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Fanfic / "Heroes" Series

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The Heroes series by Aragorn_II_Elessar is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover fanfic that combines several comic book worlds, among others, into a single story. Originally beginning as a crossover between the Arrowverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it very quickly goes Off the Rails from there, introducing, among other things, Tolkien's Legendarium, the X-Men Film Series, Merlin (2008), the DC Extended Universe, and many others. The list of works involved, which only continues to expand:

    The various Earths 

The series consists of twenty-five works:

    Works in the Series 

As one can expect, Serial Escalation is at play here, and soon enough the heroes are uniting to combat Multiversal threats on a regular basis. From MODOK to Sauron to Galactus to Doctor Doom, even when the heroes stand united, they face grave threats all around them. No one is ever safe, and the stakes only continue to rise - can the heroes defeat the vile villains they face, or is their unity not enough?

The main storyline of the series was ended in August 2022, while the side-story When Heroes live their lives was ended in August 2023.

Tropes present in the series:

  • 10-Minute Retirement: As in canon, Clint Barton attempts to retire from heroics, although he returns to the field due to the Grandmaster abducting most of the other active Avengers in Contest of Champions.
  • Actor Allusion: Characters looking like other characters from other universes gets lampshaded constantly:
    • Steve and Thor almost attack Lord Elrond and Lady Galadriel on sight while thinking they're Red Skull and Hela, while Bruce is rather shocked to see Arwen and mistakes her for Betty.
    • The entire premise that Lena Luthor is actually Morgana from Merlin (2008) is entirely based around the fact that both are played by Katie McGrath.
    • Balthazar Blake tells Luke Cage that he likes his last name and mentions that the power Johnny Blaze wields feels familiar.
    • Marc Spector is hypothetically cast as Josh Segarra, leading to both Oliver and Sara confusing him for Adrian Chase.
    • Ray Palmer takes a moment to appreciate how badass Clark-96 is, Blade gets confused when Mick Rory looks like the modern depictions of Dracula, and Peter-199999 has to take a moment to realize Batman-89 isn't Adrian Toomes.
    • Arthur, Merlin, and Gwen are shocked when they find Uther as a librarian on Earth-92. Meanwhile, Oliver, Melinda, and Daisy mistake Gunn for Mr. Blank and Deathlok, Chase and Kal mistake Spike for Victor Stein and Brainiac, and Melinda notes that Iilyria looks like Coulson's former girlfriend Audrey.
    • Willow Rosenberg and Maria Hill call each other Lily and Robin when they first meet.
    • Lucifer originally mistakes Kal-167 for Cain, while Buffy mistakes Amenadiel for Robin Wood.
    • One of the first interactions Clark and Lex have that isn't underscored by hatred is to note that Soldier Boy looks exactly like Jason Teague.
    • Arnold Schwarzenegger is hypothetically cast as Marvel's Hercules because the Austrian Oak played Hercules in his debut film.
    • Cordelia Chase ends up in the body of Kyra, who is very similar in powers and personality and eventually takes over with Kyra's consent, leading to the survival of the both of them.
    • The Grandmaster blows up Barry-Blue and when he is remade, he looks like Alex Summers instead, causing the Earth-10005 crew, especially Cyclops, to react.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • By virtue of having to deal with dozens more heroes at a time, all of the villains get a massive physical upgrade to allow them to stack up to all of the heroes of different universes at once. Special mention goes to Thanos, who still curb-stomps everyone in his way in spite of the exponentially higher number of heroes, and the Batman Who Laughs, who takes on multiple Batmen at once and easily comes out on top.
    • Although Dawn Summers was a capable combatant in the end of the main show, here she is also a capable witch and spends most of her battles throwing around fireballs.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance:
    • Stormfront and Soldier Boy both make their first appearances immediately after the Flight 37 incident, rather than the events of seasons two and three respectively.
    • Terry McGinnis becomes a crimefighter while Batman is still in action rather than after he's already retired; as a result, he's taken the Red Robin identity instead of the Batman identity, though the other Batfamily indicates that he is still Batman's intended successor.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • In canon, Harmony's final betrayal of Angel is shown to be a genuine case of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder that Angel happened to predict. Here, she's loyal to Angel the whole time and is only pretending to betray him in order to get Marcus where he wants him.
    • Lex manages to convince Lamplighter to switch sides, convincing him to sell out his former allies in exchange for a lower prison sentence and a smaller guilty conscience.
    • Word of God confirmed that Sharon Carter will not become the Power Broker.
  • Adaptational Intelligence: Most versions of Dormammu leave their thinking to their allies; this Dormammu, while certainly not a genius, manages to genuinely trick the heroes into letting him out, only being stopped when some of them travel back in time and prevent it from happening at all.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: In canon, Karli's crusade may have been violent but it was at least understandable due to the overpopulation crisis caused by Banner's Snap. Here, because the Snap was reversed within a few days, there's no overpopulation crisis, making her come off as far more delusional and hyper-violent than before.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: In canon, Billy Butcher's hatred of Supers, while understandable, crosses into unreasonable territory when he spreads that same hatred to Ryan, whose only crime is having Homelander as a father. Here, seeing Clark and Steve in action proves to him that good Supers exist, and while he realizes who the boy's father is, he puts that aside to raise the boy as his own.
  • Adaptational Sympathy:
    • Norman Osborn's one redeeming quality has always been his love for his son Harry, but here it's upgraded to his primary motivation: Harry is dying from an unknown illness, and the experiments with the symbiotes were an attempt to find a cure. It's only once his original plan is foiled that he goes full Green Goblin and thus sheds his sanity and sympathy.
    • John Walker is given far more benefit of the doubt than he was in the show. While he still kills Nico and causes an incident, a lot more focus is put on the negative impact of having just taken the serum and his corrupted mental state, presenting him as an otherwise decent man who simply made a terrible mistake. This also means that his mental slide is cut short, as he's given more compassion and respect before he can completely lose it.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • In canon, Thanos only wiped out half of Gamora's species; here, he explicitly killed everyone except for her but misled her into believing that her species was now thriving due to his actions.
    • Dinah Drake went crazy on being kicked out of Team Arrow and willingly joined Thanos' army of villains to get revenge.
    • Thaddeus Ross was certainly no saint in the MCU, but he was ultimately no worse than the average military slimeball. Here, he was a member of the Circle of the Black Thorn.
    • In canon, Andrew Wells certainly wasn't perfect, but his worst choices were largely done by the manipulations of others (like Warren and the First Evil) and his desire to redeem himself slowly became genuine before the final battle. This Andrew tries to run to Doctor Doom's side when he feels he's not getting the respect he's owed from the Scoobies, getting himself killed in the process.
  • Adaptational Wimp:
    • In Far From Home, Mysterio's power largely came from electronic drones, meaning that even when the fight came down to a one-on-one brawl, he was still a threat. Here, it comes from a gas, and once it's nullified, he goes down fast.
    • In The Boys Season 3, Soldier Boy is almost as strong as Homelander, and is the first person to actually stagger Homelander. Here, since "Of Heroes and Charlatans" was written before The Boys Season 3, Soldier Boy, while still a very skilled and strong opponent, is nowhere near as strong as he is in canon, and also has a different backstory.
    • In most comics, Ra's al Ghul is such a competent warrior that no-one short of Batman, Lady Shiva, or others like them are able to even hold him back. Here, on Earth-38, he was successfully held back by the Robins even without Batman's interference.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Since Thor already has Stormbreaker, Beta Ray Bill's weapon is named 'Stormbringer' instead when its eventually created.
  • Adaptation Personality Change:
    • In the comics, one of Moon Knight's defining characteristics is his multiple personalities always fighting each other, leaving him with a constant identity crisis that never dissipates even after years. Here, while he's no less crazy, his personalities work together surprisingly well, with Jake at one point willingly giving up control of the body to Marc for the sake of the plan.
    • Dormammu is far more sadistic and human than he is in any official adaptation, openly playing a sadistic game with SuperThor with the fate of Earth at stake. SuperThor calls it out, commenting that he's picking up traits from the humans he claims to despise so heavily.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • In the mainline comics, Jason Todd's relationship with the rest of the Batfamily remains tenuous at best, to the point that he's even tried to kill several of them. In particular, his jealousy for anyone holding the Robin mantle after him is a defining part of his character. On Earth-38, he seems to be on good terms with the Batfamily with no ill will towards anyone, including Tim.
    • T'Challa choosing to take Bucky into Wakanda leads to a drastic overhaul of his relationship with the royal family. T'Challa defending him from the other tribes in spite of the scorn they were given makes Bucky so loyal to him that he considers himself a Wakandan even before a New Yorker, with T'Challa being both his king and honorary brother and the royal family considering him one of their own.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Earth-1 Joker and Batman are introduced during a recreation of the freighter scene from The Dark Knight and it's mentioned that the hospital bombing from the same movie occurred, but Harvey Dent goes unmentioned and there's no indication he was corrupted into Two-Face if he still exists.
