Comics Terminology - Outside The Comic - DCU, MU, Earth-1, Earth-616

DCU, MU, Earth-1, Earth-616

The concept of a shared universe, wherein a company's diverse cast of characters are able to interact and crossover between books and events is usually labelled the " - Universe" (DC, Marvel, Image, CrossGen, Valiant, etc.). Comics fandom has produced various shorthand ways of referring to the various universes, however, and the comics themselves also refer to themselves in specific ways. These labels are usually reserved for the universes of "the Big Two" (Marvel and DC), in large part because they are the main American comics publishers and have the largest shared universes. A non-exhaustive list of terms includes:

• The Marvel Universe, sometimes abbreviated to the MU. The shared universe in which the X-Men, Spider-Man and Avengers, etc. all exist and interact
• Earth-616, The Six-One-Six, etc. denotes the numerical designation of the Earth which the Marvel Universe inhabits. The term was coined in the pages of Captain Britain, by either Alan Moore or Dave Thorpe and may have been chosen for reasons of historical significance, wry commentary, or random choice. See also: Marvel Multiverse.
• The DC Universe or DCU refers to the shared universe inhabited by Batman, Superman, the Justice League of America, etc.
• Earth-1 was the Pre-Crisis designation of the "main" DCU, in contrast to Earth-2 (featuring the JSA), and latterly dozens of individual Earths which were home to a plethora of characters, and were destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series.
• New Earth is the designation of the "main" DCU after the events on 2005's mini-series event Infinite Crisis, in which a revised Multiverse of 52 worlds was created. See also: DC Multiverse, Multiverse world lists.

In addition to the core shared universe, some companies have subsidiary universes/imprints, which can be part of the main universe, or can not be (or can be thoroughly confusing). DC Comics' mature readers' imprint Vertigo Comics, for example mainly publishes stand alone ongoing, mini- and maxi-series, but also variously includes characters who were once part of the DCU, or have intereacted with it in such a way as to make them at least an honorary part of it. Characters such as The Sandman family of titles, Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing all began publication as part of the DCU, but have gradually drifted to a corner of it quite far removed, if still nominally a part. The WildStorm Universe, which was initially published by Image Comics, is now largely accepted as part of the wider DC Multiverse, but not part of the DCU-proper. Similarly, the Ultimate Marvel Universe is not part of the 616, while the MAX Imprint is on the fringes in a similar way to the Vertigo/DC interaction.