Vegas, Iron Man, and Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #51
One of the first blogs I ever wrote for this site was about the covers for Iron Man #415-417, the “Vegas Bleeds Neon” storyline. The second issue of that story arc featured the introduction of Axol, the Ablative Armor that this entire site is about. I discussed how #416 is the only cover that has anything to do with Vegas, and that the surrounding issues’ covers seemed to be generic covers of the Tin Man armor that had nothing to do with the story found in the issues.
Iron Man #415
Iron Man #416
Iron Man #417
In the article linked above, I lamented the lack of the Ablative on the cover. It first appeared in issue #416 and should have appeared on that cover, but #417 would have made sense as well. Unfortunately, #417 has Tony flying next to missiles in front of a billboard that mentions Spider-Man. This just goes to show that this cover was not intended for this particular issue and that they just slapped on one that could have been used for any issue of the time.
I particularly called out the fact that the billboard is an ad for the Daily Bugle, which makes no sense because that newspaper wouldn’t be advertising in Vegas. I even questioned whether Spider-Man had ever even been to Vegas.
Then I learned about Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #51.
Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #51 (vol. 1 #492)
Marvel did something kind of stupid back in late 1998 when they restarted the numbering system for its titles. Amazing Spider-Man started back in 1963 and ran from issues #1-441. With #442, they restarted it as Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #1. That ran for 58 issues, then continued with Amazing Spider-Man #500. While issue #51 from May 2003 only has one issue number on the cover, it is also known as #492.
Why the resetting of ASM to #1? Was it to sell more issues by calling it a first issue? Was Marvel trying to beat their own Ultimate Spider-Man #1 to the punch by a year? The internet ain’t really telling, though I’d like to know the story.
Hmmmmmm. Weird numbering system…an issue from 2003. Why does that sound familiar?
Iron Man vol. 3 #70
(vol. 1 #415)
Iron Man vol. 3 #71
(vol. 1 #416)
Ohhhhh, now I get it.
Iron Man vol. 3 #72
(vol. 1 #417)
Much like ASM, the Iron Man issues for “Vegas Bleed Neon” followed a dual numbering system, though both numbers were official and had two issue numbers on the cover.
Marvel must have been having some problems with “what’s on the outside has nothing to do with what’s on the inside.” Like the three Iron Man issues above, the ASM covers for #51-54 have absolutely nothing to do with the four-issue story arc inside. And where does that story arc take place?
Las Vegas.
By cover dates, Peter Parker was in Las Vegas just four months before Tony Stark showed up. It doesn’t account for the Iron Man cover with Spider-Man on the billboard, but it does go to show that Las Vegas must have been on the minds of more than one Marvel writer at the time.