    • Twilight from the Buffy season eight comics is banished back to its dimension before its plan can get off the ground, cutting off that plot entirely.
    • Inverted; during the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, T'Challa personally gets involved in the conflict, whereas in the show the Dora Milaje, Ayo in particular, did it instead.
  • Affably Evil: Zemo remains as genuinely polite as he always is, genuinely apologizing to Bucky for using him as a pawn in his plan and even complimenting Yelena Belova's art collection, all while completely unrepentant about his heinous past and racking up plenty of kills on his mission.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Non dies during the final battle with Morgoth, but unlike many of the other villains, he goes out with dignity, simply holding his wife as he goes as the two apologize to each other for getting to this point.
  • Alien Non-Interference Clause: As his comic counterpart, Uatu the Watcher refuses to interfere in humanity's affairs, sharing such a belief with the Monitor. The fact that Galactus makes him break this oath and aid Doctor Strange in repelling him showcases just how desperate he is for humanity to survive, something the Monitor calls him out on.
  • All-Loving Hero: Terry's belief in his Thou Shalt Not Kill philosophy is so strong that even when the Grandmaster completely removes his inhibitions and drives him to homicidal rage, he still can't bring himself to kill his opponent Robin; even though he wins the fight, it's because Jason fell rather than through malicious intent.
  • Always a Bigger Fish:
    • Thought Morgoth and Thanos were the worst the Heroes could face? Soon enough, they are facing Dormammu, and then come even worse ones like Galactus and Knull. But worse than them all is the Black Winter, who even Galactus is terrified of. And he implies that Earth-199999 has an even darker fate than him coming to it. That is of course, the Anti-Monitor.
    • The Mystic Falls Gang thought that Cade was the worst they'd face. Then Cade is slaughtered by Blackheart who none of them can even scratch.
    • The Avatars from Charmed (1998) were amongst the most powerful foes in that franchise. But Blackheart slaughters them all effortlessly and ends up being the biggest threat to this world as well.
  • Ambiguously Evil: Ironically enough, Mephisto. While he's obviously an Unreliable Narrator, he maintains that corrupting Manny was actually better for the Multiverse in the long run, as it both prevented a Zombie Apocalypse and a revolt of the other Hell Lords, suggesting he may be a Well-Intentioned Extremist even if he's a sadistic prick about it.
  • Ambiguous Situation:
    • In "Of Heroes and Charlatans", Lex reveals that he's been on Earth-72 for two years even though time on the other Earths hasn't gone nearly that fast. It's not made clear if it's a case of Year Inside, Hour Outside as it was with Arda or if the Monitor travelled back in time to put him there.
    • In one of the side-stories, Merlin reflects that Morgana's fall to evil happened incredibly fast even for her and speculates that Morgause might have brainwashed her into becoming evil. He has logic backing it up, but he has no proof, and ultimately he admits that it doesn't matter too much now that she's trapped in the Dark Dimension.
  • Amoral Attorney: Given that Wolfram & Hart makes recurring appearances, this is a given. In fact, in one of the few multiversal constants, Lindsey McDonald is apparently a member on every Earth.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • Astra describes her experience serving Morgoth in this manner, saying that she realized that she was doing the wrong thing but had no power to resist it. The fact that she was going to do the same thing to humans through Myriad sparks her Heel–Face Turn.
    • In "Heroes from Infinite Earths", Lord Vishnu condemns The Monitor to this; as punishment for his manipulations of the heroes, his body is split into multiple parts that will retain consciousness while oozing blood and bile, avoided by every other being as his spirit lurks the edges of the multiverse, praying for mercy and peace every moment but not receiving either. Vishnu concludes by informing Mar Novu that the heroes of the Crisis will be remembered for their greatest deeds and their praises sung, but the whole of existence will condemn Mar Novu for his role and he will be aware of it.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Following the defeat of Galactus, Uatu and the Monitor get into an argument over their methods. When the Monitor tries to play the Above Good and Evil card, Uatu responds with a question Novu can't respond to:
    "Tell me, do you think you could have defeated Galactus?"
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Johnny Blaze only had a cameo in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when he passed on the Spirit of Vengeance to Robbie Reyes in a flashback. But here, he appears quite a bit and has a very important role in Heroes stand united.
    • In Spider-Man 2, a Doctor Strange is mentioned by Jameson, and in this series, this Doctor Strange actually appears. He is much more powerful than Earth-199999 Doctor Strange as well.
  • Ascended Meme:
    • When Earth-2002 and Earth-2012 Peter first meet, they immediately point at each other and argue over it, a reference to the legendary "Spider-Man pointing at himself" meme from the Spider-Man cartoon, the scene itself being based on the one from the end of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
    • Loki uses his magic to create an illusion bully version of Earth-2002 Peter after going through his memories, including the Symbiote ones, meaning he has his own Bully Maguire whom he uses to scare and confuse people who annoy him.
    • In "The Contest of Champions", all three Peter Parkers end up doing the "Bully Maguire Dance" at one point under the Grandmaster's control.
    • After "The Contest of Champions", Earth-2012 Peter has a strange dream where he effortlessly breaks out of his imprisonment under the Grandmaster and says lines like "How about now, you still wired in?" and "You are ridiculous", before Morbius appears and says "It's Morbin' Time", and 'morbs' the Grandmaster.
  • Asshole Victim: While Constantine sending Ross to Hell is a horrific fate, no one is particularly upset that it was Ross that it happened to. This only gets stronger when he's revealed to have been a member of the Circle of the Black Thorn.
  • Author Avatar: As is typical for works with Deadpool, he tends to serve as a voice for the author's feelings on characters and plots. This walks the spectrum from praising T'Challa's actor Chadwick Boseman for his work while he was sick to endlessly bashing Andrew Wells.
  • Back from the Dead:
    • Morgoth has Thanos utilize the Infinity Stones to resurrect hundreds of former villains from the heroes' past, from small fry like Stane and Gothmog the Orc to the large-scale like Damien Darhk and Sauron.
    • After being impressed by Buffy's battle with Glory and Dromos, Lucifer gives her one of his signature coins and lets her resurrect one of her friends. Jenny asks for Tara to be resurrected in her place, so Buffy chooses her.
    • The Monitor, as per usual, resurrects Lex-167 following his execution by Doctor Doom, recruiting him to his cause.
    • Cordelia Chase is resurrected following Blackheart's death, having been Not Quite Dead all along due to transporting herself to Earth-98.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Lord Vishnu is generally a forgiving god, but he inflicts a true Fate Worse than Death on Mar Novu for his role in the Crisis.
  • Big Bad Wannabe:
    • Saruman styles himself as the most powerful person in the room, but in the end, he's just a spiteful manchild with nowhere near the strength or skill he pretends to have. Eomer, of all people, takes him down just by chopping his head off in the chaos of battle, and he ultimately goes forgotten in the grand scheme of things.
    • Thanos is a major threat, but compared to Morgoth even without the Stones, he's being played from the start and barely even knows it. Ghost Rider ends up rendering him brain dead in the final battle before he gets anywhere near the Gauntlet.
    • For all the big game Mordo talks, he's not any kind of threat on his own, especially compared to his fellow servants The Batman Who Laughs and Carnage. Compared to them and especially his boss, he goes down with almost no fight.
    • All three Lex Luthors are incredibly smart tacticians who utilize the Multiverse to their advantage, but their intelligence is ultimately limited by their short-sightedness and arrogance. In the end, all three are dead from their own plans backfiring, with none of them accomplishing anything they set out to do. Ironically, Lex-167 finally becomes as effective as his canon counterpart following his resurrection, but only when he goes up against someone more villainous than himself.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • In the final battle against Thanos, Thanos not only pits the heroes against most of their old enemies, but once the heroes have killed most of their foes Thanos uses the Gauntlet to revive the villains all over again, leaving them facing fresh opponents when they're already exhausted. However, the new use of the Gauntlet allowed Constantine and Gamora- trapped in the Soul Stone after Constantine was lost during a cross-dimensional accident and made a deal with the Stone to save Gamora- to disrupt the link between the six Stones and force the Gauntlet off Thanos's hand long enough for Barry Allen to take it away.
    • Just as Sam, Bucky, and Zemo are exposed to Selby as imposters, Yelena snipes her out of nowhere, giving them an opening to escape.
  • Body-Count Competition: Oliver joins Legolas' and Gimli's competition. And wins. Until its revealed Aragorn killed even more.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: During Contest of Champions, Grandmaster basically does this for the heroes; once his combatants for each fight have been chosen, he uses his powers to provoke them into a blind rage so that they will fight to the death regardless of their usual relationships with each other.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Once Deadpool shows up, this becomes par for the course. Examples include cursing the author for convoluted plot twists, bawling his eyes out at dramatic scenes and comparing them to their canons, and calling characters either by their actors names or names of other characters they've played.
