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(A few of them jumped to the mainstream Marvel Universe when the core X-Men returned, and others have crossed over later – a trend that will continue when alt-reality ideas hit it big – see the '00s version of this concept in Wolverine's Old Man Logan, which has spawned an entire spin-off universe Wastlanders that, you guessed it, will return in December). The name ‘Elseworlds’ has come back in the DC Universe as part of its cosmology following the multiversal event Dark Nights: Death Metal, which itself was largely powered by alt/'dark'-takes on DC's most popular character Batman.īut the X-Men, once again, is the franchise that truly innovated the concept with 1995's ' Age of Apocalypse' event, an extended story that took over the entire X-Men line, in which readers were transported to an alternate timeline where Charles Xavier died before forming the X-Men and Apocalypse conquered the world.Ī smash hit, 'Age of Apocalypse' took readers away from the mainstream X-Men they knew and loved to a much darker, more violent world – and the result was that fans not only got the satisfaction of the return of the classic versions of the X-Men, but they also got to pine for the return of the 'AoA' versions they liked best. Since then the concept of briefly diverting away from the mainstream version of familiar heroes for a glimpse of another world with alternate, sometimes staggeringly different versions of the characters we all know has only grown in popularity.ĭC picked up the baton in a big way in the early '90s with the advent of its Elseworlds imprint, a whole line of comics based around earnest alt-reality versions of Batman, Superman, and others, resulting in stories like Gotham By Gaslight, Superman: Red Son, and Kingdom Come (itself reaching its 25th anniversary in 2021). DC in particular often published wacky 'imaginary' stories (particularly starring Superman in crazy variations of his costume and powers) during the Silver Age.īut one of the first applications of the concept in a tonally-earnest, multiple-issue sense was the classic Uncanny X-Men's 1980 ' Days of Future Past' story, which showed a glimpse of a dark possible future for mutant-kind. Once upon a time, the father of Marvel Comics Stan Lee coined the phrase "the illusion of change" in regards to superheroes – the idea being that an ongoing superhero story should give readers the idea that the hero's life is changing and evolving, even though the core concept remains the same, and on some level, the status quo always resets to its home position (more or less). Which makes it as good a time as any to look back on its history.
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Yup, this is all of it part-and-parcel for the House of Ideas for a long time and increasingly so in the last few months and weeks. Over the years, Marvel's heroes have been replaced with amalgams, mash-ups, and alt-identities for an indeterminate amount of time - some of whom have even grown into characters of their own when the originals returnedĬase in point: Miles Morales, Peter Parker's replacement in the now-defunct Ultimate Universe (itself an entire illusion of change publishing imprint) is celebrating his 10th anniversary, and in a few months will face off with Ben Reilly, the 616 Marvel Universe's Peter Parker replacement, who made his own return in October.Īnd that's not even mentioning the death-resurrection cycle that's currently fueling the X-Men titles or the Doctor Strange murder mystery that will result in a new Sorcerer Supreme that could wind up being.