As the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolds the concept of the multiverse, being lost in it will be easier. To avoid this, comics have often used numbers to denote the universe the story is taking place. One would expect the same from a universe featured in a franchise based heavily on comic books. But that is not the case with MCU! Fans have often argued about this but to no conclusion. However, now that the star of Ms Marvel has added her arguments, Marvel needs to comment on this. Marvel needs to fix this identity issue of the marine MCU as soon as possible. So is MCU set up in Earth-616? Let’s find it out!
We are raising the age-old question as we talk about how important it is for Marvel to resolve this problem as soon as they can to avoid future plot holes regarding the Multiverse. The Multiverse has been a core concept for many comics’ storytelling methods. It allows the writer to have his freedom while changing something about a pre-established character. It may be a fairly common concept in the comics but it is a new and unexplored one in the MCU. Marvel has been name-dropping the multiverse for some time, starting with 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. But it is during Phase 4 when they are making it a core concept, with 3 projects especially focused on it.
And as these projects explain it, it is a madhouse out there! And this makes identifying the original one all the more important. Marvel has revealed beings like America Chavez who are entirely capable of traveling between two universes. So it’s only a matter of time before we see more like them, and that’s when the confusion will start. And it’s not like Marvel hasn’t tried to handle the situation, It’s just that they haven’t done the perfect job.
WHY DO WE THINK MARVEL IS UNDERESTIMATING THIS IDENTITY ISSUE?
Naming a universe before telling its stories may not be a big issue when only that universe is taken into account. But still, Marvel did it to avoid confusion among the comic book readers who know Earth-616 to be the main continuity in the comics. So, they named the MCU, Earth-199999, so as to keep its events totally separate from the comics. This was how Marvel mentioned the MCU in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z: Vol. 5. And if you have been a constant comic reader, you’d think it was perfect and not confusing.
However, things got weird when the characters in the MCU started mentioning the MCU to be Earth-616 and not Earth-199999. This started in Thor: The Dark World, where Dr. Erik Selvig mentioned the ‘616 universe’ in his visions. Then again, Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio, mentioned that there is a multiverse out there where the main MCU is named 616. Recently, in Doctor Strange Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we hear the members of the Illuminati calling the MCU 616, yet again. This makes us wonder what really is going on. The three people that mentioned MCU as 616 were either lucid, a lier who was pretending to know everything about the multiverse, or the smartest man alive on Earth-838, who gave away his teammate’s only weakness to Wanda.
WHO SHOULD WE BELIEVE AND WHAT DOES IMAN VELLANI HAVE TO SAY?!
At this point, believing anyone seems irrelevant, because of many reasons. But Iman Vellani, who is playing the titular character of the new Disney+’s Ms Marvel show, raised a question that brought many people into this debate. When asked about the MCU’s designation in the multiverse, she replied with this-
I have this argument with Kevin (Feige) every time I meet him in person. It’s not all (Earth) 616, the MCU is definitely 199999. You can’t take it from the Marvel comics canon, that was the main comics canon where all the main events took place. In that canon, Kamala is an inhuman, there’s Lockjaw, House of M took place with X-Men — where’s all that with MCU if it’s 616? I rest my case. Why was Mysterio in the MCU right about the 616 he mentioned? Why would he know anything? He’s an actor.
This leaves us wondering if it could be okay for Dr Selvig and Mr Fantastic to call the MCU as Earth 616, as they are some smart guys and may have done some calculations or something. But how did Quentin Beck know? One argument suggests that he might have known from Scott Lang’s podcasts. Scott Lang is one talkative superhero who might be friends with Selvig and might have revealed the multiverse. And where we exist in this vast multiverse. And Beck could’ve heard that. But this seems too far-fetched to be accurate. And yet again, we are left without a meaningful answer.
SO WHAT TO CALL THE MCU- 616 OR 199999?
Now that is an identity crisis if there ever was one. The MCU has its problems and any franchise with 28 movies is allowed to have one but an identity problem is not one someone thinks of. Because if we consider 616 to be the real one, then we are saying that the MCU is exactly like how the main comic continuity is. But there are a lot of differences between the two to avoid. So, the more reasonable choice will be 199999 but even that seems wrong, now that Reed Richards called it 616. So, the single thing can everybody can agree on is that MCU’s Earth-616 is comics’ Earth- 199999.
So, Is MCU Set Up In Earth-616? What are your answers to this? Do let us know your answers down in the comments.
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