Any serious comic book collector be able to tell you that the world’s most
pricey comic book is DC’s Action Comics #1 (1938). Written by Jerry Siegel
and illustrated by Joe Shuster, this book contained our first 12-page quick look
of the iconic superhero– Superman. One can wonder why this comic would outsell,
say, the first look of Spider-Man, particularly considering the recent success
of the Spider-Man movie franchise and the box office flop that marked Superman’s
return to Hollywood. The answer lies not in the actuality that Action Comics #1
has the first appearance of Superman; however that it contains the first appearance
of the superhero.

All of the stereotypical devices of of the superhero type are combined for the
first time in this matter; secret identities, superpowers, pseudo-scientific
origins and, yes, even tights. Superman was the amalgamation of Greek myth with
Flash Gordan and now a smattering of daily life. At last, it was the same combination
that we still see today, to some level, in the greatly successful Batman, X-Men
and Spider-Man franchises.

A accordance with Scoop, a comics newsletter, a Comics Guaranty (CGC)-certified
4.0 (”very good” form) copy of Action Comics #1 was sold for $195,000
in May of 2006, out-pricing the 2004 pricey comic books sale of a CGC-certified
9.4 (”near mint” condition) copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, containing
Spider-Man’s first look, by more than $70,000.