Spider-Man has been one of pop culture’s most famous superheroes for decades, and that fame got a huge boost when his first movie came out in 2002. Nearly 20 years, the character’s eighth live-action movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is only a few months away from release, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker clashing with villains who hail from other corners of the multiverse this time around. Ahead of what’s shaping up to be the biggest Spider-Man movie yet, Marvel’s Web-Slinger has crossed a huge milestone: he’s now the star of the highest-selling comic book of all time.
1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15 introduced Spider-Man to the world, with the comic book detailing how Peter Parker gained his superpowers and learned to use them for the greater good after his Uncle Ben was murdered. Ahead of the issue celebrating its 60th anniversary next year, word’s come in that an original copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 has sold for a whopping $3.6 million, per THR. The sale happened through the Heritage Auctions Signature Comics & Comic Art’s auction, which began yesterday and runs until September 12.
Graded at CGC 9.6 (with no known copies of this issue being stamped with the next highest grade, 9.8), this Amazing Fantasy #15 deal surpassed the $3.25 million shelled out earlier this year for a near-mint original copy of 1938’s Action Comics #1, which featured the first appearance of Superman. Until today, the most expensive copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 went for $795,000 in March 2020, and it was graded at CGC 9.4. This also broke a record for Heritage, as previously its highest selling comic was a CGC 9.4-graded copy of 1940’s Batman #1, which sold for $2.2 million back in January.
This all just further exemplifies how popular Spider-Man remains after all these years, with someone willing to shell out millions of dollars for an important memento of Marvel Comics history. Following his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15, the Wall-Crawler was given his own comic book series the following year, titled The Amazing Spider-Man. Among the other series Spidey’s led over the decades include Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, The Sensational Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man (though this comic originally followed a younger Peter Parker from another universe rather than the “main” Earth-616 version, and later spotlighted Miles Morales).
As for Spider-Man’s film run, Spider-Man: No Way Home will mark Tom Holland’s sixth appearance as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Peter Parker, following his first two solo movies, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. No Way Home will see Peter reaching out to Doctor Strange to ask if he can make the general public forget that he’s Spider-Man, but unfortunately, the spell Strange casts ends up tearing a hole in spacetime, resulting in villains from other universes, like Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus and Jamie Foxx’s Electro, coming to the MCU to wreak havoc. There also continue to be rumors that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield will reprise their respective versions of Spider-Man, but that still hasn’t been confirmed.
Spider-Man: No Way Home swings into theaters on December 17, and for the Miles Morales fans out there, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 will arrive on October 7, 2022. As always, stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest updates on what’s happening with Spider-Man on the big screen.
