Also In April--"Amazing Spider-Man" Returns

It has been some time since I purchased or read a new Spider-Man comic.  However, I am tuned in enough to the zeitgeist that I am aware of the whole "Superior Spider-Man"/Doc Ock in Peter Parker's body story line that has been the character's status quo for the past year or so.  Nobody, I'm sure, was naive enough to think that this state of affairs would last forever.  Thus, in a development that will shock absolutely no one, I read recently on the Hero Complex blog that Peter Parker returns to life and his super-heroic career in April and does so in a brand new Amazing Spider-Man #1.

This will be the third ASM #1 that Marvel has published in the character's fifty two year history.  The first was, of course, the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko original from 1962.  The next one came in 1998 when Marvel tried to revive the ailing Spider-Man franchise in the wake of the almost universally poorly received Clone Saga.  The second volume of Amazing Spider-Man lasted for 58 issues until the series was returned to its original numbering with #500. From that point, the series continued until last year's 700th issue, although #'s  700.1 through 700.5 have popped up in the interim between then and now.

Considering Marvel's tendency to screw around with the numbering of its series in order to try and produce at least a temporary bump in sales, I predict that this latest volume of Amazing Spider-Man will last exactly 49 issues.  By then, it will be time for another trumped up anniversary issue and the series original numbering will re-emerge yet again with #750.

Check back here in two to four years, depending on what kind of games Marvel plays with the scheduling, to see if I'm right about this one.