An amazing fantasy

Spider-Man turns sixty this year. He must be getting a bit arthritic as he swings around New York, unless he's got the proportional lifespan of a spider as well as all the other stuff. But the internet tells me that "many male spiders reach maturity within two years and then die after mating," so he probably wouldn't want to.

In any case, we're getting a big celebration comic for the anniversary, and I do like the look of the creator lineup in the ads!

I mean, I'm probably sold already by the time I'm half-way down that list, because I'll buy pretty much anything with Kurt Busiek's name on it, and wouldn't want to miss Neil Gaiman's take, or Jonathan Hickman's. And Dan Slott's pretty great, too. And Armando Iannucci? Seriously? That's got to be worth a look, at least.

But one name that nobody seems to be getting excited about in the comments section of the internet posts I've seen so far is Rainbow Rowell, whose revival of Runaways was just brilliant, and exactly the kind of thing you'd want to see in a Spider-Man anniversary special! I could go on about it for hours, using phrases like "Rainbow Rowell's revival of Runaways" quite recklessly and regardless of my difficulty pronouncing the letter R. That's how cool I think she is!

So yes, I'll be getting this comic, however overpriced and minimal its content might be. I do have a problem with calling it "Amazing Fantasy #1000", though. I don't really know why sticking "#1000" on the cover of American comics is still cool, especially when it comes to something like Amazing Fantasy. It's not like there's a long history of Amazing Fantasy comics that we're celebrating - there were six issues of "Amazing Adventures", followed by eight more of "Amazing Adult Fantasy" (because in 1961, calling a comic 'adult fantasy' meant 'ten-year-old kids who are worried they might be too old for comics will buy this one'), and then one "Amazing Fantasy #15" that was the first appearance of Spider-Man. And then they cancelled it and decided to give Spidey his own self-titled comic instead.

Couldn't they call it "Amazing Fantasy #60"? Or #720? Or #735, as if it had come out monthly ever since #15? I'd buy that.