Thursday, June 16, 2016

Classic Comic Book Cover of the Week: Amazing Spider-Man #55



There are legendary comic book covers and there is Amazing Spider-Man #55. The ultra-cool cover drawn by legendary artists John Romita Sr. features Doctor Octopus reflecting dual Spider-Man images (being attacked with those mechanical arms) is one of the most popular affordable early versions of the ASM lineup.

The 12-cent cover price is amplified by the long ago print date of December 1967, and Comic Book Realm lists available copies in the $300 range. Of course, these can usually be picked up with a lower grade for under $30, which is a steal for any sub-100 ASM. This is one of those covers that just looks great on the wall.

From an investment upside potential, there really isn't much here. Amazing Spider-Man #55 is the third part of the Doc Ock Wins! storyline (it's even right there on the cover) written by some guy named Stan Lee. However, it lacks any real significance with regards to first appearances, majestic revelations, or traumatic events.

From that standpoint, the only real thing this comic has working for it is the awesome cover and it's relatively low print run (likely under 80,000 copies at the time) and modern day scarcity. So follow that up after nearly fifty years of life, and there are probably just not too many of these running around. John Romita Sr. has a certain amount of appeal to fans of all ages, which makes it a really cool hard to find collectors issue.

All things considered, this is a cover that sticks with you thanks to the expression on Doc Ock's face and the great reflection idea. Long before the villain managed to land inside the head of Peter Parker in the Superior Spider-Man series, he was a mainstay of the classic ASM series. This is one comic that fits the ideal of a classic in just about every imaginable way.

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