Metaverse of Madness

Why are we so obsessed with our other selves?

I've seen two multiverse movies in the last couple of weeks, and they were awesome for completely different reasons. The first was "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" and the other "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." Even "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" is a different version of Nic(k) Cage. My mind was blown as I sat in the theaters after all of these. The more I thought about it the more I realized we have long had an obsession about who we could be, what if?

There's an old saying about how since the dawn of time humans have looked up at the stars and wondered if we're alone. I think that for just as long we've looked inside and wondered what we could have been. If we would've gone in that other cave or what if we hadn't eaten that strange plant. Imagine if you hadn't gotten on that boat to bring your family to America. We are always thinking about a different world where we made different decisions.

Before we move forward I want you to know there will be spoilers for movies. I'll be talking about the two I've already mentioned plus looking at others. If you want to know my full thoughts on Doctor Strange you can listen to it here:

Like I said earlier, the thought of us being something different isn't new. You can go back to 1666 to see some early literature of parallel earths. "The Blazing World" by Margaret Cavendish is widely credited as one of the first examples of traveling to a different version of Earth.¹ It tells the story of a young girl who travels through a portal to the Blazing World. Through this portal, located at the North Pole, she finds herself in a place where the sky and stars are different and animals can talk. Here she becomes an empress and leading scientist. This is a contrast to her life in our world. Now, this isn't exactly a different version of herself in the alternate universe but I think it is worth mentioning to show how long the idea has been toyed with.

When talking about a more serious and scientific approach to it, that's a twentieth century thing. H. G. Wells wrote "Men Like Gods" where a man travels to an alternate world that is literally Utopia. Here we see some examples of alternative history to create a different world. In the world of Utopia Jesus Christ was sacrificed on a wheel instead of a cross. There are also examples of science and education taking the place of religion and government. Not bad ideas.

The book that really kicks off parallel worlds is "Sideways in Time" by Murray Leinster, originally published in 1934. The story depicts a catastrophic event that starts to rearrange time, space and history on our Earth. We see a timeline where the Roman Empire never fell, where the South won the Civil War and many more. In a crazy example of life imitating art there is a world where Vikings were the original settlers of North America.

As a comic fan my main source of alternate realities is the "What if…?" series from Marvel. First starting in 1977, the book looks at divergent points in Marvel history. Some classic stories look at what if Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four, or what if the Phoenix chose Storm instead. This book is still going, only taking a few breaks over the years. Currently it is featuring all stories about Miles Morales. It's been a fun look at how things would've turned out if he was Captain America, Wolverine, Thor or Hulk instead of Spider-Man.

To me these books are the quintessential look at how a multiverse works. They answer that question we've been asking, wondering if we went left instead of right. There was also an amazing mini-series Marvel put out called "Bullet Points" that turned all their characters on their heads.

DC took note of the success of these books and created the Elseworlds imprint in 1989. Previously they would just number random Earths to explain away crazy Silver Age stories. The "Crisis on Infinite Earths" wiped the slate clean before they started having different versions of characters so they made Elseworlds. In recent years Grant Morrison has streamlined the multiverse, he even made an official map that DC tries to adhere to. Now there are usually 52 worlds but then you add in the dark multiverse, and the Doomsday Clock, well, it all gets confusing.

These are all great looks at fictional characters and their alternate lives but what about us? How do we think about ourselves in different realities? In 1990 Garth Brooks recorded a song called "Unanswered Prayers" where he ponders what would happen if he had been with his high school sweetheart, it was all he wanted when he was younger but is happy with his wife.

This is more the approach of "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once." Doctor Strange is a little more fantastic with the other world interpretations. In Everything the main character(s), played by the amazing Michelle Yeoh, is able to find and harness the abilities of her alternate selves. She finds a version of herself where she never left home so she studies martial arts and becomes a famous movie star. She also manages to channel the abilities of a great chef, scientist and even a person with sausages for fingers!

So why so many movies and stories about the multiverse now?

I think this is due to all the recent developments in science. We've always asked if we are alone in the universe but now we are asking if our universe is alone. There is so much out there, why can't there be parallel Earths? Well, there really isn't a reason. The excuses that scientist use fall on two pretty basic ideas. The first is that there is no need to test for a multiverse, it doesn't solve any problems or paradoxes. This is a fancy way of using the old adage of, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I get that, but I thought the whole reason for science was to explore the unknown and figure stuff out. That's where the second part comes in, with our current science you can't prove there is a multiverse.

You also can't prove there isn't one! While some say there aren't questions to be answered I think there are. What if the universe isn't expanding at a constant rate? The areas that expanded faster or slower than us can be at different places on our timeline or have different types of life entirely! I think another arguement for the multiverse is the way different beings exist in our universe. There has to be a chance that non-carbon based life is out there. Even in the realm of carbon based life who's to say oxygen breathers air always the dominate species? Maybe a world where we all have gills and live underwater! 

One of the strongest arguments for the multiverse is that we can't see things. We don't know what, if anything, exists beyond the viewable universe. It could be a bizarro version of all of us where I have a million followers and nobody knows who Donny Cates is! Don't tell him I proposed that.

It is fun to dream. To think what's out there and what could have been. I think we are approaching it all wrong though. People like to focus on how much better their lives could've been. They wonder about lost relationships, jobs and opportunities but I think we need to be thankful for where we are. If the "Remedial Chaos Theory" episode of Community tought us anything is that there is always a darker timeline.

What do you think? Is there a multiverse? Are you living in the darkest timeline? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Lance

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1. Between Cavendish and Shelley you can’t tell me women didn’t invite scifi!