Just One Dimension Over
is an Invincible (2021) one-shot story by Darthkvzn, who is also the writer for the There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton series. The one-shot is set after the events of season one of Invincible. In the story, Mark meets a female version of himself named Marcy, who comes from a Lighter and Softer parallel universe.
Just One Dimension Over provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: The Nolan of Marcy's universe never killed the Guardians of the Globe and was never plotting to prepare Earth for invasion like the one from Marcus' universe, in large part because the Viltrumite race is mostly extinct by the time the events of Invincible would have played out.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- Played with regarding Marcy. She's a lesbian while Mark is straight, but both are attracted to women.
- Dupli-Kate, who was straight in both the animated series and comics, is dating Marcy in her universe.
- Adaptation Species Change: In Marcy’s universe, Robot is an actual AI rather than a deformed super-genius controlling a drone.
- Alternate Self: Marcy is a female version of Mark from a parallel universe. Besides the obvious, she gained her powers three years earlier than him and has a much more stable relationship with Kate compared to Mark and Amber.
- Death by Adaptation: Thanks to the in-fighting and Darwinistic need to remove the weak from their society, the Viltrumite Empire wiped itself out, with Nolan being the sole survivor of his race.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- The reason Marcy ended up in Mark's universe is that in her universe, scientists reverse-engineered the Flaxan interdimensional transport technology after their defeat.
- In Marcy's universe, the Viltrumites have been wiped out due to infighting and a coalition of alien rebels sick of their warmongering. Since, as far as he knows, Omni-Man is the last pure-blooded Viltrumite left in his universe, he decides not to continue along the path that led to the doom of the others.
- Gender-Bent Alternate Universe: Played with. While Marcy is a female version of Mark, everyone else in her universe is the same gender as the ones in his.
- Last of His Kind: As far as Marcy's Nolan knows, he is the last living pure-blooded Viltrumite in his universe.
- Lighter and Softer: The story summary makes no secret of the fact that Marcy's universe is much kinder than Mark's universe. For one thing, Dupli-Kate's clones don't splatter into gory chunks upon death and instead just shatter like glass and turn to glittery dust.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Discussed. This is what led to Mark and Amber's break up and he compares it with Marcy's dating life. Marcy explains that she never had to suffer from this issue as she's dating Dupli-Kate, who's a fellow superhero and is part of said masquerade.
- The Multiverse: Besides the two versions of the Invincible universe, the author's notes confirm that the story exists in the same multiverse as Darthkvzn's main stories, but the odds of them interacting are stated to be slim, at least not for a very long time.
- Mythology Gag: According to the beginning author’s note, Mark’s universe is designated as Earth-1222003. This references the day that the first issue of the ''Invincible'’ comic was published (January 22, 2003).
- Shout-Out: Marcy references the Saiyans from Dragon Ball while talking to Mark about the Viltrumites given their similarities as world conquerors.
- Social Darwinist: Deconstructed with the Viltrumite Empire in Marcy's universe. Their drive to cull those they deemed weak within their own race eventually led to them wiping themselves out, with the only one left being Nolan.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The Guardians of the Globe are never killed by Nolan in Marcy's universe.
- Title Drop: At the end, just as Marcy is about to go back to her own world, she tells Mark that he can talk to her if she needs anything and that she’s “just one dimension over”.
- Trauma Button: Seeing Nolan again, even if it's an alternate version that never committed the atrocities his main universe self did, causes Mark to start panicking.
