The False Number One

By: MSJ

Imagine after seeing Infinity War being told by a friend how awesome the comics are, then after never reading a comic book in your life and going to a comic shop. A fire is burning in your belly to dive into the source material for many of the movies that you have enjoyed over the past ten years to finally understand what all the hype is about. You're greeted by a friendly face at the cash register and you ask "hey, where are your Spider-Man comics? I want to read his series because the movies were so great." The cashier leads you to the ‘S’ section, points to the latest Spider-Man, issue number one. You grab it thinking it'll be a great jumping on point, but as you walk back to the front you noticed something strange: there lies another Spider-Man number one! Look off to the left and there lies another. The cover art is enough to indicate they are each distinctly different yet fairly recent.

As confusion begins to fester and grow in your in your soul, more and more until the dreaded indecision on what's the right purchase becomes so tangible. Finally, despair crushes your soul as you realize that this is not exclusive to Spider-Man, but nearly all of Marvels catalog of comics from the past seven years. This is due to Marvel seeing spikes in sales whenever a new issue one was put on store shelves.  Thus, attempting to capture lightning in a bottle so to speak, Marvel has rebooted several times to boost their sales numbers. This meant that their entire line would get a revamp some series only lasted twelve issues before getting a new number one. Henceforth marvel began producing various new number issues of long-standing comics such as The Avengers, Daredevil, Hulk, etc. Rather than focusing on telling long-standing stories while still making them accessible to new readers marvel has adopted a seasons model much like television.  Each series would have a guaranteed shelf life, some lasting longer than others, before being rebranded as a number one after a fairly short period of time. Marvel and the comics industry as a whole have become more interested in increasing sales than actually producing great stories. This is a problem I like to refer to as “the false number ones.”

Summer  2011 was infamous for the comics industry. The Flashpoint storyline over at DC comics had just wrapped up with the entire line of comics being relaunched in terms of both continuity and series numbering with the dawn of the New 52 in the fall. Once September of 2011 had come DC had followed through on their promise to reinvigorate their comics line for fans old and new. Creating fresh jumping on points while also retool characters that had in some cases grown outdated.   A controversial move in the comics most comic fans had grown up along with the ageless godlike heroes that we had become invested in, so to hear that over seventy years of continuity was being either erased or restructured many fans felt that we were being neglected by a company we have supported for so long. Jump to today 2018 and the New 52 is looked back on as a mixed, but overall successful strategy. New interest in lesser known characters such as Swamp Thing or Animal Man had been birthed as well as a bigger push for diversity. Most notable of the successes that DC found with the New 52 was that of their sales increased dramatically. Due to the massive success of DC renumbering their brand the industry took notice namely their major competitor Marvel who soon followed suit.

In October 2012 Marvel recognized the success DC had been experiencing by relaunching their comics line and not being one to be outdone decided to perform a soft reboot.  While DC fundamentally changed their continuity along with a new numbering for comics, Marvel opted to only change their numbering while leaving their continuity intact so as to not ostracize longtime readers while reaping the benefits of appearing new reader friendly and boosting their sales.  Now it wouldn't be a nerdy article without taking a second to make this distinction: Marvel has a strange continuity. How, you may ask, let me tell you. Similar to DC, Marvel has a long history in comics about fifty years if you count the fantastic four as being Marvel's first comic or go even farther back in time to the 1940s before Marvel was Marvel and they were Timely Comics, the home of Captain America and everyone's favorite nudist Namor.

DC comics has had Zero Hour, Crisis on Infinite Earths, crisis this, crisis that, everything's a crisis in an attempt to rectify any continuity errors and make the universe more cohesive. Marvel on the other hand if something happens it happened, only to be brought up again when desired. Remember the threesome Colossus had with two cave women that resulted in him siring a child during the original Secret War? Nope neither does he nor will he ever until a creative team demands it. Oh, what a fun time at the house of ideas. While this subtle just ignoring of certain events is not exclusive to Marvel, the fact remains that these events are free radicals that could rear their ugly heads at any time.  Ultimately, meaning that while a new numbering can bring in fresh readers with a clean slate there still remains that chance of continuity breaking down the doors of their immersion nearly forcing new readers to find out how this all makes sense.

With their sales enjoying a considerable boost with this  Marvel maintained its "Marvel Now!" moniker from 2012 through to 2017 as a counterpoint to DC's New 52.  Marvel hit all the bullet points with this reboot: Diversity? Check. Taking old characters in new directions? Check. Putting creative teams on titles outside of their usual genre? Check. The Marvel Now brand was a bold direction to put the company in that saw tremendous benefits, except with the caveat that instead of a clear jumping on point it merely provided a pick your own path jumping on point.  Marvel had several waves during the marvel now rebranding where it brought new titles new creative teams, but during the veritable tsunami of brand new comics (pun intended). Numerous series began tonal or direction shifts. In a bid to be more reflective of the real world with changes like Sam Wilson being Captain America, Jane foster as Thor, Amadeus Cho as the Hulk, titles that were just hitting the two or three-year mark ended. By issue eighteen of Captain America, it was relaunched with Sam Wilson as Cap with a brand new brand such as all new all different Marvel. The concept behind this was one of creating inclusion, but with it brought more troubles as series such as Daredevil had been cancelled then relaunched again with a new number one for the second time only to be canceled then relaunched again after a few years once Marvel Legacy became the new branding in hopes to once again rival DC's rebirth line this time.

As a result, Marvel's series turned back father times clock now with many series returning to their original numbering which is the current status quo, but with the likes of Amazing Spider-man being released today this is the first of several brand new number ones spaced out after a few years, but comparatively to DC the reboots are just coming too quickly. For DC the new 52 lasted until the advent of Rebirth in 2017 that ushered in new number ones only after many of the series of the new 52 had already been around for almost a decade showing a sort of confidence in the line and the creators. Constantly shifting and rebranding to garner new audiences seems almost counter-intuitive when the fresh jumping on point is within the lifespan of the previous phase. There are ways for the reboots to work, but rebranding consistently almost every six months to maybe two years makes the accessibility points overwhelming leaving a giant question on where to start.

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