Let’s talk about a set of three numbers that nobody should care about, yet is somehow worth approximately $31,000,000,000.00.
A brief history of universes: You are currently reading this article in the only known universe to contain humankind. In this continuity, nearly 100 years ago, Superman was invented. Superman eventually fell under the publishing umbrella of National Allied Publications, which became Detective Comics, eventually simply known as DC Comics. Superman, Batman, and Tommy Tomorrow all moved forward through the decades, gradually receiving makeovers and continuity changes as they aged. In 1959, 21 years after the premiere of Superman, The Flash was “replaced” with a modern version, Barry Allen, who had all the powers of the previous (and now retired) Flash, Jay Garrick, from 1940. For 122 issues, Barry the New Flash was the only game in town. But in September of 1961, Flash hopped dimensions, and it was revealed that Jay Garrick was still the Flash, he was just the Flash on an entirely different Earth. Within two years, the entire Justice League would be crossing over to see this other Earth and all the alternate heroes of that dimension, and, for expediency’s sake, the “old” universe was designated as Earth-2. Obviously, Earth-1 was the Earth where all the current heroes hung out. You read about them every month! Nobody wants to hear that just because the other Earth has older heroes, they are somehow the first Earth. That would be silly…
Speaking of rival universes, from the beginning, the Marvel Universe was supposed to be more “real” than the fictional universe of their competition at DC Comics. Stan Lee always claimed that the members of his initial creation, The Fantastic Four, were supposed to be closer to how real superheroes would act. They have family squabbles! They don’t wear costumes! One of the dudes is a living rock! And while some of these changes to the superhero formula did not stick (the Fantastic Four got matching costumes inside of three issues), Marvel did maintain its place as a publisher providing something more realistic than a circus strongman zooming around with a cape. So, to that end, when it came time to number the Marvel Universe in its inevitable entry into multiversal hijinks, the prime Marvel Universe was granted the designation 616. There have been multiple explanations for why David Thorpe and/or Alan Moore (!) settled on 616 for makin’ it Marvel, but what is important is it is not “1” or “2”. 616! Because, like your fourth-grade gym teacher was always telling you, this universe isn’t special! It is one of thousands! And, as time went on, it would be confirmed to be one of hundreds of thousands! Take that, DC Universe! You can barely count past 52!
So it has been a little over 40 years since The Daredevils and Captain Britain started really exploring the Marvel Multiverse, and now we have an enormous number of universes rattling around. And a lot of them are based on the many, many times Marvel has attempted to get its animated and live action franchises off the ground. There is a universe for the Thing Ring to do its thing (Earth-700974). There is a universe for Marvel Zombies (Earth-2149). There is a universe where Mary Jane Parker moved to Portland (Earth-19529). “Old Man Logan” somehow got two universes (Earth-21923 & Earth-807128)! And, yes, there is even a place for “our” reality in the pecking order (Earth-1218). So, of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe got a designation, too, Earth-199999.
Well, until the movies went Galactus and tried to eat 616 whole…
In Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019), Spider-Man deals with grief through field trips. He encounters Mysterio, who claims to be a multiversal hero. Mysterio is proven to be a murderous villain, but before he falls to the full might of the military industrial complex as wielded by a teenager, he claims he is visiting Spider-Man’s Universe, which is designated by others as Universe 616. So that’s a funny joke! Mysterio is a known liar! He just looked at a world that had been ravaged by a purple space ogre, figured anything was believable, and then made up all this nonsense about alternate realities. 616 being “his” chosen number is a fun easter egg for the boys in their basements. Good job, Sony or Disney or somebody! Are these movies written by humans? Who cares!? Funny jokes for nerds make the world go ‘round!
Three years later, 2022 saw Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness identifying the MCU as Universe 616. For real! That was a designation from Doctor Strange-838 and Mr. Fantastic! Those guys aren’t liars! They are multiversal authorities! And since then, we have seen repeated returns to the concept of the “Marvel Cinematic Multiverse”, with the most recent offering (as of this writing) being The Fantastic Four: First Steps distinguishing its setting Earth-828. And, to be clear, nobody was previously using Earth-828. That’s new! Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider got its own universe (Earth-121347), but the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Benedict Cumberbatch is biting on Alan Moore!
And it shouldn’t matter. It is just a number, and this number is more imaginary than most. It is an arbitrary designation, nothing more.
But…
So you might have heard about this Loki guy. In Marvel Comics (Earth-616), he was technically the reason the Avengers came together via Hulk rampage. In the movies (Earth-616), he was also technically the reason the Avengers came together, but because of the very different motivation that he was jumpstarting an alien invasion. Or trying to steal a rock. Or something. It’s complicated. But he is less complicated in the Thor comics and movies, where his primary motivation is taking over Asgard and/or embarrassing Thor. And that makes a certain amount of sense, because Loki and Thor are siblings, and that rivalry is both emotional (they have feelings about siblinghood) and royal (two princes, and they are competing for the princely racket/throne). Tale as old as time: look at me, All-Father, I am the goodest boy in all the multiverse.
