Posted in: Comics | Tagged: 616, Comics, entertainment, marvel

Is The Marvel Universe Still Called The 616?

It originated with Captain Britain, the idea that the Marvel universe was number 616 in the Multiverse, a joke about perspective given that DC Comics had Earth 1 and Earth 2. It was a self deprecatory joke that the Marvel Earth was a much lower rank, 616, a more insignificant number.

It was picked up by Chris Claremont for the X-Men titles and soon it was a common term amongst comics fandom, albeit one that Marvel editors and publishers seemed to disown, preferring to leave it in the realms of fan discussion.

But of late, the use of 616 was used more and more, especially in Jonathan Hickman and Dan Slott's work. It seemed that this may be a last hurrah for the 616 as the entire multiverse was destroyed. And that the All-New All-Different Marvel Universe would do away with such fanboy terminology.

Well, possibly not. As Weirdworld writer Sam Humphries tells CBR,

In the miniseries Weirdworld is sort of bringing together a bunch of different elements of the Marvel Universe; a lot of them Sword and Sorcery. One thing I wondered right off the bat though with this new series was where is Weirdworld going to be? I was relieved to hear from [editor] Tom Brevoort that Weirdworld is part of the Marvel 616 Universe and is on Earth. It's not an alternate reality. It's not a different planet. It is as real on Marvel Earth as Spider-Man's Manhattan or the Savage Land.

Is that confirmation that the 616 is still in use? Or is it just shorthand?

Well now it's a world that has Crystar embedded in it..

Yes! You know Ogeode! He's a character we borrowed from the "Saga of Crystar: TheCrystal Warrior" from the early '80s Marvel series. Jason Aaron has already integrated that world into Weirdworld so we're taking things a step further.

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