Deadpool & Wolverine Plot Point Makes Marvel’s Multiverse Even More Confusing
I’m not the kind of fan who finds Marvel’s multiverse at all confusing or bothersome, but there was a concept introduced in Deadpool & Wolverine that just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense of me. The idea that each universe has an anchor being whose existence determines the life and death of their universe just doesn’t add up.
The Snarky Elephant In The Room
Yes, we’re talking about a Deadpool movie, so the concept of the anchor being could be the kind of thing Wade would make a fourth wall break in order to remind us to not take too seriously. Also the idea of Hugh Jackman’s Logan acting as an anchor being to Fox’s Marvel universe is obviously meant to reflect the character being the central moneymaker of those films.
But this concept comes to us from Mr. Paradox, an employee of the TVA, who we first meet in Loki. So, considering how important the multiverse will be to the MCU going forward, I’m not convinced the notion of an anchor being won’t come up again.
Anchor Beings
According to what Paradox tells Deadpool, every universe has an anchor being. If that anchor being dies, the universe itself begins to die. Without intervention by the TVA, the universe’s death takes thousands of years.
The Wolverine who dies in 2017’s Logan is the anchor being of the FoxVerse, Earth-10005. When he dies toward the end of that film. according to Paradox, Earth-10005 begins to die.
And without more explanation, for two very glaring reasons, this doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
How Can You Be An Anchor Being Before You Are A Living Being?
The first reason anchor beings don’t make sense is because the universe exists long before the anchor being does.
Our universe is, according to science, well over 13 billion years old. Even if you happen to subscribe to a belief system that disagrees with that number, my guess would be you still think the universe has existed for a lot longer than 200 years.
But when Wolverine dies in Logan, he’s a few years shy of 200. He’s born in 1832, and he dies in 2029.
So how could the universe of Earth-10005 exist before 1832? We’re told every universe has an anchor being, and Earth-10005 doesn’t have one until Logan is born. How could the universe exist before its anchor being does?
Doesn’t make sense.
Why Isn’t Every Universe Dead Or Dying?
If an anchor being dies, their universe dies, right? Process usually takes thousands of years, but still—that’s it. Universe is dead.
At the same time, in Deadpool & Wolverine, Paradox makes this out to be a relatively uncommon thing.
But how could a universe’s death be an uncommon thing if its life depends on an anchor being staying alive when everyone dies?
Logan, the gods of Asgard—they may have much longer lives than everyone else, but they’re still not immortal (and before you argue with me, Odin makes this perfectly clear in one of the earliest scenes of Thor: The Dark World—the comic book gods may be immortal, but the MCU ones are not).
So unless a specific universe’s anchor being winds up being one of the great cosmic entities like Eternity or The Living Tribunal, then that universe will eventually die and everything that happened in it will never have happened.
Hopefully, It Won’t Come Up Again
I’m hoping the concept of the anchor being simply doesn’t come up again and it will remain a Deadpool movie anomaly. Otherwise there will be one more thing in the MCU that doesn’t make sense beyond just, you know, Iron Man and Doctor Doom being the same guy.
