Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1

Name: Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 2009 · Marvel · 3.99 USD

📊 ~40,871 copies sold its debut month

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“Women Love Him, Men Want to Be Him”

★ 1st appearance — Hippo

About this Issue

Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #1 is the opening chapter of the only ongoing solo spotlight ever given to Mac Gargan's Venom-as-Spider-Man, a morally inverted riff on the Spider-Man mythology that Marvel built across the entire Dark Reign event. The issue introduced a cluster of new characters — the Redeemer (Shep Gunderson), General Wolfram, Dementoid, Doctor Everything, Eleven, and Hippo — in a single issue, making it the debut nexus for an entire rogues gallery assembled specifically to 'redeem' a Spider-Man who was secretly a cannibalistic symbiote host. Its darkly comedic tone, in which a sociopathic killer basks in public adoration while Norman Osborn's authoritarian regime holds, is a pointed inversion of the heroic Spider-Man identity, and it helped cement the Dark Avengers era's central tension between surface legitimacy and hidden monstrosity.

writer Brian Reed · artist, colorist Chris Bachalo · inker Tim Townsend · colorist Antonio Fabela · letterer Jared K. Fletcher · cover Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend

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CGC 9.8 $200 1 listing CGC 9.6 $68 1 listing

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NM $6.54 NM · 1:15 variant $29.95

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VF/NM $7 VF/NM · Variant $17.99

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FN $2.99 FN $5

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Raw / ungraded $2.24 Raw / ungraded $3.95 Raw / ungraded $3.99 Raw / ungraded $6.79 Raw / ungraded $6.87 Raw / ungraded $7 Raw / ungraded $8.95 Raw / ungraded $14.99 Raw / ungraded $15 Raw / ungraded $15 Raw / ungraded $17.93 Variant $19.96 Variant $24.99 1:15 variant $29.99

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VERY FINE $2.99 NM+ $3.99 NM $8.99 2nd print $20 2nd print $29.99 2nd print $113.95 comic books. Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man $40

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History

Writer Brian Reed, best known for his Ms. Marvel run, scripted the four-issue limited series as a Dark Reign tie-in, with interior pencils by Chris Bachalo (inked by Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, and Jon Sibal) and a variant cover by Mike Deodato Jr.; notably, pre-publication solicitations listed Barry Kitson as penciler, but the published issue featured Bachalo's work. The book was edited by Thomas Brennan under editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and the series was collected in a trade paperback alongside material from Spider-Man Family #8.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Hippo (Mrs. Fluffy Lumpkins), a High Evolutionary–created anthropomorphic hippopotamus who went on to recurring appearances in Amazing Spider-Man and Superior Foes of Spider-Man — created by Brian Reed, Chris Bachalo, and Tim Townsend.
First appearance of the Redeemer (Shep Gunderson), a criminal psychiatrist who assembles maimed supervillains into a therapy-themed team aimed at 'redeeming' the Gargan Spider-Man.
First appearances of General Wolfram, Dementoid (Richard Earle Amtower IV), Doctor Everything (Jonathan N. York), and Eleven (Jenni Pate) — the full founding roster of the Redeemers.
Mac Gargan (Venom) stars as the Dark Avengers' Spider-Man, a role he assumed after Secret Invasion #8; his Scorpion origin dates to Amazing Spider-Man #20 and his Venom bonding to Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10.
The issue's opening narration is written as a deliberate parody of the voice-over introduction from the 2002 Spider-Man film, immediately signaling the series' subversive, comedic register.
Chris Bachalo provided interior pencils (with multiple inkers) and cover art; the 1:15 incentive variant cover was drawn by Mike Deodato Jr.
A second printing was published in November 2009 with a new cover by Ben Steeves, indicating strong initial demand.
The complete series (issues #1–4) plus material from Spider-Man Family #8 was collected in a trade paperback titled Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man.