Thread:SeanWheeler/@comment-1038387-20130430064156/@comment-1713281-20130508075342

A little "two cents" from the Marvel side, since Sean also posted in our forums about the DC/Marvel crossovers at the same time this thread was started. For good reason, no one got around to responding until now.

Marvel does in fact treat a number of the cross over stories mentioned as a separate reality from "Earth-616". our mainstream universe, called Earth-7642; and yes, characters from all companies appear to have existed together in this reality since time began.

That being said, this reality is also a pretty bad one for basing arguments on, since it really is a dues ex machina; in other words, it's a neat little catch-all reality for the Marvel handbook writers to tie up a number of lose ends while simultaneously categorizing (and canon-izing) a couple dozen fringe issues in one large swoop. (And if you read the Marvel Appendix entry for Earth-7642, you'll see that even the handbook writers themselves have issues sorting out the continuity of said reality).

On top of that, this reality is very much Marvel-centric; the majority of the crossovers were done with Marvel and companies other than DC (or that were independent of DC at the time of publication), like Image, Dark Horse, Top Cow, Archie Comics, Wildstorm, and Extreme Studios/Maximum Press, none of which would need to be here. For example, having to make note of the Witchblade/Wolverine crossover's place in the history of this universe would be just plain out of place on a DC site.

Even still, DC and Marvel both carry different views on the canon of these crossovers: Issues that the Marvel writers declare apart of Earth-7642/"Earth-Crossover", and removed from the mainstream continuity of both companies, have been referenced in future DC issues set in the main DC universe of the time (Batman/Punisher and X-Men/New Teen Titans are both examples of this). Meanwhile, Marvel stories have consistently featured a clear separation of these crossovers from Earth-616, with mainstream characters witnessing glimpses of the events as "a glimpse into another world".

But even if you want to over-look all of that info, the simplest of solutions is one you've had trouble grasping since you started contributing, Sean:

The DC Database Project and the Marvel Database Project, much like their respective companies, are completely different entities.

Not sure how to make that any clearer, except to try using bold text. The sites do work together, and they do and have shared contributors and staff alike; but the fact still remains that they are both two different sites at the end of the day. The fact that one side does something does not mean the other side automatically has to do it the same way. And taking a fundamental structure of one side (Marvel's Multiverse and its Earth-Numbering system) and trying to shoe-horn it around the other side is simply a time-waster.

TL;DR: Money was made, canon be damned, and you're trying to quantify and rationalize something that even it's own creators didn't care to quantify or rationalize.