This is Entry 210: 616

Let's step away from DC for a moment to talk about Marvel (Kind of). Today's date of the Sixteenth of June & has a somewhat geeky meaning to it. If you use the American form of abbreviating the date (Day then Month), today is 6/16. Why is that Geeky? Unofficially in the Marvel Comics multiverse the designation for the main universe is 616.

According to Wikipedia the origin of "616" is this:

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. The designation was later confirmed 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 by Alan Davis, the artist on the UK-published series.

Alan Moore is usually credited with creating the term (for example by Marvel editor Tom Brevoort). 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.

In addition, a difference of opinion exists regarding the selection of the number 616. In 2005, Alan Moore's son-in-law John Reppion (who is married to Alan Moore's daughter Leah Moore), stated on an Internet message board 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." However, Alan Davis contends that Thorpe specifically chose the true Number of the Beast to reflect his feelings about the modern superhero genre.

I say this term is "unofficial" because some of the Marvel's Management don't like the term & don't use it. But this hasn't stopped some of Marvel's writers from putting this designation in their Books (various Marvel Uk series, the Excalibur series, Marvel 1602 #6, Marvel Knights 4 #15, Uncanny X-Men #462, the Exiles series & in Marvel's very own Official Handbooks). Writer Steven Grant even tried to change when the main Marvel Universe fell in the numbering system. In the final story arc of the X-Man series (Issues 71-74), He referred to the Marvel Universe as Earth 611 because the godlike entity known as Qabiri has been "cleansing" some of lower realities. Grant's change was most likely an allusion to the events of DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" but his change has not be adopted by other writers. I got this of this info also from Wikipedia.

Hope you day is Marvelous & as always Stay Jazzy!

- Brian