The Guardians of the Multiverse are a team made up of heroes from across multiple universes. The team was formed by the Watcher in order to stop an alternate version of Ultron.
Appearances[]
Marvel Cinematic Universe[]
What If...?[]
In a universe where Ultron won, the machine was able to gather all of the Infinity Stones and ascended to a level of consciousness which made him aware of both the Watcher and the Multiverse, while also allowing him to break through into other universes. The Watcher tried to stop him, but he was soon overpowered and forced to retreat. At this point, he realized he needed to break his oath of non-interference, in order to save the Multiverse. He does this by forming the Guardians of the Multiverse.
The Watcher gathers heroes from across the Multiverse:
- Captain Carter- From a universe where Peggy Carter received the Super Soldier Serum, instead of Steve Rogers.
- Star-Lord T' Challa- From a universe where Yondu accidentally abducts T'Challa instead of Peter Quill and became a Robin Hood-like hero.
- Doctor Strange Supreme- From a universe where Stephen Strange lost the love of his life in the car crash, instead of the use of his hands, and his attempts to undo her death ultimately destroyed his own universe. Until Ultron, he was the only one to become aware of The Watcher's presence.
- Prince Killmonger- From a universe where Killmonger rescued Tony Stark from the Ten Rings, but used him to instigate a war between Wakanda and the United States by murdering Tony, James Rhodes and T'Challa, and taking the mantle of Black Panther for himself.
- Party Thor- From a universe where Odin returned Loki to his people, instead of adopting him, leading to Thor being raised as an only child.
- Gamora- From a universe where Tony Stark wound up on Sakaar following the Battle of New York. Gamora has a device called "The Infinity Crusher" which is capable of destroying Infinity Stones.
- Black Widow- From Ultron's universe, where she is the last survivor. Natasha has an arrow containing the AI of Arnim Zola, which is capable of defeating Ultron from within. She was unable to use Zola before, as Ultron had already broken into the Multiverse, outside Zola's range.
The team (minus Black Widow) gather in a construct made to resemble the British pub where Captain Carter drank with her universe's version of Steve Rogers. Together, the team make a plan in order to defeat Ultron by taking one of his Infinity Stones and using the Infinity Crusher to destroy the others.
The team head to an uninhabited universe. With Strange Supreme providing protection magic for them, the group make a toast, leading to Party Thor letting off a large bolt of lightning, gaining Ultron's attention.
While Gamora and Killmonger head to Ultron's universe to prepare the Infinity Crusher, Captain Carter, Star Lord T'Challa, Strange Supreme and Party Thor do battle with Ultron, with T'Challa able to grab the Soul Stone from their armor. The Guardians make their escape, with Strange Supreme summoning an army of zombies to distract Ultron long enough to make their escape.
Upon arriving in Ultron's universe, the team encounter Black Widow, the only survivor of Ultron's world. Captain Carter is able to talk her down, explaining that the two are BFFs in her universe. Ultron soon arrives and a battle ensures with everyone trying to grab the Soul Stone. Eventually, the Guardians are able to hold Ultron down and place the Soul Stone into the Infinity Crusher, which in turn begins to crush the other stones as well.
Unfortunately, the Infinity Crusher fails, since the Crusher was built to specifically destroy the Infinity Stones of Gamora's home universe, not Ultron's. With all the Infinity Stones back in his possession, Ultron recognizes that Strange Supreme is providing the Protection Magic for the team, and focuses all his attention on him, blasting the other Guardians back.
Natasha is thrown towards her motorcycle, where she finds the Data Arrow containing Zola's AI. She & Captain Carter quickly form a plan. With Ultron too focused on Strange Supreme, Captain Carter jumps on Ultron and pulls up his armor's visor, giving Natasha an opening to fire the arrow into one of Ultron's eyes, leading Zola to override Ultron's code.
After Zola is uploaded into Ultron, shutting the Android down, Killmonger betrays the other Guardians and attempts to take the Infinity Stones for himself. However, Zola, now in control of Ultron's body, attempts to take the Stones back, leading to a tug-of-war between Killmonger and Zola. It is then that Strange Supreme realizes that this was The Watcher's plan all along, and so seals the Infinity Stones, Killmonger, and Zola in a Pocket Dimension.
The Watcher foresaw everything from the beginning, and chose the heroes specifically so things would play out as he intended:
- The Watcher chose Captain Carter due to her strength as well as having a strong friendship with the Black Widow of her universe, enabling her to convince the Widow of Ultron's universe to work with the Guardians.
- Star-Lord T'Challa is a master thief, allowing him to grab one of the Infinity Stones from Ultron's body.
- Doctor Strange Supreme's magic is powerful enough to protect the other Guardians, while also being able to seal away the Infinity Stones once separated from Ultron's body.
- The Watcher recognized Killmonger's power-hungry ways, and anticipated that he would betray the other Guardians by trying to take the Infinity Stones for himself. With him and Zola fighting over the Infinity Stones, Strange Supreme was given an opening to seal away the Stones, as well as two other villains.
- Party Thor is known for throwing huge, galactic parties, so could easily draw Ultron's attention. He also brought the head of an Ultron drone, which Killmonger would reverse engineer in order to take the Infinity Stones from Ultron's body.
- Gamora's Infinity Crusher would be a red herring, since the Watcher knew the real way to defeat Ultron would be to upload Zola into his body. Knowing the Guardians would object to such a plan, the use of the Infinity Crusher would allow them to lure Ultron back to his home universe, allowing them to encounter Black Widow and be forced to use Zola with no other alternatives.
- While Black Widow was not initially recruited by the Watcher, he anticipated that the Guardians would encounter her and she would join them, providing them with the Zola Virus.
Strange Supreme is given the task of watching the Pocket Dimension to ensure that neither Killmonger nor Zola can escape, while the remaining Guardians return to their universes from the exact points they left. However, Black Widow refuses to go back to her universe, since everything else in that world is dead. While the Watcher is unable to restore her world, he chooses to send Natasha to another universe, where various Avenger candidates, including that universe's version of her, were murdered by Hank Pym. This allows an opening for the Black Widow of Ultron's world to fill.
Post-Ultron[]
Following the events of defeating Ultron, Captain Carter gained a subconscious awareness of the Watcher's presence, sometimes being able to hear his narration.
Meanwhile, Strange Supreme, overwhelmed by his demons, began gathering from across the Multiverse potential universe killers, as well as righteous heroes, and imprisoned them in Pocket Dimensions, as he had Killmonger & Zola. He plotted to feed these heroes and killers into a forge in the hopes of restoring his universe.
Strange recruited Captain Carter and Kahhori (a young Mohawk woman from a universe where the Tesseract landed in Native America) under the pretense of being a more proactive version of the Watcher, but the two turned against him after realizing he was planning to sacrifice those he captured. Eventually, Strange was able to overcome his demons, but falls into the forge, restoring his universe but removing him from existence.
The Watcher took Captain Carter to explore the Multiverse with him.
Trivia[]
- Their team name is a play on the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- The premise of a team made up of heroes from across the Multiverse is similar to another Marvel Comics team The Exiles (which features another Captain Carter as part of the 2018 series).
- Gamora is the only member of the Guardians of the Multiverse not to have an establishing episode beforehand. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed her story back to Season Two. The Watcher commented on this when her episode eventually aired.
