BothMarvel ComicsandDC Comicsare home plate to characters with decades of story . Their legion superheroes and baddie have lived through such historical events as the war in Vietnam , the rise and fall of the USSR , the outcome of 9/11 and beyond . The longevity of heroessuch as Batman and Supermanis a testament to their enduring popularity regardless of the 10 … so why do strip company continually readjust the issue numbering ?

Legacy characters such as the Fantastic Four , Green Lantern , Captain America and others technically have hundreds of emergence to their name . TheAmazing Spider - Manseries has over 700 issues andAction ComicsandDetective Comics , home to Superman and Batman respectively , both have well over 1000 issuing each . Yet every title advert above has seen a telephone number reset . Amazing Spider - Man’snumber was reset in 2018 , whileAction ComicsandDetective Comicssaw a massive reset in 2011along with the entire DC stock in theNew 52publishing initiative . Some of the less - pop character , such as Marvel ’s Moon Knight and DC ’s Harley Quinn , reset their phone number very ofttimes and are thus unable to achieve milestone topic bit .

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invisible man

From a business organization standpoint , the reasoning behind the repeat reset is obvious . New Issue # 1 ’s be given to sell very well ; on the current list of the top ten best - selling case-by-case comics of all time , six out of ten are classified as offspring # 1 ( the good merchandising comic of all time , 1991’sX - Men # 1sold over 8 million written matter ) . New readers are more likely to purchase a comic if it issue forth with the promise ofa sweet startle bereft of complex continuity , and collectors are more inclined to purchase an issue if it call to be valuable in the time to come ( as is often the case with new # 1 ’s ) .

The firing of raw Issue # 1 ’s can also signify a change in the originative team and/or guidance for the character overall . However , the duplicate rollback of the long - run numbers racket risk placing a character ’s position in story in the background . amusing book buff delight the long history of these characters – even if some continuity is contradictory – and look frontwards to milestone issues ( which are naturally backbreaking to achieve if the number continually wind back ) . DC see this soon after the New # 52 , andAction ComicsandDetective Comicsproudly released their 1,000thissue with the identification number prominently display on the cover .

Overall , the decision to roll back act , such as the case with DC’sNew 52 , is largely electropositive ( New 52missteps nonetheless ) . just gross sales means a good opportunity for a character to become popular , which in twist will facilitate readers take issues which they would n’t have otherwise understand . But the retentive history of theMarvel ComicsandDC Comicstitans must n’t be overlooked either .

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