Board Thread:Administrative/@comment-3406131-20140314000018/@comment-61371-20140327015422

Really, we need to realize there's a difference between "assuming" and "common sense." If Spider-Man appears, unless there's significant reason to think otherwise, I think it's safe to assume it's Peter Parker. Bullet Points, for instance, is a reality where NO character's identity can be assumed. But we hardly needed Spider-Man unmasked in Age of Ultron to know that was Peter Parker (though we DID need that one-shot to verify he was the post-Ock possessed Spidey).

It's a tough thing. I think we can safely assume a character's past lines up with what we've seen in published comic to that point, but we can't apply retcons or revelations made in 616 books AFTER the publication of the divergent reality's book to that character. I.e., it's tough to assume any Wolverine pre-Origin is really named James Howlett, but it's safe to assume the bulk published post-Origin ARE James Howlett. These divergent characters are largely not given histories because the writer assumes we know these details and don't need them repeated. I mean, really, do we need to be told Peter Parker got bitten by a radioactive spider in every alternate Spider-Man appearance, or can we just assume he was if he's in his costume? Yeah, there are ALWAYS going to be characters where we can't assume anything, or can only assume so much. And, sometimes, entire realities (most of the New Exiles realities come screaming to mind) are going to be so different that NOTHING is safe to be assumed. There's a What If? reality where Lady Deathstrike gets a hangnail. Odds are, up to that hangnail, everything was basically the same as in 616. We don't need that spelled out for us, because there's no reason to doubt it being the same.

Let's look at Mutant Liberation Front (Earth-9105), for instance. None of those characters have their real names revealed, but we can assume most are the same as their 616 counterparts. However, we can't necessarily do that with Fantastic Four (Earth-9105), and it's kind of half-and-half with Avengers (Earth-9105).

Basically, we can either use a certain amount of common sense derived from the clues given, or we can't assume ANYTHING, including origin, motivations, or even eye color (which I'd be shocked to discover varies too greatly reality to reality on most characters). Ultimately, it's a tough thing, but I think certain things can be inferred without, necessarily, just assuming them to be true.