And anyone that is a student of mythology outside of Marvel is currently saying, “No, stupid, Loki is Odin’s brother. He’s Thor’s uncle.”
In Journey Into Mystery #94 (what basically became Thor’s ongoing comic), nine issues after Loki’s debut, it is revealed that Loki is Thor’s brother. In #112, the whole backstory is revealed: Loki is confirmed to be the son of Laufey, King of the Ice Giants, so Odin adopts an infant Loki by right of kings (or something).
Also, Baby Loki had amazing hair
Like the origin of the 616 designation, there are conflicting reports on the “why” of this decision. Supposedly, Stan Lee thought “evil uncles” were cliché, but “evil brothers” were somehow more novel. Jack Kirby thought back to the myths of yore, and identified Thor and Loki’s many adventures as something more fraternal, and less of an uncle/nephew dynamic. And he was not wrong! There are myths that have persisted for centuries that paint Thor and Loki as something more like equals than “a kid hanging with his dad’s blood brother”. But whatever the reasoning, the output is the same: since 1963, in every Marvel comic, television show, or movie, Loki, God of Mischief, has been identified as Thor’s brother. 62 years! Bro Loki is old enough to comfortably be a grandfather.
So that works out to… what? Two or three generations of English speakers believing that Loki is Thor’s brother? After about 1,500 solid years of Loki-brother-to-Odin supremacy, there is no doubt that if you asked the average person on the street “what is Loki’s relationship to Thor?” they would identify them as brothers. Over a millennium of established mythology overturned by the modern output of a couple of New Yorkers producing cracklin’ funny papers.
It should not matter! To my knowledge, no one is running around preaching the good news of Thor and his gorgeous blonde (or maybe red) locks. Whether or not legends mutate and change over time is ultimately inconsequential to the whole of the universe. We have bigger things to worry about than Disney incidentally owning and rewriting Norse Mythology. Worry about their impact on hideous corporate monopolies, not Loki’s family dynamics.
And while I could be worrying about anything else in the multiverse, I will admit that some of my concern over this issue is a personal turf war. Honest admission? I did not really get into “canon” comics until I was in my 20’s. There were no good comic shops in my area, and the best I could hope for was my dad taking pity on me ahead of a long car ride. Then maybe I could get whatever CVS had to offer for less than two bucks. But I did have plenty of videogames and television shows as a child. So I learned about Spider-Man from the Sega Genesis, and then enjoyed his Aerosmith-based animated series a few years later. Similarly, Fox Kids introduced me to the X-Men, and then I played Marvel vs. Capcom 2 approximately 20,000,000,000 times in high school. So when you stick Storm in a silver swimsuit until she starts hollering about driving “the Shadow King back into the astral plane before it reseals itself”, that’s my X-Men. I didn’t learn about her mohawk period until I was in college!
And today’s game? Marvel Cosmic Invasion is my X-Men, too. Much like how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is noticeably based on the TMNT animated series of 1987 (just the same as the beat ‘em ups that inspired it), Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a retro beat ‘em up in the style of Konami’s X-Men. Actually, scratch that, Konami’s X-Men kind of sucks under the hood, and it is based on X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men (Earth designation unknown), the 1989 pilot for an X-Men series that never was. So Marvel Cosmic Invasion is more based on the Capcom era of Marvel output (Earth-30847)… which never had a legitimate X-Men beat ‘em up, because X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse was closer to a 2-D action title than… Bah! It sure looks like random SHIELD agents from Capcom’s Punisher arrive for the finale of MCI, so we are going to go ahead and say this title draws heavily from Capcom continuity. We have an Iron Man that is making references to Tony Stark being his boss! Tony hasn’t tried that whole secret identity obfuscation thing in the comics (Earth-616) for 20 years, and (not coincidentally) that has been the standard in other media going forward thanks to the finale of 2008’s Iron Man (Earth-616). Even putting aside the (noticeable) costumes and setting, by the second level, Marvel Cosmic Invasion goes out of its way to confirm this is not the movie or comics continuity.
And a Marvel Universe where Wolverine and Storm are still fighting Sentinels, Phyla-Vell is stowing her sword to hang out on Peter Parker’s couch, and Black Panther defeats Knull before anyone has to hear about his backstory? That is the universe I would choose for all these heroes. Make mine Marvel, and exclusively that Marvel.
But it is not to be.
Marvel 616 is the real Marvel Universe. In one 616, Phyla-Vell is a Peter David creation that had a pretty good run from about 2003 to 2009 (she once got to ride her space dragon girlfriend into battle), but was eventually killed by a (then recently revived) Thanos, and hasn’t been seen much since. In the other 616, “Phyla” is an unrecognizable star child from the third Guardians of the Galaxy film, and is technically a super evolved fish. In either eventuality, she ain’t exactly selling tickets and/or issues. Here, she is teaming up with Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, and Cosmic Ghost Rider to bisect galactic bugs. It’s a good time for everybody! And Phyla-Vell is using Ike’s aether ability like a boss. Why? Who the heck knows! It just looks cool, and it sure murders creepy-crawlies better than a can of Raid. And I don’t want much more out of a beat ‘em up starring Marvel luminaries. Hell, I don’t want much more out of Marvel period. Give me a whole movie of X-Men teaming up with Nova and Venom to beat back the Annihilation Wave. It cannot be worse than Captain America: Brave New World!
