Earth-616
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In the fictional Marvel Comics multiverse, Earth-616 or Earth 616 is the name used to identify the primary continuity in which most Marvel Comics titles take place.
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[edit] Origin of Earth-616
The term originated from writer Alan Moore's run on the Captain Britain stories in the comic "Marvel Superheroes" produced by Marvel UK in the 1980s, in which the main timeline was designated as "616" by Merlyn, the protector of the Multiverse.
Though some argued that stories produced by Marvel UK were not canonical within the greater Marvel Universe published in America, the designation was later confirmed by the main American branch of Marvel Comics in the Excalibur title, which frequently referenced Captain Britain's early UK-published adventures.
[edit] Why 616?
In 2005 Alan Moore's son-in-law John Reppion, (who is married to Leah Moore), confirmed on an Internet message board [1] that the number 616 was arbitrarily chosen by Moore and had no significant meaning, saying it "was just a random number of no significance chosen because people always seemed to be talking about 'earth 2' or 'earth 4' but never any higher numbers."
[edit] References to Earth-616
Most references to Earth-616 appear in Marvel UK titles or in Excalibur. However, there are a number of other references to Earth-616:
- In Marvel 1602 #6 (March 2004), Uatu the Watcher refers to the universe as Earth-616.
- In Marvel Knights 4 #15 (April 2005), Earth-616 is mentioned.
- In Uncanny X-Men #462 (September 2005), an alteration in reality of Earth-616 causes trans-temporal devastation, and Saturnyne attempts to destroy that particular temporal continuity to "cauterize the wound".
The term has also appeared in Exiles (in, among others, the House of M tie-in issues) and is in regular use by the writers of Marvel's Official Handbooks for the simplicity of the term.
There has been at least one attempt within Marvel canon to change the designation of Earth-616. In the final storyarc of X-Man (issues #71-74), writer Steven Grant began to refer to the planet as "Earth 611" due to the destruction of several other Earths (which were all apparently "higher on the list" of the multiverse than the Marvel Earth) by a godlike entity. This change, an obvious allusion to the events of DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths, was not adopted by other writers .
[edit] Non-Marvel references
In Infinite Crisis #6 (DC Comics, 2006), the character of Alexander Luthor, Jr. attempts to create the "perfect Earth" by combining two separate alternate Earths designated "154" and "462." In the combined Earth, the superheroes are at war with each other, and Luthor, finding it unsuitable, destroys it. (462 added to 154 produces 616.)
