Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s new trailer is gorgeous and kicked in a very nerdy wasp’s nest too. How? 2099’s Spider-Man, Miguel O’Hara, makes a casual comment about how annoying Doctor Strange and “the little nerd on earth – 199999” were. He talks about Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
And yes, if we were trying to protect the multiverse, we’d be pretty mad at Peter Parker and Stephen Strange for screwing it up for two whole movies. But by calling the MCU setting “Earth-199999,” Miguel has run the gauntlet of technically epic proportions. Because the MCU wants you to think it doesn’t take place on Earth 199999, and readers, we must resist that at all costs.
Wait, Earth-199999 is… the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
To make sense of the many multiverses, Marvel Comics began ordering them by number designations in the 1980s, claiming “Earth-616” for the main setting. Since 2008 The Official Guide to the Marvel UniverseMarvel Comics has dubbed the world set in the MCU films as Earth-199999. But lately, Marvel Studios has firmly disagreed.
Instead, the MCU has insisted on it for two films She are Earth-616 – a clerical formality from which forum wars are born.
Sony Pictures fired the first shot in the Earth-616 war in a scatter line Spider-Man: Far From Home. Quentin Beck, aka Mysterio – who falsely claims to have traveled between multiverses – refers to the MCU’s Earth as Earth-616. Of course, the simplest (and most correct) explanation for this is that Mysterio was a scam, the line is just an Easter egg for fans, and it’s just a coincidence that he randomly chose the name of Marvel Comics’ main universe.
Unfortunately for disambiguation fans, Marvel Studios doubled down on the idea Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in which the titular Doctor visits Earth-838. There, he is shared with his old flame’s version of this universe, Dr. Christine Palmer, reports that his home universe is designated Earth-616.
In response, to paraphrase Nick Fury, nerds across the internet have realized that the MCU has decided to call itself Earht-616, but since it’s a stupid decision, they’ve chosen to ignore it. Out of Mrs Miracle‘s leading lady herself to the editors behind the Marvel Database, People won’t have it.
Thank God, Across the Spider-Verse‘s new trailer sets the record straight – what it can achieve as the greatest Multiverse film to date and the best Spider-Man film.
Of course, that doesn’t matter at the moment. But as the multiverse powers up and Kang’s story gets more and more complicated, it’s possible that Marvel needs to start being a little more specific about which Earth is which. And for the sake of the mental health of everyone writing about these attitudes, please. Let Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios have you different numbers.
