A Real-Life Spiderman Panel Sells For a Record $3.4 Million

By Matthew Denis Published January 27, 2022

With NFT’s making all the news lately, physical art showed it still has clout this past week, especially when it comes to comics.

A 1984 Spider-Man comic book page sold at auction for $3.36 million on Thursday, January 13, a record sale for any inside comic book work. The Mike Zeck-drawn art is from Marvel Comics’ “Secret Wars No. 8” — the first introduction of Spidey’s symbiote black suit, which would eventually lead to the emergence of Venom. The record bidding started at $330,000 and quickly soared past $3 million in a vicious (and expensive) bidding war during Heritage Auctions’ four-day comic event in Dallas.

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#HERITAGELIVE: #SpiderMan can spin a 🕸 any size, but this page from #SecretWars caught collectors just like flies. After a heated battle, Mike Zeck’s original from No. 8, featuring the origin story of Spidey’s #BlackCostume, just sold for…

$3,360,000.https://t.co/vvnRJrcSO4 pic.twitter.com/NJYBb3kK0F

— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) January 13, 2022

The page follows Spider-Man’s attempt to create a new suit after damaging his disguise in battle. Thor hooks him up with what they think is a futuristic fabric. Spidey gets a surprise, however, when an inky sphere emerges from the box, engulfing his hand in black goo.

This lead-up to his complete transformation (page 24) sold for $288,000 in a separate lot just before the new record was set, earning Heritage a total of $3.7 million for two pages of comic art.

“Well I’ll be an eight-ball’s uncle,” Spider-Man says on the page. “That glob just spread out and became a costume — and dissolved away the tatters of my old one in the process! Not bad! Different … but not bad!”

Apparently, the creators were big on exclamation points. And this Spider-Man version was a bit more naive than future generations. The suit might not be evil per se, but it’s going to cause a lot of issues down the road for the web-slinger as well as eventual new host Eddie Brock, who will become antihero Venom.

The previous record for an interior comic book page was $657,250 from a 1974 issue of “The Incredible Hulk” that featured a tease for Wolverine in his first graphic appearance.

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Incredibly, Spider-Man wasn’t the only comic hero to sell for over $3 million that day. One of the most sought-after comics, Superman’s launch in Action Comics No. 1, sold for $3.2 million, another new auction house record for the title. Dubbed the “Rocket Copy” because this particular version, one of the few surviving copies, has a rocket stamp on the cover put there by its original 13-year-old owner. Not bad for a 1938 comic that originally sold for 10 cents.

#HERITAGELIVE: Until today this copy of #ActionComics No. 1, featuring #Superman’s first flight, belonged to a single owner since its purchase in 1938. Today it found a new home — and became one of the world’s most valuable comics, selling for $3,180,000https://t.co/wU4RO2H7s1 pic.twitter.com/UOGYhfqh8q

— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) January 13, 2022

For its part, this only further affirmed the viability and demand for classic comics to Heritage Auctions.

“Today’s results prove what we’ve long been saying: Comic book art is as beloved and valuable as anything put on canvas,” Joe Mannarino, Heritage’s New York director of comic art, said in a statement.

Spider-Man also holds the current record for an auctioned comic book, a $3.6 million September sale of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (1962), the web-slinger’s original on the scene.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Matt Denis is an on-the-go remote multimedia reporter, exploring arts, culture, and the existential in the Pacific Northwest…

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