How Scary Are Incursions? The Looming MCU Threat, Explained
Avengers: Doomsday (2026) is not only setting up Doctor Doom's rise to power but also the payoff for years of multiversal meddling, resulting in world-ending incursions. That said, we've heard the word "incursion" for years and have never understood what about it is supposed to be so scary.
In reality, the answer is a lot more complicated than you'd think, as it's very hard to create an incursion. Yet when they start, there's a cosmic horror to it that fills you with dread. But to understand what makes them so terrifying, it's just as important to understand what they are.
How Do You Start a Multiversal Incursion?
There's more than one way to start a multiversal incursion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics, they weren't an eventuality but rather a contingency in the form of Molecule Man should the Beyonders decide it's time for a universe to die.
In the MCU, this can be caused in a number of ways. The most common and obvious way was explored in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). Essentially, the more you leave a footprint in other realities, whether by traveling to others in your dreams or by going to them physically, you risk drawing your world closer to another. The more you do, the greater the risk.
Another way to do this is by ripping through time and space in the same way that it happened in both Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and The Marvels (2023). The longer these tears remain open, the more likely an incursion will happen, hence why Clea confronted Doctor Strange about the one he started. Even the Kang Dynasty got so obsessed with controlling time and space that they started multiple incursion events with their multiversal war that nearly ended everything, hence why He Who Remains created the Sacred Timeline and the Time Variance Authority.
What Happens in a Multiversal Incursion?
Multiversal incursions don't really have a set understanding of what happens, but the basic understanding is that two worlds will begin to collide into one another until one or both realities are destroyed first. Multiverse of Madness showed the effects of this in a world where there were no people and reality was being slowly sucked into a void.
The end-of-days aesthetic is strange and unnerving, but even the latest trailer for Avengers: Doomsday shows a reality in which New York City is completely decimated, and the world explodes before Professor X. But all this does is make us wonder what more could transpire.
Ultimately, the world will stop making sense as seas flood cities, cars float into what looks like an endless tunnel, and all life disappears or dies in the process. It's not a quick end but a slow, painful one, showcasing why these events should never happen in the first place. But even still, these details don't explain why incursions are terrifying; they only add to that simple fact.
Incursions Are Even Scarier Than Thanos, and It's No Contest
We all remember when Thanos snapped his fingers and the chilling silence as we waited to see how half of all life in the universe would disappear. It was a true fear in the unavoidable sense. But it being conducted by a living being somehow made the impact far less scary than it could be.
Incursions are the answer to that, as the cosmic terror that follows it is what makes the silent end of two worlds all the more chilling. Imagine spending your day following the routines you've grown accustomed to, only to see loved ones disappear and the world you knew turned upside down and broken apart like a brittle structure. This horror is what makes incursions so scary and why it makes sense to be intimidated by them.
They are avoidable but also unstoppable once they begin, and, being a force of nature, they don't care who is caught in their crossfire. In many ways, the Avengers are fighting a losing battle against death itself. While seeing them fight is admirable, it makes the situation sadder because, deep down, you know it's fruitless. In the end, incursions are utterly terrifying, and knowing that all it takes is time makes it a terrifying reality we will all see unfold in Avengers: Doomsday.
