Mainstream Marvel continuity
| Earth-616 | |
|---|---|
| Created by |
Alan Moore Alan Davis Dave Thorpe |
| Type | Marvel Comics multiverse |
| First appearance | 1983 |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
In the fictional Marvel Comics multiverse, Earth-616 (each digit said separately as "six one six"), also known by many aliases, is the primary continuity in which most Marvel Comics titles take place.
The term was first used in "Rough Justice", a story credited to both Alan Moore and Alan Davis published in July 1983 by Marvel UK in the anthology comic The Daredevils (and was later reprinted in the Captain Britain trade paperback). Saturnyne uses the term to differentiate Brian Braddock, the Captain Britain of the regular Marvel Comics universe, from the other members of the Captain Britain Corps, each of which inhabit different universes. The designation was later used by the American branch of Marvel Comics in the Excalibur title, which frequently referenced Captain Britain's early UK-published adventures. This comic was written by Chris Claremont, who had created Captain Britain, and pencilled by Alan Davis, the artist on the UK-published series. Davis later had a run as both writer and artist on the book.
Alan Moore is usually credited with creating the term. However, Alan Davis has stated that the designation of Earth 616 was actually first made by Dave Thorpe, the previous writer of the UK-published Captain Britain stories.
A difference of opinion exists regarding the selection of the number 616. In 2005, Moore's son-in-law John Reppion stated on an Internet message board that the number 616 was arbitrarily chosen by Moore, 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." However, Davis has said that it comes from 616, a variation on the Number of the Beast, picked because Thorpe "wasn't a fan of the modern superhero genre" and expressed this in his stories, "such as recording his opinion of the Marvel Universe with the designation 616."
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