Tales of Suspense #57

A marksman who wanted to be a hero

Tales of Suspense was Iron Man's home. The armored hero had debuted there in issue #39 in 1963, drawn by Don Heck, and by 1964 he headlined the book alongside backup features. Tales of Suspense #57 went on sale on June 9, 1964, with a September cover date. It cost 12 cents and ran 36 pages, ten of them paid advertising.

The 18-page lead story, "Hawkeye, the Marksman!", introduced Clint Barton, a carnival trick-shot artist who builds an arsenal of arrows after watching Iron Man in action and tries to become a hero himself. A misunderstanding with the police puts him on the wrong side of the law, and he falls in with the Black Widow, the Soviet spy who had last appeared in issue #53. At her request he attacks Iron Man, but when he accidentally injures her in the fight, he flees to get her to safety.

The rest of the issue held a one-page text story, "The Runner," and a five-page "Tales of the Watcher" backup, plotted by Lee, scripted and penciled by Larry Lieber, and inked by George Roussos under the name Geo. Bell. Hawkeye and the Widow did not return until issue #60.

Don Heck's Robin Hood

Don Heck was born in Jamaica, Queens, on January 2, 1929. He drew Iron Man's first appearance and, in his words, "created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts," while Jack Kirby designed the first armor. He also helped create the Black Widow, the Wasp and Wonder Man, and penciled The Avengers from issue #9 (October 1964) through #40 (May 1967).

Heck said he saw Hawkeye as "almost like a Robin Hood-type character," a hero defined by skill rather than superpowers. Stan Lee saw more in him than a one-off villain. In The Avengers #16 (May 1965), Lee replaced most of the founding members with reformed villains, and Hawkeye joined the team.

Heck moved to DC around 1970, returned to Marvel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and died in Centereach, New York, on February 23, 1995. In 2026 he was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame.

The Curator collection

This copy belongs to the Curator pedigree, one of the most celebrated Silver Age collections. According to the grading company, the books were amassed by an employee of a museum, which is where the name comes from, and stored in tight packs on the museum's premises. The collection began in the late 1950s and ran into the 1980s, with its condition peaking in 1962. Its highlights include an Avengers #1 in 9.4, an X-Men #1 in 9.8 and a Tales of Suspense #47 in 9.9.

The collector John Hauser acquired most of the books in the 1990s but sold many without identifying them as Curator copies, and because the books carry no distinctive markings, some have lost their pedigree. The original owner's name and the museum involved have never been made public. The press announcement of this copy's 2024 sale said the comics had been kept at work in climate-controlled storage.

When this copy was offered in June 2022, its CGC grader noted only a "small stain right bottom of front cover." The census then showed six copies at CGC 9.8 and none higher.

From $102,000 to $210,000

The Curator copy, with white pages, sold at auction in June 2022 for $102,000. The auction description noted that 9.8 copies "have been breaking records for years"; the last one to sell publicly, in February 2016, had brought $47,800. Years earlier, in July 2012, a 9.8 from the Pacific Coast pedigree sold for $13,145.

On December 15, 2024, the same Curator copy sold privately to a collector for $210,000, more than doubling its 2022 price. The dealer who brokered the sale announced it the next day, noting that the earlier $102,000 had come "during a peak period for comic prices" and that the market had since seen corrections. A different 9.8 sold at auction in March 2026 for $61,000.

Sixty years of Hawkeye

Hawkeye's first solo miniseries, in 1983, introduced Mockingbird and made his partial deafness permanent. A 2012 series by Matt Fraction and David Aja, about what Hawkeye does "when he is not an Avenger," brought the character a major critical reappraisal.

Jeremy Renner brought the character to film in Thor in 2011 and played him through the Hawkeye Disney+ series in 2021. The Black Widow, his partner in crime in this issue, went on to become a hero herself, and the two became close friends.

The numbers

Cover price

12 cents

Pages

36, including 10 pages of paid advertising; Iron Man story 18

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted

Census, December 2021

162 in CGC 4.5, 1,086 higher

Census, June 2022

6 in CGC 9.8, none higher

This copy

CGC 9.8, white pages, Curator pedigree; grader noted a small stain at the bottom right of the front cover

Timeline

1. Mar 1963

   Iron Man debuts in Tales of Suspense #39, drawn by Don Heck (cover date).

2. Jun 9, 1964

   Tales of Suspense #57 goes on sale for 12 cents with a September 1964 cover date.

3. Dec 1964

   Hawkeye and the Black Widow return in Tales of Suspense #60 (cover date).

4. May 1965

   Hawkeye joins the team in The Avengers #16 (cover date).

5. 1983

   Hawkeye's first solo miniseries is published.

6. Feb 23, 1995

   Don Heck dies in Centereach, New York.

7. 2011

   Jeremy Renner first plays Hawkeye, in Thor.

8. Jul 2012

   A CGC 9.8 Pacific Coast pedigree copy sells at auction for $13,145.

9. Feb 2016

   A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $47,800.

10. 2021

    The Hawkeye series premieres on Disney+.

11. Jun 2022

    The Curator copy, CGC 9.8, sells at auction for $102,000; the census shows six 9.8s, none higher.

12. Dec 15, 2024

    The Curator copy sells privately for $210,000.

13. 2026

    Don Heck is inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame.

14. Mar 2026

    Another CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $61,000.

The world in 1964

• Feb 9, 1964

  The Beatles play The Ed Sullivan Show for an estimated 73 million viewers.

• Feb 25, 1964

  Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title.

• Apr 17, 1964

  The Ford Mustang is unveiled to the public.

• Jul 2, 1964

  President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.

• Aug 2, 1964

  The Gulf of Tonkin incident begins.

• Aug 27, 1964

  Mary Poppins premieres in Los Angeles.

• Sep 27, 1964

  The Warren Commission Report is published.

Price record

A realized private sale is a completed transaction outside an auction room. The amount is what changed hands on the date shown. Private sales are reported less consistently than auction results, so a single comparable carries less weight than a run of them.

By reference price, Tales of Suspense #57 is number 25 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (95 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Don Heck pictured Hawkeye as "almost like a Robin Hood-type character."
• Hawkeye started as a carnival performer inspired by watching Iron Man.
• He attacked Iron Man at the Black Widow's request in his very first story.
• The Curator pedigree is named for the museum employee who kept the comics stored at the museum.
• This copy's price more than doubled between June 2022 and December 2024.
• Within a year of his debut, the former villain was an Avenger.