Something I come across quite often is fans who think HIDDEN YEARS should have been 27 issues. And this is not new. Some were predicting that length of run when the book first appeared.

Why?

Because the original X-MEN series ended (going to reprint) with 66 and returned (after GSX-M1) with 94. That's 27 issues by the numbers.

But. . .

Issue 66 had a March 1970 cover date, and the book at that time was monthly, and had been for several years. It was not until it was brought back as a reprint, 9 months after it was cancelled, that it reverted to its original bimonthly status.

So…

From 66 to 94 is from March 1970 (by the cover date) to August 1975 (again, cover date). More than FIVE YEARS! Something like 65 issues, if the monthly schedule had been maintained.

When X-MEN 94 was published, fandom was mostly fandom, and did not yet contain the legions of speculators ravenously seeking meaningless "first issues", so "tradition" was maintained when the book came back, and the numbering was picked up from the previous issue, 93, even tho that was a reprint. Much the same way that the Silver Age FLASH picked up the numbering of his Golden Age predecessor.

27 issues? Or 65? Meaningless, since the series was intended to be ongoing (a fact almost completely disguised by Marvel's "stealth marketing"), and I would have been happy as a clam to do 100 issues.