The difficult 47th issue

 It's my 47th birthday! Honestly, it's hardly worth celebrating when you get to such a big number. 47 is a good number for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation - someone thought it was fun to put lots of 47s into computer displays and things on the show. But for a fan of superhero comics, it's not a very good number - as proof, here are all the Marvel Comics 47th issues I could find in my comic collection today!

A motley collection. Comics nowadays rarely publish an issue numbered 47 - by the time they get that high, they've usually rebooted with a new #1, to boost the flagging sales. And in days gone by, the 47th issue would usually see a title struggling to establish an identity after the departure of the original writer or artist or both. Or being a convenient place to slot a fill-in issue to allow the regular writer or artist to catch up. Or just starting the build-up to a big fiftieth-issue spectacular. Nothing very cool happens in 47th issues. Here are the nine, with at least one interesting piece of trivia about them:

Defenders #47 - May 1977

Guest Scripter John Warner

Artists Keith Giffen & Klaus Janson

Plot David Kraft & Roger Slifer

That's how the credits are written. It's more normal to put the 'plotters' first, but I guess Kraft and Slifer didn't make much contribution to this one. Warner is a one-off fill-in writer. Defenders was trying to continue with the kind of stories Steve Gerber had been writing, but had no real sense of direction.

In this one, Valkyrie apologises to Clea for not wearing the hideous gold costume she'd recently adopted (explaining that her magic clothes-changing spell defaults to her original outifit), and Clea spontaneously fixes that problem and designs her a much nicer-looking white suit to wear in future.

Marvel Two-in-One #47 - January 1979

Writer Bill Mantlo

Artist Chic Stone

Marvel Two-in-One didn't really have a regular writer or artist at this point - it was a series of one-off stories in which the Thing teams up with a random Marvel superhero. This is the first of two issues by Mantlo and Stone, and the first which doesn't even have a guest-star - the Thing this issue deals with his regular off-screen bullies the Yancy Street Gang. It's really not much good.

Alpha Flight #47 - June 1987

Writer Bill Mantlo

Pencils Craig Brasfield, Mike Mignola, Steve Purcell

Inks Whilce Portacio, Terry Austin

Three pencillers, two inkers and one inventory story wedged into the middle of Bill Mantlo's continuing storylines.

Funnily enough, this was one of the very first comics I bought as a young comic-collector discovering the joys of back issues. That I soon became a devoted fan of Bill Mantlo's Alpha Flight is despite, rather than because of, this comic. I always tell people they need to read the whole Mantlo saga, but they're allowed to skip this one.

Avengers West Coast #47 - August 1989

Writer/Penciller John Byrne

Inker Mike Machlan

This was actually the first issue of "Avengers West Coast" - the previous 46 had been called "West Coast Avengers". They changed the title so that it would go on comic shop shelves next to the main Avengers comic, and maybe someone would buy it. This isn't any kind of fill-in story; Byrne was the regular creator.

John Byrne's time on the second-string Avengers comic has its fans, but I'm not one of them, I'm afraid. I don't actually know why I own this comic. It totally ruined the Vision, a great character, for years and years to come. Sorry, I'll calm down now. Why DO I own this comic?

New Warriors #47 - May 1994

Writer Fabian Nicieza

Pencillers Darick Robertson, Vince Evans, Kevin Kobasic, John Czop

Inkers Larry Mahlstedt, Mark Stegbauer, Tim Dzon

Four pencillers and three inkers. Wow. It doesn't look as bad or rushed as the credits might imply.

First part of the "Time and Time Again" crossover with the solo Night Thrasher and Nova comics which had recently spun off from New Warriors. Fabian Nicieza was REALLY keen to get as many comics on the shelves as possible. In this one, Night Thrasher announces that he's planning to split the team into two comics, recruiting a bunch of new members and giving Nicieza yet another monthly paycheque. But this plan was axed by editorial on the grounds the sales weren't good enough.

Generation X #47 - January 1999

Writer Larry Hama

Pencils Aaron Lopresti

Inks Walden Wong

The second of two issues drawn by Lopresti and Wong - next month, Terry and Rachel Dodson return to the regular artist position, and Hama is replaced by new writer Jay Faerber.

So this is basically a 'downtime' story, in which the gang catch up on sub-plots and have a training session in the Danger Room, which goes wrong and tries to kill them, like always. But everything's fine in the end and they play basketball.

Thunderbolts #47 - February 2001

Writer Fabian Nicieza

Pencils Mark Bagley

Inks Greg Adams & Scott Hanna

Barely any kind of fill-in at all, although the two inkers stops it getting a perfect business-as-usual score.

A whole lot of ongoing plotlines are slightly advanced in this one. We're building up to the big fiftieth issue. A little later, Nicieza was able to do what he hadn't been allowed to do with the New Warriors, and Thunderbolts started coming out twice a month, chronicling the adventures of two different teams. Yay!

Avengers #47 - December 2001

Writer Kurt Busiek

Reserve Artists Manuel Garcia & Bob Layton

They really are credited as "reserve artists" but this was the fourth consecutive issue drawn by Garcia and Layton. They'd taken over from Alan Davis, and with the next issue the "new regular artist" Kieron Dwyer arrives. He lasted three issues before we were back to fill-ins.

This is an issue focusing entirely on Warbird and the rather uncomfortable subject of her relationship with Marcus, son of Kang. Not Marcus, son of Immortus, although Immortus and Kang are the same person. It's all complicated and gets historically very weird. He asks her to grasp his halberd at one point, but she refuses.

Wolverine #47 - December 2006

Writer Marc Guggenheim

Penciller Humberto Ramos

Inker Carlos Cuevas

Part of the extensive "Civil War" crossover storyline - every participating comic had that layout, with the bottom half of the cover in one solid colour.

No fill-ins at all here - this was the regular creative team for the lengthy Civil War storyline, which had started in #42. Next issue there's one final aftermath issue, and then we're onto the new writer/artist lineup. I'm really not a fan of Humberto Ramos's art either - maybe I'm just in the mood to complain about the number 47 today, I don't know...