FLOAT 100 · Comics · No. 43
The Amazing Spider-Man #50
Peter Parker throws his costume in a trash can, a hulking crime boss in a white jacket takes over New York's mob, and a twelve-cent comic gives Spider-Man his most famous walk-away and Marvel one of its most enduring villains.
- Year
- 1967
- Maker
- Marvel Comics
- By price in comics
- 35 of 100
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Create a free account- On sale
- April 11, 1967, per the copyright registration (cover date July 1967)
- Publisher
- Marvel, under the Non-Pareil Publishing Corp. indicia; printed by Eastern Color Printing, Waterbury, Connecticut
- Story
- "Spider-Man No More!" 20 pages, written by Stan Lee, penciled by John Romita, inked by Mike Esposito
- Format
- 36 pages, 12 cents, approved by the Comics Code Authority
- Key
- First appearance of the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk; Spider-Man's origin retold
- This grade
- CGC 9.8; seven copies at 9.8 on the census in April 2021
- This grade's high
- $99,000 at auction, November 20, 2022, the highest in the sources
- Latest in the sources
- $91,500 at auction for a CGC 9.8, February 26, 2026
- On screen
- The main inspiration for the 2004 film Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man quits
The Amazing Spider-Man #50 went on sale on April 11, 1967, according to the copyright registration, with a cover date of July 1967. It was a 36-page, twelve-cent monthly carrying the Comics Code seal, printed by the Eastern Color Printing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut. The lead story, 'Spider-Man No More!', runs 20 pages and opens with a characteristic Stan Lee line: 'What say we skip any long introductions?'
The plot is simple and drastic. Afraid for his Aunt May's health and worn down by J. Jonah Jameson's attacks, Peter Parker gives up being Spider-Man to concentrate on college. A kid finds the discarded costume in a trash can and brings it to the Daily Bugle, where Jameson proudly puts it on display. Peter's personal life improves, but crime rises as a new boss organizes the mob. Feeling guilty about the crime wave, Peter remembers what his Uncle Ben taught him, and the issue retells Spider-Man's origin in flashback. The story continues in the next two issues.
The supporting cast fills the book: Aunt May, Anna May Watson, Harry Osborn, Professor Miles Warren, Gwen Stacy, Betty Brant, Mary Jane Watson and the reformed criminal Frederick Foswell. Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon make cameo appearances.
A crime boss built like a conglomerate
The new boss is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Stan Lee developed the concept: he wanted someone who ran organized crime the way a chairman ran a conglomerate, a figure whose removal would leave visible damage on the city. He took the idea to John Romita, who modeled Fisk's bulk on the actors Sydney Greenstreet and Robert Middleton. The story insists the bulk is muscle, not fat. The name came from Mafia slang for a crime lord, and the early Kingpin carried gadgets: a cane that fired a ray blast and a tie-pin that released sleeping gas.
The comics scholar Paul Young described the first appearance as a 'monstrously obese bald man wearing a white tux jacket, a diamond-studded ascot, and purple pants.' Frank Miller, who later made the character his own, called that first version the 'Jackie Gleason of supervillains.' Lee and Romita brought Fisk back in #51 and #52 that summer, and over the next three years gave him a wife, Vanessa, and a son, Richard, who secretly plotted against him as the Schemer.
The Kingpin's second life began in Daredevil #170 (May 1981), when Miller borrowed him from Spider-Man's books and remade him as a film-noir ganglord. The 1986 story 'Born Again,' in which Fisk uses legal and political contacts to destroy Matt Murdock's life, is the story most associated with the character. On screen he has been played by John Rhys-Davies (1989), Michael Clarke Duncan (2003), Liev Schreiber's voice in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and, since 2015, Vincent D'Onofrio.
Romita's book
John Romita was born on January 24, 1930, in Brooklyn, the son of a baker. He had drawn romance comics for DC before joining Marvel in 1965 on Daredevil. When Spider-Man's co-creator Steve Ditko abruptly left after The Amazing Spider-Man #38, Lee gave Romita the book beginning with #39 (August 1966). Romita later said he had not wanted the assignment and at first imitated Ditko, expecting him to return. Within a year of his arrival, The Amazing Spider-Man rose from Marvel's second-best-selling title to its top seller.
His first inker on the series was Mike Esposito, who used the pseudonym 'Mickey Demeo' to hide his moonlighting from DC. In this issue the credit is misspelled 'Mickey Dimeo.' A 2020 history of Marvel credits Romita with inking the cover himself; an earlier index had suggested Esposito as a possible inker. Romita co-created Mary Jane Watson's look, the Punisher, Wolverine and Luke Cage as well as the Kingpin, and served as Marvel's art director from 1973. He died on June 12, 2023, at 93.