  • The Cameo: As is the tradition in the MCU, each story features at least one cameo from Stan Lee.
  • Canon Welding:
    • Radagast never appeared during the War of the Ring because an encounter with Dormammu in the past sent him falling through Space and Time until he fell in present day New York on Earth-199999.
    • The Blue Wizards Morinehtar and Romestamo went missing because the Teserract sent them to different worlds, where they became Balthazar Blake and Merlin respectively.
    • Doctor Doom is revealed to have been responsible for the collapse of the Alkai Dam, ensuring that Jean Grey received the Phoenix Force.
    • As it turns out, Oliver's List wasn't just a collection of Tempest members, it was a list of Wolfram & Hart's clients.
    • Kal ends up using Black Kryptonite to separate Fred Burkle and Illyria once the two spirits begin fighting for control over the body.
    • Karli isn't just a superhuman because of the serum - she's also a Slayer.
  • Cardboard Prison: Once Zemo actually bothers to try to escape his prison, he manages to do so within a few hours at most with very little effort. It's made clear that he could've escaped at any time if he really wanted to.
  • Character Development: As Doctor Doom is based on his Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes incarnation, he originally begins the story as a petty and violent man who almost destroys his universe due to his hubris. By his next few appearances, he's become a Chessmaster on par with his comic counterpart who can take on everything that comes his way and come out alive, on top of being a Well-Intentioned Extremist who's protecting his universe from other vile threats.
  • The Chessmaster:
    • Doom is easily the most competent villain the heroes have ever faced. Doom's plans take place over decades, and his ability to adapt to new information as he learns it makes him a terrifying opponent to fight. It's to the point that even though the heroes are aware of his location (Earth-10005's Latverian Embassy), they make no attempt to fight him because they know he'll have some kind of backup plan they won't expect, and at least he seems docile for now.
    • Helmut Zemo, as in the show, is let out of prison by Sam and Bucky yet is easily the one actually in charge of the operation. Within only a few days, he wipes out the last of the super serum and ensures the destruction of the Flag Smashers, even though he's re-arrested before he can finish the job.
  • The Chosen Many: "Heroes from Infinite Earths" features twenty-five chosen Paragons as opposed to the seven from canon; Piper Halliwell (Inner Strength), Paige Matthews (Purpose), Freya Mikaelson (Resilience), Caroline Forbes (Compassion), Willow Rosenberg (Magic), Tara Maclay (Love), Angel (Redemption), Oliver Queen (Steadfastness), the Doctor (Healing), Superman of Earth-96 (Truth), Batman of Earth-38 (Humanity), Wonder Woman of Earth-50 (Honor), the Smallville Superman (Justice), Logan (Hardship), Maguire's Spider-Man (Responsibility), Matt Murdock (Courage), Wanda Maximoff (Reality), Doctor Strange (Time), Clint Barton (Family), Natasha Romanoff (Change), Arthur Pendragon (Destiny), Frodo Baggins (Determination), Samwise Gamgee (Loyalty), Aragorn (Hope), and Steve Rogers (Leadership). However, due to Steve's temporary death and Novu doing something to Earth-167 Lex to make him siphon off a Paragon's energy into himself, Lex ends up replacing Steve as the Paragon of Leadership, while Steve returns as a White Lantern and representer of all Life.
  • The Chosen One: In "Heroes from Infinite Earths", it is revealed to Thor by Krishna/God Himself that he will be The One To Save Us All from the Crisis and his job is to defeat the Anti-Monitor and recreate an even more beautiful Multiverse.
  • Cliffhanger: "Vampires, Witches, and Blackheart" ends with the Grandmaster discovering the Cosmic Cube on Sakaar.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture:
    • The Batman of Earth-99 tortures his Earth-38 counterpart in an effort to get him to confess that sparing his enemies makes him no better than them. It's stylized almost identically to the Arrow scene in which Adrian Chase tortures Oliver.
    • Moon Knight ends up torturing both Rhino and Lindsey McDonald through similar methods - in Rhino's case, he also threatens to kill his mother, and in Lindsey's case, he electrocutes him while he's in water.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Given that the Batman Who Laughs has Bruce Wayne's tactical mind, it's no surprise that he thinks quick in a fight. He manages to take down the entire Smallville Justice League, alongside Lex Luthor, by hitting them with all of their weaknesses before the battle, ensuring that none of them are up to their full strength when he jumps in.
  • Commonality Connection:
    • While he doesn't quite act on it, Slade Wilson feels a strong connection to Willow Rosenberg as he watches her reunite with Tara, holding the Scooby Gang back from interfering and recognizing that only Tara can actually solve the situation thanks to his own experiences with Shado.
    • Freya Mikaelson and Erik Lensherr end up having one with each other, which leads to both of them ending up in a relationship, and later happily living together.
  • Composite Character:
  • Consulting a Convicted Killer: Just like in the show, Sam and Bucky meet with Zemo to learn more about the super-soldier serum when the Flag Smashers go on their rampage. This soon becomes letting him escape so he can give them tips and directions.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Thanos' Snap killed half of the Multiverse in this series rather than half of the Universe, so whenever a new Universe is introduced, there is always talk of how the Snap affected that Universe and who got temporarily dusted.
    • In "Rise of the Great Demon", Dormammu's escape into the main dimension results in the skies across the Multiverse turning red before the characters reverse time to prevent him from escaping his dimension. When we're later introduced to Earth-93, we see that its version of Superman flew out to investigate the red skies before the timeline reset and erased his universe's memory of the incident.
  • Crazy-Prepared: What makes Doom such an effective opponent is that he's prepared for his plans going awry, always having a backup that can at least ensure his escape if he finds himself surrounded. While he loses the Phoenix force, he still manages to walk away from the battle since only he knows Clark's location, and he even throws in information on his partnership with Lex just to sweeten the deal.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • In the beginning of the series, Tony Stark tries to fight Kara Danvers but can't even dent her while she breaks apart his suit.
    • Peter Maximoff and Bart Allen effortlessly humiliate Godspeed due to being much, much faster.
    • Steve effortlessly defeats Homelander with the Green Lantern Ring, and later, a "battle" happens between Superman and Homelander that largely consists of Homelander breaking his own body trying to even make Kal flinch, with Black Noir having shared the same fate earlier as Steve effortlessly defeats The Seven.
    • Karli Morgenthau tries to fight Steve who is very held back throughout the majority of the fight in an attempt to talk her down, but when he finally puts in some effort, Karli doesn't stand a chance.
    • The first fight of Blackheart against Constantine, the Scooby Gang, Team Angel and the Mystic Falls Gang ends with Blackheart brutally and effortlessly defeating them all with his increased power.
    • In "The Contest of Champions", Charles Xavier and Citizen Steel are brainwashed to fight at one point, and due to his psychic abilities, Charles simply controls Steel to knock himself out.
    • Marcel Gerard and his Vampires try to fight Loki and Erik Lensherr but the Vampires are all killed easily while Marcel becomes their prisoner, allowing the Originals and Hayley to return to New Orleans without fear of harassment from Marcel.
    • Lord Shiva easily helps the heroes destroy the Darkhold across the Multiverse and kills Chthon as well.
  • Deal with the Devil: Dr. Doom has made some kind of deal with every evil entity he can find: Dormammu, Mephisto, Parallax, and the First Evil, gaining power at various prices. This backfires on him when Strange points out to them that Doom intends to use that power to live forever and never hold up his end of the bargain, making them withdraw their power at a crucial moment.
  • Death by Adaptation:
    • Lord Elrond sacrifices himself in Tony's place to destroy Morgoth's army.
    • Kennedy the Slayer is killed during the battle in the alley depicted in the Angel series finale.
    • While Wesley Wyndam-Pryce and Lilah Morgan have their deaths play out as per canon, their spirit forms are then permanently laid to rest via Ilyria burning their contracts with the Senior Partners rather than being kept alive to serve them for all eternity.
    • Dawn Summers originally began dying in the main universe following the Seed of Wonder's destruction, but it took several months to begin the process and she ultimately didn't quite fade away; here, she fades away instantly.
    • Matt Donovan confronts Blackheart when he is on Earth-29, but is killed effortlessly by being cut into two.
  • Death by Irony: As per canon, Fred Burkle's death turns Wesley into a Death Seeker, and he gives his life to help destroy the Circle of the Black Thorn. Unlike in the show, however, Ilyria's and Fred's essences are separated much sooner - before Wesley permanently disappears - meaning that before he disappears forever, Wesley has time to sadly realize that he essentially died for nothing.
  • Death Is Cheap: In Contest of Champions, Grandmaster's new powers allow him to provoke the various heroes to fight to the death, and then he can bring the "loser" back to life so that he has an inexhaustible supply of gladiators.
