8FOLD/META: About the Author # 1: Tom Russell

[Jamie Rosen]

>This, I think, leads to the greatest unexplored aspect of alternate
>universes.  What happens in everday life when the public discovers
>that there's a world where you exist... but your life went slightly
>differently?  Everyone has their own personal "What If"s, after all.
>And what if you discovered you went down the *wrong* path?
>
>I just think that'd be cool. ``v

There's a story (I think it might be prose, not comics) where this
discovery prompts a rash of sucides. I'm not sure about the logic of
that -- if it was because the suicides discovered they'd made the wrong
choices, or because they simply decided 'Hey, I might as well -- I'll
still be alive somewhere else.'

There's also a new comics series out there where a poor schmuck
discovers that there's an alternate universe version of him who's a
super-hero. Said version comes to his universe, and suddenly said
schmuch is living in the hero's shadow.

And then there's the classic Superman tale where the Els use a machine
to project what would happen if they sent young Kal to various planets.
In essence, he becomes a version of his various JLA teammates, but
every future except for the one where he's sent to Earth ends in
heartbreak and death. Not quite the same, but an interesting Silver Age
take on the whole thing.