Spider-Boy Sets the Market Ablaze

Spider-Boy is all the rage in the comic collecting circles. His first cover appearance is steering the ship that is the secondary market, but he’s not the first character to use that name.

Thanks to Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse, those Multiversal Spider-Man variants are more popular than ever. After Into the Spider-Verse struck box office gold, the sales figures for Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, and Spider-Gwen keys reached new heights.

Not wanting to miss the next collecting wave, buyers were scooping up copies of Spider-Man #7 last month when Marvel debuted another addition to the Spider-Verse, Spider-Boy. It’s made for a seller’s market for those all-important key issues, and that excitement has trickled over to a classic 1990s crossover.

SPIDER-MAN #7 STANDARD COVER

With so much speculation surrounding Spider-Boy and his possible role in a future Spider-Verse movie or series, there’s plenty of commotion for his first appearance. Granted, this is not the edition most collectors have at the top of their wish lists, but it makes a nice pickup at any rate.

Although it was published on April 5, the graded 9.8 has already sold for as much as $125. At the moment, it has averaged $96 for the past 30 days, and it should continue to climb for the near future.

SPIDER-MAN #7 TOP-SECRET SPOILER VARIANT

This is the edition that buyers everywhere are looking to track down. Here we have Spider-Boy’s first cover appearance which was properly teased in Humberto Ramos’ aptly named top-secret spoiler variant. That has catapulted the issue to the top of the eBay sales charts, unseating some stiff competition in Spawn #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #300. While this is the case for the moment, don’t expect this to be the new norm. Eventually, those Todd McFarlane classics will reclaim their standings, but Spider-Boy is the comic du jour.

If you don’t mind taking the gamble on a raw copy, you can expect to spend around $30. Those graded 9.8s are a different ballgame. On average, they tend to sell for closer to $100-$125. However, there has been a sale of as much as $485, but that has proven to be a market outlier to this point. 

SPIDER-MAN #7 SECOND PRINT

Don’t sleep on the second print that hit comic shop shelves on May 17. While it’s not Spider-Boy’s first cover appearance, he is still front and center on this particular edition.

In the modern collecting game, second prints can bring top dollar due to the lower number of copies printed. With this one being brand new, you should be able to nab one for cover price or close to it. 

SPIDER-BOY #1 (1996)

This is not the first Spider-Boy to grace a comic book cover. Back in 1996, Marvel and DC had a massive crossover in which the publishers merged several of their most popular characters. One of those happened to be a combination of the 1990s Superboy and Peter Parker’s famous clone (who was serving as Spider-Man at the time) Ben Reilly. Put them together, and they were the first Spider-Boy. 

While this is not a canonical Spider-Boy, it remains the first appearance of a character using that name. Yes, Spider-Boy did appear in a cameo in DC Vs. Marvel/Marvel Vs. DC #3, but that issue didn’t hit store shelves until April 10, 1996 while Spider-Boy #1 has a publish date of March 31, 1996. The new Spider-Boy has certainly brought attention to these issues as a 9.8 Spider-Boy #1 sold for $153 on April 8 while a DC Vs. Marvel #3 earned $149 on April 26.

*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.