The term “Earth-616” has a surprisingly humble and almost accidental origin, born not from a grand editorial plan at Marvel's New York headquarters, but from the creative minds working on Marvel UK's Captain Britain titles in the early 1980s. The concept of designating Earths with numbers was pioneered by DC Comics with their Earth-One and Earth-Two, but Marvel's approach was more idiosyncratic. The very first mention of a numbered Earth in this context is credited to writer Dave Thorpe in the UK comic Daredevils #7 (1983). However, the specific designation “616” was famously coined by the legendary writer Alan Moore during his transformative run on Captain Britain. It first appeared in the story “Rough Justice,” published in The Daredevils (UK) #7 and was later reprinted for American audiences. The designation was used by Saturnyne, an extra-dimensional authority, to differentiate Captain Britain's home reality from the myriad of others. The choice of “616” was deliberately arbitrary and slightly pejorative. Alan Davis, the artist who worked with Moore, has explained that the number was chosen as a variation of the Number of the Beast (666), with the '6's' simply jumbled around. It was meant as a subtle in-joke, a way for Moore to express a mild disdain for the superhero genre, essentially labeling the main universe as a “dull” place, not even worthy of a round number. For years, the term remained a piece of obscure trivia primarily used in UK comics and by writer Chris Claremont in his Excalibur series, which featured Captain Britain. However, it was eventually adopted by Marvel's American editors and writers, particularly after the publication of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, as a convenient shorthand for identifying the main continuity. Despite its widespread adoption, the term has been a point of contention. Former Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and Stan Lee himself famously expressed their dislike for the designation, feeling it diminished the “prime” universe by implying it was just one of many, rather than the definitive Marvel Universe.1).
The origin of Earth-616 is not the story of a single planet, but the story of the creation of the entire Marvel Multiverse, a saga of cosmic entities, celestial warfare, and successive universal cycles.
The current Earth-616 exists within what is known as the Eighth Cosmos, the latest iteration of reality. The history of the Marvel Multiverse is cyclical. Before our universe, there were seven previous versions, each born from the destruction of its predecessor. The primordial state of all existence was a singular, sentient reality known as The First Firmament. It was alone and perfect, but its loneliness led it to create life: celestial beings. Some of these beings, called the “Aspirants,” were content to worship their creator, while others, the vibrant and colorful “Celestials,” wished to create their own life and evolve. This ideological clash led to a cataclysmic cosmic war that shattered the First Firmament. From these fragments, the Second Cosmos was born, and with it, the Multiverse. This new reality was inherently unstable and eventually collapsed, giving birth to the Third, and so on. Each universal cycle was personified by a cosmic entity known as Eternity. The destruction of one Cosmos and the birth of the next was often orchestrated by cosmic forces and cataclysmic events. The immediate predecessor to our reality was the Seventh Cosmos, the universe most familiar to classic comic readers. Its sole survivor was a being named Galan of the planet Taa. As his universe died, Galan merged with the Sentience of the Universe and was reborn in the “cosmic egg” of the new reality as Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. The birth of the Eighth Cosmos—the current one—was heralded by a “Big Bang,” which also created its core abstract entities: Eternity (the sum of all life), Infinity (all of space), Death, and Oblivion. The celestials arrived and began their cosmic experiments on various worlds, including a nascent Earth, leading to the creation of the Eternals, Deviants, and seeding the potential for super-powered mutations (the X-Gene). The Eighth Cosmos was born following the events of the 2015 Secret Wars, which saw the total destruction of the Multiverse via “Incursions.” Doctor Doom, using stolen power, forged the remnants into a single “Battleworld.” When the heroes eventually defeated him, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four used the power to reconstruct the Multiverse, restoring Earth-616 as the prime reality, but now subtly different, with elements from other destroyed universes (most notably Miles Morales and his family from the Ultimate Universe) integrated into its history.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is definitively a separate reality from the comic book's Earth-616. Its official designation, established in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Vol. 5 (2008), is Earth-199999. This designation has been used in various official tie-in materials and was even referenced on-screen. In Thor: The Dark World, Dr. Erik Selvig scrawls a diagram on a chalkboard that clearly labels the “616 Universe” as one of several realities, implicitly distinguishing it from his own. This has become a point of significant confusion due to recent MCU projects. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, the villain Mysterio claims to be from “Earth-833” and identifies the main MCU reality as “Earth-616.” While Mysterio was lying about his origins, the fact that he used the designation suggests it exists within the MCU's multiversal lexicon. The most direct and confusing reference came in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. When Doctor Strange arrives in the universe of the Illuminati (Earth-838), their scientist, Christine Palmer, explicitly identifies him and his home reality as “Earth-616.” This has created a canonical discrepancy. There are several fan theories and potential explanations:
For the purpose of this encyclopedia, the distinction is paramount:
Earth-616 is a world teeming with fantastical locations that are as iconic as the heroes who inhabit them. While its geography mirrors our own, it is populated by hidden nations, advanced cities, and supernatural strongholds.
