This is Entry 146: 616

Today's date of the Sixteenth of June has a some what geeky meaning. If you use the American form of abbreviating the date (Day then Month) which makes it 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 the term 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 it has popped in a few of 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). One writer even tried to change where the main Marvel Universe feel in the numbering system. Writer Steven Grant in the final story arc of the X-Man series (Issues 71-74) referred to the Marvel Universe as Earth 611 because of the destruction of several other Earths (which were all apparently "higher on the list" then the MU) by a godlike entity. His change was most likely an allusion to the events of DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths". This change has not be adopted by other writers.

Hope you day has been Marvelous & as always Stay Jazzy!

-Brian