Numbers Game

(I’m on vacation in Japan this week, so I thought I’d finally publish a fill-in issue of Marvel Time Warp. I should be back in the States in time to put together a standard Marvel Time Warp post for next week.)

As I’ve mentioned before in a few Marvel Time Warp posts, Fantastic Four issue no. 1, published in 1961, kicked off Marvel’s Silver Age and established the modern Marvel universe.

Looking ahead, I plan to cover the big 200th issue of Fantastic Four in a few weeks, since it was published in August 1978. And since Fantastic Four was a monthly book, and since it is the first modern Marvel book, it must have been the first modern Marvel book to reach that 200th issue milestone, right?

Not exactly.

Looking through my reading list (which I put together with data from the Fandom.com Marvel wiki), there were four Marvel books that had already passed the 200th issue mark as of August 1978:

• The Mighty Thor (no. 277 came out in August ’78)
• The Incredible Hulk (no. 229 came out in August ’78)
• Captain America (no. 227 came out in August ’78)
• Kid Colt Outlaw (no. 226 came out in July ’78 — no August issue for this one because it was bi-monthly at the time)

So what gives?

The Mighty Thor picked up its numbering from Journey Into Mystery. Journey Into Mystery was a Golden Age Marvel anthology book first published in 1952. Journey stuck around through Marvel’s transition to the Silver Age, and then Thor took over as the star of the book with Journey issue no. 83 in 1962. With issue no. 126 in January 1966, the book officially took the name of its star and became The Mighty Thor.

Captain America was a Golden Age Marvel character that was revived and repurposed for the Silver Age. And Cap did have his own Golden Age book. But the numbering for his 1970s series picked up from Tales of Suspense. Tales debuted in 1958. With Tales no. 39 in 1962, Iron Man became the book’s featured character. Then Iron Man shared top billing on the book with Captain America starting with issue no. 59 in 1964. Finally, in early 1968, Captain America took over the book with its 100th issue, and Tales of Suspense was renamed for him. Iron Man got his own book (that started with issue no. 1) about a month later.

Hulk got his own comic book early in Marvel’s Silver Age, but it was canceled in 1963 after running for only six issues. Then Hulk became a featured character in Tales to Astonish with issue no. 60 in 1964. (Tales to Astonish, first published in 1958, was another late-Golden Age Marvel anthology title.) Tales became The Incredible Hulk with issue no. 102 in 1968.

Kid Colt Outlaw is, of course, one of Marvel’s last western books. It got its start way back in the 1940s and eventually became a reprint book in the 1970s. Even though it’s decades older than Fantastic Four, it only has a slightly higher issue count as of 1978 because it was published bi-monthly for much of its run.

Finally, just in case anybody is wondering, The Amazing Spider-Man would be the next Marvel book to reach its 200th issue. That happened in 1979, a little over a year after Fantasic Four issue no. 200 was published.

Next time — Nova! Or maybe Hulk! Or maybe the rock band Kiss? But Probably Nova!