The reality of Earth-616 is just one plane of existence within a complex cosmic structure of dimensions and ruled by beings of unimaginable power.
Earth-616 operates under a set of physical and metaphysical laws that differ from our own, primarily due to the presence of superhuman powers and advanced technology.
Earth-616's identity is defined as much by its unique qualities as it is by its relationship with the countless other realities in the Multiverse. These alternate universes serve as mirrors, showing what could have been and what might yet be.
The history of Earth-616 is punctuated by reality-shattering events that threatened its very existence and forever changed its status quo.
Following a complete mental breakdown, the immensely powerful Wanda Maximoff, the scarlet_witch, loses control of her reality-warping abilities. To save her from being killed by the Avengers and X-Men, her brother Quicksilver convinces her to create a new world where everyone's deepest desires are granted. She utters the words “No more mutants” and reshapes Earth-616 into a world where mutants are the dominant species, ruled by her father, Magneto. A handful of heroes remember the original reality and fight to restore it. When the truth is revealed, a distraught Wanda whispers three words that devastate the 616 universe for years to come: “No. More. Mutants.” In an instant, she depowers over 90% of the world's mutant population, an event known as “M-Day” that became a central driving force for the X-Men for over a decade.
While not a reality-warping event, Civil War fundamentally altered the societal and political fabric of Earth-616. After a tragic incident involving the New Warriors results in the deaths of hundreds of civilians, the U.S. government passes the Superhuman Registration Act (SRA), requiring all super-powered individuals to register their identities with the government and act as licensed agents. This splits the hero community down the middle. One side, led by iron_man, supports the act as a necessary step for accountability. The other, led by captain_america, opposes it as a violation of civil liberties. The resulting conflict turned friends into enemies, saw heroes hunting heroes, and culminated in the public assassination of Captain America. The SRA remained law for years, creating a deep ideological schism that has never fully healed.
This was the single most cataclysmic event in the history of the Marvel Multiverse. The storyline was the culmination of years of buildup, centered on “Incursions”—events where two parallel Earths would collide, destroying both universes unless one of the Earths was destroyed first. The heroes of Earth-616 failed to stop the final Incursion. As a result, the entire Multiverse, including Earth-616 and all other known realities, was obliterated. In the ensuing void, Doctor Doom, having stolen the power of the godlike Beyonders, salvaged fragments from dozens of dead realities and fused them together into a single, patchwork planet called Battleworld, which he ruled as God-Emperor. The series followed the surviving heroes of Earth-616 as they navigated this bizarre new world and fought to overthrow Doom. In the end, Reed Richards seized Doom's power and, with the help of his son Franklin, began the process of rebuilding the Multiverse. The Eighth Cosmos was born, and Earth-616 was restored, but it was not exactly the same. Key figures like Miles Morales were now native to this “Prime Earth,” their histories seamlessly integrated. It was a soft-reboot that streamlined and updated the Marvel Universe for a new era.
The “616” name remains one of the most debated pieces of Marvel lore, both in-universe and among creators. As mentioned, it originated with Alan Moore as a deliberately mundane and slightly insulting number. The fan theory that it is a permutation of 666, the Number of the Beast, is widely accepted as Moore's original intent, reflecting a wry commentary on the superhero world. The primary controversy has always been editorial. For decades, Marvel's official stance, championed by figures like Stan Lee, was that their stories took place in “the world outside your window”—our world, but with superheroes. The designation “Earth-616” shatters that illusion. It codifies the main Marvel Universe as just one option among many, reducing its primacy. Joe Quesada was particularly vocal about his dislike for the term, viewing it as nerdy, insular jargon that alienates casual readers. During his tenure as Editor-in-Chief, there was a noticeable effort to avoid using the term in the comics themselves. However, its convenience for writers, editors, and hardcore fans in discussing multiversal stories meant it never truly went away. With the rise of multiversal storytelling in both comics and film, the term has become more mainstream and accepted than ever before, transitioning from a piece of obscure UK trivia to a central pillar of Marvel's cosmology.
The MCU's recent adoption of “616” to describe its own universe has thrown a wrench into decades of established fan understanding. The official designation for the movie universe remains Earth-199999 in all official guidebooks and encyclopedias. However, the on-screen use of “616” in Spider-Man: Far From Home and, more definitively, in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, cannot be ignored. This has created two parallel, contradictory truths. From a publishing and encyclopedic standpoint, Earth-199999 is the correct term for the MCU. From an in-universe MCU perspective, its characters identify their home as Earth-616. This is best understood as a cinematic adaptation choice. The number “616” is a powerful, concise signifier for comic fans that the MCU is now fully embracing the Multiverse. Using “199999” would be accurate but lack the same punch and historical weight. For fans, the simplest way to reconcile this is to understand that the designations are context-dependent: “Earth-616” refers to the prime comic universe, unless one is specifically discussing the MCU's internal naming conventions.