The Justice League Just Showed Marvel How To Do The Story Everyone Expects In Avengers 5

Summary Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 offers Marvel inspiration for potential multiverse storylines in Avengers 5.

The Tomorrowverse trilogy ends with a clever nod to DC's history, paving the way for a fresh start in the DC Universe.

Marvel could learn from DC's approach in culminating multiverse stories in a singular universe for a new beginning.

The end of DC's most recent animated universe with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 showed a solid direction Marvel could take with Avengers 5 and the Multiverse Saga's incursion storyline. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 was directed by James Wamester and featured the last performance from the legendary Kevin Conroy as Batman. It was the third installment in an animated trilogy that adapted the iconic comic story Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the concluding film of the Tomorrowverse, a connected universe that began with Superman: Man of Tomorrow in 2020.

Crisis on Infinite Earths is arguably the most influential multiverse story in comic history and was responsible for streamlining DC's convoluted continuity following its conclusion in 1986. The Tomorrowverse used this story as a basis to end its own universe, clearing the slate for what's to come in the upcoming DC Universe. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 brought the various animated universes together, utilizing an interesting concept called the Bleed, essentially a dimension that exists outside the multiverse and causes various universes to begin "bleeding" into each other.

Related Both Versions Of Justice League's Crisis On Infinite Earths Compared: Which Is Better? The live-action Arrowverse and the animated Tomorrowverse have very different takes on DC Comics' 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event.

The MCU's Teased Incursion Story Has Now Already Been Done By Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths' Movie Trilogy

Image By Nick Bayer

Since the end of the Infinity Saga, the MCU has been building up a potentially massive multiverse story in various films, like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home. In those films, as characters from one universe appear in another, and the boundary between separate universes begins to dissipate, catastrophic incursions can occur. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Mister Fantastic highlights the danger of this to Doctor Strange by explaining that, "An Incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes, and they collide, destroying one or both entirely."

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 does something similar to this with its "bleeding" concept resulting from the Bleed, the dimension between universes. Of course, multiverse stories have been around for much longer than that movie, and the MCU, but it feels like DC beat the MCU to the punch on film in showing the full ramifications of what can happen in various universes begin to intersect. The fabric of all reality itself is in danger.

Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths Part 3 Reveals How To Perfectly End The Multiverse Saga

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3's ending comes with the heroes' understanding that other Anti-Monitors appearing in the multiverse are inevitable. This leads to the realization that there is a need for a singular universe to ensure the overall survival of the DC Universe. It ends with the characters of the Tomorrowverse willfully giving themselves over to their end, setting up a new Earth-Prime that combines various aspects of different universes.

It's unclear what direction the MCU will take in ending their Multiverse Saga, but Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 provides a solid way that they could do it. If Marvel actually wants to reboot the MCU at the end of this saga, they could go the route of culling the different universes into a singular universe. This would give them a chance to start fresh and find new takes on characters that have been a staple of the MCU since its inception. The MCU has become so vast that maybe starting over could be a good thing for the longevity of the franchise.

The MCU shifted their entire focus to the multiverse following the conclusion of the Infinity Saga with Avengers: Endgame. There have been ups and downs throughout the Multiverse Saga, and it feels like they haven't quite utilized their multiverse's potential. The incursion story that has been building up throughout will continue in Avengers 5, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part 3 is a good basis for the type of story that Marvel should be telling.