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Amazing Spider-Man #252 from 1984 was the first appearance of Spider-Man in his new black costume. When it arrived, the origin of the new look was a bit of mystery. It later revealed that Peter Parker picked it up on the Patchwork Planet in Secret Wars and much later revealed to be the symbiotic lifeform who would be known as Venom. The success and popularity of Venom have drawn intensive speculation activity towards those early issues and a current CGC graded copy of Amazing Spider-Man #252 is currently at auction at Heritage Art Auctions with bids totalling $1200 before it goes under the hammer later today.
The Amazing Spider-Man #252 (Marvel, 1984) CGC NM/MT 9.8 Off-white to white pages.First appearance of Spider-Man’s black costume. Amazing Fantasy #15 cover swipe by Ron Frenz and Klaus Janson. Frenz and Brett Breeding art. Overstreet 2021 NM- 9.2 value = $115. CGC census 4/22: 1462 in 9.8, 8 higher.
The idea of the black-suited Spider-Man was originally that of Marvel Comics reader Randy Schueller. Although he was given a chance to pitch a story, in the end, Marvel EIC Jim Shooter sent him a cheque for $220 for the idea, and it was added to the Spider-Man mythos by others, when the series Secret Wars came along and creators were asked to come up with changes to the characters that Secret Wars could be responsible for. John Byrne had the idea of a self-healing costume for Iron Fist, but never got around to using it. His colleague Roger Stern asked Byrne if he could use the idea for Spider-Man’s new costume and Byrne agreed. It would be David Michelinie who has the idea of turning the black costume into Venom, and it would be Todd McFarlane who drew the villain so memorably, later taken on by Erik Larsen who gave him the sharp teeth and prehensile tongue synonymous with the character now. But it all began here…
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