I don't follow comics anymore, mostly because I don't live in a country where they (American ones anyway) can be purchased. So I'm just wondering....why are the Marvel issue numbers so much lower than what they should be? I mean, the main books are currently in the #70s. Did they reboot the series? are they not related to what happened before?
In many cases, the classic titles (Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, etc.) were rebooted. Then they did something screwy. They took the first issue of each reboot and kept counting until, like Amazing Spider-Man's issue count was the equivilent of 500. Once Spidey reached what would have been its five hundredth issue had they not rebooted, they then commenced to count from issue 500 on. I don't know if that's clear. But it certainly doesn't make sense.
Excelsior!
Okay, so the rebooted issues were not in the same continuity as the original ones? That's how I used the term 'reboot' and I want to make sure we're together on this.
Oh and, either way, what was the reason for the reboot?
"Okay, so the rebooted issues were not in the same continuity as the original ones? "
Actually most of them are, but there were "reboots" of Avengers, FF, Captain America, and Iron Man that weren't. They were part of a one year project known as Heroes Reborn, an attempt to start a new continuity that didn't take.
After Heroes Reborn, they relaunched from #1 issues again, this time back in the regular Marvel Universe, so you could find at least three different issue #1 for Avengers and FF (Cap and IM, since the original series took over from older books they had no real #1 in their first series, though I think they've since relaunched multiple times... sigh...)
Spider-Man wasn't part of Heroes Reborn, so his titles while relaunched with new numbers, have mostly been in continuity.
The exception to all this would be the Ultimate line. All of those are in a different continuity from the regular books, but since they all have Utlimate in the title, it's easy to tell which line they're in.
As for the reason for reboots, simple. #1 issues tend to experience more sales than other issues. It's just a marketing gimmick, nothing more, at least 90% of the time.
Yeah, I think what I should have said is that the titles were given a "relaunch", rather than a complete reboot. Anonymous clarified things much better than I could have.
Excelsior!
As much as is humanly possible, I think I got it now. Thanks!
You're very welcome!