The REAL Marvel issue numbers....

[Themanofbat]

Ok, I've seen a few comments here and there about the numbering on all of our favorite Marvel characters. Now, the following may be misleading, especially for fans of the Hulk, Thor and Captn America (because they started their runs after their anthology books were finished, but kept the old numbering systems). Nonetheless, I've tried my best to figure out exactly what the numbers should be today. (I've not counted the anthology appearances, because then I'd have to include minimal appearances by some characters in Strange Tales, as well as Amazing fantasy #15 for Spidey)

Fantastic Four #500

FF#1-416 vol.1
FF#1-13 vol.2
FF#1-71 vol.3

Amazing Spider-Man #496

ASM#1-441 vol.1
ASM#1-55 vol.2

Avengers #490

Avengers#1-402 vol.1
Avengers#1-13 vol.2
Avengers#1-69 vol.3

Thor #443

Thor#126-502 vol.1 (Journey into Mystery was renamed to Thor after #125)
Thor#1-66 vol.2

Hulk #436

Hulk#1-6 vol.1
Hulk#102-474 vol.2 (Tales to Astonish was renamed Hulk after #101)
Hulk#1-57 vol.3

Captain America #433

Captain America#100-454 vol.1 (Tales of Suspense was renamed Captain America after #99)
Captain America#1-13 vol.2
Captain America#1-50 vol.3
Captain America#1-15 vol.4

DareDevil #429

DareDevil#1-380 vol.1
DareDevil#1-49 vol.2

Iron Man #415

Iron Man#1-332 vol.1
Iron Man#1-13 vol.2
Iron Man#1-70 vol.3


Well, that's a wrap.
I think I got all the heavy hitters.

Let the debate begin....

Cheers...

 

[The Hobgoblin]

A couple of questions my Batty friend,

Tales of Suspense.... Do I take it that Cap continued with the numbering of that and Iron Man was given a complete new numbering for his first solo book?

Or was it just the case that Cap was the character that kept selling and Iron Man was restarted at a later date after TOS ended?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Ah, Themanofbat. Your anal retentive attention to detail is an inspiration to us all.

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by The Hobgoblin
A couple of questions my Batty friend,

Tales of Suspense.... Do I take it that Cap continued with the numbering of that and Iron Man was given a complete new numbering for his first solo book?

Or was it just the case that Cap was the character that kept selling and Iron Man was restarted at a later date after TOS ended?

Tales of Suspense #99 was released in March 1968, and Cap #100 came out the following month in April. Hulk #102 was also released in April 1968. Iron Man #1 came out in May of 1968, as did Captain Marvel #1 and the SubMariner #1. June saw Dr.Strange #169 (formerly Strange Tales) and Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1. Silver Surfer #1 debuted in August 1968.

The reason for all those releases in 1968 was the simple fact that all comic sales were in decline... except for Marvel. Harvey, Archie, and Dell had cancelled all their superhero titles and Marvel, who was now selling over 50 million comics per year, finally had the strength to renegotiate their distribution deal. After this deal was signed, many of their characters expanded into their own titles, as noted above.

Cheers...

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by TheCorpulent1
Ah, Themanofbat. Your anal retentive attention to detail is an inspiration to us all.

It's my life...
It's my pride...

 

[The Hobgoblin]

So....

Captain America was at #102 when Iron Man was at #2?

So when did Captain America get relaunched as Vol.2 #1? Was that Heroes Reborn?

I know Iron Man vol.2 was the Heroes Reborn storyline - and it wasn't a good one.

 

[Themanofbat]

Yes, the 4 books that came out of the horrible "Heroes Reborn" were indeed Captain America, Iron Man, the Avengers & the Fantastic Four. You'll kindly note that those 4 books have a 13 issue vol.2 run, and when they came back to the regular Marvel Universe, they all relaunched again with a third volume.

 

[Themanofbat]

Back in 1968, the "First issue = more sales" mentality probably wasn't as prevalent as it is today. They probably decided on keeping the old numbering for people who were buying the books at that time and were following issue numbers, just so they wouldn't get too confused....

I don't really know why....

 

[The Hobgoblin]

So Cap has been relaunched twice after Heroes Reborn? I take it he just got cancelled at #50 of Vol.3 and then given a new lease of life post-911?!

Am I right or am I right?

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by The Hobgoblin
So Cap has been relaunched twice after Heroes Reborn? I take it he just got cancelled at #50 of Vol.3 and then given a new lease of life post-911?!

Am I right or am I right?

Yes.

I would say so... the first story arc had Cap fighting a bunch of terrorists, and the story telling was just dripping with Americana patriotism.

The fact that Marvel felt they could sell a few more titles with yet again, another #1 really leaves me wondering......

 

[Lord Blackbolt]

they shouldn't count that crappy Heroes Reborn volumes....

 

[Themanofbat]

This is a great thread.

