History Main / GuardianOftheMultiverse

** It should be noted that--with the exception of Man-Thing--all of these characters are ''self-appointed'' guardians. They debate even with each other who has the right to the position. Generally speaking though the Living Tribunal is the one, true, official holder of this job, being second only to The One-Above-All; IE Kirby/God from the above, who rarely makes appearances.

** In the Marvel UK books the role is taken by Merlin (until he is killed by the effects of Mad Jim Jaspers's battle with the Fury) and Roma of Otherworld. Their appearances in the "main" Marvel books are limited mostly to those written by ChrisClaremont, who has never made any secret that he's a huge fan of the Creator/AlanMoore[=/=]AlanDavis run on ''ComicBook/CaptainBritain'' that introduced them

* Access from the ''{{Marvel|Comics}} vs {{DC|Comics}}'' series. He can't even stay in either one for too long or else his power will start [[RealityWarper warping the realities]].

* DCComics had The Monitor before ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and Monitors after ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' [[spoiler: the original Monitor turned into a MultiversalConqueror, and The Monitors were in fact preying on the Multiverse, and were fired by one of them, who was turned into a human.]] In summary, they are ''really bad'' at this.

** The Phoenix from ComicBook/{{X-Men}} also serves this function in an official capacity; specifically, it guards the M'Krann Crystal, which amongst other things is a gateway to the multiverse. The most common holder of the power of the Phoenix Force is of course Jean Grey, who while using it once held an entire, broken universe ''in her hands'' and fixed it ''with her mind''.

** It should be noted that--with the exception of Man-Thing--all of these characters are ''self-appointed'' guardians. They debate even with each other who has the right to the position. Generally speaking though the Living Tribunal is the one, true, official holder of this job, being second only to The One Above All; IE Kirby/God from the above, who rarely makes appearances.

* ''AnimeDragonBallSuper'' gives us Zen-O, the King of All. He rules over the entire multiverse and is the single most powerful character in the entire franchise. So far, he appears to be the watcher type who doesn't interfere with the happenings of the different universes, although he does show concern when Champa and Beerus don't do their jobs.

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* ''BanjoKazooie: Nuts & Bolts'' has the Lord of Games, or L.O.G. for short. He's the godlike creator of all video games (his head is a computer monitor perpetually displaying an in-progress game of ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}'') and often makes sarcastic comments about game industry and trends. He even mocks the player for struggling with the previous game's infamous GuideDangIt moment.

* Creator/{{CLAMP}} has Yuuko Ichihara of XxxHOLiC as well as [[spoiler: Mokona]] in ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth''.

* {{Champions}} has Entropus, who oversees the multiverse from a crystal palace. He appears in the RealityStorm crossover with {{Silver Age Sentinels}}.

* This is essentially what the ''ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum'' do.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/living_tribunal_162.jpg]]

Enter the '''Guardian of the Multiverse'''.

* Given the problems brought by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_inflation eternal inflation model]], that propose an infinite set of universes and thus among others ''[[MindScrew everything happening an infinite number of times]]'', [[http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.7540 some authors]] have proposed the existence of a kind of multiverse watcher[[note]]Something natural, not a sort of Universe-destroying Galactus or Unicron[[/note]], that would fix those issues.

* DCComics had The Monitor before ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' and Monitors after ''InfiniteCrisis''. In ''FinalCrisis'' [[spoiler: the original Monitor turned into a MultiversalConqueror, and The Monitors were in fact preying on the Multiverse, and were fired by one of them, who was turned into a human.]] In summary, they are ''really bad'' at this.

* In Crossoverpairinglover's stories, Greek Titan Prometheus proclaim themselves this. They monitor worlds, and while they occasionally do a good job, they spend most of their time finding new ways to destroy the gods of Olympus in various realities and being quite morally gray. He's at times even compared them to Marvel's Illuminati and CaptainBritain 's Corps merged together.

** In the Marvel UK books the role is taken by Merlin (until he is killed by the effects of Mad Jim Jaspers's battle with the Fury) and Roma of Otherworld. Their appearances in the "main" Marvel books are limited mostly to those written by ChrisClaremont, who has never made any secret that he's a huge fan of the Creator/AlanMoore[=/=]AlanDavis run on ''CaptainBritain'' that introduced them

* In MichaelMoorcock 's multiverse, this role is filled by an entity called the Cosmic Balance, which is all about [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil maintaining the Balance]] [[OrderVersusChaos between Law and Chaos]]. It's not entirely clear whether the Balance is sentient in the same way as humans and gods, but it fits the trope either way.

* Creator/{{CLAMP}} has Yuuko Ichihara of XxxHOLiC as well as [[spoiler: Mokona]] in MagicKnightRayearth

* This is really messed up in MarvelComics. The Watchers sometimes do it, The Timekeepers were doing it in their own sick ways, and The [[TimePolice Time Variance Authority]] once was also protecting the Multiverse like it was its duty. Then The Comicbook/{{Exiles}} came, and turned everything upside down. First we get a mechanism that takes the form of The Timebroker - combined minds of people gathered in order to save The Multiverse. Then a bunch of bug aliens becomes its [[TheManBehindTheMan "man behind the man"]]. And then some godlike couple pops out of nowhere and quickly disappears, to be replaced by a good, female version of Kang. [[spoiler:The latest issue gave us a theory, that changes in the Multiverse also change its guardian.]]

** It should be noted that -with the exception of Man-Thing- all of these characters are ''self-appointed'' guardians. They debate even with each other who has the right to the position. Generally speaking though the Living Tribunal is the one, true, official holder of this job, being second only to The One Above All; IE Kirby/God from the above, who rarely makes appearances.

Our universe is not the only one. In fact, it's just one of countless {{Alternate Universe}}s in TheMultiverse. TheMultiverse is so big and complicated, that it needs a being capable of watching over all of it. Enter the Guardian Of The Multiverse. He prefers to be TheWatcher, to observe and not interfere unless it's necessary. However, if your EvilTwin escapes his native universe bent on attacking yours, a GalacticConqueror, DimensionLord, or OmnicidalManiac wants to break the barrier between realities, an EldritchAbomination tries to spread its horror through the dimensions, or if two alternate worlds declare a war that threatens multiple realities, the Guardian Of The Multiverse will be the DeusExMachina called upon to stop it. If changes in one world's history will endanger others, he will gather a team to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and become their MissionControl. And if a MultiversalConqueror rises to enslave all worlds in all galaxies of all dimensions, the Guardian Of The Multiverse will gather an army needed to stop him (or be the very first person he kills, because of TheWorfEffect).

* Adam R. Brown's fantasy series, ''Literature/AstralDawn'' features this in the form of the Aash Ra.

* Adam R. Brown's fantasy series, ''{{Literature/Astral Dawn}}'' features this in the form of the Aash Ra.