A Spider-Man Podcast

Amazing Spider-Man to Return to Legacy Numbering

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Marvel is relaunching Spider-Man again this fall. But instead of a fourth No. 1 issue in less than five years on the character’s lead series, the company is bringing Amazing Spider-Man back to its original numbering. In October, Marvel’s oldest title will hit stores with issue #789. This is part of “Marvel Legacy,” an attempt by the company to reinvigorate slumping sales by emphasizing tradition and cutting down on the number of titles it offers. Amazing Spider-Man is currently on volume four and will release issue #32 of the volume in September before jumping all the way to #789 one issue later. It also means that the title, which began in 1962, will celebrate issue #800 in 2018.

Amazing Spider-Man won’t be the only Spider-title affected. Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man will jump from issue #4 to #297 in October, while Spider-Man — starring Miles Morales — leaps from #20 to #234 as part of “Legacy.” Other Spider-titles will retain their current numbering, including Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man/Deadpool. Venom already switched to legacy numbering earlier this year to take advantage of issue No. 150.

Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott revealed the formula that Marvel used to get to 788 issues prior to “Legacy”: include all the issues of the “main” Spider-Man title, whether it was Amazing Spider-Man or something else. That means every issue of Amazing Spider-Man (700 issues between volumes 1 and 2, 18 in volume 3, and 32 in volume 4), plus 33 issues of Slott’s Superior Spider-Man that temporarily replaced Amazing Spider-Man, and the five-issue Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows miniseries that ran during “Secret Wars” in 2015.

Marvel’s formula for Spectacular appears to include the two issues of the 1968 Spectacular Spider-Man magazine, 263 issues from Vol. 1 of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man that ran from 1976-98, the 27-issue run of Spectacular Spider-Man from 2003-05, and four issues of Chip Zdarsky’s recently launched Spectacular run.

However, for the Spider-Man title, Marvel apparently did not include the 98 issues from the 1990s series of the same name that began with Todd McFarlane’s famous No. 1 issue. Instead, according to a tweet from current Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis, the run is a continuation of the Ultimate Spider-Man series, its various spinoffs, and the ongoing Spider-Man series that brought Miles Morales into the main Marvel universe.

Marvel did not release creative teams for any of its ongoing series that will be in “Legacy” — that information should arrive in mid-July when the company puts out its October solicitations — but did offer some brief teases for the story arcs that will begin with the relaunch. It does, however, seem safe to say based on Dan Slott’s tweet that he will remain on the series until, at the very least, issue 800. Slott tends to go big for his 00 issues, so expect another big shift in the narrative when 800 hits the shelves.

Here are the issue numbers and story arcs for Spider-titles in October:
Amazing Spider-Man #789: “Fall of Parker”
Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #13: “Eight Years Later”
Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #10: “The Slingers Return”
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #297: “Most Wanted”
Spider-Gwen #25: “Gwenom”
Spider-Man #234: “Sinister Six Reborn”
Spider-Man/Deadpool #23: “Spider-Man Versus Deadpool”
Venom #155: “Lethal Protector”

Check out some of the covers, click to enlarge:

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