Board Thread:Administrative/@comment-1713281-20130519071039/@comment-1713281-20130606012758

I do understand how "interaction" sounds broad and ambiguous. But I didn't write it to mean something, like, "Spider-Man mad a one-panel cameo in Licensed Character W #7, now Licensed Character W is canon." I did it to keep in mind the thousands of characters on our site that are not covered by a reference book that are still established as being in canon.

People like Black Alfred. Small-time Spider-Man villain. Appeared as a secondary villain fighting for organized crime control with Malachi Toomes in two issues of Spectacular Spider-Man in the early 80s. He'll never see the light of day in a handbook, but through interaction with Spider-Man, he's brought into the fold of canon.

Or any of the dozens of one-time villains of the old Timely heroes like Cap & Bucky and Jim Hammond & Toro, or the crooks that faced off against the Western gunslingers of the Atlas days that have been retroactively brought into canon. There's no guarantee that Marvel even remembers these characters exist to put them in a handbook, but interaction with these heroes cements their place in canon.

That is the true meaning purpose of the "interaction" bit. That, coupled with the explanations further down the list, like the notes about most licensed and creator-owned characters being kept outside canon, or the final note explaining that nothing is guaranteed a spot in canon, should help keep users from twisting the meaning of that rule into something we didn't intend.