Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-13003739-20130413193623/@comment-1713281-20130413221226

This is a bit of a stretch as far as metaphors go, but maybe this will help.

The United States of America is a country. That country contains within it a number of states and territories (like Puerto Rico).

In the same way, Earth-616 is a reality, and that reality contains a number of different dimensions.

Now, even though people can be from any of the 50 different states, they are all still residents of the United States of America.

In the same way, even though characters can be from any of the different "dimensions", they are all still residents of Earth-616.

Does that make a little more sense?