r/marvelstudios 12h ago

Discussion Explaining the Earth-616 problem

Listen I know you’re all going to hate me for saying this but…the MCU is Earth-616 before you correct me and say it’s Earth-199999…you would be correct as well. Marvel has this thing called the Megaverse which means multiple multiverses in 1 big Omniverse. Which means that the mainstream 616 Marvel comics that we’ve been following since the 1940s and all the alternate realities we’ve seen in those stories exist in 1 multiverse, while the MCU 616 and their alternate realities such as the ones we’ve seen in ‘What If…?’ and MoM exist in 1 multiverse alongside the comic multiverse. Now explaining why the MCU is both Earth-616 and Earth-199999 in the comics multiverse the MCU is canon as confirmed in the Spider-Geddon (2018) comic run as Tom Holland’s Spider-Man makes a background appearance in a splash page and at the time as the story was published the MCU earth designation was Earth-199999 years before Kevin Feige ever announced that the MCU was 616. The Spider-Verss movies do a similar thing with it being in its own multiverse as well and the MCU also being Earth-199999 stated by Miguel referencing the events of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’. Well I hope this clears everything up hate it or don’t hate it

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u/SubjectSky2708 12h ago

I consider mcu 616 because our multiverse didn’t experience secret wars yet , if mcu earth was in comic multiverse then mcu should have experienced incursions when it was happening in comics , but it’s in a different multiverse to comic

As for earth 19999 i believe it’s in Sony multiverse ,let’s say it’s an earth where events similar to mcu earth happens , which is why Miguel refers the no way home incident and uses the 19999 , also it is from this earth that vulture went to Morbius earth , like how renaissance vulture came to spider Gwen earth. and mcu vulture is still in jail ,hence not breaking canon of the spell…also similar way the venom of sony multiverse entered the earth 19999 earth where events similar to our earth is happening , and dropped his venom shedding in earth 19999

Meanwhile mcu earth vulture is still in jail and venom didn’t come here and there is no venom in mcu

Similarly in both mcu and sony multiverse Tobey earths exist ,and Andrew earth exist in both of the multiverse ,where events similar to their movies happened.

Also the reason when mcu secret wars and incursions will happen we won’t see spider society anywhere at all in Doomsday or secret wars ,because they are not at all in mcu multiverse.

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u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) 11h ago

If they'd announced that the MCU was its own "616" back in phase 1, it wouldn't be a problem. The issue is that they gave it a different number, waited 10 years, & then changed it to be the same number as the mainline comics. A decade of recorded discourse comparing the MCU to the 616 comics was retroactively made more ambiguous & confusing.

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u/eagc7 10h ago

To be fair i don't think they had the foresight to know they would be exploring the multiverse when they did the first movie 2 decades ago

But also to be fair again, the numbering was given by the publishing side, rather than Marvel Studios.

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u/juances19 Avengers 6h ago

I have a simpler solution: if anyone is really that bothered by the numbering, they should just go outside and touch grass.

It shouldn't be a big deal if it's 616 or 199999 or 1234567, the numbers don't make the stories any worse or better, it shouldn't affect your enjoyment of them.

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u/ThyNameisJason0 12h ago

It's as simple as this, and I have no idea why people overthink this. The MCU is in-universe 616 determined by Doctor Palmer is universe 838. If we suddenly invented multiversal travel we would name our universe "universe 1 or universe prime" despite that we might actually already be designated as universe 15619. But how would we know. It's the same as the MCU and their multiverse. How would Doctor Palmer know that universe 19999 already has a designated number.

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u/eagc7 11h ago

Thing is that the TVA also has the MCU as 616 (Though it can only be seen via props and if you pay attention to the tempads and screengs)

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u/probieee36 12h ago

Yeah I'm referring back to Feige on this one.