Marvel Comics has more alternate universes than most people realize, and some of them deserve to return as ongoing series. One thing readers need to understand is that everything in Marvel is canon, and if a What If…? or a time-travel storyline changes anything, a new Earth is created. While the incursions and Secret Wars looked to end many of those alternate Earths, Marvel didn’t leave well enough alone, and more alternate universes have kept popping up. The recent Age of Revelation has created yet another alternate Earth in Marvel thanks to the mutants in the world, and it surely won’t be the last.
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With so many alternate Earths created since the early days of Marvel Comics, here are three of the worlds that deserve to return in an ongoing series of their own.
3) Earth-982 (MC2)
One of the best alternate Earths in Marvel Comics actually did get its own series for a short time, but it deserves much more recognition years later. What was surprising was that Earth-982 was introduced a few years before Ultimate Marvel Comics launched a new universe, yet there are arguments that this one was better. The world was introduced in What If…? #105, and readers loved it so much that Marvel brought it back for more, mostly thanks to Mayday Parker, that world’s Spider-Girl.
There was a great team there with A-Next, which was a young team of Avengers. These young heroes included a new Juggernaut and Wild Child, the daughter of Wolverine and Elektra. Add in the Fantastic Five and Darkdevil (the son of Ben Reilly), and there is so much here that could bear fruit for Marvel Comics if they ever gave them another chance.
2) Earth-19529 (Life Story)
Life Story was a spectacular idea when Marvel introduced it, but it hasn’t amounted to anything beyond two miniseries. They were Fantastic Four: Life Story and Spider-Man: Life Story. What makes them special is that they show the heroes’ careers as if there were no sliding timeline in the universe. Of course, the sliding timeline explains why the characters have only aged a few years in the 60-plus years Marvel Comics has been published.
In the two series, other characters were shown as older, mostly retired heroes, including Captain America, Hawkeye, Luke Cage, and the young heroes who are now veterans like Kamala Khan and Ironheart. The two storylines were emotional and brilliantly constructed, and the company could do no worse than bring this world back and retell the stories of other beloved heroes, as if they aged normally throughout their history.
1) Earth-311 (1602)
While it is unlikely, thanks to real-world controversies surrounding its co-creator, Earth-311 was a brilliant world created in the series Marvel 1602. This was a world created by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert that reimagined the heroes as if they existed in the Elizabethan Era. While this was years before technological advancements, these heroes still had to contend with a mysterious force threatening to destroy their world.
There were three sequels to the original eight-issue miniseries, including stories about the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and another featuring the Hulk, Norman Osborn, and Nick Fury. It also returned in Secret Wars, but this world was ripe for an ongoing comic. It could make for an incredible fantasy series, as evidenced by Marvel even using it in its What If…? animated series on Disney+.
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