Set Description:
Synopsis: This set contains all 108 books with a minimum grade of 9.4, of which there are only 5, with none later than Issue #9. Highlights of this set one are our Spidey #1 9.4, our 9.6 Pacific Coast Pedigree copy of Issue #3, and our 9.8 copy of Issue #7, which is one of two highest graded.
Background: The Amazing Spider-Man began publication in 1963 as a bimonthly periodical (as Amazing Fantasy had been), but was changed in mid-1963 to a monthly publication, which continued, with a brief interruption in 1995, until its second volume with a new numbering order in 1999. In 2003, the series reverted to the numbering order of the first volume. The title has occasionally been published biweekly, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010. The title ended its 50-year run as a continuously published comic with the landmark Issue #700 in December 2012.
Writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Steve Ditko created the character of Spider-Man, and the pair produced 38 issues from March 1963 to July 1966. Ditko left after the 38th issue, while Lee remained as writer until Issue #100. Since then, many writers and artists have taken over the monthly comic through the years, chronicling the adventures of Marvel's most identifiable hero.
The Amazing Spider-Man has been the character's flagship series for his first fifty years in publication, and was the only monthly series to star Spider-Man until Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, in 1976, although 1972 saw the debut of Marvel Team-Up, with the vast majority of issues featuring Spider-Man along with a rotating cast of other Marvel characters. Most of the major characters and villains of the Spider-Man saga have been introduced in Amazing, and with few exceptions, it is where most key events in the character's history have occurred.
The title was published continuously until No. 441 (Nov. 1998), when Marvel Comics relaunched it as vol. 2 No. 1 (Jan. 1999). But on Spider-Man's 40th anniversary, this new title reverted to using the numbering of the original series, beginning again with issue No. 500 (Dec. 2003) and lasting until the final issue, No. 700 (Feb. 2013).
Due to strong sales on the character's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, Marvel gave Spider-Man his own ongoing series in March 1963. The initial years of the series, under Lee and Ditko, chronicled Spider-Man's nascent career as a masked super-human vigilante with his civilian life as hard-luck yet perpetually good-humored and well-meaning teenager Peter Parker. Peter balanced his career as Spider-Man with his job as a freelance photographer for The Daily Bugle under the bombastic editor-publisher J. Jonah Jameson to support himself and his frail Aunt May. At the same time, Peter dealt with public hostility towards Spider-Man and the antagonism of his classmates Flash Thompson and Liz Allan at Midtown High School, while embarking on a tentative, ill-fated romance with Jameson's secretary, Betty Brant.
By focusing on Parker's everyday problems, Lee and Ditko created a groundbreakingly flawed, self-doubting superhero, and the first major teenaged superhero to be a protagonist and not a sidekick. Ditko's quirky art provided a stark contrast to the more cleanly dynamic stylings of Marvel's most prominent artist, Jack Kirby, and combined with the humor and pathos of Lee's writing to lay the foundation for what became an enduring mythos.
Most of Spider-Man's key villains and supporting characters were introduced during this time. Issue #1 (Mar. 1963) featured the first appearances of J. Jonah Jameson and his astronaut son John Jameson, and the supervillain the Chameleon. It also included the hero's first encounter with the superhero team the Fantastic Four. Issue #2 (May 1963) featured the first appearance of the Vulture and the Tinkerer, as well as the beginning of Parker's freelance photography career at the newspaper The Daily Bugle.
The Lee-Ditko era continued to usher in a significant number of villains and supporting characters, including Doctor Octopus in Issue #3 (July 1963); the Sandman and Betty Brant in Issue #4 (Sept. 1963); the Lizard in Issue #6 (Nov. 1963); the Living Brain in Issue #8 (Jan. 1964); Electro in Issue #9 (Mar. 1964); Mysterio in Issue #13 (June 1964); the Green Goblin in Issue #14 (July 1964); Kraven The Hunter in Issue #15 (Aug. 1964); reporter Ned Leeds in Issue #18 (Nov. 1964); and the Scorpion in Issue #20 (Jan. 1965). The Molten Man was introduced in Issue #28 (Sept. 1965) which also featured Parker's graduation from high school. Peter began attending Empire State University in Issue #31 (Dec. 1965), which featured the first appearances of friends and classmates Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn. Harry's father, Norman Osborn first appeared in Issue #23 (April 1965) as a member of Jameson's country club, but was not named nor revealed as Harry's father until Issue #37 (June 1966).
One of the most celebrated issues of the Lee-Ditko run is Issue #33 (Feb. 1966), the third part of the story arc "If This Be My Destiny...!", which features the dramatic scene of Spider-Man, through force of will and thoughts of family, escaping from being pinned by heavy machinery. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Steve Ditko squeezes every ounce of anguish out of Spider-Man's predicament, complete with visions of the uncle he failed and the aunt he has sworn to save." Peter David observed that "After his origin, this two-page sequence from Amazing Spider-Man Issue #33 is perhaps the best-loved sequence from the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era."[29] Steve Saffel stated the "full page Ditko image from The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #33 is one of the most powerful ever to appear in the series and influenced writers and artists for many years to come." Matthew K. Manning wrote that "Ditko's illustrations for the first few pages of this Lee story included what would become one of the most iconic scenes in Spider-Man's history." The story was chosen as Issue #15 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel's readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that "These first five pages are a modern-day equivalent to Shakespeare as Parker's soliloquy sets the stage for his next action. And with dramatic pacing and storytelling, Ditko delivers one of the great sequences in all comics."