  • Decomposite Character: Sharon Carter's role in the Madripoor crisis is split up into two people: Yelena Belova and the real Power Broker.
  • Defiant to the End: In Contest of Champions, Steve resolves to keep fighting and tries to die on his feet even after the Grandmaster sends all five of the captured Supermen to attack Steve at once.
  • Did Not See That Coming: As in his source comic, the Batman Who Laughs can only be defeated by the one thing that Bruce Wayne would never normally do: ally with the Joker.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Lex doesn't seem to realize the inherent problem in releasing an enemy powerful enough to take on the entire Justice League and then trying to fight him one-on-one. Rather predictably, the Batman Who Laughs takes him down without breaking a sweat, and Constantine has to arrive to save his sorry ass.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Doctor Strange and Doctor Fate are able to use their powers to kill the Senior Partners themselves, wiping out their influence across the Multiverse.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation:
    • Wormtongue is killed by Saruman rather than by Legolas, and Denethor dies at the Black Gate rather than in Minas Tirith.
    • Theoden makes it past his canon death at the Witch-King's hands, only to be killed by Saruman during the Battle of Wakanda.
    • Saruman himself is ignominiously decapitated during the Battle of Earth, rather than being killed by Gríma Wormtongue as in the film.
    • Marcus Hamilton makes it past his canon death, only to accidentally be killed by Peter Parker-199999 during the following battle.
  • Disabled in the Adaptation: Harry Osborn, who is usually fit enough to take on the Green Goblin mantle, has a terminal illness so severe that being put in cryostasis is the only thing keeping him alive.
  • Divine Intervention:
    • When the ever-manipulative Powers That Be and the Elders have a meeting where they try to decide how to manipulate and control the Heroes of their Earths again for their own gains without caring about the Heroes, Lord Krishna from the recently formed Council of Godheads shows up and tells them that their authority over these matters is over. When a PTB called Behmen calls guards to chain Lord Krishna, the chains get too heavy for them, and then Behmen himself tries to chain Lord Krishna but finds himself all alone suddenly in some sort of illusion where he is disintegrated by a red wave, making him scream in real time. The blind PTB leader Balial is confused by what's going on, and so Lord Krishna gives him sight to see for himself. The divine sight he sees is too much for him to handle and he begs to be blind again, Lord Krishna obliging before telling Behmen he saw his future, and then he leaves as Balial, Behmen and the other PTB and Elders are all rattled, deciding to oblige the Council of Godheads.
    • One PTB called Jossetta Whedonasta tries to defy the Council of Godheads anyways for his own twisted pleasure, only for Sun Wukong, who is also part of the Council, to come in and kill him.
    • Thor wakes up the comatose Originals and frees Klaus Mikaelson from imprisonment, allowing the entire family to reunite. Since the Mikaelson family were followers of Viking Culture, their own God helping and reuniting them is like divine intervention for them.
    • The Council of Godheads in general, as they are supposed to be a benevolent body of Gods from various Pantheons, headed by Lord Vishnu/Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva and Lady Parvati who actually help the Heroes from time to time. Most recently, "King in Black" saw Lord Krishna help the heroes against Knull by providing a physical manifestation of the love Peter Parker's closest allies have for him so that they can be protected from the symbiote god long enough for Peter to gain the upper hand. And after that The Dagda saved Spider-Man and Doctor Strange from their mortal wounds that'd have otherwise killed them.
  • Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Given the number of actors doubled up across the various franchises, this comes up a lot, sometimes being played for humor (such as Thor almost attacking Lady Galadriel on sight because she looks like Hela, with Steve having to desperately convince him to just stop for a second) and sometimes for drama (such as Team Flash being awkward around Accelerated Man when they learn he looks like Hunter Zolomon).
  • Dramatic Irony: In chapter 17 of "When heroes live their lives", the Scooby Gang mentions an offscreen encounter with Angel where he seemed to be acting rather erratic. As the audience knows, Angel has been hearing Cordelia's voice and is trying to figure out how to bring her back, explaining why he's so off his game.
  • The Dreaded: The heroes of Earth-199999 are able to face down Morgoth, Thanos, Dormammu, Doom, and the Senior Partners without fear, but all of them are outright terrified of Galactus. Doctor Strange outright says all they can do to survive the coming conflict is pray, and from the get-go they're not fighting to win - they're fighting to survive. They even keep the other Multiversal heroes out of the conflict because the odds of victory are so small that they can't risk taking the heroes of other Earths with them should they lose.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Despite his lack of a fourth wall, Deadpool is usually dismissed as an idiot to anyone who hears him speak, but he does actually solve one problem through his pop-culture references: he points out that Lucifer is able to act as King of Hell through a regent by citing Ned Stark, allowing Lucifer to go on vacation and visit his beloved Chloe.
  • Empathic Weapon: In "King of Black", Knull's sword contained the essence of Richard Parker, and turned against Knull when the god directly hurt Richard's son.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Various Batmen are forced to ally with their versions of the Joker in order to defeat The Batman Who Laughs. Batman-50 also allies with his Deathstroke to figure out where they are, as they see no point in continuing a fight with no more stakes.
    • The one thing that Superman and Lex agree on is that Vought and the Seven are far worse than either of them could ever be for the other, and they team up to take them down.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Lex-38 and Lex-167 can't stand Lex-50, as while the former two only cause the kind of damage they can control and everything has a purpose, Lex-50 is just a sadist who wants to watch the world burn.
    • Earth-1 Joker despises his Earth-50 counterpart as well for abandoning what makes the Joker unique in favor of being a bog-standard crime boss. He even kills said counterpart himself.
    • Earth-50 Deathstroke is an unrepentant mercenary, but he willingly joins the heroes on several occasions to take down villains much worse than he is, such as Dormammu, even when he has nothing to gain from it.
    • Doctor Doom genuinely despises Warren Mears, viewing him as a worthless scumbag who deserves nothing from a powerful witch like Amy. Similarly, Andrew disgusts him so much that he not only kills Andrew when he tries to join him, but he gives the heroes back the reality breacher he stole with no strings attached.
  • Evil Me Scares Me: In "Contest of Champions", when the various heroes are forced to watch Erik and Logan's pasts (Erik's life is based on the prequel films and Logan's on the original trilogy), Erik and Gandalf (due to his resemblance to old!Erik) are particularly disturbed when Magneto tries to use the mind-controlled Xavier to kill all the humans with Stryker's dark Cerebro.
  • Evil vs. Evil:
    • Lex-167 and Lex-38 end up selling out their Earth-50 counterpart in a desperate attempt to save their own ass, leading to his death.
    • Joker-1 ends up killing Joker-50 out of rage for how much of a sell-out he's become since his heyday.
    • Lex-167 is ultimately defeated by a combination of Lindsey McDonald prosecuting him and Doctor Doom executing him in his cell.
    • The Senior Partners end up sending the heroes to take down Doctor Doom since, for once, their interests genuinely align - Doom destroying the Seed of Wonder would have negative consequences for all of them.
    • During the opening stages of "Heroes from Infinite Earths", The Anti-Monitor kills Darkseid and the Exterminators defeat the Celestials.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Lord Krishna shows The Powers That Be, the Elders and the Tribunal how they will die in the future. While most of them are screaming or in tears or just behaving hysterically, Sandra accepts her fate by joining her hands in front of Lord Krishna and smiling with a happy tear. When the anti-matter wave comes, she helps the Charmed Ones and their family escape to another Earth and before dying simply says to the other Elders that this was their punishment for manipulating their Champions.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Mar-Novu gets this from Lord Vishnu due to his manipulations of the Heroes of the Multiverse.
    Wretched Mar-Novu, you have misused your powers and committed vile actions of evil and tyranny under the name of good for the last time! Thanos, Morgoth, Darkseid, Sauron, Doomsday, Earth-38 and Earth-50 Lex Luthors, Morgan le Fay, The Batman Who Laughs, Carnage, Glorificus, Dromos, the Senior Partners, Blackheart, the Grandmaster, Knull, Galactus and Black Winter…you shall be punished more severely than all of them!......Your spirit shall never find peace. Every part of your body shall be in eternal decay. All pores of your body shall eternally ooze blood and bile. No being shall lurk near you, Mar-Novu. Alone, your spirit will keep lurking the corners of the Multiverse till the end of time! You shall pray for mercy and peace every moment you haunt these worlds, but you shall receive neither. You shall exist in ignorance! You shall exist in darkness! You are as much responsible for the Crisis as Mobius. The Heroes of the Crisis will be remembered for their greatest deeds, and their praises sung, while the entirety of existence shall condemn you, and you will know it, Mar-Novu! You will know it.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Taking down Vought International begins to mend Kal and Lex's relationship. While there's too much bad blood to ever genuinely call them friends, Kal expresses sincere happiness that Lex has finally found a way to be a genuine hero, and in spite of everything, they part on good terms, glad to have at least seen each other's good sides after fighting for so long.
