Questions about timelines and universes ?

[kid_omega_prime]

Ok I made this topic for questions about the different timelines and universes in DC and marvel. Ok I like to know if earth 691 is one of the futures of 616 ? Like is major victory the future version of justice or a alternate Vance ? Ok if someone were to kill major v then would justice fade away like when Scott was killed in BOTA ? And what about earth 41001 in that universe wolverine is still alive even though he is dead now in the 616 universe and gambit and rogue have a son. So if someone were to kill gambit in 616 would the 41001 gambit and his son fade away ? Oh not the mention spider-man 2099 is his universe the the future or a different universe because his earth is listed as earth 928. I don't have any questions for DC yet but I'm really looking forward to this topic taking off.

[ZNOP]

Ok I made this topic for questions about the different timelines and universes in DC and marvel. Ok I like to know if earth 691 is one of the futures of 616 ? Like is major victory the future version of justice or a alternate Vance ? Ok if someone were to kill major v then would justice fade away like when Scott was killed in BOTA ? And what about earth 41001 in that universe wolverine is still alive even though he is dead now in the 616 universe and gambit and rogue have a son. So if someone were to kill gambit in 616 would the 41001 gambit and his son fade away ? Oh not the mention spider-man 2099 is his universe the the future or a different universe because his earth is listed as earth 928. I don't have any questions for DC yet but I'm really looking forward to this topic taking off.

Simply put, alternate "Earths" are in and of themselves independent of each other and what happens in one reality (See: "What If?") won't necessarily happen just the same (if at all) in another.

[Loki]

Ok I made this topic for questions about the different timelines and universes in DC and marvel. Ok I like to know if earth 691 is one of the futures of 616 ? Like is major victory the future version of justice or a alternate Vance ? Ok if someone were to kill major v then would justice fade away like when Scott was killed in BOTA ? And what about earth 41001 in that universe wolverine is still alive even though he is dead now in the 616 universe and gambit and rogue have a son. So if someone were to kill gambit in 616 would the 41001 gambit and his son fade away ? Oh not the mention spider-man 2099 is his universe the the future or a different universe because his earth is listed as earth 928. I don't have any questions for DC yet but I'm really looking forward to this topic taking off.

691 had diverged from 616 a long time ago, so no, killing Justice would not impact on Major Victory. 41001 and 928? Both still potential futures for 616 (Wolverine could get resurrected, so his death isn't guaranteed to have derailed The End still being a possible future). But generally speaking, if an event happens that renders the future we have seen impossible (such as the death of someone in the present who is still alive in the future-era alternate reality), then it marks a divergence point where that future is no longer a possible future for 616. However, a similar reality might still come about - to give an example of this, the first Sentinel-dominated future we saw (Days of Future Past/Earth-811) stopped being a potential future for 616 the minute the assassination of Senator Kelly was prevented (actually, probably earlier, given later revelations, but the assassination works for demonstration purposes). However, the possibility of very similar realities coming to pass remained.

[L.R Johansson]

During the mid to late 80's, under the guidance of the esteemed gentlemen Shooter and Gruenwald, there wasn't actually a real difference between alternate realities and alternate timelines - because of a simple rule: time cannot be changed.

Whenever you go back in time, and change something, you actually create a point of divergence, and a new, ALTERNATE Universe is born. Hence, it was impossible to change time.

In essence, that's all every alternate Universe is, anyway - all of time is individual variations of the subatomic particles of the Universe - every new event, every movement of every atom, is a new Universe, being born...
Because of Quantum Mechanics, this actually kinda' makes sense.

This fits rather well with the story-idea that time is actually an entity, an organism (Infinity), tied to another varation on that organism, Space. (Eternity) And the organism then constantly adapts, grows, changes.

What is time? What is space? What is the difference between them? No one knows... except the Watcher, and he ain't telling.

[MyriVerse]

During the mid to late 80's, under the guidance of the esteemed gentlemen Shooter and Gruenwald, there wasn't actually a real difference between alternate realities and alternate timelines - because of a simple rule: time cannot be changed.

Sure wish that's how it always was. The past should be immutable from your perspective and the future should never be set.

[ZNOP]

During the mid to late 80's, under the guidance of the esteemed gentlemen Shooter and Gruenwald, there wasn't actually a real difference between alternate realities and alternate timelines - because of a simple rule: time cannot be changed.

Whenever you go back in time, and change something, you actually create a point of divergence, and a new, ALTERNATE Universe is born. Hence, it was impossible to change time.

In essence, that's all every alternate Universe is, anyway - all of time is individual variations of the subatomic particles of the Universe - every new event, every movement of every atom, is a new Universe, being born...
Because of Quantum Mechanics, this actually kinda' makes sense.

This fits rather well with the story-idea that time is actually an entity, an organism (Infinity), tied to another varation on that organism, Space. (Eternity) And the organism then constantly adapts, grows, changes.

What is time? What is space? What is the difference between them? No one knows... except the Watcher, and he ain't telling.

Sure wish that's how it always was. The past should be immutable from your perspective and the future should never be set.

DoomBox/Doomlock

[strathcona]

Editors before Shooter didn't mess with time too much, but when they typically used the rule that when time traveling you can't change the past, you just create a new timeline. Shooter and Gruenwald solidified that rule and most editors after them followed it, until... Joe Quesada. His whole idea of editing was to stay right out of the creative process and let the writer tell their own story, whether it made sense or not. Sure that may have led to some good stories, but it also lead to a lot of stories that didn't make sense within the context of the MU. And there were stories involving time travel under his run (and Alonso's) that didn't follow those rules (Young Avengers or ANAD X-Men come to mind). Luckily there were some good writer like Kurt Busiek (Forever Crystal) and PAD (Doomlocks as seen above) that tried to explain away these type of stories. So now, I have to assume that everytime there is a time travel/dimension travel story that doesn't follow the rules, one of the above devices were used, even if they weren't mentioned in the story.