Generally the concept of the multiverse is a possibly infinite collection of universes of identical composition that only differ because of alternate choices its inhabitants make. So was there any in-universe explanation as to why in the MCU there are parallel universes that agree in form, but not in substance? In other words why do the universes all have a Peter Parker, an Aunt May, a Spider-Man, and presumably an Electro, Dr. Octopus etc, but they are all actually different people in each universe?
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Laurel
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Rageforthemachine
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6What's the point of a universe without Spider-Man? Who would want to live there? – DavidW May 06 '22 at 03:12
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i think they call spider-man universe a Spider-verse, no? It's a bunch of parallel universes centered around spiderman/girl. If it's called Antverse it should be centered around Ant-man and not necessarily have spiderman in it. To sum it all up, it would be money, if Marvel need to reboot or fuse new idea with existing characters, making an alternate universe is easier than creating whole new characters. – Romario Rio May 06 '22 at 03:29
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More of an in-universe answer. I mean why Andrew and Tobey were in the movie is obvious. I haven't seen DS2 or any of the TV shows yet so I am curious if there has been any explanation of the nature of the Multiverse that would allow basically different people to be the same person. – Rageforthemachine May 06 '22 at 06:03
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I'm practically sure the answer is because they decided so. It's not so different from Marvel comics in which you have different variations with more or less some differences (I'm mostly thinking about Earth-616 and Earth-1610). They may be the "same people", but that doesn't mean everything in their respective universe is identical. – Clockwork May 06 '22 at 07:13
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3You’re asking why Marvel’s multiverse doesn’t follow a rule that it never established in the first place? – Paul D. Waite May 06 '22 at 08:29
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At the risk of a minor spoiler, Doctor Strange 2 establishes that there’s a universe where everything is made of paint, so I guess it’s not a wild stretch if there are universes where Peter Parker and Aunt May look a bit different. – Paul D. Waite May 06 '22 at 08:31
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Strange very clearly stated that the spell inadvertently started to pull in "everyone who knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man"... That includes the other Peter Parker Spider-Men. Notice how it didn't pull in Miles Morales... – Möoz May 10 '22 at 23:05
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If you're looking for a multiverse that follows a more structured logic, I recommend short novel "The infinite assassin", the first short novel in Greg Egan's collection Axiomatic – Stef Aug 11 '22 at 12:46
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As we see in Loki, there’s a universe (or possibly just a timeline, although that’s probably over-complicating things) where Loki is blonde and female (plus one where he’s an alligator). And as we see in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (very mild spoiler):
there’s a universe where everyone and everything is made of paint.
Apparently in Marvel’s multiverse, someone can have the same name and abilities as someone in the universe we’ve been watching, but have a different physical appearance, which makes just as much sense as anything else multiverse-related.
Paul D. Waite
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someone can have the same name and abilities as someone in the universe we’ve been watching, but have a different physical appearance You mean there's a universe out there in which Thanos has Richard Marx' haircut? – Clockwork May 06 '22 at 09:37
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Your interpretation of the multiverse is not correct or doesn't explore the full range of possibilities.
Generally speaking infinite choices make infinite possibilities and that opens the possibility for the writers to write any story changing anything. In that sense, in universe, Miles Morales as Spider-Man is a clear indication as it is all the different variations of Spider-Man (and other heroes) on the multiverse, where Spider-Man is not Peter Parker (or vice versa).
Note not ALL universes have an Electro or a Miles Morales. In fact in the other universes there's an explicit mention that there is no Avengers. It is made explicit in the movie that certain villains have not appeared in certain universes, Electro not being present in the Tobey Maguire OR Tom Holland universe.
While this is not specifically stated in the movie it is clearly hinted by the fact that Aunt May never married. This means she never met uncle Ben and in fact it is made as a point in the movie for her to be the one that quotes the famous "with great power comes great responsibility".
If Aunt May never married or met uncle Ben, if follows that Richard Parker may have met someone different than Mary Parker. Furthermore, Mary or Richard parents may have been different, therefore making the physical appearance of Peter Parker completely different.
Obviously this is an in universe answer. Given the fact there are infinite parallel realities (as each reality is formed by a branch in decision), that in itself justifies that there're infinite possibilities to chose from, including the ones that are chosen by the writers.
TheLethalCarrot
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Jorge Córdoba
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There's also that moment when they start comparing the different kind of stuffs they fought in their respective universe, and they only mention stuffs that never existed in the others. – Clockwork May 06 '22 at 07:52
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5Ben does exist in the main MCU universe. We have various mentions of him, it's just they didn't feel the need to do the whole Ben death thing again so we just never see him. – TheLethalCarrot May 06 '22 at 07:58
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@TheLethalCarrot - Indeed; https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/258702/20774 – Valorum May 06 '22 at 08:03
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2“the fact that Aunt May never married_” — when do they say that in _No Way Home? – Paul D. Waite May 06 '22 at 08:27