When The Marvels‘ Dar-Benn used both Quantum Bands, she did more than just destroy herself. Those powerful ancient artifacts caused a massive energy surge that also turned her unstable jump point into a giant rift between parallel worlds. Monica Rambeau’s efforts to close the tear trapped her in a different universe entirely, one where the X-Men exist. But she might not have been the only Marvel superhero the movie’s big ending will have huge ramifications for. The cosmic explosion that created the multiverse pathway in space at the end of The Marvels might have created a fantastic new foursome in the MCU. And before Monica averted a potential Incursion, mutants might have “bled” into her home dimension.
Will The Marvels‘ Massive Space Explosion Bring the Fantastic Four to the MCU?
The Fantastic Four will soon arrive in the MCU. The iconic clan will kick off Phase 6 with their own movie. However, we don’t know if they’ll appear before their film the way some MCU figures debut in other characters’ projects. We also don’t know exactly how the franchise will explain the Fantastic Four’s sudden presence in the Avengers universe. Will they come from a parallel world in the multiverse? Or will they be natives of the MCU’s prime universe of Earth-616 who suddenly gain incredible powers? That’s their origin story from the comics. If the latter is what the MCU has planned for the Fanastic Four, then The Marvels might have just shown how those four regular humans became super beings.
Reed Richards, Susan Storm, her brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm famously gained their powers in Marvel Comics from exposure to cosmic rays during an experimental space flight. Meanwhile, The Marvels just featured a giant space explosion. While it might not be exactly the same type of exposure—The Marvels‘ was more like a cataclysmic burst of quantum energy rather than cosmic rays—it still would have exposed any nearby scientists on a secret cosmic mission to a massive energy surge. (That’s exactly the type of change the MCU makes all the time.) It was powerful enough to tear the barrier between worlds. It was certainly powerful enough to imbue someone with superpowers.
That would be true for Variants on both sides of the rip. Thanks to The Marvels, the Fantastic Four might have just gained their powers on the MCU’s Earth-616, or in the parallel X-Men world Monica Rambeau finds herself in, or both.
Of course, it’s also possible that, like the X-Men, the Fantastic Four already existed in that other reality. We’ve already met a super-powered Reed Richards Variant in the MCU’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. More of him and his cohorts definitely exist in the infinite multiverse already. If the Fantastic Four already a part of the X-Men dimension in the MCU, it’s possible they just switched realities, the same as Monica.
That’s why the Fantastic Four aren’t the only famous Marvel superheroes that The Marvels‘ cosmic bleeding might have pulled into the MCU.
Were Any X-Men Pulled into the MCU’s Earth-616 During The Marvels?
Dr. Hank McCoy now knows the impossible is anything but. for Monica’s presence in his universe showed Beast an incredible fact MCU fans already knew: parallel dimensions exist, and people can travel between different realities. But can they also unwillingly “bleed” into them? That’s the term Monica used to describe what was happening thanks to the rip in space. In The Marvels, she said a totally different reality was “bleeding” into her own.
What does that actually mean? Did that cosmic bleeding pull people into Monica’s world? Specifically, the mutants from the new dimension where the X-Men exist? Spider-Man: No Way Home established people can move through the multiverse against their will. Did that just happen to some of the X-Men of Beast’s world? Are they now on Earth-616? That would solve a big problem fans have long waited to get an answer to. The MCU is a place where the X-Men haven’t existed before, and it wouldn’t make much sense to suddenly learn they always have been there. Now The Marvels could be how the MCU explains the sudden appearance of Fox-era X-Men characters in the franchise.
If that “bleeding” was nothing more than a turn of phrase, and no mutants or Fantastic Four members got pulled into Earth-616 in The Marvels, there’s still one more obvious way Dar-Benn’s space tear will result in major Marvel characters joining the MCU. They have a new friend who wants to go back there.
Will Monica Rambeau Bring the X-Men or Fantastic Four to Her Home MCU Universe?
Monica is now a direct link between the world of the MCU and the X-Men. It’s a connection that didn’t exist before that tear in space. Multiverse of Madness‘s Charles Xavier is the only known mutant of that world. He was a Variant, not the Fox-era version of the character. But Monica might very well have met the Beast of the X-Men films. Beast’s looks are always evolving in Marvel Comics, and Disney used musical cues from both X2: X-Men United and Days of Future Past during the post-credits scene of the MCU movie.
Even if they’re not, though, Monica will want to go home. When she does, she might not go alone. She could bring some fantastic, exciting new friends with her.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.