Spider-Man was selling strongly when this issue appeared. The publisher's statement of ownership printed in #59 reported an average of 587,213 copies printed and 361,663 paid sales an issue for the period that included #50. No separate print run for #50 is published.
Seven copies at the top
Low-grade copies are plentiful, but the top of the census is thin. As of April 6, 2021, CGC had graded 3,963 universal copies, with 53 at 9.4, 15 at 9.6 and only 7 at 9.8, according to a collector's census count published that week. Nothing has been reported above 9.8.
Prices for those top copies climbed fast. On April 30, 2020, a CGC 9.8 with white pages sold at auction for $55,200, then a record for the issue, when it was one of seven at that grade. On November 20, 2022, another CGC 9.8 with white pages sold for $99,000, the highest price for the issue in the sources and one that came while much of the comics market was cooling. On February 26, 2026, a CGC 9.8 realized $91,500 at auction, in the same sale that produced a $2.3 million Detective Comics #27.
Below the top grade, the issue trades steadily. Sale listings in 2026 show CGC 3.0 to 4.5 copies selling for roughly $400 to $900.
The image that became a movie
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, which opened in the United States on June 30, 2004, drew on several stories, but according to its production history it was mostly inspired by the 1967 'Spider-Man No More!' storyline, specifically The Amazing Spider-Man #50. Raimi wanted a film about Peter weighing his own wants against his responsibility, and the issue's central idea, Peter quitting and then coming back, carried the film.
The Kingpin, meanwhile, moved well beyond Spider-Man. He became one of Daredevil's two archenemies, was ranked ninth among Marvel's greatest villains by IGN in 2019, and was even elected mayor of New York in the comics. Both ideas that make this issue a key, the walk-away and the crime boss, came from a single twelve-cent comic in the spring of 1967.
The numbers
- Cover price
- 12 cents
- Pages
- 36; the story runs 20
- Print run of #50
- No verified figure; the title averaged 587,213 printed and 361,663 paid an issue in the period reported in #59's statement of ownership
- Census, April 6, 2021
- 3,963 universal copies graded; 53 at 9.4, 15 at 9.6, 7 at 9.8
- Census, April 2020
- 7 at CGC 9.8 (per a collector's account of that month's sale)
- Highest grade
- CGC 9.8; nothing higher reported
Timeline
John Romita is born in Brooklyn.
Romita takes over The Amazing Spider-Man with #39 after Steve Ditko's departure.
The Amazing Spider-Man #50 goes on sale, cover dated July 1967.
The Kingpin's first extended fight with Spider-Man, in #51.
Frederick Foswell dies in #52, taking a bullet meant for Jameson.
Frank Miller brings the Kingpin into Daredevil with #170.
'Born Again' begins in Daredevil #227.
John Rhys-Davies plays Wilson Fisk in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk.
Michael Clarke Duncan plays the Kingpin in the film Daredevil.
Spider-Man 2, mostly inspired by #50, opens in U.S. theaters.
Vincent D'Onofrio first plays Wilson Fisk, in the series Daredevil.
A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for a record $55,200.
The CGC census shows 3,963 universal copies, 7 of them at 9.8.
A CGC 9.8 sells at auction for $99,000.
John Romita dies at 93.
A CGC 9.8 realizes $91,500 at auction.
The world in 1967
Martin Luther King Jr. denounces the Vietnam War at a service in New York City.
Large demonstrations against the Vietnam War are held in New York City and San Francisco.
Muhammad Ali refuses military service in Houston.
The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released in the U.S.
The Supreme Court strikes down bans on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia.
The Monterey Pop Festival begins.
Rioting breaks out in Newark, New Jersey, and lasts five days.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 30, 2020 | $55,200 | Sold at auctionCGC 9.8, white pages; then one of seven at 9.8. |
| Nov 20, 2022 | $99,000 | Sold at auctionCGC 9.8, white pages. Highest price for the issue in the sources. |
| Feb 26, 2026 | $91,500 | Sold at auctionCGC 9.8. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, The Amazing Spider-Man #50 is number 35 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 (43 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon make cameo appearances in the issue.
- The inker's credit reads 'Mickey Dimeo,' a misspelling of the pseudonym Mike Esposito used to hide his Marvel work from DC.
- John Romita based the Kingpin's build on the actors Sydney Greenstreet and Robert Middleton.
- Frank Miller called the original Kingpin the 'Jackie Gleason of supervillains.'
- Romita did not want the Spider-Man assignment at first and expected Steve Ditko to come back.
- Spider-Man 2 (2004) was mostly inspired by this issue's story.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026