Marvel Animated Universe Wiki:Manual of Style

Marvel Animated Universe Wiki's Manual of Style are rules and guidelines that are designed to set a rough standard for the appearances of all articles. Although style is generally not considered the most important factor in the writing of an article, it is an important factor in the writing of good articles. The manual of style is designed to make articles easier to read and comprehend, to make articles better organized and easier to edit.

If you're looking for information on how to write an article in wiki markup, please see Help:Editing for instructions. As that article is more about how to use markup, this article is concerned about the when, where, and why of using specific markup.

In all cases, examples of styles will be indented from the main margin for emphasis.

Perspective
Any information not dealing with the "universe" the article is written in should go in the Background section. This would include Real World information or details about the animated character's comic counterpart.

Because this wiki deals with an adaptation there will certainly be information from the original source not found in the series. Only include such information in the Background section and how it relates to the animated version. For example, the series may not reveal the name a character even if the comics has. This would not be included in the page except for the Background section.

In Universe
Articles are to be written from the point of view of an observer within the Marvel Animated Universe. Assume you are an omniscient inhabitant of the Marvel Animated Universe living at a point in time after all events in the MAU have already occurred, and you are writing an encyclopedia entry. For an example, the article on Spider-Man the character would be written as though he were a real person and the writer knew everything about him.

Real World
Articles that deal with anything in which we (the wiki editors) live are Real World articles. These include television series, episodes, actors, production companies, etc. and are to include a tag.

Non MAU
Non Marvel Animated Universe is described as anything Marvel that is animated but not dealing with the Marvel Animated Universe. Unless two series are directly related to each other, such as the MAU, they should not include information about other series, i.e. articles should not have information from  or.


 * All the following information applies to Non MAU articles.

Articles
All articles should have the following elements:
 * A brief introduction for readers to get a general sense of the following information.
 * Incomplete articles should be given the stub and/or Expand templates.
 * The first appearance of the articles title within the text should be in bold type.
 * Words that are themselves titles of additional articles should be linked only on their first occurrence in the article.
 * Internal links add to the cohesion and utility of MAU Wiki by allowing readers to deepen their understanding of a topic by conveniently accessing other articles. These links should be included where it is most likely that readers might want to use them; for example, in article leads, the beginnings of new sections, table cells, and image captions.


 * Adapted from Wikipedia

Characters
Character pages should be named after their most common name. They should be written "In Universe."

Character Template
The infobox contains two parts, and "In Universe" section and a Real World section.


 * Name: Should be their given birth name if given, i.e. Peter Parker.
 * Image: An introductory image. It should be simple and give a general idea of who the character is. If at all possible, keep other characters out of it.
 * Alternate Identity: Should be the name they have later gone under if given, i.e. Spider-Man
 * Powers and Abilities: The extraordinary abilities of the person, i.e. Iron Man's armor, Wolverine's healing factor, Spider-Man's webshooters. This should be more general as this will be expanded on later in the page.
 * Team Affiliations: This should include groups that the person has been a part of, i.e. the X-Men or Avengers. This should not include teaming up with other individuals, i.e. when Iron Man and Spider-Man teamed up.
 * Appearances: A list of every episode they appeared in. If they appeared in every episode of a particular series then simply state "all". If they did not appear in every episode of the series but every episode in a particular season then state the season instead of every episode within the season.
 * Voice Actor(s): The actor that provided the voice. If multiple actors played the same character then list them all. If one actor played the character in one series and another actor played them in another then provide the show after the actor's name.

Do not include unknown or speculative information, or information found in the comics but not the MAU.

Sections

 * Biography: Where all the information about what happens to them is detailed. These should be written in chronological order, even if the events are not presented in that order. This should not simply be a rehashing of the episode descriptions.
 * Powers and Abilities: A more in-depth detailing of their powers. This would be things like what their powers are, how they use them, any gadgets they might regularly use, etc. Normal human beings, such as Stan Lee or Aunt May, should not have this category.
 * Personality: Aspects related to them not involving any kind of powers. This would detail what kind of person they are, if they have an intelligent mind, etc.
 * Alternate Versions: This would include a description of all alternate versions of the characters, including timeline, universe, and forms. Alternate timelines should go in the character pages but alternate universe can be their own page. For example, Spider-Man (Armored) has his own page but the alternate version of Spider-Carnage that actually destroyed all of reality would go in the Spider-Carnage page.
 * Background Information: Out-of-universe information, notes on production or non-canon information. This section may be omitted where no information exists.
 * External Links: For any links to well-known fan sites, or other sites with information on the character, i.e. Marvel.com, Marvel Database wiki, Wikipedia.
 * Categories: No heading, place categories at the end of the article; preferably alphabetized.

Episodes
Episodes should be named with the (Episode) appendix. If there is no page for the title without the appendix exists then it should redirect to the page with the (Episode) appendix, i.e. Night of the Lizard would redirect to Night of the Lizard (Episode).

For multiple episodes with the same name put the title of the series in the appendix before Episode. The page with the typical (Episode) appendix would then be a disambiguation page. For example, "Doomed" is the title of an episode in both and. Doomed (Episode) would be a disambiguation page leading to both Doomed (The Incredible Hulk Episode) and Doomed (Fantastic Four: World Greatest Heroes Episode).

Episodes should be written from a Real World perspective and include a tag.

Episode Template

 * Series: Which series the episode is a part of.
 * Image: An introductory image to help visually describe what the episode is about.
 * Release Date: The date the episode originally aired.
 * Episode Number: Which place the episode takes place in the series, may not always correspond with the air dates.
 * Writer: Those who wrote the episode.
 * Director: The person who directed the episode.
 * Previous Episode: The episode that takes place before that one.
 * Next Episode: The episode that takes place after that one.

Sections

 * Introduction: A brief synopsis of the episode.
 * Story: A detailed description of the episode broken up into the different acts. The acts may be given names, especially if already given, or may be simply named Act One, Act Two, etc.
 * Quotes: Memorable quotes from the episode and who said them, and any other specific notes about the quotes, i.e. references to the comics or other media.
 * Cast: A table of those voice actors featured in the episode along with the characters they played. Guest stars (not series regulars) should have a separate heading. For example:
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Actor !! Role ! Guest Actor !! Role
 * - bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-bottom:3px solid #CCCCFF"
 * Christopher Daniel Barnes || Spider-Man/Peter Parker
 * Jennifer Hale || Black Cat/Felicia Hardy
 * - bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-bottom:3px solid #CCCCFF"
 * Jennifer Hale || Black Cat/Felicia Hardy
 * - bgcolor="#CCCCCC" style="border-bottom:3px solid #CCCCFF"
 * Robert Hays || Iron Man/Tony Stark
 * }
 * Continuity: References to other episodes within that one.
 * Background: This would include things such as production notes, censorship, reception, inconsistencies, and other trivia.
 * External Links: External sites relevant to the episode. This may include reviews or commentaries.
 * External Links: External sites relevant to the episode. This may include reviews or commentaries.

Images

 * An image is used to visually describe the article. It should be relevant to the article and correspond to a point where it is placed in the article.
 * A picture is better than no picture. Do not remove a picture of a character, item, etc. from an article, even if it doesn't conform to these guidelines unless you replace it or the image is a copyright violation.
 * Images that are not part of an info box should have a caption (use the "thumb" function in the image tag). A caption may be anything, but it should always be related to the image.

Source format
Use and the appropriate fair use template.