  • Forced to Watch: Just to further rub in his power, the Grandmaster doesn't just force his contestants to fight to the death unwillingly - he also broadcasts it live across the multiverse, forcing everyone who cares about them to watch their loved ones die.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Steve and Kal are sent to Earth-72 right in the middle of the Flight 37 disaster, leading to Homelander's true colors being exposed via live-stream almost immediately afterwards. Within days, Vought and the Seven are all defeated for good.
  • Friendly Enemy: By the end of "Never alone", it's clear that any animosity between Peter and Toomes has evaporated, as both of them clearly respect each other quite highly in spite of their opposing sides. Peter immediately rules him out of the suspect list in his loved ones' kidnapping on the logic that Toomes respects him too much, and when Toomes reveals that he did give out Peter's name after being tortured and begs him for forgiveness, Peter gives it without hesitation.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Witnessing Magneto's actions in the original trilogy horrifies Erik, as he is disgusted at how his older self would put Rogue's life at risk for his own agenda, manipulate Charles into nearly committing genocide, and abandon Raven just because she was cured.
  • Godzilla Threshold:
    • The Batman who Laughs is such a threat to Earth-38 that Batman is willing to make himself Ra's al Ghul's heir in exchange for his help defeating him.
    • The arrival of Galactus freaks out Doctor Strange so much that he outright evacuates the planet to the Mirror Dimension, breaking most magical laws in the process. Loki also breaks out the Space Stone, a weapon saved for the absolute worst-case scenario, and Uatu the Watcher breaks his non-interference oath to aid humanity.
    • When the heroes face the Beyonder in the final battle, Thor and Kal merge into Thor-El channelling the full power of the Odinforce after Kal has dived directly into the sun, but even with all that power they barely defeat the Beyonder and know they won't be able to repeat that on a regular basis against larger numbers.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Lex Luthor has The Batman Who Laughs attack the Justice League, knowing that the villain will defeat the heroes so he can jump in and defeat him for them. The problem is that the BWL is so good that Lex can't defeat him either, and only Constantine's interference gets anyone out alive.
  • Good Feels Good: Lex gets his first victory following his resurrection against Vought, working with Superman and Captain America to take down someone worse than him. As he basks in the victory, he notes that it feels good to be a hero for once.
  • Grey-and-Grey Morality: The heroes banding together to defend Jean Gray from Ryu is called out by everyone as an incredibly difficult decision, even if they eventually all agree to it. On the one hand, Jean is genuinely regretful for everything the Dark Phoenix has done and is clearly just as much a victim of it as anyone else. On the other hand, it doesn't erase the fact that she killed five billion people during her power trip and the person they're defending her from just wants her brought to justice for that.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Peter Parker of Earth-2012 is still traumatized by his failure to save his version of Gwen Stacy, to the point that he seeks out the Gwen of Earth-199999 on his own to apologize to her. After he helps save her from Norman Osborn, Gwen comforts him and tells him that while she may not be his Gwen, she's still a Gwen, and she forgives him for his previous failure.
  • Heel–Face Turn:
    • Lex manages to convince Lamplighter to switch sides from Vought to the Boys, selling them out for the creation of Compound V.
    • The battle between Thor and the Silver Surfer ends with Thor bashing in the Surfer's head, reverting him back to Norrin Radd and ending Galactus's brainwashing.
  • Heel Realization: Downplayed with Lex Luthor; while he still admits that he doesn't like Clark, seeing Homelander in action and realizing exactly the kind of man Clark could have become if he wanted to makes Lex realize that he isn't that bad after all, and while there's too much bad blood for the two to ever call themselves friends, they at least part as allies.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Elrond sacrifices himself in Tony's place in order to Snap away Morgoth's evil forces, finally defeating the Dark Lord once and for all at the cost of his own life.
    • In "Heroes from Infinite Earths", Barry-Red (the Barry Allen of the Arrowverse) sacrifices himself to destroy the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter cannon and delay the destruction of the multiverse.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: A recurring issue as the heroes face Doctor Doom; although they know him to be egotistical, dangerous, and intelligent, they don't know what he actually wants, meaning they have no way to predict his actions.
    Doctor Strange: [Doom is] a powerful sorcerer and master of magic who wants...I have no idea what he wants.
  • Hidden Villain: Ultimately revealed that Mar Novu was the one who initially brought the Arrowverse heroes into the MCU in the name of preparing from for the Crisis, turned the Originals into vampires, created Veritas and the Silence, and provoked Gideon into going after Wyatt, among other things.
  • Hope Spot: When Thanos moves to sacrifice Gamora to the Soul Stone, John Constantine (who has been trapped in the Soul Stone since a dimension-jumping accident) manages to open a portal to Hell so that a soul from Hell is sacrificed to the Stone in Gamora's place, saving Gamora's life. Unfortunately, since a soul was still essentially sacrificed to the Soul Stone, Thanos still claimed the Stone for himself even if it wasn't the soul he intended to sacrifice.
  • Humiliation Conga:
    • Andrew's attempt to join Doctor Doom goes as well as one can expect from him. He gets burned by Balthazar Blake, shot in the ass by Legolas, thrown about by Peter Maximoff and Bart Allen, almost gets eaten by Venom, gets blasted again by Constantine, loses his hand to the trap in Blade's sword, is ripped apart by Doom's wolves, and then gets tortured by Deadpool and Lucifer Morningstar in Hell.
    • Zeus banishes Hercules due to being annoyed by Hercules' requests of helping mortals. Later, when Hercules is in New Asgard after Thor takes him in, Zeus offers to end the banishment if Hercules ceases his requests, but Hercules refuses, angering Zeus who tries to fight Hercules, only for Hercules to fight back. Then Thor and Loki interrupt the fight and point out to Zeus that Hercules is their guest now and an attack on him would signal war between Olympus and New Asgard, and New Asgard also has a Multiverse of Heroes to help out against Olympus. An angry Zeus relents and leaves, and later smashes the Himalayas in anger, then tries to overturn Mount Kailash, only for Lord Shiva, who resides there, to trap him underneath. Zeus is unable to even move a muscle, then Hades appears to mock him, before revealing the only way to get out is to praise Lord Shiva. After months of being in the same position, Zeus is forced to praise Lord Shiva, which is painful to him as he has to praise someone other than himself, but he is finally let go after this, ending his doses of humiliation. But even after that, Lord Krishna manages to embarrass him in front of the other Olympians, and he is defeated by Hanuman in a duel easily, after which he has to give up his Thunderbolt.
    • The Powers That Be and the Elders face this constantly due to their inability to let go. The Council of Godheads stop them from manipulating their Champions, and kill one of them for not following, and also because he is an insane sadist. In return, the two groups and the Tribunal invite Lord Krishna and Dagda for a bogus peace talk where they plan to kill them, only for one of them to be killed instead for boasting he'll assault the heroines of Earth-92. And when they try to kill the two in return, their Cleaners are wiped out and they are shown how they will die in the future. One of them still tries to confront the two later, and when he is shown a vision, it makes his eyes bleed. The groups try to apologize later but are told they brought this upon themselves. One of the PTB called Behmen gets so desperate he makes a magician called Rabadash who looks like Lord Krishna to try to trick others into believing he is the real deal, and Rabadash is all too eager. However, it doesn't end well for Rabadash or Behmen. Yet, it seems like The Powers That Be, or at least Behmen and his cohorts, never learn.
  • Hypocrite:
    • Mordo became disillusioned with the Mystic Arts because the Ancient One used dark magic, then turned around and became a loyal follower of Dormammu, the literal embodiment of darkness. When the two Dr. Stranges compare notes, they find this hypocrisy to be a multiversal constant.
    • The Powers That Be and Elders have no problems manipulating their own Champions for what they and Mar-Novu consider to be the greater good, but get angry when The Council of Godheads stop them from doing this, perceiving them as the manipulators instead.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Mar Novu argues that the heroes who survived his test have proved they are strong enough to face the crisis, never showing any sign that he acknowledges that what he did was actually wrong.
  • Immortal Immaturity: Lucifer and Mephisto sit down to have a discussion with the fate of Earth at stake, then begin the conversation by throwing petty insults at each other, like when Lucifer tells Mephisto to make a dinner reservation under the name "Mike Oxmaul".
  • Implausible Deniability: This is how Lex takes down Vought International - by revealing all of their dirty secrets at once with enough proof to give himself credibility and ensure they can't talk their way out. One of them might have been possible to avoid, but when all of them at once came out on live television, there was simply no way to contain the fallout or control the narrative.
  • Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: Steve takes out A-Train in the simplest method possible: waiting for him to activate his speed and then tripping him up with grease. He falls so hard he breaks most of his bones.
