Add to favoritesLegacy numbering started out as a fun gift to fans, sort of a way to apologize for relaunching so many series. However, Marvel has managed to overcomplicate it as they really stretch the definition of a legacy series, as well as adding in mini-series, and also not understanding proper math skills. John Jackson Miller at Comichron has a really good explanation for the logic behind most of the legacy numbering:
It’s important to understand that Marvel’s goal was not to create a census counting all issues published under a series’ name, but rather to restore the post-1960s numbering that most of its legacy titles spent the longest amount of time under. Hence, Captain America gets the credit for Tales of Suspense issues he was not in, because the longest-running Captain America title took over the numbering of Tales and any attempt to force imaginary numbering on a plurality of the series’ issues would be counterproductive. The idea, rather, was to pretend that the wave of 1990s-and-later reboots never happened. So, too, there is no error in leaving out the first six issues of Incredible Hulk‘s original run; they were never presumed to be part of the sequence by collectors during the hundreds of issues the Tales to Astonish-born series ran, and have no more role in its renumbering than the Golden Age Captain America title does.
Another key to determining legacy numbering is finding the core series of a franchise, even if it didn’t have the exact same name. Also, specially numbered issues (such as #-1, #0, or any number with a decimal) are not counted in the whole numbers.
The “Quick Math” section under each series is what number to add to an issue from a particular volume to get its legacy number.
Fantastic Four
#1-416
Fantastic Four volume 1 #1-416
(series began in 1961)
#417-429
Fantastic Four volume 2 #1-13
(“Heroes Reborn” series launched in 1996)
Quick math: 416
#430-499
Fantastic Four volume 3 #1-70
(“Heroes Return” series launched in 1997)
key issues:
–#35 (464) - first Carlos Pacheco issue
–#42 (471) – legacy numbering printed on covers starting with this issue until #500
–#60 (489) – first Mark Waid issue
Quick math: 429
#500-588
Fantastic Four volume 1 #500-588
(series reverted to original numbering in 2003)
#589-599
FF #1-11
(series launched in 2011 as part of Jonathan Hickman’s run)
Quick math: 588
The “FF” series continued after the publication of Fantastic Four #600, with numbering from #12-22. Those issues are not included in any legacy numbering.
#600-611
Fantastic Four volume 1 #600-611
(series again reverted to original numbering in 2012)
#612-627
Fantastic Four volume 4 #1-16
(series launched in 2013 as part of “Marvel NOW!”)
Quick math: 611
#628-641
Fantastic Four volume 5 #1-14
(series launched in 2014 as part of “All New Marvel NOW!”)
Quick math: 627
#642-645
Fantastic Four volume 1 #642-645
(series reverted to original numbering in 2015)
Since Disney owned Marvel, but Fox controlled the FF movie rights, the comic series was put on hiatus for a few years due to corporate egos. However, Disney bought Fox and thus regained the movie rights, allowing the comic to return.
#646-693
Fantastic Four volume 6 #1-48
(series launched in 2018)
Quick math: 645
#694-current
Fantastic Four volume 7 #1-current*
(series launched in 2022)
Key issue:
–#7 (700) – milestone issue celebrated
Quick math: 693
*as of the September 2024 solicitations, the most recent issue is #25 (718)
Daredevil
#1-380
Daredevil volume 1 #1-380
(series began in 1964)
#381-499
Daredevil volume 2 #1-119
(“Marvel Knights” series launched in 1998)
Key issues:
–#1-8 (381-388) – “Guardian Devil” by Kevin Smith
–#22 (402) - legacy numbering printed on covers starting with this issue until #81 (461)
–#26-50 (406-430) and #56-81 (436-461) – Brian Michael Bendis run
–#82 (462) – Ed Brubaker run begins, series moves out of the Marvel Knights imprint and drops dual numbering.
Quick math: 380
Although the dual numbering did not get officially added to the covers until #22 (402), the cover artists had been incorporating the legacy numbering into their signatures from the beginning of the series.
#500-512
Daredevil volume 1 #500-512
(series reverted to original numbering in 2009)
While “Daredevil” was relaunched, “Black Panther: The Man Without Fear” was launched continuing the numbering from Daredevil. It ran from #513-523 and then was renamed as “Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive” for #523.1-529. None of those issues are included in the legacy numbering for Daredevil, although Marvel did include them in Black Panther’s legacy numbering.
#513-548
Daredevil volume 3 #1-36
(series launched in 2011)
Quick math: 512
#549-566
Daredevil volume 4 #1-18
(series launched in 2014)
Quick math: 548
Both “Daredevil” volumes 3 and 4 were completely written by Mark Waid and are even collected within the same hardcover and TPB series. Perhaps the series was getting too close to #50 and Marvel had to cancel it with their fear of high numbers?
#567-594
Daredevil volume 5 #1-28
(series launched in 2015)
Quick math: 566
#595-612
Daredevil volume 1 #595-612
(series reverted to original numbering as part of Marvel Legacy initiative.)
