The original idea had been for it to be a canon sort of world, and the setting was responsible for the AU versions and could have some control over the AU versions. The thought had been that any villain OU characters would be too headstrong to do someone else's dirty work or have their own agendas.

That said, I think we're going to end up doing away with the AU idea and go straight canon for characters. We're getting together this weekend to do some re-writes and see what works best.