  • Information Wants to Be Free: Lex takes advantage of this in order to take down Vought, simply calling a public press conference before dropping every single secret he possibly can all at once. Among other things, he calls in one of the Deep's rape victims, Lamplighter corroborating everything Lex is saying, pictures of Vought's experimental babies which he gives to every reporter, and proof of Stormfront's Nazi origins - one of those scandals could have been survivable, but all of them at once cripples them for good.
  • In Spite of a Nail:
    • Besides a few extra people being spared, the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy end up happening in much the same way as in the source.
    • Even with dozens more heroes to fight, Thanos still manages to get the Stones and snap his fingers.
    • Even when he's only a shady businessman with no Split Personality or failed serum, Norman Osborn still gets his signature glider and becomes the Green Goblin. All of the Spider-Men who've faced a Goblin already note that it was an inevitability, not a possibility.
    • The events of the Angel series finale end up happening in almost exactly the same way, save for the Multiversal heroes intervening in the alley and the LA fall not happening.
    • The circumstances are incredibly different, but the Seed of Wonder is still destroyed and restored.
    • All three Earths that have a Spider-Man and a Punisher show them having a positive relationship that borders on paternal in the latter's case.
    • While those who died in the film are spared, asides from that, the events of the Firefly follow-up movie happen mostly the same as in canon, with the additions of The Eleventh Doctor, River Song and Guardians of the Galaxy.
  • Killed Off for Real:
    • The Infinity War ends up permanently claiming the lives of Theoden, Vision, Elrond, and all of Morgoth and Thanos' forces.
    • Although, as per canon, Lilah and Wesley's contracts with Wolfram & Hart extend beyond their deaths, Illyria and Doctor Fate use enchanted magic to destroy the contracts, freeing their souls for good.
  • Killed Offscreen: Illyria burns Lilah's contract with Wolfram & Hart shortly after Wesley's death, so while she never appears in the fic itself, we know she's moved on to the afterlife for good.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "Heroes, Vampires, and Slayers", Angel gets frustrated with all the drama happening and says "An entire Season of a show happened while you two were up there". Deadpool even gets annoyed that he's not the only one breaking the fourth wall.
  • Life Drinker: Carnage kills all of his victims by literally draining them of everything they have - first their blood, then their organs, and then even their skins, leaving nothing behind but their clothes.
  • Lighter and Softer: The 10th story is a largely plotless romp featuring Deadpool, Korg, Miek, and Wolverine going on a fun trip through the Multiverse, with almost no stakes. Even when they end up in the plot of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Deadpool's constant wisecracking and future knowledge keep the tone light, and unlike the source, all the heroic characters survive.
  • Living Weapon: "Return of the Devourer" ends with Thor turning Galactus into a bomb to be used against the Black Winter.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • Unwittingly used by Constantine in "Heroes Stand United" when he is trapped in the Soul Stone and manages to intercept Gamora's soul as Thanos is sacrificing her by creating a portal to Hell and sending a soul from there on in her place. As a result, Gamora is trapped in the Stone with Constantine rather than being dead forever, but since a soul was still sacrificed to the Stone because of Thanos's actions he still 'wins' the Soul Stone even though Gamora herself isn't dead.
    • In "Vampires, Demons and Blackheart", Lucifer is forced to bring Blackheart back to life and give him access to the multiverse, and is also forbidden from contacting the more powerful alternate Earths for help. Initially, Blackheart's only opponents are Constantine, the Scooby Gang, and the Charmed Ones, but Constantine finally works out a loophole by contacting the Stephen Strange of Earth-2002; this Strange is one of only a few heroes on his Earth (the others being Spider-Man and the Punisher), so his Earth isn't that powerful, but Strange himself is powerful enough to do serious damage to Blackheart.
  • The Lost Lenore: Even six years following her death, Jenny's death still haunts Giles as though it happened yesterday.
  • Love at First Sight:
    • When the Grandmaster forces everyone to watch the lives of Erik Lensherr and Logan, Freya sees Erik's life and feels a connection with him due to similar past experiences. Later, she talks to him and tells him of her part, making him feel a connection too, as they share a moment.
    • Rebekah sees Loki singing and is smitten, and when he meets her, he is the same, and treats her like a princess, which she loves.
  • The Man Behind the Man:
    • Mephisto is revealed to have been behind Manny's fall from grace.
    • The Monitor is the one who sent Mr. Mxyzptlk after Steve and Kal, having specifically asked him to send them to Earth-72 to take down Vought.
    • The Monitor is responsible for the Grandmaster finding the Cosmic Cube which he used to torment all Heroes by forcing them to be his Gladiators.
  • Manipulative Bastard:
    • Doctor Doom ostensibly works with Lex Luthor, but in truth, Lex is just a pawn in Doom's game rather than a player. Doom gets everything he needs from Lex, including manipulating his plan to ensure that he goes to prison when he's inevitably caught, sells him out to the heroes, then unceremoniously offs him in his cell.
    • The Monitor means well, but he chooses to manipulate things from behind the scenes rather than directly interfere. In particular, he resurrects Lex Luthor and sends him to Earth-72 to take down Vought and unite the planet, also having Mr. Mxyzptlk breach Steve and Kal over at a crucial moment to ensure the plan works. And much later, it is revealed that he made sure the Grandmaster found the Cosmic Cube, that made him torment all Heroes.
    • Lex Luthor finally comes into his own following his resurrection, managing to persuade both Lamplighter and The Boys to his cause before quickly roping in Superman and Captain America as well. Soon enough, he's aired all of Vought's dirty laundry on live television.
    • As always, Zemo's biggest skill is his manipulative prowess. He singlehandedly engineers a prison break just by dropping a note in front of a prisoner that makes him attack another, dressing as a guard and escaping in the chaos.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: What begins as a crossover between the Arrowverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe gradually spreads its net until it includes basically every comic book, sci-fi, and notable fantasy property that exists, even ones that barely fit the tone of the others like The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
  • Master of None: During Dawn's talk with Alex Wilder, she points out that this is now her main issue within the Scooby Gang. While she's smart, skilled in witchcraft, a capable leader and fighter, and a compassionate teammate, Giles, Willow, Buffy, and Xander are all better than her in those areas, leaving her feeling average in comparison.
  • The Mentor: In Contest of Champions, Charles Xavier of Earth-10005 takes on this role for River Tam, the sole participant in the contest from her universe, reaching out with his own powers to help her calm down and gain a better understanding of her powers.
  • Mood Whiplash: Peter Parker-2012 apologizing to Gwen Stacy-199999 for failing to save her on his Earth is heavily contrasted by Gwen having no idea what the hell is going on or who this random person crying to her is.
  • Mundane Solution: How does Lex Luthor take down Vought, the most powerful corporation on Earth-72? He calls a press conference and just reveals all of their dirty secrets all at once with enough corroborating proof that he has credibility. The event is televised, meaning that once Lex freely gives out all of the evidence, there's no way to stop it from spreading until Vought is destroyed for good.
  • My Greatest Second Chance:
    • Peter Parker-2012 is given the chance to make up for failing to save his Gwen by saving the Gwen of the MCU from Norman Osborn, helping rescue her from both him and Carnage. Gwen forgives him on behalf of her counterpart, telling him that even if he failed one version of her, he's made up for it now.
    • Batman-50 gets to avenge his failure to save Jason Todd from the Joker by saving Earth-38's Jason from suffering the Batbreaker at Bane's hands, with the two of them thanking each other before they part ways.
    • Jessica Jones saves Starlight from being killed by an alien opponent from the enemy army, which is supposed to be her redemption for the death of Hope Shlottman.
    • Knull drops an unconscious Wanda from a building and Earth-2012 Peter jumps down to save her so that Earth-199999 Parker does not suffer the same pain he did on losing Gwen.
  • Myth Arc: Although major and minor threats continue to build up along the heroes' journeys, there are several long-running plots that connect the stories together.
    • The Monitor and Uatu's plans continue to make reference to a coming evil that will be worse than anything they've faced yet as the True Final Boss, even worse than Morgoth and Galactus. Judging by the characters in question and invokedWord of God, it's the Anti-Monitor.
    • Doctor Doom continues to grow more powerful every time he's fought, and his endgame still isn't clear. Every time he appears, he causes more and more destruction with the heroes only vaguely guessing his motives, but he insists that he's protecting his universe from a greater threat that is coming soon.
    • Peter Parker has clearly been infected with the symbiote without realizing it, and his blackouts only continue to increase as time goes on.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • When Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are put into the same room for the first time, they immediately gravitate towards each other away from everyone else. Everyone watching notes that something about this little "trinity" coming together just feels right.
    • When Peter tells Miles about Thanos snapping half of all life, Miles jokingly asks if it was to woo the Lady Death in all her glory.
