Lazyboy

It's a real shame that CGC apparently doesn't know what these are.

Thank you for your very relevant answer to this question about Web of Spider-Man 32. BTW, you can't tell for issues like that either unless CGC differentiated them beginning with the first submitted copy and never mislabeled them.

It's not like separate brands are some new idea.

There's no such thing.

#18 reveals her natural form (in one panel on her one page), but it is not her first appearance (which is #16) or her first full appearance (which is #17).

You mean Shadowcat (which stuck, unlike the failed Ariel and Sprite)?

No. Multiple pages in #17, using her shapeshifting powers. One page in #18.

No. No.

Sometimes scheduling gets messed up and stories aren't published in order. Sometimes stories are intentionally published out of order (see MSHSW). Sometimes the publishers just aren't concerned with the release dates lining up.

Yes. Stop using Photobucket. That set is appropriate, though. Photobucket is the walking dead, just waiting for somebody to finish off its shambling corpse. In case you think my answer isn't serious, I assure you it is. Stop using Photobucket. They've just been getting worse and there is no reason to believe that trend will reverse or even stop.

Not that I disagree with your general point, but it seems a bit unfair to use covers of books featuring new characters in your comparison. The FF, Thor and Spidey needed those covers to sell them to prospective buyers because they were trying to gain an audience against significant competition rather than being established, popular characters for over 50 years. Plus, the #1 on the covers of the new issues is the only hook Marvel needs to get insufficiently_thoughtful_persons to purchase them in far greater quantities than any other issue in the series (in the 8 months before another relaunch) could even dream about reaching.

As interesting as Hibbs' BookScan analysis is, it has nothing to do with anything posted in this thread

Interesting. The #37 I posted is the only one of those issues that I own. I would bet against it. Doubtful.

Yeah, it's redundant and useless for collectors. I assume that it's an internal thing that was added to help with proper identification and labeling, since we know they've had significant issues with that in the past.

Slabs have no special properties that preserve books better than could be accomplished without a slab.