There was a pretty big anniversary in the comic book world recently. On the dawn of the 80th birthday of Superman, the Man of Steel celebrated with issue #1000 of Action Comics, his birthplace back in 1938.
One thousand is a huge number. This is the first super hero comic book to reach that number, though Detective Comics, starring Batman, will probably reach it in another year or two. And considering that Superman also appears in other, differently-titled comic books, the Last Son of Krypton literally has been in thousands of comics!
But that number one issue from 1938 isn’t the only #1 for Action Comics. Nope, you see, the comic book industry in the past decade or so has started various series over from the beginning, at least as far as the numbering goes. In 2011, there was a new Action Comics #1 when DC Comics rebooted their entire line. After about four years, they decided to do some math and resume the numbering for that series where it would be if it hadn’t been interrupted.
But that’s nothing. The self-titled Superman will have its fifth different number one issue this summer. All told, there have been somewhere around 800 issues of that comic in various incarnations. Will they renumber all that when it closes in on a big number like 1000? It seems likely.
Why do comic book companies do that? The simple answer is money. If consumers see a new #1 issue on the shelf, more tend to buy a copy. Number one issues sometimes gain in value more than others. Plus, it’s a fresh start, so that’s an easy place to jump on board for a character or team.
And that’s the other reason companies restart titles. If you’re a casual consumer or come into a store to look for a comic about that cool super hero you just saw on the big screen, you might be scared away if you see issue #653 on the shelf. Will you understand what’s going on if you haven’t read all the previous issues?
The answer there is yes, given time. We all start somewhere. My very first comic book was Fantastic Four #212, right in the middle of a storyline involving Galactus and the Skrulls. Still, I was fascinated! Later, I had a subscription to Amazing Spider-Man, starting with #190, part two of a story. It didn’t take me long to get used to the characters and what was happening though. And over the years, I’ve tracked down the issues that helped me fill in the smaller details.
Marvel Comics is really taking this to an extreme. For many years, they’ve constantly restarted series, touting new number one issues on a regular basis. Amazing Spider-Man has a sixth issue one coming up. Avengers, the team book on which the recent hit movie was based, just released its seventh first issue. It got so crazy that many long-time collectors said enough was enough.
And Marvel listened. Well, kind of. They went to what they called legacy numbering. They went back and counted up all the issues of their mainstays and over the last year of so put those big numbers on their magazines. Of course, part of that might have had to do with how many were nearing big anniversary issues, so Marvel could celebrate those with oversized, over-priced copies. But it is all in fun and is really cool to see Iron Man hit #600 and Captain America #700.
But it didn’t take long for Marvel to get the itch to put number one issues back on the stands. Now they’ve reached a compromise. Even if it’s a number one issue, they’ll have a smaller number below it with the legacy numbering. For instance, the new number one of Amazing Spider-Man is actually #802 overall. Confused yet?
Some of my favorite anniversary issues are #300 of various magazines. Amazing Spider-Man #300 was the first full appearance of Venom, destined to be an archenemy of Spidey, wearing a black costume that resembled the web-slinger’s. The artist, Todd McFarlance, became one of the most decorated artists of the 1990s with his new style of drawing Spider-Man, soon to be imitated by numerous others.
Avengers #300 was a bit off-kilter. Usually in an Avengers anniversary bash, you’ll see a ton of Avengers and all the big guns. However, this one had Captain America in a different identity, two members of the Fantastic Four, Thor, and a rarely-used character named Gilgamesh. It was part of a bigger storyline that crossed over among many titles, so it didn’t have that normal anniversary feel. Still, it had a lot of action and art by John Buscema, one of my favorite artists ever.
Fantastic Four #300 had a wedding, as sometimes happens in these celebrations. The Human Torch, Johnny Storm, got married, though that was later undone in storylines down the road. Captain America #300 had an all-out battle between Cap and his number one enemy, the Red Skull. At the end, the Skull seemingly departed this mortal coil, though, like the Torch’s marriage, this was later made null and void.
Why all the love for #300? Ah, you can see right through me! Next week in this space will be my three hundredth column. Though I have a way to go to catch Mark Bernard, Al Batt, and Kathy Paulsen, I’m still constantly surprised I made it this far.
So why not write about all this next week? I have a very special column for next week, based on a speech I’ve been asked to give for Memorial Day in Geneva and Ellendale. For those who can’t make it to those wonderful events, I’ll have my speech in this space next week. Have a great and safe Memorial Day weekend!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is leptodermus, which means having a thin skin, as in, “The comic book writer had to overcome a leptodermus when fans decried his take on their favorite character.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!