Comic books: Grading alternate reality Marvel and DC characters
By Mark Lynch
The idea that parallel universes exist isn’t a new concept. The idea has been around for decades. The theory is that our universe isn’t the only one. Somewhere, there’s a universe where you’re writing this article and I’m reading. Shows like Star Trek have given examples of this, but comic books have taken it to another level.
Calvin Ellis (Superman), Nathan Summers (Cable), and Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) are among the most popular characters from other Earths. They show a clear difference in how events affect the past, present, and future. There’s also Invincible. Angstrom Levy brought alternate versions of Mark to defeat his nemesis. These versions were good, but they all aren’t gold.
With an infinite number of variants, all of them won’t be gold. You’re going to have some missteps. This article will highlight the negative and positive with alternate reality heroes and villains. Some of the versions bring attention to the good in their counterpart. Others are so bad it makes their original look worse. Despite that, each hero and villain on this list won’t be graded by comparison to their others. Their grades are strictly on what they did in their respective comics.
20. Spider-Man (Earth-928)
This may be an unpopular opinion, but Miguel O'Hara has never been interesting. Spider-Man 2099 has an amazing costume, more Spider-Powers than Peter Parker, and continues to get a shot in comics. However, he’s never been good. Hopefully, the version of him in Across the Spider-Verse convinces Marvel to make him a villain permanently.