Although credited only as artist for most of his run, Ditko would eventually plot the stories as well as draw them, leaving Lee to script the dialogue. A rift between Ditko and Lee developed, and the two men were not on speaking terms long before Ditko completed his last issue, The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #38 (July 1966). The exact reasons for the Ditko-Lee split have never been fully explained. Spider-Man successor artist John Romita Sr., in a 2010 deposition, recalled that Lee and Ditko "ended up not being able to work together because they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on characters..."
In successor penciler Romita Sr.'s first issue, Issue #39 (Aug. 1966), nemesis the Green Goblin discovers Spider-Man's secret identity and reveals his own to the captive hero. Romita's Spider-Man – more polished and heroic-looking than Ditko's – became the model for two decades. The Lee-Romita era saw the introduction of such characters as Daily Bugle managing editor Robbie Robertson in Issue #52 (Sept. 1967) and NYPD Captain George Stacy, father of Parker's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, in Issue #56 (Jan. 1968). The most important supporting character to be introduced during the Romita era was Mary Jane Watson, who made her first full appearance in Issue #42 (Nov. 1966), although she first appeared in Issue #25 (June 1965) with her face obscured and had been mentioned since Issue #15 (Aug. 1964). Peter David wrote in 2010 that Romita "made the definitive statement of his arrival by pulling Mary Jane out from behind the oversized potted plant [that blocked the reader's view of her face in Issue #25] and placing her on panel in what would instantly become an iconic moment." Romita has stated that in designing Mary Jane, he "used Ann-Margret from the movie Bye Bye Birdie as a guide, using her coloring, the shape of her face, her red hair and her form-fitting short skirts."
Lee and Romita toned down the prevalent sense of antagonism in Parker's world by improving Parker's relationship with the supporting characters and having stories focused as much on the social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man's adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as civil rights, racism, prisoners' rights, the Vietnam War, and political elections.
In Issue #50 (June 1967), Lee and Romita introduced the highly enduring criminal mastermind the Kingpin, who would become a major force as well in the superhero series Daredevil. Other notable first appearances in the Lee-Romita era include the Rhino in Issue #41 (Oct. 1966), the Shocker in Issue #46 (Mar. 1967), the Prowler in Issue # 78 (Nov. 1969), and the Kingpin's son, Richard Fisk, in issue # 83 (Apr. 1970).
Of course, Spider-Man is also probably the most popular superhero ever in TV and movies with nine featured films starring three different actors already released.
Our Collection: Spidey is probably my favorite comic book of all time, dating back to when I was a little kid. Problem is, it is a lot of collectors’ favorite and the prices just continue to rise.
We did have a complete set of Issues #1-100 with a minimum grade of 9.0 back about a decade ago, but sold most of our lower grade books and have not been able to replace them all as we planned. Still, we love these books, especially the early issues.
Consequently, this is not our best collection by any means and every year we talk about unloading them to fund other purchases. We do have a clean unrestored #1 in 9.4, but our AF #15 is a restored 9.8. Overall, this set has not been our primary focus for several years, not because we aren’t Spidey fans, but because the books are just too damn expensive to complete the run up to the standards of some of our other collections.
We did, however, made a lot of progress on this set in 2021 because of the record auction of Scotty’s Spideys. We obviously were not a player on most of the big books in that set, but we did grab a number of upgrades at that auction.
Our current goal is to maintain a minimum grade of 9.4 for the whole set, rising to 9.6 for issues #6 and above, and to 9.8 for issues above #50-maybe starting with #52 LOL. We would also like to upgrade as many 9.6s to 9.8s as finances and availability permits (we currently have 62). The books have been out there to accomplish our goal, but unfortunately the money to buy them all has not been. Still, our goal seems attainable in the not too distant future if the books keep coming to market, although it will probably necessitate breaking up some other collections to fund.
Strangely enough, despite the weaknesses in this set, it now tops the registry. Well, technically, Scotty’s Spidey’s still holds the #1 position, but that collection was sold a couple of years ago, which illustrates one of the problems with the Registry. Because so many people do not register their books, books that are sold can sit in the former owner’s registry set for years. But even discounting those books, I am quite certain there is at least one superior set, if not more, out there that has never been registered. Still, I never envisioned we would ever climb this high in this title.
Current Stats:
108/108 Books
63 9.8s-62 Highest Graded
40 9.6s-1 Highest Graded
5 9.4s
37 WP
62 OW/W
8 OW
63 Highest Graded
41 Second Highest Graded
4 Third Highest Graded
7 Pedigrees
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