#613-648
Daredevil volume 6 #1-36
(series launched in 2019)
Quick math: 612
#649-662
Daredevil volume 7 #1-14
(series launched in 2022)
Quick math: 648
#663-current
Daredevil volume 8 #1-current*
(series launched in 2023)
Quick math: 662
*as of the November 2024 solicitations, the most recent issue is #15 (677)
Incredible Hulk
Hulk debuted in his own series called “The Incredible Hulk” which was cancelled after 6 issues. That series is not included in any legacy numbering. However, due to inconsistency of volume numbering (would the series that continued from Tales to Astonish count as volume 1 or volume 2?), we will refer to each Incredible Hulk series by the year it was launched. If “The Incredible Hulk” is used without a year number, it refers to numbering consistent with the series that continued from Tales to Astonish. This series also includes the most glaring error for a milestone issue.
#1-101
Tales to Astonish #1-101
#102-474
Incredible Hulk #102-474
(series continued numbering from Tales to Astonish)
#475-485
Hulk #1-11
(series was launched in 1999, without an adjective)
Quick math: 474
#486-586
Incredible Hulk (1999) #12-112
Quick math: 474
The “Incredible” adjective was added to the “Hulk” series starting with #12 (486). When another Hulk series was launched in 2007, the numbering of this series continued as “The Incredible Hercules” from #113-141. While Marvel has done this “relaunch but continue the old numbering for a new title” trick many times, I believe this is the only time the numbering did not come from the original legacy numbering.
#587-598
Hulk (2008) #1-12
Quick math: 586
After the release of “Incredible Hulk” #600, this series continued from #13-57, and then for another ten issues as “Red She-Hulk”. Only these first 12 issues are counted in the legacy numbering.
#599-610
Incredible Hulk #600-611
Quick math: subtract 1
Marvel messed up the math and issued “Incredible Hulk” #600 an issue early, causing all of the issues until the next relaunch to be a number ahead.
#611-634
Incredible Hulks #612-635
Quick math: subtract 1
Some outlets may not count the slight name change to plural form as a separate series.
#635-649
Incredible Hulk (2011) #1-15
Quick math: 634
#650-669
Indestructible Hulk #1-20
Quick math: 649
#670-685
Hulk (2014) #1-16
Quick math: 669
#686-708
Totally Awesome Hulk #1-23
Quick math: 685
#709-717
Incredible Hulk #709-717
(series reverted to original numbering as part of Marvel Legacy initiative.)
#718-767
Immortal Hulk #1-50
Quick math: 717
#768-781
Hulk (2021) #1-14
Quick math: 767
#782-current
Incredible Hulk (2023) #1-current*
Key issue:
–#19 (800) – milestone issue celebrated
Quick math: 781
*as of the November 2024 solicitations, the most recent issue is #19 (800)
Annuals
Annuals have created their own kind of problems with legacy numbering. From the 1960s through the mid-1990s, Marvel numbered annuals sequentially, although they referred to some as “King Size” and/or “Specials”. Starting in 1995, the X-Men titles got annuals labelled by year (ex. ’95) with the practice expanding to the rest of the Marvel line in 1996. In 1998, all of the Marvel annuals were team-ups, and some characters or groups were represented in multiple annuals. In most cases, whichever series was referred to first in the title claims that annual. From 1999-2001, Marvel continued to number by year (using all four digits), and then discontinued annuals in favor of extra regular issues during the year. Sometime in the late 2000s, annuals returned, but there has been no consistency among numbering practices. Some series got legacy numbers, some get a new Annual #1 to go with each relaunch, and some Annuals get renumbered even if the parent series had not been relaunched. And naturally, over the years, there have been misnumbered and forgotten annuals.
Fantastic Four
#1-27 – numbered sequentially
#28 – Fantastic Four/Fantastic Four ’98 (yup, the FF teamed up with themselves in this annual that matches up with volume 3 of the main series)
#29-31 - Marvel used the full years for numbering: 1999-2001, going along with volume 3
#32-33 – numbered sequentially
The “Uncanny X-Men/Fantastic Four” annual in 1998 belongs with the Uncanny X-Men series.
Daredevil
#1-4 – numbered sequentially
#5 – mislabeled as another #4, as they had skipped 13 years between annuals. (The “wrong” Annual #4 is the Atlantis Attacks tie-in from 1989)
#6-10 – numbered sequentially
#11 – Daredevil/Deadpool ’97
#12 – Annual #1 in 2007, going along with Ed Brubaker’s run
#13 – Annual #1 in 2012, by Alan Davis as part of a crossover with FF Annual #33 and Wolverine Annual #1
#14 – Annual #1 again in 2016 by Charles Soule
#15 – yet another Annual #1, from 2018
Incredible Hulk
#1-20 – numbered sequentially
#21 – Incredible Hulk ’97
#22 – Hulk/Sub-Mariner ’98
#23-25 – Marvel used the full years for numbering: 1999-2001, going along with the relaunched series.
#26 – Incredible Hulks Annual #1 (2011)
#27 – Indestructible Hulk Annual #1 (2013)
#28 – Hulk Annual #1 (2014)
#29 – Hulk Annual #1 (2023), comes between Hulk (2021) #14 and Incredible Hulk (2023) #1
X-Man/Hulk ’98 counts as an annual for the “X-Man” series.
Other Marvel Legacy numbering articles:
-Spider-Man
-Avengers
-X-Men