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Is The Spectacular Spider-man Marvel's longest running....

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The way I see Marvel Comics' publication structure is as follows.

 

First, you have their cornerstone titles. Those are Amazing Spider-man, Fantastic Four, X-men, and Avengers (in no specific order).

 

Second, you have their remaining foundation titles. These include ongoing series of Daredevil, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, and Captain America.

 

Finally, you have all their secondary titles. These include (and have included) titles dedicated to characters or groups that are not part of the foundation. These include the likes of Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, Punisher, Electra, The Defenders, etc. Also included here are the second titles for foundations characters such as Peter Parker, Spider-man, Wolverine, Avengers West Coast, New X-men, etc.

 

My question is in dealing with the length of a given title's run. As we all know, the books in the first two groups are all approaching their 500th issue published (total issues for various volumes printed). FF will be there in another month and ASM should get there by the end of the year. My question:

 

Now that Wolverine is going to get "rebooted" with a #1 issue, does this mean that Spectacular Spider-man will remain as the longest running title from the third group? Is it's 263 issue run the longest from this group or am I missing one that was longer?

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You know...I hadn't even thought about Marvel Tales; probably because it was a reprint book and I never did collect it. That book went to 292 issues or something like that, so that's a longer run than SSM

 

Any others?

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I wouldn't count Marvel Tales either... since it really wasn't new material...

 

But yes, I think Spec winds up as the longest of the secondary titles for Marvel. I would frankly be surprised if we ever see a new Marvel title reach issue 100 again without being rebooted...

 

BTW: books arrived yesterday. Thanks again for the deal!

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Yes, Thor had a huge run. But it's still going strong and it's a foundation title, not a secondary one like Spectacular Spider-man, which is also now out of print.

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Uhh....no. Thor started with Journey into Mystery #83, changed to Thor with issue #126, and continued until #502. 893naughty-thumb.gif

 

 

Jim

 

So Marvels Claim that Fantastic Four will be the first Marvel Title to reach 500 is more revisionist histroy?

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Fantastic Four will be the first title to hit 500 individual issues with the same team/character. So in that sense, they are correct. The first of the Marvels to hit #500.....well no obviously.

 

Really it's all mute because where's FF issue #475? In actuality, it's another way the Marvel marketing machine can get more money out of comic buyers hands. I'm happy they are going to the old numbering but I see it for what it is also. mad.gif

 

 

Jim

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Fantastic Four will be the first title to hit 500 individual issues with the same team/character. So in that sense, they are correct. The first of the Marvels to hit #500.....well no obviously.

 

Really it's all mute because where's FF issue #475? In actuality, it's another way the Marvel marketing machine can get more money out of comic buyers hands. I'm happy they are going to the old numbering but I see it for what it is also. mad.gif

 

 

Jim

 

Jim does this take into account the vol 2 FF with the Heroes Reborn and the return of Jim Lee to Marvel? I don't read FF but I have these issues and wondered if they fit into that 500 issue run/continuity

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I don't believe it would, Murph.

 

There have been 493 issues of ASM published (not counting annuals, giant-sized, and special issues). Volume 1 ran from issue 1 to issue 441. Volume 2, which is the current run is up to issue 52 (441+52=493). Issue #1 of Amazing Spider-man was published in March of 1963. Since then, 483 months of time have gone by. That means that, for a monthly comic, ASM is actually ahead of schedule. Obviously, there have been several periods in the 80's and 90's when ASM was published twice a month and there have been other times where it was not coming out regularly. All in all, though, I think this is a pretty good track record.

 

Also, thought it hasn't been announced, I firmly believe that in another 6 months or so, ASM will also go back to it's original numbering with it's 500th issue in continuity. That will make it quite a jump going from issue 58 to 500.

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The current run of Thor, Volume 2 is up to issue 63. There were 502 issues of Journy into Mystery/The Mighty Thor vol 1 printed, but only from issue 83 did the book feature the thunder god. That means that 420 issues of JiM/Thor vol 1 actually were about Thor. Thor Volume 2 issue 80 will be the 500th issue of The Mighty Thor in continuity and that's still 12-18 months away (depending on release schedule). I happen to think that this is the most logical point to return Thor to it's original numbering but I don't know if it will happen.

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