You know what? Let Disney internally fight over who gets to be 616. Dr. Downey Doom can claim he is threatening Earth-616 in the movies, and Jason Aaron and Avenger Prime can claim Earth-616 is named for an army of 616 versions of Satan menacing the multiverse in the comics. Let that turf war happen, and I’ll be over here with Beta Ray Bill defending the Rainbow Bridge. Y’all can have 616 and its billion-dollar heroes, just toss me my old guard every once in a while. I will be happy with Marvel Cosmic Invasion until I have another random Ghost Rider on the hook.
I wonder which number will be assigned to Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls…
FGC #721 Marvel Cosmic Invasion
- System: Looks like we have Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox X|S, Windows, and… Linux? Really? Alright.
- Number of players: Four is the proper number here… right? You cannot get an 8-man group going with the ability for each player to switch between two characters… I think.
- Maybe actually talk about the game for a second: It’s a fanservice-based beat ‘em up. The good news is that the combat feels appropriately “crunchy”, the sprite work is great, the enemy patterns do not get too repetitive, the fanservice is massive, and (my biggest compliment) the large cast all feels very distinct. Playing as Rocket Raccoon is appreciably different from playing as She-Hulk. That’s the way it should be but could easily have been “everyone’s got the same toolkit”. It’s a beat ’em up! I might not have noticed!
- Say something mean: “The main campaign” is too long. And once you have completed it, there is not much of a reason to go through it again. The branching paths in arcade mode mitigate this (story mode progression also has “branches”… but you must play both branches to proceed), but since the individual stages are so long (for a beat ’em up), it will wear if you are attempting it all in one playthrough. And that makes it a lot less likely for me to get three pals all on the couch some random night. If it is going to take forever, we may as well play Monopoly…
What was Missing: Despite a few extra distinct Marvel “space stories” being wedged into this, we do not see the Hulk. Planet Hulk, or the concept of an entire world based on Hulk Fighting Tournaments. Will that be DLC? And while we are talking about DLC, how is Annihilus, first introduced in Fantastic Four Annual #6, the final boss without seeing a single member of the Fantastic Four. They’re hot right now! I’m not just talking about Johnny!- Also Missing: Give me Blastaar or give me death. That… uh… “man” was built for beat ‘em ups!
- OMG it’s 2009: I have seen complaints that this needs more “modern” beat ’em up innovations. That’s fair! But most of the modern flourishes available would make it more difficult for “pick up and play”. This is 100% a game meant for someone dropping in without a tutorial, and, for better or worse, that means that the answer to 90% of the obstacles across the game is “keep punching that” or “punch from a slightly different angle”.
- Is it really a beat ‘em up? Yes. There is a fight with random mooks on an elevator. So it is officially a beat ‘em up by the only rubric that matters.
- Other Beat ‘em Ups: There are little bug dudes that can be clobbered for food, and they are very reminiscent of the dwarfs of Golden Axe. That you for immortalizing Death Adder’s least effective foot soldiers.
- Favorite Boss: The three bug mothers defending the hive comprise the most interesting battle. It is mainly because it is the only boss fight that involves three main targets, but that is enough to win my heart. A shame that that is also the boss battle least based on any recognizable Marvel characters.
- Least Favorite Boss: Knull sucks shit and should be removed from any and all Marvel materials. We already had Carnage for “evil Venom”. Venom was already kind of evil himself! But, no, now we must fight an evil space king-wizard version of Venom. Woo. I would have rather seen a symbiote-possessed tyrannosaurus. Or Devil Dinosaur! Give use Devil Dinosaur planet!
Most Recurring Nobody Award: How many games involving the X-Men also make Master Mold a boss? It sure seems like that giant robot has a disproportionate videogame to other media ratio.- Mobile Organism: MODOK is a little (Pym Particles!) dude that gets kidnapped by bugs early in the adventure, and is then chased until being the penultimate boss of a stage that takes place in alien environs. In other words, he seems to hold much the same position as Krang in the previous Tribute Games title. And, yes, this does mean MODOK and Krang should be friends.
- Did you know? This article was mostly about the Marvel Multiverse, but DC Comics had a multiverse first. And technically the first “parallel Earth” in DC Comics was not an Earth-1/Earth-2 crossover, but in a Wonder Woman issue from 1953. It is a basic story about Wonder Woman teaming up with an alternate version of herself (“Tara Terruna”) to beat another Earth’s baddie (Duke Dazam), but it was the first time DC Comics ever did such a thing. And it is vaguely recognized! The whole crossover was designated as Earth-59 in 2010.
- Would I play again: Do you want to play a few levels right now? I’m game.
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen something special for Christmas. So come back next week to get filled with the holiday spirit! Please look forward to it!
“Why aren’t you playable!?”