^^ This. 

Another recent example is ASM just hit a milestone, #56 was legacy number #950 and yep, a double-sized celebration issue! 

When it really bothers me though is when I'm trying to look up something in the back issues. It's difficult enough trying to determine which volume of a title I may need but Marvel used to have the annoying habit of switching between new numbering and the legacy numbering in their titles which can make my searches even more difficult. 

Case in point: 

The new volume of Iron Man just started. The first issue references an event that occurred way back in Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca's Invincible Iron Man. Now, that volume started with #1 but when the title hit near/around legacy number #500, Marvel switched the numbering. So Fraction's run lasted from #1 -#527! 

What makes even more fun? Staying with this example, the title Invincible Iron Man has had up to 4 separate volumes so far. 2 of those volumes started with #1s and lasted a dozen more issues. The 4th volume picked up the legacy numbering and began with #593 and ran through #600! Ridiculous! 

When I was little, I actually kind of thought the longer running series must somehow be a little more special to have lasted that long. I was convinced the most important #1's all came out before I was born. I still think that in fact.

If you go by Mycomicshop... they use the whole Tales to astonish series but not the original mini... seems like it's pretty accurate  I know Marvel has been off a bit on some of them anyway.

And #1s used to be a drawback, DC didn't include an issue # on many of their first issues when launching titles in the 50s/60s. Showcase, Brave & the Bold and JLA 1st issues all lack issue numbers on the covers as it was thought that readers would avoid new and unproven titles. Times have certainly changed, as the market has evolved over time. Comics simply have kept up with the demands of the changing market. Some fans have not.



-M

I have posted on many occasions how a high number in and of itself doesn’t add any value to a story. I may have to paraphrase myself slightly, but I posted something like, “A 500th issue could feature the most boring and poorly-drawn story ever, while a 347th issue might contain the most profound, well-illustrated story ever.”

There’s no joy in the number itself. There might be a little bit of joy in history, e.g. when buying, say, Detective Comics #400, one might have had a passing thought about how many issues the title had got under its belt; Todd McFarlane made some good points in that video about such things. I’m quite proud of 2000 AD having so many “programs” under its belt, although the stories will always be of paramount importance. I feel Judge Death has been done to, erm, death, and if the 3000th program of that title happens to be a Judge Death arc, the number 3000 won’t matter in and of itself. If however, a Rogue Trooper arc were to begin in program #2981, then that will be of more importance to me than a number.

wildfire2099 and Marv-El have provided excellent examples of the confusion that can arise with this renumbering gimmick. And The Captain has also referred to them wanting to eat their cake and still have it too. It’s fooling nobody.

I know some believe you can use a smartphone to do research regarding what volume or issue you need to buy, but who wants to? Sitting there researching something fun - a historical event, for instance - is my idea of fun (I recently read a great Twitter thread about some Roman Empire history), but working out what comic you need to buy is not my idea of fun. Nothing frustrates me more on Marvel Unlimited than finishing a Daredevil comic and seeing the words “You’re all caught up…” Now, is it impossible to find what is next? No. But it can take time, especially with how imprecise search boxes can be on any number of sites. I mean, good luck finding the Deadpool #1 you want without doing research, especially as even a cursory search will lead you not only to his countless ongoing titles, but no doubt his spin-off and limited series.

Meanwhile, I happen to know that the last Judge Dredd: Case Files volume I read was Vol. 24, which reprints 2000 AD #959-983. So easy, I have it written down in my notepad. I am not sure how keen I would be to seek out and remember to buy these volumes if 2000 AD was renumbering every five minutes, and we had countless Vol. 1 books to search for. That’s research/homework I do not desire to do, and I don’t see why I should have to.

On the secondary market, I know Marvel isn’t gonna be interested in what we’re buying on eBay. But surely DC and Marvel want to make as much money as possible - even pennies on back issues - by making them accessible. For example, Detective Comics #311 - the first appearance of Cat-Man - is on Amazon now. I doubt it’ll make DC millions, but it’s so easy to search for such a number. I bought it a while back, back when comiXology was still a thing. I’m glad I did (greatest Batman villain after all, right?). But had Cat-Man appeared in a no. 1 (or no. 2, or no. 3) of any possible run, and with all the variants on display, that would again not be homework I would wish to do. Searching for Detective Comics #311 was easy; trying to find out which particular ‘first issue’ of Deadpool to buy wouldn’t be, and both countless spin-off series and variants might make it hard to find the one you want, as some have already shown with their examples.

I bought the third season of Mission: Impossible on DVD recently. I knew I’d watched the first two seasons. It was easy to locate the third season. But had there been dozens and dozens of seasons of that show, and each season had been presented as a new ‘first season’, with lots of variant DVD covers out there, I might well have said, “Forget that, I can’t be bothered.”

Whatever sales boosts a new first issue may bring - and McFarlane questioned that - surely isn’t enough? And as for the back issue market, as in the one provided digitally by the Big Two, they should be making it easy. Maybe I am willing to give Marvel money for digital versions of several Darth Vader comics - or even a physical collection. And if, like the Dredd example, something like Vader Vol. 8 (reprinting issues #31-36) would be a lot more accessible, and involve zero research, than working out which Vol. 1 I need to buy.

Do you not find research boring, simply to find what you want? 

I don’t know, spending a nanosecond to check my notebook and see that the next Dredd book is Vol. 24 is a lot more satisfying than spending time on GCD to work out which Deadpool comic is the right one (while being distracted when certain issues have variants that might make it hard to identify).

For me, research is a word that is about delving deep into a subject for fun or academic reasons, whether it be researching the history of WWII or examining legal precedents, not trying to work out which issue or series comes next.

Sounds like I may have misunderstood you, my friend.

Researching what to read is fine. I research manga to see what might appeal (I’m quite unfamiliar with manga). That kind of research is fun. The research I don’t like is working out which Daredevil #1 follows on from, say, the Daredevil #19 I just finished on Marvel Unlimited. I also feel if Marvel wants to play this silly renumbering game, at least come up with a system where, after you’ve finish a run on one title, it links to the next chronological one on their app.

Do that because, quite frankly, it bores me senseless typing Daredevil #1 into GCD to find, among countless mini-series and variants, the one I want. Sure, if it’s a DD issue from, say, 1975 (an annual, for instance), that’s easy, but I’d wager that since about 2019, there might have been several ‘first issues’ of DD, alongside the mini-series and all that.