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This thread is inspired by the events in Fantastic Four #568 - featuring the Marquis of Death.


In this issue of Fantastic Four, there is more travelling around alternate realities, with the Marquis having killed countless versions of Reed and the FF.

Here are some other examples I can think of where a villain travels through the multiverse killing alternate versions of someone:

Dark Raider aka Reed Richards - Reed Richards
Abraxas - Galactus
Proctor - Sersi
Slaymaster - Psylocke
Gog - Superman
Xenon - Supergirl
Black Zero - Superboy (maybe didn't kill them, just captured them)
The One - Jet Li (OK, not comics, but still...)

Frankly, I'm getting a bit sick of this idea. I mean in Fantastic Four alone we've already seen this sort of thing a few times.

Anyone else tired of this concept? Do these villains ever run into each other on their killing sprees? Do the writers actually think this concept is original or interesting when they do it? Any other examples anyone can think of?

There's a lot of regurgitated material, yes. Dozens of titles a month over a period of decades will do that. But yeah, an attempt at avoiding such cliches would be nice.

New Sun, Gambit!

I killed an alternate version of me.

Or was it my twin? I wasn't willing to take the risk.

I disagree with avoiding the concepts. I think it's a brilliant concept that hasn't been executed full or properly.

I think the idea of alternate versions of a character opens many doors regarding issues relating to identity, characterisation, relationships, cool fight scenes etc etc. The good story potential behind this is extremely vast and offers such a massive amount of creative freedom to a comic book writer.

Even me, for example. I like to make stories in the hypothetical vs thread in the vs forum. I already know my next set of vs match ups will be in a story involving the DCU and the multiverse.

However the problem is (like already stated) some of the crap aspects have been overwrought. Sometimes writers have used the platform of concepts (like DC's multiverse) to justify how cool they'd think it'd be for Batman to be a vampire or to simply get away with stuff they wouldn't be able to justify within continuity. Now some love this, some hate it. But the undeniable advantage of alternate versions of characters is a greater degree of creative freedom for the writers. The disadvantage is what a lot of fans (including myself) would describes as overwrought as a concept.

Overall though, like with any form of art whatsoever, if you allow true freedom of expression to the author/writer/creator etc etc you get some terrible stuff and some fantastic stuff. Personally I felt so far the good outweighs the bad.

I'm annoyed that most of the ultimate universe is being killed off by the pimp hand of Loeb and Co.

Originally posted by -V-
I killed an alternate version of me.

Or was it my twin? I wasn't willing to take the risk. If I saw another me, I'd figure it was a Terminator coming to replace me!