*raises hand* Teacher, I have a question.

[eliyes]

I'm being haunted by the number 616.

Now, the only significant thing I know about this number is that if you translate the Old Testament from Archaic Hebrew properly, 616 is the number of the Beast. Which makes sense, I guess, since if you use the numerology of the time, that will give you "Caligula"[ed.], I'm told.

But I'm seeing it everywhere. On scans_daily. On dear_multiverse. It seems to refer to the core timeline of a universe...? Why....?

Comments

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

Marvel's main timeline is the 616 universe.

*still snickering*

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

See, now that's really odd, because 90% or more of the company founders were/are Jewish.

Is this a recent phenomenon? I don't remember ever seeing it back when I was really into Marvel.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

I may be wrong, but I think this was introduced in a What If...? issue where all of the alternate worlds were laid out by Uatu. Each world was issued a number. "Our" Marvel was 616.

As for the company members themselves -- it's a real possibility they don't/didn't know.

Personally, I don't place too much stock in numbers as symbols, Bible-ordained or otherwise. I never had much use for them.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Why? Because Alan Moore is a sneaky, crazy motherfucker. I'm willing to bet he knew all the evidence that said 616 was the real number of the Beast, and so he snuck it in as an in-joke when he dubbed the Marvel Universe as Universe 616 in his Captain Britain mini-series. This is why we love Alan Moore and his beard of doom.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Was that the first appearance of the 616 world? *curious*

[apathocles.livejournal.com]

What the others said. (Although they undoubtedly know more of the specifics than I do. *g*)

I had a bit of a look around online, though, because I know I've heard various other theories on why it's called this, and well, I find these things interesting. *g*

It's taken from the publication date of Fantastic Four #1! (http://underworld.fortunecity.com/blood/201/marvel/marvelus.html) Apparently, this means that anything published before then is in a completely different reality.

Also, I remember hearing once that the number 616 was also the street number in the address of one of the major publishing houses -- I think they said it was DC's address, and so they were having a friendly jab at DC. Neither Marvel nor DC are located at a 616, as far as I know; maybe one of them was in the past? *shrug* No idea.

But, yeah. Alternate worlds, Earth 616.

[taichara]

It's worth noting that the determination of 616 as the proper translation is a recent phenomenon -- within the last year or three. Also, it's not universally accepted ...

Me, I rather like it, because numerologically it works out to refer to Emperor Caligula ^_^

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

But the Marvel = 616 also seems to be recent, to me.

Caligula! Thats who it was. *removes Nero from post*

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

It begins to seem as though there are many theories for why Marvel = 616...