Alternate Timeline vs. Parallel Universe - And How Spidercade's Superhero Comic Uses Both

Time travel and alternate realities are staples of superhero and science fiction stories. The terms alternate timeline and parallel universe are sometimes used interchangeably but they can sometimes mean slightly different things depending on the fiction's logic.

Grasping the difference between these two concepts can add depth to our understanding of characters and the stakes in their stories.

Alternate Timelines: Branching Histories Explained

An alternate timeline occurs in Multiverse Theory time travel situations. When a character goes back in time and changes the past, instead of rewriting the future like in dynamic time travel, they create a new branched reality that has a different future also known as an alternate timeline.

The alternate timeline is where the changed past happened, and the original timeline is where there was no change and history stayed the same.

Alternate timelines often have multiple versions of the same character, different variations of various events, and lots of outcomes that don’t erase anything in the original timeline.

It can be helpful to think of many different timelines as various versions of the universe's history. It's similar to how a river breaks up into multiple rivers. Each river represents a different timeline.

An alternate timeline can be considered a type of parallel universe hence the name "multiverse theory". However, there's another type of parallel universe that isn't related to branched histories.

Parallel Universes: Exploring New Dimensions

A fantasy and sci-fi world in an alternate dimension.

A parallel universe is a separate reality entirely that's not linked to time travel. It's another plane of existence that often shares the same space as a character's own universe, but they aren't able to perceive it.

The parallel universe usually remains out of touch from a character's own perception unless there is some kind of special event like a rip in spacetime or an inter-dimensional portal that allows travel to it.

Another name for a parallel universe is an alternate dimension, which can help prevent confusion with alternate timeline.

Parallel universes can feature entirely different creatures or even variations of familiar ones. They may have fundamentally different environments or atmospheres and the gravity can even be sideways! The point is that one parallel universe may operate under its own laws of physics that's different from another and they can each contain their own timelines too. Multiple parallel universes together is called a multiverse.

An analogy for parallel universes can be like how multiple radio stations exist over the same airspace but if a radio is tuned correctly, it only hear's one of those stations. The other stations are of course, still there. They just aren't being perceived.

Parallel universes don't always have to share the exact same cosmological location either.

Implication In Zero Hour Epsilon Force

In the superhero and sci-fi comic Zero Hour Epsilon Force, both alternate timelines and parallel universes exist and a few different characters are involved in each.

Tyrannogator resides on Planet Netel while the human heroes originate from Planet Earth. It's explained in Issue 1 that the two worlds are in separate dimensions and that crossing between them affects the laws of time flow. This is because the two worlds don't operate exactly the same and time flows differently on Netel due to it being in another dimension. This allows humans from different time periods on Earth to exist at the same time in Tyrannogator's world if they cross over.

The demon villain in issues 2 through 4, also crosses over from Earth with Dr. Bill's help, largely due to his disdain for God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit. Though he does this despite knowing deep down that God transcends all of existence.

Meanwhile the evil cyborg Dr. Ore in issue 1 comes from an alternate timeline in the future and according to him, there is also a future version of Tyrannogator in that timeline that always foils his plans.

Distinguishing between timeline and universe allows both to coexist in the comic without causing confusion.

Wrap-Up

So, in short: Alternate timelines are branching "what-if" outcomes where the original history still remains in-tact along with those other branches, whereas parallel universes or alternate dimensions are other planes of existence outside of a character's own universe that may have it's own laws of physics and such.

Alternate timelines can sometimes be considered a type of parallel universe depending on terminology, but parallel universes or alternate dimensions that have their own planes of existence are not alternate timelines.

Both are powerful tools in fictional worlds and each one can carry different types of narrative weight for a story when a writer establishes rules for how they work in a story.

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