    • The Batman Who Laughs taunts Earth-1 Bruce by showing him a rock that says 'Finders Keepers'.
    • When Mjolnir is in the presence of Beta Ray Bill for the first time, it detects his worthiness and Aragorn lets the hammer go as it flies into his hand, showing he is worthy too.
    • Darker example here, as in the Crisis, a Supergirl and a Flash end up dying.
  • Named by the Adaptation: Angel's human self, Liam, is given a last name here - O'Malley.
  • Never My Fault: In "Heroes from Infinite Earths", Mar Novu refuses to accept responsibility for the deaths caused by him manipulating the heroes, claiming that any deaths caused by his actions just "prove" that they were too weak to survive.
  • Never Say That Again: Amenadiel becomes furious when Mephisto mentions Manny's name when he was behind his fall from Heaven.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thanos is not a hero obviously, but he thinks he is one, believing what he is doing is for the good of everyone. Yet, his Multiverse level Snap ends up being the reason the Anti-Monitor is unleashed. And its obvious he didn't intend to do that.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: "Vampires, Witches and Blackheart" sees Blackheart eliminate most of the villains on the worlds of The Vampire Diaries and Charmed (1998) when he visits those alternate realities, preventing the villains being a threat later. This also saves various protagonists in The Vampire Diaries from their future deaths.
  • Not Quite Dead:
    • Barbas is revealed to have survived being vanquished by Paige and Phoebe, and only pretended to be gone so he could ambush the Charmed Ones at a later time. Of course he is soon killed by Blackheart anyway.
    • Cordelia Chase was banished by the Senior Partners but ended up finding her very similar doppelganger Kyra and then finally merged with her, staying alive inside her and allowing Kyra to survive the Demonic Wasteland. At the end of the mission, Angel finds her with help from Earth-2002 Stephen Strange, and they reunite as Cordelia takes over completely with Kyra's consent.
    • During "The Contest of Champions" Steve Rogers defies the Grandmaster and is seemingly put to death by being killed by five brainwashed Supermen, but is later revealed to have been trapped in the Cosmic Cube while using his Green Lantern Ring to end up in Emerald Space, from where he returns more powerful than ever.
  • Not So Above It All: Zemo is a very serious individual, but just like in the show, he can't help but dance for a little while when the team ends up in a club.
  • Offscreen Inertia: The author's note at the beginning of "Of Heroes and Charlatans" reveals that Dr. Strange, Doctor Fate, Willow, and Tara are currently offscreen depowering any activated Slayers in any unnumbered Earths, ensuring that women becoming Slayers doesn't become a Deus ex Machina.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: "The Bats against the Demon" begins with Ra's admitting that he tried to capture Terry McGinnis to make him his heir, only for Terry to successfully defeat his assassins; when Ra's himself then tried to personally intervene, Terry, Dick, Jason, and Tim all managed to drive him back even before Batman finished the job.
  • Omnicidal Maniac:
    • For Morgoth, nothing short of the destruction of the entire Multiverse will be enough to satisfy his hatred against Llúvatar and Eä. He comes within a fingersnap of getting there.
    • Dormammu intends to take over every single Universe he can possibly get his hands on, even sending out The Batman Who Laughs and Carnage ahead in order to make it easier for him. He's already consumed several dimensions before he confronts the heroes, and is ultimately only stopped when time travel is used against him.
  • One-Man Army:
    • As per canon, Thanos curb-stomps his way past every hero that crosses his path both with and without the stones. Morgoth also gives a rather impressive showing when he fights Thor himself to a stand-still.
    • Doctor Doom getting access to the Phoenix Force turns him into an absolutely unstoppable entity. The heroes are under no illusions that they can beat him and have to bank on Dr. Strange managing to convince other evil entities to get the power out of him instead.
  • One-Steve Limit: Since multiple characters are doppelgangers of each other, each one consistently uses one part of their real name or code name to differentiate them - if this formula doesn't cover everyone, then they get a nickname. Batman gets it the worst with how many there are, with Batman (Earth-38), Bruce, Wayne, Bats, Detective, Knight, and Crusader all fighting side by side, even fighting against the Batman Who Laughs and Evil Bat.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: Mjolnir and the Green Lantern Corps both make appearances throughout the story and the fact that only those considered "worthy" may wield them comes up often. Aragorn ends up capable of wielding Mjolnir and ends up keeping it after Thor makes Stormbreaker, while Steve Rogers is later able to wield both the hammer and a Green Lantern ring simultaneously.
  • On Second Thought: When Giles meets Merlin and co., he expresses quiet disbelief and pride that one of his counterparts was the original King of Camelot. Gwen quickly informs him that Uther hunted down magic users like pigs and ultimately brought about his own downfall, shutting him down fast.
  • Patchwork Fic:
    • "Heroes in Middle-earth" primarily follows the films, but also features references to book-only events and characters, alongside sparing Saruman instead of killing him.
    • Earth-1 Joker and Batman are based on their The Dark Knight Trilogy incarnations, but the events that occurred from the film are picked and chosen. It's not made clear if anything similar to Batman Begins occurred here (since Ra's is established as a completely different character on Earth-1 already), and while the hospital bombing and freighter scene from The Dark Knight occur, it leaves out events like Harvey Dent's corruption and features Green Arrow and Catwoman involving themselves.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Following Wesley's death, Illyria grabs his contract so they can try to destroy it and free his soul. She also grabs Lilah's while she's there, knowing that he would want her freed too.
    • Lucifer viewed Tara Maclay as such a perfect soul that he actually intervened to save her from Hell, buying her soul before a truly malevolent being could. Amenadiel reveals they even attempted to take her to Heaven and she stayed behind on her own to help, so Lucifer kept her isolated to ensure she was never tortured.
  • Pragmatic Villainy:
    • Deathstroke-50 is a ruthless mercenary, but he only attacks his targets and those directly in the way. When he and Batman are suddenly transported to another Earth, he immediately stops the conflict, noting there's no point in fighting a senseless battle while they're both stranded and he has no client to be fighting for.
    • Part of what makes Doctor Doom such an effective threat is that unlike most of the other villains, he's not wonton in his destruction, only accomplishing exactly what he needs and nothing else. As Merlin notes, if Doom wanted to destroy Earth-92, then he would've just done that, but he only wanted to deal with the Senior Partners - nothing more, nothing less.
  • Red Herring: In Heroes, Magicians and Luthors, it is initially believed by the Heroes that Morgana is after the Power Stone that is hidden in the Fortress of Solitude on Earth-38. Turns out she was actually after a crystal that contained information on inter-dimensional travel as experienced by the Kryptonians of Earth-38.
  • Required Secondary Powers: In the side story, Bart and Peter Maximoff discuss how lucky they are that their hearing is unaffected by the sonic booms they create from how fast they run, realizing that without this unexplained addition to their power-set, they would have both gone deaf long ago.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Jenny Calendar finally lets go of her guilt for her actions in life when she trades her life for Tara's; while she sacrifices the chance at resurrection, this does earn her passage into Heaven, finally letting her soul rest.
  • Red Skies Crossover: In Heroes from Infinite Earths, many fandoms make cameos where they see the skies turn red (or white) before their Universe is destroyed. A good number of them are fandoms that have been involved in the series before, but many of them appear as cameos in this story. Some of these fandoms include Supernatural, Highlander, Invincible (2021), Star Wars, Star Trek, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Teen Wolf, Stranger Things, Once Upon a Time, True Blood,Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Vampire Diaries books, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Evil Dead, Rambo, John Wick, Die Hard, Devil May Cry, Kingdom Hearts, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, God of War, Bayonetta, Resident Evil, Dragon Ball, Naruto, Death Note, Code Geass, Fullmetal Alchemist, Berserk 1997 anime, The Boys comics, as well as various Marvel and DC worlds including Watchmen 2009, Hulk, DC Animated Universe, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and many more.
  • Related in the Adaptation: With the various Heavens and Hells of the different works being combined into single concrete places, Lucifer and Amenadiel are now Manny's brothers.
  • Retcon: In Heroes stand united, when Earth-38 Clark meets Earth-1 Batman, he says that Batman is a myth on his Earth. However, in One too many Dark Knights it is clear that Earth-38 Batman and Earth-38 Clark know each other. It is possible that Earth-38 Clark was lying to protect the privacy of his friend.
  • Running Gag:
    • In "Rise of the Great Demon", Gandalf's old friends keep mistaking him for Saruman because of his color change.
    • Every time an Earth has a Wolfram & Hart, Lindsey McDonald is one of their attorneys. Even when he's working for the DA's office, invokedWord of God revealed that he's only a Mole for the firm.
    • Deadpool's outfit keeps getting called a "giant red condom" by everyone he meets, something which only makes him angrier and angrier as it keeps happening.
    • Natasha has a habit of whacking Yelena's head too much whenever she says or does something weird or annoying, to the point she borrows Peacemaker's helmet to prevent any brain damage.
