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Marvel's Armageddon is also an Avengers comic for those keeping count, according to hidden legacy numbering
Marvel math is including Avengers: Armageddon event as part of the Avengers comic run.... but its not the first time an event has doubled as a main Avengers book.
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Marvel Comics' Avengers title is in a self-imposed hiatus following the celebratory Avengers #800 earlier this year and the upcoming relaunch in November. In the interim, there is a limited series event originally titled Armageddon (and later Avengers: Armageddon) turning a Red Hulk vs. Avengers fight into a "dramatically transformed" new status quo for the team ahead of that relaunch. But for those of us that appreciate the long-running legacy numbering of comic books, especially when it adds up to another celebratory number, there's something going on behind-the-scenes to help goose those numbers.
The current Avengers: Armageddon limited series isn't marketed as part of the Avengers comics' line, but as an event like Civil War, Secret Invasion, and other things. But actually, it is. A variant cover to Avengers: Armageddon #2 by series writer Chip Zdarsky has quietly revealed that that issue is actually the 804th issue of the Avengers comic. Does it change the story inside it? Not in the least bit. But for some reason, Marvel is internally framing this as an arc of the Avengers title.
Legacy numbering is something that has become necessary as publishers learned that customers (both retailers and fans) are shown to be more apt to spend money on a long-running serial if it has a new '#1' attached to it, despite saying otherwise in public forums. In the early '10s, the idea of legacy numbering allowed publishers to successfully eat their cake and have it too. Major anniversary issues of a comic —be it a 50th, 100th, or even a fictional 1000th in the case of Marvel Comics #1000 — were things retailers and readers showed they were interested in with their money.
In the case of Marvel's long-running Avengers series, seven volumes of Avengers are counted in its math, as occasions where the company has retitled the main series, such as 2005's New Avengers and 2015's All-New All-Different Avengers. Avengers: Armageddon actually isn't the first time a limited series 'event' has doubled as a continuation of the long-running line, with 2019's Avengers: No Road Home actually doing it as well.
Zdarsky has said that Avengers: Armageddon was originally not planned to be Marvel's main summer 2026 event limited series, but as part of his current Captain America run. Recent Avengers writer Jed McKay has said some things that imply his run on Avengers was truncated from what was originally planned, and that he was setting up an Avengers vs. X-Men style event series that eventually became the X-Men/FF event series coming this fall, DNX.
Without word from Marvel as to why, the most logical reason, barring any other new data the publisher might be able to share, for including Avengers: Armageddon in the Avengers series numbers seems to help it get to the next celebratory Avengers issue sooner than if it didn't.
Avengers #900, here we come.
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