By [ad_1]
Mephisto’s vision for the future of the Marvel Universe could hint that the Earth-616 timeline operates similar to DC’s Hypertime.
The Marvel Universe has largely followed one overarching timeline since its inception. There’s been no Crisis on Infinite Earths or Dark Nights: Death Metal for Earth-616, with even the reality-threatening events of Secret Wars not erasing or replacing the established history of the timeline. But going forward, it might have a unique similarity with the DC Universe.
Recent events in Amazing Spider-Man have revealed more about the possible future of the core-Marvel Universe. And strangely enough, it’s implied that it operates in a similar way to a major function of the DC Universe as well.
Introduced in The Kingdom by Mark Waid and a host of artists, Hypertime was revealed to be the status of the DC timeline in the Post-Crisis Universe. In essence, the timeline can splinter into surprising directions and rejoin the main timeline, leading to a structure where the universe could incorporate new realities and possible futures with ease. They could easily blend together or have elements reappear in other stories, and there was no set future for the DC Universe. It allows every possible future to be more or less possible, blending together in the days to come — overlapping when necessary, and splintering apart when prudent. It more or less replaced the multiverse in the Post-Crisis DC Universe and is a part of the current DC Universe’s design.
Notably, Marvel has never had a massive universal reboot like DC that severely affected continuity. There have been more contained retcons and changes, but it’s largely been one timeline, with numerous possible futures that (if prevented) splintered off into their own separate reality like Days of Future Past or the MC2 Universe. But Mephisto’s vision from Amazing Spider-Man #74 by Nick Spencer, Christos N. Gage, Marcelo Ferreira, Mark Bagley, Ze Carlos, Dio Neves, Carlos Gomez, Ivan Fiorelli, and Humberto Ramos implies that the Marvel Universe secretly operates on a similar basis. As he describes his vision to Doctor Strange after the defeat of Kindred, the demon has spent countless years witnessing a possible future.
In it, Mephisto and his demonic hordes were finally victorious. He sat atop a throne in a shattered New York City, surrounded by the countless defeated or dead heroes who fell trying to stop him. But ultimately, it was a variant of Spider-Woman — the daughter of Peter Parker from the MC2 Universe — still swinging and defiant to the end. Mephisto reveals she was fated to be the one to defeat him, and that this was why Mephisto has targeted her parents and tried to prevent May’s birth in events like One More Day. But rather than this just confirming the MC2 timeline is indeed the future of the Marvel Universe, characters from other possible realities are shown on the battlefield.
There’s James Rogers, the heroic leader of the Next Avengers (and son of Black Widow and Captain America), as well as numerous older X-Men — Beast, Molly Hayes, and Deadpool — from the future depicted in Battle of the Atom. Each of them hailed from other possible futures, and yet seem to be part of Mephisto’s vision of a future universe. This implies that the Marvel future is somewhat flux and capable of picking up elements from each other, similar to how Hypertime operates — with aspects from multiple timelines appearing together. It’s an interesting way to codify the way the Marvel futures work, and leaves the door open for popular future concepts — such as the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones becoming a future Captain America — to become part of the overall future of the core-Marvel Universe.
About The Author
[ad_2]
