The Big Guy Hits Two Big Milestones and Is Still Going Strong

 I have not at all hidden the fact that I am a huge Spider-Man fan and have been so since I can remember. Back in the early 80s we had Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and I remember loving the show. I was drawn to anything Spider-Man, so it was no surprise that the first super hero comics I started seriously collecting were the three Spidey titles of the time, starting with the dark crossover event that has come to be known as Kraven's Last Hunt (Even though that title was made inaccurate due to them not letting comic characters stay dead. That Kraven is dead again and I so hope they let him remain that way this time). And with only a few brief gaps due to comic not being in the budget (Being an adult can really suck at times) I have been picking up the Spidey comics for about 35 years now.

This year Spider-Man the charter as well as Spidey's main title The Amazing Spider-Man, which really is the flagship title of Marvel Comics, hits two significant milestones this year.

Spider-Man as a character is 60 years old. Amazing Fantasy 15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, was released Aug. 10th 1962. I have said it before in this blog and so I shall repeat it again here, Amazing Fantasy 15 is the most influential comic ever. It was a huge surprise success with fans finding themselves drawn to character of Spider-Man and his related story, something that was considered a risky idea for its time.

Issue 1 of The Amazing Spider-Man would come out in March of 1963.

Issue 900 of The Amazing Spider-Man was just released on July 27th this year, right at the 60th anniversary mark for the character.

As I started shortly before the series hit 300, that means I have been collecting it for over 600 issues, even though there are a few gaps in there. If you factor in all the other Spider-Man series they have done over the years, with Spider-Man alone I have no doubt I should have over a thousand Spider-Man comics in my collection.

The Amazing Spider-Man is the first and so far the only Marvel titles to make that milestone. It got ahead of the older titles like The Fantastic Four or Thor due to various factors that reflect the series' popularity.

Issue 900 had some interesting ideas in it with the over all question of 'Who is Spider-Man' being literally asked over and over again. And answered in a fitting style for the character.

I'm not going to go into just what actual volume of the title we are in or how the legacy counting of the issues work, but Marvel just started the latest volume of the series and 900 is actually issue 6 of the new volume. They started this volume off after a gap of time from the ending of the last. During that gap Spidey did something huge that upset a lot of people, alienating many of his close friends somehow. We've not been given any details, just a flashback page of Spidey on his knees in a crater that it looks like he was responsible for creating. So it is clear there is a bigger storyline that is going to play out for the character right now and I am looking forward to seeing where they go with it.

New comic book sales are not very impressive right now, and the industry as a whole is not doing too great, with talking about how much longer they can keep going with such diminishing returns. Marvel has nowhere near the titles they did a decade ago and all of them have really low print runs, print runs at levels that not too long ago would warrant the cancelation of a title. Despite all of that I have no doubt that we will get to the big issue 1000 with the series, even if that ends up being Marvel's last comic.

Spider-Man has made his place in our culture as a iconic character that will live in some form or another for generations to come. There will be new stories for him in whatever methods will be out there for some time, as his influence will not just fade away. I plan to keep up with it all and continue to enjoy Spidey in whatever form is available to me as long as I am able to.

Nuff said. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Now That Was One Geeky Conversation

My son and I were out doing some Pokemon hunting today.  We got talking about how the Remoraid (A sardine like fish style Pokemon) makes no sense at all to evolve into a Octillery (Basically an octopus like Pokemon). It is the kind of thing that makes it very clear the creators of Pokemon were on drugs while watching Animal Planet when they came up with most of these creatures and their evolutions. We went through most of the Pokemon and made judgement calls as to how much sense the evolutions made. I think less than half of them really looked right. The creators clearly didn't care at all about logic or study nature when they came up with most of them. They have a basic teddy bear somehow turning into a monster grizzly bear with nothing more than them being bears connecting them, as they physically are clearly not the same species. There is a fat flying rabbit/squirrel then somehow becomes a ferret. Seriously, WTF were they on? And of course if you get enough gold fish (Known ...
Read more

Disharmony of the Spheres

My story 'Time of the Bursting' has been published in the anthology 'Disharmony of the Spheres: http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/disharmony-of-the-spheres/ It is an anthology of stories that focus on mental illness. This is the most meaningful anthology I have been in. Half the profits from this book will go to the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Organization, a group that battles teen suicide. The following is from the product description. "Mental illness is very common in our society, but it’s also very misunderstood. Many view those with mental illnesses as being weak, but there is a great deal of strength in those that must battle their own minds on a regular basis. Disharmony of the Spheres focuses on characters with mental illnesses that are still able to be successful. They may not completely overcome their illnesses, but they are able to beat them back and succeed."
Read more

And His Time Is About To Come To An End

Twenty-Seven hours until the beginning of the end of the 11th Doctor. Since BBC America started airing Doctor Who we have been getting the new episodes the same night as they air on BBC One back in the UK, instead of waiting months for them.  That means that we get the Christmas Specials on Christmas Day, making it so Christmas Day ends with a nice little gift. This year's the episode is 'The Time of The Doctor' and will be the end for the 11th Doctor. Supposedly we will also get answers to just about all the big questions still out there from the last few years. We'll see how that goes. We will also be introduced to the 12th Doctor, although most likely this will not give us much of an idea of the character.  We'll have to wait till fall next year for the new season to start up to see just what the new Doctor is like. It is going to be a long wait.
Read more