Wolverine is the best at what he does, and what he does apparently holds no involvement with counting upwards sequentially. This July 4th sees the 310th issue of Wolverine (having been renumbered at issue #300, immediately following issue #20 of the comic’s third volume, which came about by combining the number of issues in all volumes of Wolverine). The long awaited Wolverine #310 finally picks up the Sabretooth story by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi that last saw Sabretooh beheaded by Wolverine in Wolverine vol. 2 #55. However, this issue is apparently so long await and demanded, it’s coming out before Wolverine #309. Yes, Wolverine #310 comes out July 4th (just in time for comic con), while Wolverine #309 comes out July 18th. That is some odd number, but likely a combination of delayed work on the one-shot story of Wolverine #309, by Ivan Brandon, Rafael Albuquerque and Jason Latour, and a need to push forward Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi’s storyline to sync up with later X-men/Wolverine comic events.

This is not the first time the Wolverine comic series has been released out of sequential order though. Back in the summer of 2009 another big name creative team was doing a huge story in the pages of Wolverine. Mark Millar and Steve McNiven had come together for the first time since Civil War to create the storyline Old Man Logan (running in issues Wolverine vol.2 #66-72 and Wolverine Giant-Size Old Man Logan). Unfortunately, due to delays and scheduling conflicts, the Wolverine issues continued to slip past their originally scheduled release dates, effecting the book. To try and catch this, Jason Aaron’s run of Wolverine started a little early, seeing Wolverine vol.2 #73 come out several weeks before Wolverine vol.2 #72. Furthermore, the wrap up for the Old Man Logan storyline was forced to come out in an oversized one shot roughly 3 months later. It seems like Wolverine just doesn’t care for holding up sequential releases, as his stories and creators are too big to be bother by such problems. Either way, the stories Marvel puts out in these cases often make it worth the brief confusion. However, if you’re wondering why the release schedule is so confusing for Wolverine, now you know.