First Superman Comic Sells for $1 Million

(Feb. 23) -- Superman is now officially a million-dollar man. In a private auction, an anonymous New Yorker bid $1 million for the pristine first issue of Action Comics, which introduced the Man of Steel to the world.

"They said it couldn't be done. They said that no comic book -- no matter how rare -- would ever sell for $1,000,000. This week, they were proven wrong. And in the midst of a recession, no less!" exclaims a triumphant press release from ComicConnect.com, the Web site that arranged the auction.

The original price tag for the 1938 issue was 10 cents.

As the financial news Web site MarketWatch notes, that means the issue increased 10 million times in value over the past 71 years. It saw a threefold increase in value last year alone: The last collector to purchase a copy paid $317,000, according to the blog Geneva Launch.

"The excellent condition of this particular comic is the primary reason it sold for such a sum. Rated at 8/10 for its quality, the copy is in far better condition than most of the approximately 100 that remain in existence," explains Mitchell Davids at the blog Lovereading.

At a comparatively sparse 12 pages, Action Comics #1 briefly sets up the origins and character traits that have since become Superman lore. He first appears in a crashed spacecraft as a baby from "a distant planet, destroyed by old age" (named Krypton in later issues).

As a child, he "astounds" observers with "feats of physical strength" before maturing into a young man capable of leaping "1/8th of a mile," raising "tremendous weights" and running "faster than an express train" ... all on the first page. The remainder of the comic introduces alter ego Clark Kent, Lois Lane and "the mob" -- which would prove to be one of the hero's least threatening nemeses. (View scans of it here.)

Actually, although Action Comics #1 is considered Superman's official debut, a radically different version of the character was conceived earlier in 1933 by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. Their short illustrated story, "The Reign of the Super-Man," depicts him as William Dunn, a bald, tyrannical, psychic madman hellbent on world domination, which in retrospect seems more in the vein of Superman archvillain Lex Luthor than the hero beloved by millions of fans today. After struggling to find a publisher, Siegel and Shuster later reintroduced the character in his more recognizable version.

Of course, Superman is not the only superhero whose classic comic books command top billing. In light of the news, the Los Angeles Times features a roundup of some other pricey debut issues, including Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 ($227,000), the Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four #1 ($52,000) and the only female hero to make the list -- Wonder Woman, who first appeared in All Star Comics #8 ($20,000).

Batman, too, is a perennially valuable character and may soon surpass Superman in the contest for the world's most expensive comic-book debut: As AOL Luxist points out, a public auction is underway right now online for Detective Comics #27, in which began the "amazing and unique Adventures of Batman." The bidding is up to nearly half-a-million with a little over 1 day remaining.