>>720615849
i subscribe to the respawn punch-clock theory
https://web.archive.org/web/20160324023838/http://respawn.timdenee.com/
tl;dr the mercs' time-clock cards double as their genetic code so that the respawn room knows to revive them, intelligence briefcases swapped over time contained punch-card copies so both teams have access to all 9 mercs, clones differentiate themselves with cosmetics to avoid existential crises and ego crises, there are still only 9 "real" mercs at the end of each work-day thanks to deaths and how respawn works
obviously not canon to the comics but i like it significantly better than the comics ignoring respawn and saying the canon mercs, spread across both teams in varying amounts, were just good enough to not die and the class distinction is legitimately a class of mercenary employed by the manns that they fall into