1000 has a special place in Chicago. AM 1000 WAS the Loop and is now ESPN. There are exactly 1000 buildings in the city, and 1000 buildings in each of the suburbs. There are 1000 deep dish pizza options. There were 1000 episodes of ‘The Bear’. The 1000th issue of Action Comics was written IN a hotel room in the city. The first comic to hit issue #1000, the Drake Hotel, room 622. This issue is the reason we’re here, in a way.
“Metropolis is just a stand in for Chicago anyway, everyone knows it.”
Whether or not that is true doesn’t matter. All we have to do is SAY its true. DC has hit issue #1000 with a couple of titles now, but they started publishing in 1938. That’s much earlier than 1962. At 12 issues per year, you could reasonably see a title started then hitting 1000 issues in the past five years or so, like Detective Comics, also under the DC banner. This issue is another reason we’re here, in the same way.
“Gotham is just a stand in for Chicago anyway, everyone knows it.”
The next title hitting issue #1000 is NOT published by DC. Marvel has their first trip across the finish line with Amazing Spider-Man #1000, coming out at the end of September. Marvel fuzzy math for legacy titles would be easy to accommodate if there had been no relaunches. No ‘POINT’ issues. No duplicate numbers. No three issues per month. If that had happened, we’d all be enjoying issue #756 in October, just six months after the Sandman returned and saved Spidey from the Vulture in the anniversary classic #750. Alas, this was not to be.
“New York is just a stand in for Chicago anyway, everyone knows it.”
Since we can’t actually be at issue #1000, we can only look at the seven anniversary issues that have come out, plus some spec fan fiction released as #800/#900.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #100Calling all Brand-New Day fans- Spidey is angry and out of control. Could it be his Spider DNA? What will he do? What new changes will happen to him. Can you walk into any Graham Crackers RIGHT NOW and get this timely facsimile (pronounced FAK-SIM-ILL-EE, a facsimile is an exact or very close copy or reproduction of an original document, book, manuscript, work of art, or historical artifact)?!? You can, highly recommended.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #200Spider-Man confronts the burglar who shot Uncle Ben, nuff said! This is a solid issue, works fine as an anniversary issue.
“WE ARE VENOM. WE ARE EXPENSIVE”. Utterly classic business from a classic run by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. While the single issue could be considered prohibitively expensive, it AND a whole lot more are available in the ASM Epic Collection ‘VENOM’. Highly recommended.
This is the issue where Aunt May died (for the first time). It’s been nearly 600 issues since this happened, and she had a stroke in the issue that came out this week. Could #1000 be dipping back into this well? A perfectly serviceable comic by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Bagley.
This is the first ASM issue that had to return to LEGACY numbering. The issue before this was #58, somehow. This is a PERFECT anniversary issue. Stand alone story, epic scope, a suffering hero having to relive all of his lowest points to try and find a reason to go on, to fight back, to live. Sometimes, when you do Ja thing like that, you might get a couple of minutes to talk to someone you miss. J. Michael Straczynski and the John Romitas of all ages have a classic here. You can get the single issue, but treat yourself to one of the best runs on the book in the new modern era epic collection format. Highly Recommended.
Let me recommend you read the review we published for this book at the link above. Fully accurate at the time, HOWEVER! This was NOT a stand-alone anniversary issue. This was the start of an utterly epic 100+ issue run by Dan Slott planting seeds after seeds after seeds leading directly to issue #700.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700Doc Ock successfully moves his mind into Peter Parker’s body! While he lays dying, Otto’s 100 issue plan finally kicks in to high gear, leaving only one alive. Spoiler Alert- Its not Pete. This led directly into Superior Spider-Man, where Ock is going to do everything better, can’t, and has to figure out why that might be. One of the great stretches of long form storytelling in superhero comics history.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #800Spidey vs the Red Goblin. Norman Osborn in the Carnage symbiote. Its fine. Gorgeous art by Stuart Immonen offsets symbiote burnout. You could read worse, but is this really anniversary level work? Arguably no.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #6Well, there had to be an anniversary low point. Marvel was cranking out ASM at such an accelerated pace, they didn’t even take the time to change back to legacy numbering for a single issue. I actually reviewed this book at the time. Looking back over all of the anniversary issues, I think I may have been in generous mood.
All in all, removing the numbering, the relaunches, etc, the odds for #1000 being something worthwhile seem high? Six out of nine are pretty great to great, and two of the last three are for sure readable. Let’s all meet back up here at the end of the month and see where it lands.