Multiverse stories produce the most nihilistic villains
Villains are often the characters with the most agency in science fiction stories, using their genius to figure out how to take over the world or remake it in their image. But those schemes don’t have much value in a multiverse setting, where they can only exert influence on one of an infinite number of possible worlds. Confronted with the limitations of their actions, villains in multiverse-focused shows and movies keep hitting the same wall: They realize their limitations, succumb to nihilism, then desperately seek out a goal that will actually matter.
Long before Marvel Studios announced its Multiverse Saga, DC dug into comics’ rich multiversal history with the 2010 animated film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. In many ways, the film is a classic Star Trek mirror-universe story, where the members of the Justice League confront evil versions of themselves and meet good versions of their most dastardly villains. But the real star is Batman’s wicked doppelganger, Owlman. Upon discovering the existence of the multiverse, he immediately deduces that the only meaningful action he can take is to destroy all of reality.
It’s a dramatic escalation of the threat of an evil Justice League. Many stories assume the biggest danger in a morality-flipped DC universe would be an unchecked evil Superman, but Crisis on Two Earths instead finds a bigger threat in imagining Batman’s singular will and intellect bent toward destruction. Once Owlman embraces nihilism, he’s remarkably consistent, even greeting his defeat and death with a detached “It doesn’t matter.” Crisis on Two Earths is one of the rare DC animated films to have a direct sequel, leading into Justice League: Doom, where Batman devises ways to take down all of his
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