series takes place in the Arrowverse along with the DCEU, not to mention a game and a show using the name Gotham Knights along with the Doom Patrol, Titans along with Teen Titans Go and before that there was the DC Animated Universe, Teen Titans AND the DC Animated Movie Universe.
There's also the fact that many are dealing with Superhero Fatigue along with having several series but in terms of which series is directly dealing with a Multiverse it's honestly not as many as you think.
Honestly I don't see what the problem is with a Multiverse. Oh sure it has its drawbacks like over relaying on Nostalgia (which HAS been overused for over a decade at this point) but there's also a great deal of potential in it.
Let's take a moment to look at the a concept that WAS overused not due to Fan Demand but Creator Morbid Curiosity What if Superman was EVIIIILLLL?!?!
This question was kinda interesting the first time it was asked as Superman was and is a Symbol of Hope so what happens when that Symbol becomes something terrible. The thing of it is the idea lost its luster the longer it went on as we had no less then 10 evil Supermen at a time and everyone got tired of it. As pointed out here the "Superman but Evil?" idea became so common that it was honestly more subversive to just have a GOOD Superman who is good because he's wants to help people.
And when we did get a Supermen/girls who are heroic and good if flawed, people LOVED it! Dreadnought, Superman & Lois along with My Adventures With Superman were all met with critical praise for giving us heroes who act like Heroes.
Some still enjoy the idea of evil Superman but the idea that there resent versions of the characters who are good and are truer to what the character is suppose to stand for is engaging.
And that ties into the weaknesses of strengths of Multiverse because we even if there are more then one version of these characters many will still get invested.
I just posted how I was excited for the upcoming Remaster Edition of Dark Force mainly because it meant that other we could see the return of other Legends games but during that I got, shall we say, a little side tracked by the idea of a Star Wars Multiverse and a in-universe reboot of the series. I want to restate something that I've said before and that being I DON'T hate the Disney Era and think the Lucas Era was filled with nothing but classics.
I still hold that the overall worst story in Star Wars is Legacy of the Force. Not Star Wars Legacy, Legacy of the Force. A nine part novel series that killed off many beloved characters, turned Han and Leia's son evil because of course it did and was just a mess. Not helping matters was Lucas' open playground policy on letting writers do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't kill off, have characters get married or destroy planets that he created without asking him first. This meant that there was little to no executive meddling from Lucas himself but it also meant that there was little holding the world together and writers would actively try to undo one another's work and try to explain certain things like the how Jedi's could be God Like beings yet all of them died during the Clone Wars.
Sometimes writers were able to take the best of what came before and make a great story with the Clone Wars being the best example, and sometimes it was a jumbled mess.
And on the Disney side of things, the First two seasons of The Mandalorian are still great, Andor was the show nobody wanted and everyone loved and Rise of the Resistance has gone on to become one of the most loved rides at Disney parks, one that I am eagerly waiting to ride again when I had to Walt Disney World at the end of this year.
There are many things that I enjoy if not outright love in the Disney Era Star Wars and somethings that I'm looking forward to seeing. Have there been some stories that I haven't enjoyed, oh hell yeah but I can't say that I've seen anything truly awful. I don't like The Last Jedi or Rise of Skywalker but they are far and away not even CLOSE to being truly awful (I've seen Jake and Jill, NOTHING in Star Wars is THAT bad!).
However, Star Wars is a series run by a company and it hasn't been doing as well as Disney and Lucas truly want which is true of ANY series. And when you a series that delves tells multiple versions of a single event that do not make sense together multiple continuities is really the only way out that allows for more stories to be told.
While films like The Flash showed the downside of using Multiverse as a storytelling device there are FAR more then use it well. Just look at the Spider-Verse films and No Way Home or Everything Everywhere All at Once. It all depends on how it is used and again it's not used as often as you may think.
As for Star Wars it will be hard to say how the series will moves forward and if there will be a multiverse or not and if there is we might see a true reboot for a while.
Take for example the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the MV is often talked about at the time of this writing there have only been 5 stories in the series that deals directly with the MV, 3 films (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and two shows (What If..? and Loki). And it's barely been talked about with only WandaVision doing so.
