The Marvel Universe (also designated Earth-616), is the mainstream universe of Marvel Comics from 1939 to present.
All of Marvel's super-hero stories take place here, except when the series is explicitly said to not occur there. Also, a lot of licensed property exist in the Marvel Universe as well.
Marvel has excluded much of it's not heroic work form the main Marvel Universe, such as it's humor titles.
Marvel Comics has kept a very tight continuity since it's inception, unlike it's distinguished competition. When it chooses to do a rebooted/revamped version of a character, it does so by placing those stories in an alternate reality while maintaining the original universe intact. However, Marvel does try to keep it's characters young, by maintaining that the events from 1961 (the debut of the Fantastic Four) to the present all occur within a 10 - 12 year period.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Wold Newton Universe
The Wold Newton Universe came from the mind of Philip Jose Farmer, though the characters that exist within were created long before to made the connections that placed them in a shared reality.
Win Scott Eckert expanded on those crossover connections in his two volume Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, though referring to it as the Crossover Universe. The Wold Newton Meteoric Society has meanwhile expanded upon the WNU through essays of Creative Mythography. I myself have attempted to expand the reality into film and television with my Television Crossover Universe blog. And finally, a number of authors continue to write within the confines of this particular reality.
The basic premise is that a meteorite stuck in Wold Newton, England in the 18th century (which actually happened in our world). However, in the WNU, a number of passersby were witness to the event and irradiated, creating a mutation which caused their children and future generations to inhabit the abilities of the hero (or villain), including greater intelligence, strength, endurance, ect.
Though the two key works that introduced the WNU were Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, it's really Sherlock Holmes who seems the be the Kevin Bacon of the WNU (that being a "six degrees" reference).
For any character to exist in the WNU, from a crossover perspective, you should be able to provide a link back to the Great Detective. Not that crossovers are the only way to gain inclusion. As I said, "creative mythography", using the style and system of careful research and well-thought out concepts, can bring in (or "wold") characters.
I'm not going to list all the characters in the Wold Newton Universe. I've tried to undergo such a project before and gave up at the futility that it would take me to beyond the end of my days.
But if you really are interested in exploring the world of Philip Jose Farmer, you should of course read his words, especially TA and DS:HAL. You should then read Myths for the Modern Age (a primer on Creative Mythography) and Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.
You should visit the Wold Newton Website, and join their discussion group.
And you should check out the works of folks like Win Scott Eckert, Henry Covert, Frank Schindler, Brad Mengel, John Small, Dennis Power, Sean Levin, Chuck Loridan, Kim Newman, Jean Locifer, Dr. Peter Coogan, Michael Croteau, and...I'm probably leaving some out, but if you start researching these folks, you will undoubtably come across the others I'm forgetting.
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Note to those I've mentioned here, if you find anything I've written here to be incorrect, please tell me so I can correct it immediately. And if I've provided a link associated with your name or your work (or even someone else's work) and you have a better link you'd like me to use, also please tell me and I will make the change as soon as I can. Thanks to all those in the Wold Newton Meteoric Society. I continue to be a fan and am honored to know you and be a part of your world.
Win Scott Eckert expanded on those crossover connections in his two volume Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, though referring to it as the Crossover Universe. The Wold Newton Meteoric Society has meanwhile expanded upon the WNU through essays of Creative Mythography. I myself have attempted to expand the reality into film and television with my Television Crossover Universe blog. And finally, a number of authors continue to write within the confines of this particular reality.
The basic premise is that a meteorite stuck in Wold Newton, England in the 18th century (which actually happened in our world). However, in the WNU, a number of passersby were witness to the event and irradiated, creating a mutation which caused their children and future generations to inhabit the abilities of the hero (or villain), including greater intelligence, strength, endurance, ect.
Though the two key works that introduced the WNU were Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, it's really Sherlock Holmes who seems the be the Kevin Bacon of the WNU (that being a "six degrees" reference).
For any character to exist in the WNU, from a crossover perspective, you should be able to provide a link back to the Great Detective. Not that crossovers are the only way to gain inclusion. As I said, "creative mythography", using the style and system of careful research and well-thought out concepts, can bring in (or "wold") characters.
I'm not going to list all the characters in the Wold Newton Universe. I've tried to undergo such a project before and gave up at the futility that it would take me to beyond the end of my days.
But if you really are interested in exploring the world of Philip Jose Farmer, you should of course read his words, especially TA and DS:HAL. You should then read Myths for the Modern Age (a primer on Creative Mythography) and Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.
You should visit the Wold Newton Website, and join their discussion group.
And you should check out the works of folks like Win Scott Eckert, Henry Covert, Frank Schindler, Brad Mengel, John Small, Dennis Power, Sean Levin, Chuck Loridan, Kim Newman, Jean Locifer, Dr. Peter Coogan, Michael Croteau, and...I'm probably leaving some out, but if you start researching these folks, you will undoubtably come across the others I'm forgetting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note to those I've mentioned here, if you find anything I've written here to be incorrect, please tell me so I can correct it immediately. And if I've provided a link associated with your name or your work (or even someone else's work) and you have a better link you'd like me to use, also please tell me and I will make the change as soon as I can. Thanks to all those in the Wold Newton Meteoric Society. I continue to be a fan and am honored to know you and be a part of your world.
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