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I think it would need to be hashed out on the Marvel discussion page. If there are official Marvel terms for the universes, that might be appropriate, but if not, any subsistute terms we create are going to be equally confusing. "The creators hate the terms" is not in and of itself reason to drop them.
Edited by DracMonster
Actually, the opinion of the creators is important, as they are the ones who decide what is "official" and what isn't. As I have already pointed, the "official" name for the non-alternate Marvel universe is "Prime Earth".
Ultimate Secret Wars
The term 616 was first used in a Marvel Comic Book. A Captain Britain run by Alan Moore for Marvel UK. Then that term was brought to American comics by Chris Claremont working under the editorship of Jim Shooter, one of the biggest sticklers for continuity and details of anyone, which obviously Joe Quesada is not, considering he thinks it came into vogue with the Ultimate Universe. But then trying to rewrite longterm readers version of the history with his own assumptions (i.e. married superheroes don't work, too many mutants) is part of his modus operandi. And in the case of comics continuity, I don't think tvtropes is in the business of doing editorial rebranding for major companies. They can do that themselves and much better than we can.
It was also used many times in the comics itself since then like in the climax of Spider-Verse. So in no way can we say that because some "recent" editors dislike the term, we should stop using it. Besides, the number of comics like Spider-Men and Spider-Verse and so on means that the Multiverse does exist in the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Cinematic Universe also has a multiverse designation so yes Earth 616 does count and does exist.
In any case, as DracMonster said, it's likely to be a long discussion and this is not the place to have it.
In several pages, when people talk about comics from Marvel Comics, there's a usual need to set apart the stuff from alternate universes from the "main", non-alternate, universe. And so, they use "Earth-616" to make reference to the main universe. There are 2 problems with that. First, it is a terminology that is not self-evident in the meaning, and only hardcore fans would understand. And second, it is only used by the fandom, the actual creators despise it and very rarely use it. So even a devoted fan of Marvel Comics, who reads all the comics but does not go around forums and online discussions, would find the term "Earth 616" a bit weird. Tom Brevoort, who despises the term, even used the Secret Wars crossover to give creators some last months to use it if they wanted, and then established the term "The Prime Earth". See here
.
“I can tell you for sure that those of us actually working on the books virtually never use the term — and I kind of wince inside whenever I hear somebody use it. It just sounds so stupid to my ear, and so counter to the kind of mindset we try to foster in regard to the stories we create and the thinking we try to employ.” – Marvel Executive Editor, Tom Brevoort
“I never use it, I hate the term pure and simple and agree with Tom’s assessment of it. I can’t remember ever hearing it in the office and only really see it used online for the most part. I think the term really came into vogue when the Ultimate Universe came into prominence, but in my world, the language and distinctions are simple, there is the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. Anything other than that reeks of all that DC Earth 1, Earth 2, Earth Prime stuff which I’ve never really taken to, but then again, I got into DC when they got rid of all that stuff so it was from and for a different era than my own.” – Marvel Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada
So, what if we remove the references to "Earth-616" and replace them with more natural terms?