Part of the reason MV feels like it's being overused is thanks, in part, to DC which is honestly the most guilty of dealing with MV more then any other company and that's mostly thanks to how they often have so many different series and continuities running at once. We have two Superman series, one of those series takes place in the Arrowverse along with the DCEU, not to mention a game and a show using the name Gotham Knights along with the Doom Patrol, Titans along with Teen Titans Go and before that there was the DC Animated Universe, Teen Titans AND the DC Animated Movie Universe.
There's also the fact that many are dealing with Superhero Fatigue along with having several series but in terms of which series is directly dealing with a Multiverse it's honestly not as many as you think.
Honestly I don't see what the problem is with a Multiverse. Oh sure it has its drawbacks like over relaying on Nostalgia (which HAS been overused for over a decade at this point) but there's also a great deal of potential in it.
Let's take a moment to look at the a concept that WAS overused not due to Fan Demand but Creator Morbid Curiosity What if Superman was EVIIIILLLL?!?!
This question was kinda interesting the first time it was asked as Superman was and is a Symbol of Hope so what happens when that Symbol becomes something terrible. The thing of it is the idea lost its luster the longer it went on as we had no less then 10 evil Supermen at a time and everyone got tired of it. As pointed out here the "Superman but Evil?" idea became so common that it was honestly more subversive to just have a GOOD Superman who is good because he's wants to help people.
And when we did get a Supermen/girls who are heroic and good if flawed, people LOVED it! Dreadnought, Superman & Lois along with My Adventures With Superman were all met with critical praise for giving us heroes who act like Heroes.
Some still enjoy the idea of evil Superman but the idea that there resent versions of the characters who are good and are truer to what the character is suppose to stand for is engaging.
And that ties into the weaknesses of strengths of Multiverse because we even if there are more then one version of these characters many will still get invested.
I just posted how I was excited for the upcoming Remaster Edition of Dark Force mainly because it meant that other we could see the return of other Legends games but during that I got, shall we say, a little side tracked by the idea of a Star Wars Multiverse and a in-universe reboot of the series. I want to restate something that I've said before and that being I DON'T hate the Disney Era and think the Lucas Era was filled with nothing but classics.
I still hold that the overall worst story in Star Wars is Legacy of the Force. Not Star Wars Legacy, Legacy of the Force. A nine part novel series that killed off many beloved characters, turned Han and Leia's son evil because of course it did and was just a mess. Not helping matters was Lucas' open playground policy on letting writers do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't kill off, have characters get married or destroy planets that he created without asking him first. This meant that there was little to no executive meddling from Lucas himself but it also meant that there was little holding the world together and writers would actively try to undo one another's work and try to explain certain things like the how Jedi's could be God Like beings yet all of them died during the Clone Wars.
Sometimes writers were able to take the best of what came before and make a great story with the Clone Wars being the best example, and sometimes it was a jumbled mess.
And on the Disney side of things, the First two seasons of The Mandalorian are still great, Andor was the show nobody wanted and everyone loved and Rise of the Resistance has gone on to become one of the most loved rides at Disney parks, one that I am eagerly waiting to ride again when I had to Walt Disney World at the end of this year.
There are many things that I enjoy if not outright love in the Disney Era Star Wars and somethings that I'm looking forward to seeing. Have there been some stories that I haven't enjoyed, oh hell yeah but I can't say that I've seen anything truly awful. I don't like The Last Jedi or Rise of Skywalker but they are far and away not even CLOSE to being truly awful (I've seen Jake and Jill, NOTHING in Star Wars is THAT bad!).
However, Star Wars is a series run by a company and it hasn't been doing as well as Disney and Lucas truly want which is true of ANY series. And when you a series that delves tells multiple versions of a single event that do not make sense together multiple continuities is really the only way out that allows for more stories to be told.
While films like The Flash showed the downside of using Multiverse as a storytelling device there are FAR more then use it well. Just look at the Spider-Verse films and No Way Home or Everything Everywhere All at Once. It all depends on how it is used and again it's not used as often as you may think.
As for Star Wars it will be hard to say how the series will moves forward and if there will be a multiverse or not and if there is we might see a true reboot for a while.