Marvel Chronology Project

Okay, I was looking through the January Marvel Previews for product shipping in March 2013 and I noticed what seems to be a duplication of issue numbers in several series.

1. Fantastic Four #5 and Fantastic Four #5AU.
2. Superior Spider-Man #6 and Superior Spider-Man #6AU.
3. Wolverine & The X-Men #27 and Wolverine & The X-Men #27AU.

What exactly is going on here? The AU and non-AU issues clearly contain different stories so why have they been given the same issue numbers? Or is it like what happened with Universe X, are the AU issues meant to be one-shots that occur within the Age of Ultron limited series?

Don Campbell

They're, uh, not the same number. #5 is a different number than #5AU.

(Okay, yes, letters can't be numbers, but you get what I'm saying. It's like the Point One issues -- #5.1 isn't the same issue number as #5.)

-Jeph!

Think of them as Age of Ultron: Wolverine & the X-Men #1, etc - apart from shared characters, they've got nothing to do with the series they're #xAU issues of.

Marvel are just hoping for better sales with this confusing numbering schema than by labelling them clearly.

JephYork wrote:They're, uh, not the same number. #5 is a different number than #5AU.

(Okay, yes, letters can't be numbers, but you get what I'm saying. It's like the Point One issues -- #5.1 isn't the same issue number as #5.)

Yes, I admit it, my question was imprecise. I was thinking of how Diamond sometimes lists comics with a storyline code (like "SI" for Spider Island or "AVX" for Avengers Vs. X-Men) appended to the issue numbers of tie-in comics. Of course, in those cases there was also a space between the number and the code (i.e. NEW AVENGERS #29 AVX).

Somebody wrote:Think of them as Age of Ultron: Wolverine & the X-Men #1, etc - apart from shared characters, they've got nothing to do with the series they're #xAU issues of.

Marvel are just hoping for better sales with this confusing numbering schema than by labelling them clearly.

Yes, this is what I was talking about. I can only assume that Marvel is hoping that some readers will buy these issues thinking that they are tie-in issues of the ongoing series instead of a collection of one-shots that are actually part of the "massive Marvel Universe-spanning event" that is Age of Ultron.

I guess the real question is if these AU numbers will have any relevance to how the one-shots fit into the timelines of the regular series. For example, is Fantastic Four #5AU meant to take place between Fantastic Four #5 and 6? Or it is just that each AU one-shot is given the number of the last regular series issue that went on sale before the AU issue? I suspect the latter is more likely.

Don Campbell