IC, the multiverse and the ultiverse (General Spoilers)

[Paragon]

I think that DC has missed an opportunity with IC.

If I look at the Marvel Ultimate titles, I can't help but think Earth-U.
The same characters as in the main stream, but with a twist. Imagine what would happen if an Ultimate character meets a regular one in a story. How many copies will they sell if they have a Wolverine vs. Wolverine battle, especially when both are established characters? Don’t tell me that Ultimates / New Avengers won’t be big.

No matter the intent, this type crossover is inevitable. It will sell.

How far away is this from a multiverse, just like DC had so long ago?
I can see how strong this concept will become for Marvel over time, especially if they manage it well.

Now DC has the opportunity to achieve something similar, and even pip Marvel when it comes to the alternate versions interacting. I would buy a comic featuring Superman and Powergirl, going up against Superman and Supergirl, especially since they have subtly different ideologies.

They can have New Earth and have some select other earths at the same time. The main continuity can still go on, and they can benefit from everything that was established post crisis, and tweaked with IC up to this point.

IC 7 still has the opportunity to do this, but with the machine/tower gone, it seems unlikely, and frankly, I think this is plain sad.

[Lord Ichabod]

Ultimate marvel has nothing to do with 616 marvel. If Ultimate characters ever meet 616 characters it will be the death of marvel because it means they've walled it and are just phoning it in for the rest of their existance. they've said so themselves. we don't need a multiverse. If DC wanted to do an ultimates line up they could because it has nothing to do with normal continuity at all.
Ultimate marvel is NOTHING like a multiverse.

[aeastwic]

Ultimate marvel has nothing to do with 616 marvel. If Ultimate characters ever meet 616 characters it will be the death of marvel because it means they've walled it and are just phoning it in for the rest of their existance. they've said so themselves. we don't need a multiverse. If DC wanted to do an ultimates line up they could because it has nothing to do with normal continuity at all.
Ultimate marvel is NOTHING like a multiverse.

That's true. Teasers from Mark Millar (Crossover Ult FF arc); the MU is probably never going to cross over with the Ult MU. However, Marvel doesn't really have a multi-verse policy. They have Eternity which is their representative of all possible universes.

Marvel seems to recognize that there are limitless alternative/parallel dimensions out there and use them when they want it in a story.

They have never had long term parallel earths and probably never will.

DC's All Star Line seems to be like the Ultimate Line. Completely out of regular continuity and the characters there will probably never cross over to the DCU.

[bfrank]

DOUBLE POST

[bfrank]

Ultimate marvel is NOTHING like a multiverse.
That's just BS, given the Ult FF arc that featured the debut of the MArvel Zombies, and the upcoming Ult/S.S. cross over....

it's everything like a multiverse....

[soda]

I have to agree, the ultimate universe, in marvel, and the fact that marvel ignores continuity to the point where you can pick up an x-men comic without knowing, off-hand, if beast and jean are even alive or dead, tells me that marvel has a de post facto multi-verse. I also agree with the poster above who indicated that the instant marvel starts doing 616-ultimate universe crossovers is the instant their company dies, at that point, they're just phoning it in. They'd have taken their marketing strategy from silver age DC, a company that they crushed competitively in the silver age, how lame would that be? I am adamantly against these type of universe crossovers, because I want to see comics move away from multi-verse and go back to the vision of stan lee: shared universe. By destroying the tower, getting rid of the multi-verse, and burying the idea of inter-universe crossovers like the kind bfrank asks for, DC is burying the idea of the cheap marketing stunt ("hey look, it's supergirl, and another supergirl, and two batmans, fighting two brainiacs!") and reaffirming the commitment to the shared universe.

These inter-universe crossovers are as much a crutch as variant covers and cromium-magnesium-platinum covers were back in the day, a tool to artificially inflate sales numbers for weak story ideas, rather than focusing on telling good stories. IMHO, Infinite Crisis has been totally worth it, yeah it's a mega-crossover, but it's also an amazing story that stands on it's own merits. DC needs to do more of that, it needs to move to a shared universe model, and away from multi-verse, a thing that marvel seems to be embracing. Marvel has avoided the crossover temptation, but if recent marvel history has shown me anything, it's that marvel has absolutely no will power to resist an easy sale (DC I think does, or at least, has more), I predict that a 616-ultimate crossover, given marvel's current direction, is inevitable.

[aeastwic]

That's just BS, given the Ult FF arc that featured the debut of the MArvel Zombies, and the upcoming Ult/S.S. cross over....

it's everything like a multiverse....


Ouch, they are doing that?