Splinters of Marvel

[Clonus]

Back when the idea of Spider-Man as connected to a "totem" was first brought up, it made a pretty good point.  Characters do have a rogues gallery whose nature reflects their own nature.  Spider-Man fights many bird/mammal/bug/mollusc type villains (although also of course a lot of gangster and generically high technology villains).  Iron Man fights many people in power armour, or other high tech costumes, plus a fair number of actual robots.  The X-men fight mutants and humans with advanced anti-mutant technology, and anti-mutant technology that decided to move out of dad's house and get it's own place.  So much so that some writers have had trouble remembering that Juggernaut isn't a mutant.  Doctor Strange specifically fights supernatural menaces.  The Fantastic Four fought lots and lots of aliens and enclaves of people who live in hidden kingdoms with super-advanced technology. 

 

In a lot of ways, particularly before they started to have all the big crossover events it was like these characters lived in different universes but would occasionally step outside of them to meet each other.  And you see more of this with cinematic Marvel, where in back in the first and second phases of the Cinematic Marvel Universe it was like the comic book, the comic book universe had been fragmented with the X-Men setting...which was always a bit out of synch with the rest of 616. The MCU started with "no magic" being the one of the rules along with "no telepathy, precognition et al".  They couldn't stick to the guns of course so now we have Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, the Darkhold...

 

But what if someone pulled a Crisis on Infinite Earths in reverse on 616?  Instead of consolidating or erasing a plethora of worlds so that you would end up with with thinks like Milo Morale and Peter Parker of Jay Garrick and Barry West on the same world, you instead broke them apart and ended their kitchen sink nature spawning maybe a dozen different worlds defined by the kind of origins and character themes available to the inhabitants?  What happens then?

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Characters do have a rogues gallery whose nature reflects their own nature.  Spider-Man fights many bird/mammal/bug/mollusc type villains

 

 

Astro City writer Busiek noted that many fight their opposite: Iron man and Mandarin, Superman and Mr Mxyzptlk  or Lex Luthor.  Color opposites or shifts are common as well, such as Lex Luthor's green and purple vs superman's blue yellow and red.

 

It has to do with the Marvel method of conceptualizing a book to set it apart: Spider-Man fights his kind of villain that is highly stylized and specific, so does Dr Strange.  Each book has a particular world setting despite being connected.  Dr Strange fights magical menaces as the Sorcerer Supreme and almost never anything else, and that makes his book feel special and different.  Fantastic Four are classic 50/60s science exploration stuff.  Iron Man's niche is technological/corporate things. DC is less about each book having its own feel and more each hero having his pet villains (rogue's gallery).

[zslane]

The MCU started with "no magic" being the one of the rules along with "no telepathy, precognition et al".

 

Really? Citation please?

[Christopher R Taylor]

Both Iron Man and Thor basically stated there's no such thing as magic, or portrayed Magic as just alternate technology.  While that could have just been their opinions, the setting and every single story was very basic real world focus rather than anything spiritual or metaphysical.  Dr Strange blew that out of the water, but its possible they'll just go with the "its tech we don't understand" dodge.

[zslane]

Well, those characters don't have enough information to know the full extent of the rules that screenwriters and producers must follow. I assumed that Clonus was talking about the rules that Marvel put into place for the MCU as a franchise milieu. And, frankly, the content of two movies is simply not enough to fully define what those rules might be. You can't talk about a rule as concrete fact without something more authoritative to go by.

[Beast]

no crisis needed just a buyout of fox and sony by disney or 1 of the 3 buying out the others

[Beast]

Thor in his movies always refered to Loki's trickery as magic
and Loki learned it from Thor's mother ,Loki's foster mom

 

 

. The MCU started with "no magic" being the one of the rules along with "no telepathy, precognition et al".  They couldn't stick to the guns of course so now we have Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, the Darkhold...

 

 

[Cantriped]

I was given the impression that magic still existed in the MCU. Iron Man has always been starkly Anti-Magic, he refutes it even when it is clearly right in front of him. However I could have sworn that Thor said that amongst asgardians what humans refer to as science and sorcery were a single discipline, not that magic didn't exist.

[csyphrett]

 

 

But what if someone pulled a Crisis on Infinite Earths in reverse on 616?  Instead of consolidating or erasing a plethora of worlds so that you would end up with with thinks like Milo Morale and Peter Parker of Jay Garrick and Barry West on the same world, you instead broke them apart and ended their kitchen sink nature spawning maybe a dozen different worlds defined by the kind of origins and character themes available to the inhabitants?  What happens then?

Obviously you have different worlds where Captain America and Shield fight Hydra and affiliates, Spiderman/Woman/Gwen fight animal based villains, Iron Man takes on other super science types, The X-Men battle the government, hate groups, and mutant villians, the FF battle super science, weird places, and aliens, and Dr. Strange puts down mystic menaces.

 

Then you fit guys like Ghost Rider, Daredevil, and other B, C, D list heroes and villains into the worlds that suit them.

CES