Spawn is back in the news as Jeremy Renner was recently added to the cast of the upcoming movie. With the excitement surrounding the reboot (lets not talk about the first incarnation; I still haven't gotten over it), comic collectors are left to wonder how this will affect the value of their old Spawn comics. Here's the latest.
The Spawn movie is taking shape.
This time last year, Todd McFarlane announced that Blumhouse Productions would be making the long-rumored movie, and in May, Jamie Foxx was announced to be in the starring role. Now we've got McFarlane himself stepping behind the camera to direct, and Renner is rumored to be playing the popular Twitch.
From day one, Spawn has been the icon for Image Comics. When the company launched its first titles in 1992, several characters from the elite creators of the era were heavily featured, but it was Spawn who lasted, and he has crossed into mainstream media more than the other original flag bearers. There was the excellent - albeit short-lived - animated series on HBO, and he was recently an Easter egg in the movie Ready Player One. But you can't talk about Spawn without mentioning the absolutely horrendous Spawn feature film from 1997. That movie was so bad it has taken 21 years to erase the damage it did to the character.
So far, the new Spawn movie is looking like a summer blockbuster, which the 1997 incarnation was not. For years, McFarlane teased us with talk of a mystery script that he always seemed to be putting the finishing touches on. I had pretty much given up on it, so I was very surprised when he announced that Blumhouse was lined up to produce the movie. Now we're seeing the early stages of what could be a huge Spawn boom if the movie comes together as planned.
It was only a year and a half ago that nobody much cared about Spawn #1. There were so many of these published in 1992 that everybody had one, which was good for Image but bad for collectors. For 20 years, you could grab a high grade first issue for not much more than $20. In fact, it was just last January that a 9.0 sold for $21, and another brought a measly $13 in February. And that was it for sales of graded 9.0s of Spawn #1 until July when McFarlane made his announcement. Since then, there have been seventeen 9.0s sold on eBay. The prices haven't gone through the roof, which is good, but they are steadily increasing. Since July 2017, it has averaged $44. With all the casting news, the past three months have seen an average of $57, and the latest sale on July 2 was for $88.
Spawn #1 didn't have any variant covers published when it was released...unless you count the newsstand editions. This is where I'd advise you invest your money. That same 9.0 in the newsstand edition is averaging $128 in the past 90 days. The past three sales have all been for triple digits with a high of $180 on June 14.
The 9.0 prices are just a sample of the upward turn for Spawn. The higher grades have almost all seen an increase in average sale price in the past 12 months. Now is the time to get your hands on this issue. Mark my words: once the first trailer is released, people are going to lose their minds over Spawn.
