The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been teasing the multiverse since Spider-Man: Far From Home.
That movie saw Mysterio show up and claim to be from an alternate Earth that was destroyed and he wanted to make sure the same thing didn’t happen to this Earth. It turned out to be a lie, but it made people ready to see the multiverse in the MCU.
Fox actually beat Marvel to the punch with the multiverse with X-Men; Days of Future Past, which ended up ranked as one of the best X-Men movies ever made.
The best critically reviewed of the X-Men movies, Logan, originated from a story based on an alternate Earth in Marvel Comics.
Sony animation even beat the MCU to the punch with Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.
Now, Marvel seems ready to go all-in for the multiverse, first with Spider-Man: No Way Home, which hits this December on the Marvel movie release schedule, and then Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which hits in 2022.
With the multiverse finally coming to the MCU, here is a look at the best multiverse characters from the comics.
Miles Morales, Spider-Man
Miles Morales made his big-screen debut in an animated movie, with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Miles was one of the most popular characters and successful comics in the Marvel Ultimates line, replacing Peter Parker as Spider-Man after Peter died.
Peter died at the hands of the Ultimate Green Goblin and shortly after that Miles ended up bitten by a genetically engineered spider created from the blood samples of Spider-Man.
Miles then became a great hero in his own right. Eventually, Miles’ Earth crashed into the main Marvel Earth (616) and characters from both worlds ended up alive on one Earth, most with no memories of the Ultimate Earth at all.
Miles Morales is now one of Peter Parker’s closest allies, both using the name Spider-Man.
Old Man Logan
The Mark Millar Old Man Logan storyline was the basis for the critically acclaimed Fox movie, Logan.
In the movie, Logan was one of the last mutants alive, along with Professor X, and they went through their lives trying to survive, while Professor X slowly lost his grip on his sanity.
However, things were different in the comics.
In Old Man Logan, Mysterio led a plan where he made Wolverine think the X-Men were invading supervillains. Wolverine lost control of his rage and slaughtered all the invading villains, before realizing he had just murdered all the X-Men.
After this, Old Man Logan retired even though several villains conquered and took over the United States when they realized they could beat the heroes if they worked together.
However, when Hulk and She-Hulk’s inbred children killed Logan’s wife and kids, he returned to the fight and set out to kill everyone.
Old Man Logan eventually made his way to the 616-Marvel world and remained there for a short time while the real Wolverine was dead.
Spider Gwen
Spider-Gwen was another character Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse introduced.
This was Gwen Stacy from an alternate Earth where she got the spider-powers and Peter Parker died in her arms. She was more of a punk rock version of Spider-Man and shared the trait of talking to the readers, like Deadpool before her.
Spider-Gwen ended up making her way to the main Marvel 616 Earth, and like Miles Morales, became an ally to Spider-Man, although it was strange for both of them since they lost each other in their individual Earths.
Cable
Cable made his first movie appearance in Deadpool 2.
The movie version shared similarities to the comics, with some minor changes. In the comics, Cable is Scott Summers’ son, born to a clone of Jean Grey named Madelyne Pryor.
When baby Nathan ended up with a mutant-killing virus, Scott sent the child to the future where there was a cure to save him. However, he couldn’t return.
Cable returned, though, as an adult. He grew up on an alternate Earth that Apocalypse conquered and ruled.
Cable, wanting to stop the destruction Earth suffered, went to the present-time and took over leadership of the New Mutants, changing them to X-Force.
Rachel Summers
Rachel Summers is another member of the Scott Summers/Jean Grey family. Rachel is Scott and Jean’s daughter, and on her Earth, both her parents died.
Her Earth had one major difference. Jean Grey never gave up the Phoenix Force, never took her own life to save the X-Men, and married Scott, and settled down with their daughter, Rachel.
This also means that Rachel was born to the Phoenix, and that gave her some intense powers that make her one of the most important mutants in comics today.
Rachel ended up transported through the multiverse and ended up on the Earth 616 world. She eventually found a place in the alternate Earth and remains a key member of the mutants on Krakoa, currently serving in X-Factor Investigations.
Maker
It is always fun to see some of the greatest heroes in Marvel Comics turned into villains outside the main continuity.
That made the Ultimate Marvel Universe so fun. The one character that changed the most was Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.
Reed started out as a hero, alongside Sue, Johnny, and Ben. However, Reed has always considered his ideas above all others around him, and in the Ultimate Universe that turned him into a villain.
After Magneto killed thousands of people in Ultimatum, Reed rethought his worldview. When Sue Storm rejected his marriage proposal, Reed went full bad and turned into The Maker.
The Maker attempted to conquer the world several times and is now on the 616 Earth, meaning there were two versions of Reed Richards in the same timeline.
That didn’t last for long because The Maker was smart enough to learn how to restore the Ultimate Universe Earth and return there.
Dark Beast
Hank McCoy was always one of the most loveable members of the X-Men. That made it fun to bring in a dark, evil version of The Beast to Marvel Comics.
This Beast came from the Age of Apocalypse timeline, an evil version of Hank McCoy who experimented on mutants and had no morals.
This put him up against his more morally centered 616 version and that resulted in some great battles between the two Beasts.
What is interesting is that Majik of the New Mutants ended up killing Dark Beast, but in recent years, this world’s Hank McCoy is exhibiting some of the same scientific drive that turned the Dark Beast evil.
Cosmic Ghost Rider
There have been several Ghost Riders in the Marvel Universe. The first in comics was Johnny Blaze, although he learned that there were many before him.
Johnny Blaze is who Nic Cage played in the two Ghost Rider movies.
There was also teenager Robbie Reyes, which is the Ghost Rider appearing in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and is an Avengers member in the comics.
There were others, but the one that comes from the multiverse might be the deadliest of them all.
On Earth-TRN666, The Punisher died during Earth’s last stand against Thanos and he went to Hell. Punisher then signed a deal with Mephisto and returned as the Cosmic Ghost Rider, giving him an iron-clad desire for justice and an unending thirst for vengeance.
Maestro
Hulk ended up being sent into the future and found himself on an alternate Earth in the Marvel multiverse. Here, he met the man who ruled this version of Earth — Maestro.
Maestro was an intelligent and deadly future version of Hulk. He was more powerful than Hulk after years of world dominance and he was morally bankrupt, making him a significant threat.
Hulk to beat him by using time travel and sending Maestro to the original gamma explosion that created Hulk.
However, Maestro proved very popular and ended up getting a new Marvel series in 2021, showing his origin, which included killing the Hercules.
Marvel Zombies
The Marvel Zombies was an interesting creation, and to no surprise, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman introduced them to Marvel Comics.
A version of Sentry from another dimension arrived via the multiverse and brought an infection with him. This is the infection that turned all Earth’s heroes into zombies.
What made the Marvel Zombies different is that they kept their intelligence, but had an unending hunger for humans and set out to eat everyone. They mostly worked together outside of individual fights where one turned on another.
When Galactus arrived on Earth, the Marvel Zombies attacked him, ate him, gained his powers, and set out to find other worlds with people they could eat.
In the end, the Marvel Zombies ate every planet in their universe with living beings and still wanted more, turning to the multiverse next.