I feel like I've recently hit some sort of "silent" milestone. It's hard to explain. Having finished the first few big events/moments (Kree/Skrull War, 1st Thanos War, ASM 121 etc.) it feels like the Marvel U has finally come into its own. Many of the older stories are about building up the characters and the world (not that there isn't still a ton that has yet to happen at my point) but now things are just rolling. I really have the sense as I'm reading, even the most random of stories, of the scope of everything that's going on around them. This is a credit, I think, to what those early Marvel creators were able to achieve and also what Travis (and us minions) has managed to put together here. Excelsior.

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Yea, the Thanos war area was a big moment. Around then it did seem that the number of cross overs where something important happened (as opposed to "hey, there is spider-man) started really happening.

Wait till you get to the avengers run where they tell the origin of the Kree and of the Vision. the number of issues they tie in is amazing. It really blew me away how intertwined events were.

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Yeah, reaching those major events must be good, but there is still some silver age for us down here, for us the end of Giant-Man solos (or duos) is still what pushes sometimes, anyway, I was graphing again and got the nr of issues per year from the site and did a few calculations.

The curve is very steep until 1974 (steepier from 1971-74), so these means are biased, but the 60's have a mean of 96 issues per year (8 a month), an the 70's of 254 per year (22 a month).

The overall numbers (with 1980 & 81) are 199/year and 16/month. I made this because I was wondering how many ishs one should read monthly to ever catch on with modern comics, but I oncoming years should at least keep above or around 300 issues, what would mean more than 25 issues monthly, considering one wants to catch one, it is needed to keep reading more than that to ever achieve it.

I wonder, how many comic issues come out monthly nowadays? Does someone knows?

P.S.: If you people find these calculations annoying or uninteresting please just tell me here or via PM and I'll stop or go to another thread.

Yahoo!!! I finally reached the "2000" mark of the order! Not sure if this means that I'm 'uber' dedicated or have way too much time on my hands...maybe both. Either way, this as been an awesome journey and I've enjoyed every issue of it. Keep up the great work with the website. Cheers!

You are an animal, I have been chasing after you for a while. You might be the furthest along of anyone in the forums. How are the comics where you are in the order?

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I'm not religiously following the order as it's presented here, since I'm also using a print out version of the publication order of Marvel Comics as a checklist (which I would be glad to share, if will help you in any way), yet I look forward to reading the forums and adding more check marks to the Order. I just finished reading the comics from Sept. 1976; Spidey is as good as he's ever been; Thor has spent way too much time focusing on a 'missing' Odin; Daredevil is going along okay. I'm struggling a bit with Doctor Strange (maybe cus I read it right after The Defenders; FF appears to be building up to something and Hulk (one of my faves) just keeps smashing his way thru (although the "just leave me alone" angle is getting old). I'm really enjoying Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One, although I'll be somewhat happy to see Captain Marvel and Jungle Action come to an end soon (I get the impression that they were dragged on a bit too long just to make money). I've just started the Nova and Omega series', so it's too soon to tell, tho they are shorter. Overall, like everybody else here, I'm just enjoying the (re)-discovery of reading comic books, so I can't complain...much. Cheers!

Just finished #500! (Strangely enough it says I've rated 501 issues, and I'm pretty sure that is not true, and should be 500 as well.)
I can count that as a milestone!

If you haven't reached this far, you might want to turn away, I'm bound to put some spoilers down now.
So, there's definitely a big change from these issues in 1967 compared to the ones in the start. There's real character development now, and some really good stories. It's not all good yet though...

The Good

* Spider-Man is the best comic so far. While the issues aren't always excellent, I personally have not seen a truly mediocre one yet. There has been character development right from the start, some of the best villains and mysteries appear here, and the action's great.
* Fantastic Four has had some true lows, especially in the beginning (I mean, I started to genuinely hate the Torch now and then, and would have rooted for the villains... If they were any interesting), but they have reached a point were they are damned good as well, especially since the introduction of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, the Black Panther, and the Inhumans.
* I really like the art in the Dr. Strange stories. The plot and writing isn't always good, but the psychedelic art is always doing it for me.

The Bad

* Daredevil is awful. It's a shame, as the title has a lot of potential in my opinion, in the tension between lawyer and vigilante mostly, but with the most horrid of villains (Stilt-Man, I'm looking at you especially) and worst of all, 'Mike' as Matt's fake twin... Yikes.
* Thor seems so overpowered, or his enemies so underpowered, that there's hardly any suspense sometimes. Makes for dull reading. I'm glad he no longer travels in time by swinging his hammer (Gah!), but he's still far from good. There are some nice moments, and I do believe I will eventually like it as it will be in the future, but as it is, nah.
* The Hulk just smashes, and usually there is something silly and/or underpowered at the other end, which happens to be coincidentally evil (or the army). Yawn.

The Future

The rest is somewhere in the middle. I've seen some really good stuff, and some really bad, but overall, it is slowly getting better! I just wish they would stay clear of the endless ugly mindless invincible robots, the silly type of invading aliens, and they would introduce more 'failure', where the superhero does not always achieve a flawless success, but rather a standstill or a form of survival+defeat now and then. I'm thinking of the Hulk, Captain America and Thor mostly here.

Anyway, for the next 250 issues there's a lot to look forward to. Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and such are all on the verge of getting their own titles which ought to improve their story lines, Sue is pregnant and the Inhumans have always been good. Spider-Man won't disappoint me, and I have a hunch the 'cosmic cube' will pop up again soon enough too (it is somewhere down below the Earth's crust, after Mole Man decided he wasn't interested in it). I look forward to the developments!

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i too just finished #500 today! =) and like you it says that i have rated 503, my guess is that I 3 times have changed my rating (mis-click first time), and that both ratings for the same issue have been counted.

when it comes to your good and bad list, i agree to most of it, the only thing i dont agree to is Thor, i know many find him to OP, but i realy like the dude (maybe because im norwegian?).

Thanks for the number crunching! I never really thought about it this way, but if you think about it, reading around 30 issues a month is really not that hard (one a day or if you skip a couple days, read a couple issues when you do read). It's comforting to see that this should eventually catch up (in a couple years or so lol).

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Should be Fixed.

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