Remember picking up an issue of your favourite comic book and marvelling at the fact that it was somewhere in the triple digits? What a rich history! Sadly, that's been undone by Marvel in recent years. Even the biggest of titles rarely lasts beyond issue #12 as the yearly events mentioned in the previous slide result in constant relaunches every time even the smallest status quo change occurs. New costume? New #1! New writer? New #1! Marvel are clearly under the impression that casual fans will be put off by seeing an issue of The Avengers with six hundred and something on the cover, but just how many new readers does a relaunched comic with a big #1 slapped on the cover really help to create? Even if it is a small boost, one need only look at Marvel's sales figures to see that that is often followed by a sharp drop as fans realise that they're getting more of the same with a new number. It's basically just another gimmick used to boost sales in the short term. Marvel is a business, so it's hard to blame them for wanting to increase sales. It's just unfortunate that they're diluting their history and the significance of new #1 as a result.
