Alternate History – the Comic Books
Filed under: Comics
Given that the majority of comic books exist in fictional worlds, it can be difficult to define what constitutes an alternate history and what doesn’t.
I define alternate history as a deliberate retelling of established historical fact, not counting retcons.
There are two important variables in comic book alternate histories. First, what history does the story deviate from? Second, is it part of continuity?
Alternate history can exist as a deviation from actual historical fact or as a divergence from the history of that particular comic universe.
In Ex Machina, only one of the twin towers was destroyed on September 11, so it is an example of an alteration of actual history. On the other hand, in the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, history diverged when Charles Xavier was killed. This was a change in the historical facts of the Marvel Universe, but not a change in actual history.
Secondly, alternate histories can occur as part of continuity or outside of it. When the Sphinx remade the world in the image of Ancient Egypt in New Warriors #47-50, that was a retelling within continuity. Rarely, events in these alternate histories can effect continuity in the originating universe but usually “time resets itself”. In contrast, the Elseworlds and What If ? comics occur outside of continuity.
Examples:
- X-Men: Age of Apocalypse An in-continuity deviation of Marvel history occurring when Charles Xavier was killed. Affected the regular Marvel Universe continuity even after the end of the storyline; introduced Nate Grey, Sugarman, Dark Beast and Blink.
- Uncanny X-Men #190-191 New York is changed to a sword-and-sorcery alternate history courtesy of wizard Kulan Gath. An in-continuity divergence from Marvel history with no lasting effect.
- New Warriors #47-50 The world is remade in the image of Ancient Egypt by the Sphinx. Another in-continuity change of the Marvel universe with no lasting effects.
- Elseworlds Out of continuity changes in the DC Universe.
- What If? Out of continuity changes in the Marvel Universe.
- Alter Nation A jumbled divergance from actual history.
- Ex Machina Divergence from actual history.
I’ll admit this system of defining alternate histories is far from perfect. Many questions still remain.
- Is the DC Universe considered a deviation from actual history as Lex Luthor was elected president instead of GWB?
- What about parallel universes? Is there a difference between alternate histories and alternate realities? Based on this, how does Exiles fit in?
- There are certainly cases where changes in comic book history leads to changes in actual historical fact as well. Superman: Red Son is a clear example of this. I would argue that 1602 is another example.
August 5th, 2004 at 12:36 am
Question #1: Not so sure. Does that make the Marvel U a deviation from actual history because Tony Stark became Secretary of Defense?
August 5th, 2004 at 3:58 pm
Question #1: Well, the DC universe is -from my p.o.v.- far too different from real world too make it an alternative reality in any case. They have Gotham City, Metropolis, Star City, Keystone City, Coast City, Whatnot City… plus, you can go back even farther if you want to look at it like this: in their 1,000,000-Crossover Buenos Aires was completely destroyed.
Another alternative history comic is Rex Mundi, which plays in 1933 but with the structures of the early modern age (16th century) still in power, with an Inquisition that never was abolished , with a reformatory movement that has failed when Martin Luther was killed.
August 15th, 2004 at 8:08 pm
[...] en comics done as a fifth-week special in December. Regular readers will know that I am a fan of alternate histories, so I look forward to these books. While previous What If? tales often suffere [...]
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