With all eyes on the who’s who of Spider-Man 3 returning characters, we’re going to look in another direction. The niche category of  Amazing Spider-Man crossover books with the Human Torch have been quietly been on a hot streak in the market. Makes sense that they’d perform well together. After all in the Itsy Bitsy Spider, it wasn’t fire that washed the spider out.

 

STRANGE TALES ANNUAL #2 (1963)

While this issue is full of reprinted stories, the one original story titled "On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!" marks the first team-up of Spidey and Human Torch. Even further, it’s actually SM’s overall first crossover. It wasn’t friendly at first. The story kicks off with the Human Torch being jealous of The Spider. When a Leonardo da Vinci painting is stolen from the museum, the Human Torch is convinced it’s the work of Spider-Man so he goes after him. Spoiler alert, Spider-Man was framed by the Fox (aka Reynard Slinker), in his first appearance.

As for the market of Strange Tales Annual #2, sales prices have been on a steady rise for the last few years. Interestingly, the starting point of this upward trend was a similar time frame to the other Spider-Man and Human Torch crossover books mentioned below; each one around 2013-15 range. For Strange Tales Annual #2, the sales price differences can be seen with:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 (1964)

In the "Spider-Man Tackles the Torch!" story, the duo comes to fisticuffs after Spidey crashes a party the Human Torch is at. Like the book above, sales prices for Amazing Spider-Man #8 have been rising ever since the 2013-15 lows. A quick look:


Sure one might argue that this book has only gone up in value due to the significances of the Living Brain's 1st appearance in the issue’s other story and the issue itself being low numbered in the ASM series, so we’ll look at a few more below.

 

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #17 (1964)

Another Human-Torch crossover cover. This time it’s the Green Goblin who crashes the party; specifically, a SM fan club meeting. Other key significances for ASM #17 are the first appearances of the Green Goblin’s iconic pumpkin bombs and the goblin glider.

Similar market behavior with sales prices slowly rising ever since the lows observed in the 2013-15 timeframe. The specific timing for each individual book is roughly in a more narrow single quarter in that multi-year timeframe, but it’s just being lumped together for the purposes here.

But that’s just 3 books! So, here are two more Spider-Man and Human Torch crossover covers that have been exhibiting a similar upward move.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #19 (1964)

Firstly, there's ASM #19

 

 

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #21 (1965)

As well as  ASM #21

OVERALL

The FMVs and sales prices above don’t give the full picture; but if you have the time to pull one up, you’ll find a nice slow growth between the two points. Even though these Spider-Man and Human Torch covers don’t have the potential to participate in the currently hot Spider-Man 3 speculation, most of them appear to be suitable for the longer term.

“Over the years, I even came up with a term for it. I called it “The Parker Luck.” – The Human Torch