If Amazing Spider-Man 157 is the easiest of the Amazing Spider-Man Bronze-Age Price Variants to find in high-grade, its successor, issue 158 is one of the hardest. The Comics Guaranty Corporation (CGC) has certified five issues in 9.4, five issues in 9.2and one in 9.0.
CGC is the third-party grading house most accepted by comic book collectors. CGC provides a really neat feature for collectors which is their comics registry. The comics registry is a database which allows collectors to enter information about their certified collections and compete on who has the best set. To measure how popular the Spidey is, there are currently 461 registry sets for the complete Amazing Spider-Man set. There are an additional 176 collectors with registry sets of issues 100 to 200 which include the price variant issues and eighty collectors with registry sets in the complete Amazing Spider-Man set plus variants category. You can see the problem with the marvel price variants, in a sea of competitive collectors, there is only a thimble full of certified copies of the price variant issues - 21 total of this issue. The competition for high-grade examples is fierce when one shows up at auction. There have been three high-grade copies sold in the past three years - yes, one per year. In October of 2008, a 9.4 sold for $420 which would be a bargain today. In August of 2008, a 9.2 sold for $190 which would also be a bargain today. The last high-grade book to sell was a 9.0 which sold in March of this year for $300.
Issue 158 picks up where 157 left off. Spider-man is falling from a mile in the sky after Doc Ock snipped his web-lines. Spider-man could use his web-shooters to make a parachute and glide to the ground, but this is the 1970's and he quickly fashions a hangglider out of webbing and manages to land in a dumpster after misjudging his flight path.
So we next meet Petey in his apartment where he is repairing his spidey costume and he is visited by Glory Grant - a good stripper name if ever there was one. Then Mary Jane comes in and tells Peter that Aunt May's place has been trashed. Peter gets a call from Robbie Robertson about an emergency assignment, so Peter slips on his costume beneath his clothes.
When he gets to work, he learns that J. Jonah is not happy with the hapless new temp who is replacing Betty Brant while she is on her honeymoon. He also learns from Robbie that the Daily Globe is raiding the Bugle for employees. He also hears that Doc Ock is holding at Aunt May at Brookhaven Labs.
Spidey rushes to the Labs where he finds Doc Ock working on some equipment and a SWAT team (1970s, remember) gathering for a hostage rescue. Spidey fights Doc Ock which breaks the equipment and then Hammerhead appears and Spidey helps Doc Ock put the equipment back together which Doc Ock thinks will destroy Hammerhead once and for all but Hammerhead knows will put him back in phase and give him his material body back and Spidey realizes what Hammerhead knows but is unable to stop Doc Ock from hitting the button and the issues ends with Hammerhead material again. Whew...We will have to wait for the conclusion in issue 159.
I love this bronze age stuff - but am left wondering what the parade of hapless secretaries would look like if these issues were drawn by Michael Turner - not to mention Glory Grant...
CGC is the third-party grading house most accepted by comic book collectors. CGC provides a really neat feature for collectors which is their comics registry. The comics registry is a database which allows collectors to enter information about their certified collections and compete on who has the best set. To measure how popular the Spidey is, there are currently 461 registry sets for the complete Amazing Spider-Man set. There are an additional 176 collectors with registry sets of issues 100 to 200 which include the price variant issues and eighty collectors with registry sets in the complete Amazing Spider-Man set plus variants category. You can see the problem with the marvel price variants, in a sea of competitive collectors, there is only a thimble full of certified copies of the price variant issues - 21 total of this issue. The competition for high-grade examples is fierce when one shows up at auction. There have been three high-grade copies sold in the past three years - yes, one per year. In October of 2008, a 9.4 sold for $420 which would be a bargain today. In August of 2008, a 9.2 sold for $190 which would also be a bargain today. The last high-grade book to sell was a 9.0 which sold in March of this year for $300.
Issue 158 picks up where 157 left off. Spider-man is falling from a mile in the sky after Doc Ock snipped his web-lines. Spider-man could use his web-shooters to make a parachute and glide to the ground, but this is the 1970's and he quickly fashions a hangglider out of webbing and manages to land in a dumpster after misjudging his flight path.
So we next meet Petey in his apartment where he is repairing his spidey costume and he is visited by Glory Grant - a good stripper name if ever there was one. Then Mary Jane comes in and tells Peter that Aunt May's place has been trashed. Peter gets a call from Robbie Robertson about an emergency assignment, so Peter slips on his costume beneath his clothes.
When he gets to work, he learns that J. Jonah is not happy with the hapless new temp who is replacing Betty Brant while she is on her honeymoon. He also learns from Robbie that the Daily Globe is raiding the Bugle for employees. He also hears that Doc Ock is holding at Aunt May at Brookhaven Labs.
Spidey rushes to the Labs where he finds Doc Ock working on some equipment and a SWAT team (1970s, remember) gathering for a hostage rescue. Spidey fights Doc Ock which breaks the equipment and then Hammerhead appears and Spidey helps Doc Ock put the equipment back together which Doc Ock thinks will destroy Hammerhead once and for all but Hammerhead knows will put him back in phase and give him his material body back and Spidey realizes what Hammerhead knows but is unable to stop Doc Ock from hitting the button and the issues ends with Hammerhead material again. Whew...We will have to wait for the conclusion in issue 159.
I love this bronze age stuff - but am left wondering what the parade of hapless secretaries would look like if these issues were drawn by Michael Turner - not to mention Glory Grant...
There is no better way to put it than to say that the early battles between our favorite web slinger and Doc Oc are classics.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Steven G. Willis
XOWComics.com