 

[CantThinkOfAName]

When are you gonna get out of your denial, manofbat The REAL numbers are the ones that appear on the cover. Acceptance of this is the first step toward getting into Nu Marvel Who knows, maybe one day youll be reading Ultimate Spider-Man

 

[Johnny Blaze]

Hopefully, they will return The Avengers back to it's original numbering when it hits the big 5-0-0.

 

[dk]

Marvel should do away with #2 issues, and simply release a new #1 every single month for every title they publish.

It's practically gotten to that point, so why not just take it all the way?

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by dk
Marvel should do away with #2 issues, and simply release a new #1 every single month for every title they publish.

It's practically gotten to that point, so why not just take it all the way?

Now THERE'S an idea....

Imagine... every month would be a special collector's edition issue...

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by CantThinkOfAName
When are you gonna get out of your denial, manofbat The REAL numbers are the ones that appear on the cover. Acceptance of this is the first step toward getting into Nu Marvel Who knows, maybe one day youll be reading Ultimate Spider-Man

While I've been tempted to pick up the trades (in recent moments of weakness), I don't see myself getting into the NEW Ultimate Marvel.

 

[The Hobgoblin]

Tempted eh?

A self TMOBbing is on the horizon.... I can tell.

Dirty boy.

 

[nabob1982]

if every issue were a special edition, it would be like we time warped back to the early/mid 90's

 

[Movies205]

I have a question, by FF4 going back to orignal numbering can it use history from the orignal series?

 

[Lord Blackbolt]

it always did before.

 

[Jugsy]

Originally posted by Movies205
I have a question, by FF4 going back to orignal numbering can it use history from the orignal series?

just because they're re-launched doesn't mean they star again. LIke with Spec #1 you'd expect them to do spidey's origin, but's just pete moving to a knew house, making friends, then going after Venom.

 

[Movies205]

Originally posted by Lord Blackbolt
it always did before.

What was the point of relaunching with a new number system?

 

[Nightcrawler17]

It's a way for Marvel to attract new readers. That's why they gave Wolverine a new #1 six months ago.

 

[Themanofbat]

Originally posted by Themanofbat
Ok, I've seen a few comments here and there about the numbering on all of our favorite Marvel characters. Now, the following may be misleading, especially for fans of the Hulk, Thor and Captn America (because they started their runs after their anthology books were finished, but kept the old numbering systems). Nonetheless, I've tried my best to figure out exactly what the numbers should be today. (I've not counted the anthology appearances, because then I'd have to include minimal appearances by some characters in Strange Tales, as well as Amazing fantasy #15 for Spidey)

Fantastic Four #500

FF#1-416 vol.1
FF#1-13 vol.2
FF#1-71 vol.3

Amazing Spider-Man #496

ASM#1-441 vol.1
ASM#1-55 vol.2

Avengers #490

Avengers#1-402 vol.1
Avengers#1-13 vol.2
Avengers#1-69 vol.3

Thor #443

Thor#126-502 vol.1 (Journey into Mystery was renamed to Thor after #125)
Thor#1-66 vol.2

Hulk #436

Hulk#1-6 vol.1
Hulk#102-474 vol.2 (Tales to Astonish was renamed Hulk after #101)
Hulk#1-57 vol.3

Captain America #433

Captain America#100-454 vol.1 (Tales of Suspense was renamed Captain America after #99)
Captain America#1-13 vol.2
Captain America#1-50 vol.3
Captain America#1-15 vol.4

DareDevil #429

DareDevil#1-380 vol.1
DareDevil#1-49 vol.2

Iron Man #415

Iron Man#1-332 vol.1
Iron Man#1-13 vol.2
Iron Man#1-70 vol.3


Well, that's a wrap.
I think I got all the heavy hitters.

Let the debate begin....

Cheers...

With all teh recent talk about Thor reaching #500 first, I thought we should revisit this thread.

Let's have an update here....

Fantastic Four #513

FF#1-416, 501-513 vol.1
FF#1-13 vol.2
FF#1-71 vol.3

Amazing Spider-Man #508

ASM#1-441, 501-508 vol.1
ASM#1-59 vol.2

Avengers #498

Avengers#1-402 vol.1
Avengers#1-13 vol.2
Avengers#1-83 vol.3

Thor #456

Thor#126-502 vol.1 (Journey into Mystery was renamed to Thor after #125)
Thor#1-79 vol.2

Hulk #451

Hulk#1-6 vol.1
Hulk#102-474 vol.2 (Tales to Astonish was renamed Hulk after #101)
Hulk#1-72 vol.3

Captain America #444

Captain America#100-454 vol.1 (Tales of Suspense was renamed Captain America after #99)
Captain America#1-13 vol.2
Captain America#1-50 vol.3
Captain America#1-26 vol.4

DareDevil #440

DareDevil#1-380 vol.1
DareDevil#1-60 vol.2

Iron Man #428

Iron Man#1-332 vol.1
Iron Man#1-13 vol.2
Iron Man#1-83 vol.3

Spectacular Spider-Man #278

SSM#1-263 vol.1
SSM#1-15 vol.2