  • Series Continuity Error:
    • In Heroes in Middle-earth, the Fellowship seem to know the word 'blonde', but in a later chapter its said that Oliver had to explain the meaning of the word 'blonde' to Legolas.
    • Thor tells Earth-38 Wonder Woman in Heroes stand united that he knows of the Olympians on his Earth but has never met them. However, in Never alone, when Hercules is introduced, its clear he and Thor have history.
  • Shipper on Deck: Deadpool supports Lucifer's relationship with Chloe Decker and even gives him a way out of staying in Hell through acting as his regent, allowing him to go back to her while Deadpool runs Hell in his stead.
  • Shooting Superman: When Johnny Blaze comes face to face with Mephisto, he pulls out his gun and shoots him twice in the chest - naturally, it does absolutely nothing to him. Johnny even says that he knew it wouldn't do anything, but he does feel a little better now.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Small Role, Big Impact:
    • Coulson only makes a brief appearance in "Heroes stand united" before the Ghost Rider incident catches up and kills him, but he spends that brief appearance ensuring that Fitz is motivated enough to create the new Infinity Gauntlet, directly leading to the restoration of the Multiverse. The same story also features Harry Wells' only contribution to the series thus far when he helps Fitz build the Gauntlet.
    • Ghost Rider thus far has appeared multiple times, yet is largely a background character. The exception? His Penance Stare is what takes down Thanos during the final battle, taking him out of the battle for the Gauntlet for good.
  • Sole Survivor: Heroes on Infinite Earths opens with the Charmed Ones, Victor, Leo, Henry, Coop and their children the only survivors of their Earth as the Elders open a portal to send them to a safe Earth before their home reality is destroyed.
  • Spanner in the Works: As Sam, Bucky, and Zemo are meeting with Selby, Sarah calls her brother and Selby demands it be put on speaker, outing him as an imposter.
  • Spared by the Adaptation:
    • Boromir makes it out of the War of the Ring alive.
    • Loki and Astra are resurrected by Thanos and then freed by the heroes, thus making it through their canon deaths as well. Tony then survives the events of Endgame thanks to Elrond taking his place - and thanks to the different circumstances behind the return of the infinity stones, Natasha is also spared.
    • Mystique is saved from her canon death at Dark Phoenix's hands thanks to a similarly spared Bart Allen. In the same story, Pietro from the MCU is revealed to have been trapped in the Speed force after Age of Ultron.
    • Myles Dyson and the "Uncle Bob" Terminator both survive the events of Judgement Day thanks to Logan and Deadpool's interference.
    • Shepherd Book and Hoban Washburne survive their canonical deaths. In the former's case, The Eleventh Doctor takes him into the TARDIS where the nanites heal him, and in the latter's case, Nebula uses her reflexes to catch the spear that hits him.
    • Gunn is never transformed into a vampire thanks to the Fall of LA not occurring here.
    • Stefan Salvatore and Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John both survive The Vampire Diaries Season 8 due to Cade being destroyed by Blackheart, alongside Katherine Pierce and Kai Parker while Blackheart absorbs this Universe's Hell Dimension for power.
    • Klaus Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall are spared of their future deaths as Blackheart kills and absorbs The Hollow for power.
  • Staring Down Cthulhu:
    • In Vampires, Witches and Blackheart, at one point Illyria grabs Constantine by the throat after he provokes her, but she eventually lets him go when he just stares at her.
    • In Contest of Champions, Doctor Doom and Lucifer end up in one of these. Of course, considering that Lucifer is the literal Devil but basically a good person, whereas Doom is human but the most dangerous enemy anyone in the Multiverse has faced to date, it's hard to be 100% certain who is the "Cthulhu" in that scenario...
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: The Jokers of Earths 1, 38, and 66 end up taking an instant liking to each other due to their shared status as agents of chaos, even if 66 doesn't quite do it in the same way.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: Doctor Strange ends up tricking Dormammu into attacking Galactus in a desperate attempt to even push him back. Galactus attacks him right back and ends that fast.
  • Take That!: When Yelena meets Sam, Bucky, and Zemo, she very quickly tells her life story, in particular the events of Black Widow (2021). When Sam says that it sounds like she lived an exciting life, she only responds that it only really got exciting near the climax and that the supporting cast could've been better.
  • A Taste of Their Own Medicine: A Power That Be called Vasoros is revealed to have been the one who gave Cordelia Chase her very painful visions that'd have killed her if she hadn't become a half-Demon. He stupidly tries to confront Lord Krishna and Dagda after they've humbled the other Powers That Be, Elders and Tribunal, only to be shown a vision of his and his allies' dark future. And due to his already existing vision powers, the vision he receives reacts with his body and makes his eyes bleed while he feels ten times more pain than Cordelia did in all of her visions combined.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In Contest of Champions, when the Grandmaster becomes angered at Steve's defiance, he forces all five of his available captured Supermen to attack Steve all at once.
  • Time Travel:
    • When Dormammu has almost succeeded in taking over the Dimension, some Heroes like Parker, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Barry-Red end up accidentally time-travelling to set right what went wrong.
    • Darkseid ends up killing the entire Earth-50 Justice League and Lois, with only Barry-Blue as the survivor, and he ends up time-travelling to before Darkseid personally got involved in the battle and calls in the much more powerful Earth-167 Justice League as reinforcements.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Lex doesn't take being killed by Doctor Doom well at all, dying while proclaiming that he's better than being killed by a measly gun and if anyone was going to kill him, Superman would do it with his powers.
  • Villain Decay: In "Arrival of the Devourer", Galactus was such a threat that it took all the heroes fighting together just to hold him back while in "Return of the Devourer" Thor takes him on single-handedly, albeit after receiving a boost from Galactus himself to deal with another threat.
  • Villain Respect:
    • Following his resurrection, Lex gains a modicum of respect for Clark; while he admits that he still doesn't like Clark on a personal level, he easily hates Homelander more, calling him a cheap parody of the real deal.
      Lex: [Clark] has more power in his pinky toe than Homelander had in his entire life.
    • The fact that Adrian Toomes respects Peter is one of the reasons why Peter rules him out of the suspect list in Ned, May, and MJ's kidnapping; while the man was a vicious thief, his respect for Peter was always genuine, and thus going after Peter's loved ones is too out of character for him. He ends up being correct, since Vulture never sold out Peter's identity on his own accord.
  • Villain Team-Up:
    • Thanos, Saruman, and Morgoth end up working together for the quest to retrieve the Infinity Stones, but all of them intend to get the Stones for themselves for their own ends. Morgoth comes closest, but Elrond destroys him first.
    • The Lex Luthors of the Arrowverse, the DCEU, and Smallville universe all team up to try to take down their Supermen through mind-control devices. It's a complete disaster; by the end, two of them are dead and the other's been outed as a supervillain.
    • In an effort to release his master Dormammu, Mordo recruits The Batman who Laughs and Carnage to his cause.
    • Doctor Doom and Lex Luthor have the most effective team-up thus far, ultimately keeping the Multiverse of heroes occupied simultaneously and almost getting everything they wanted. However, when Doom loses, he sells Lex out in a heartbeat, then kills him himself just to rub it in.
    • Doctor Doom ends up working with Amy, Warren, Dromos, and Glorificus at different points, though he ends up killing Amy himself as part of his plan.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mar Novu essentially argues that he is this, but the deaths that resulted from his manipulations ensure that the heroes will never agree with that perspective.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: With the Buffyverse crew reuniting for the first time in a while, various unfinished business gets resolved; Angel decks Giles for not helping save Fred, Buffy takes Angel to task for falling as far as he did to get in the Circle, and she and Spike have a difficult talk regarding him not informing her of his resurrection.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Merlin's tales of his past reveal that he married Princess Mithian after Arthur's death, and still mourns her death along with various other loved ones from over the subsequent centuries.
  • Wild Card: In "Heroes, Magicians, and Luthors", the primary threat is the three Lex Luthors and the Doomsday clone Lex-50 releases, but Morgana keeps showing up out of nowhere to make the situation worse at random times. Once the Lexes are taken out, the heroes are finally able to focus on her and deal with her for good.
  • Worthy Opponent: Doctor Doom has a healthy respect for his opponents, especially after he witnesses their defeat of Galactus. This is shown further in "The Contest of Champions", where when Grandmaster seemingly has Steve killed, Doom actually feels regretful and vows to make Grandmaster pay, for in spite of their differences, he respected Steve. When Steve returns, the two share a curt nod before Doom leaves.
  • You Are Not Alone: After all of the Batmen come together to save Robert Pattinson's Bruce, the Earth-38 version tells him to remember that he's not the only Batman out there and they are all ready and willing to come to his aid should he need it.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Doctor Doom ends up taking Lex out in his cell after one too many failures on his part.

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