Comic Reviews by Walt

A couple weeks back, more or less on a whim, I decided to check mycomicshop.com to see what Ultimate Spider-Man #1 was going for these days. I remember at some point back in the early 2000s seeing it listed in some guide (probably Wizard) for something like $160!

Considering at the time I balked at $2.99 an issue…yeah.

But there was a copy listed for significantly less than that–and I decided that as an issue I was frustrated to miss out on back in 2000, and lamented umpteen sub-standard reprints and such, and yet otherwise stayed with the series for several years…I’d go ahead and order it.

I think I may also have had a bit of a "feeling" about not making it to the March 7th show, too…so this helped make up for that, for me.

But for better or worse…this issue ALSO pushes me into new territory again. It is now THE single most expensive single-issue comic I have ever (to date) bought…especially factoring tax and shipping on top of the listed price. And having spent this much on an issue…it continues to push my willingness TO spend more on a single issue. All the more when I rationalize it against that price in arbitrary new comics, with basically everything except Spawn being $3.99 as a base price, but SO MANY comics being $4.99-$5.99…and more!

By the time I buy a week’s worth of "this week’s new comics" and spend whatever on 7-10 comics…by the time I realize that I have several weeks’ worth of unread comics…and eventually give up and file stuff away…I’d get much more enjoyment out of a singular issue–like this–that I display on a wall and IS a single, special, "key" issue that I appreciate far more than a bunch of already-forgotten single issues.

This one is definitely what I’m considering a "forgotten grail," in that it’s an issue I’ve wanted for more than 20 years, but really until the other week, had simply left as some issue I just was settling with cheap reprints on.

Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: comics, Grails, MARVEL, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, ultimate spider-man, Ultimate Universe, want list |