The Amazing Spider-Man#50

The Amazing Spider-Man #50

Jul 1967 · Marvel

📊 ~114,430 copies sold its debut month

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★ 1st appearance — Kingpin

About this Issue

Amazing Spider-Man #50 is a watershed moment in Marvel's Silver Age for two reasons that are impossible to untangle: it delivers the emotionally resonant 'Spider-Man No More!' story — in which Peter Parker, overwhelmed by the costs of his double life, abandons his costume in a trash can — while simultaneously introducing Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, one of the most enduring non-powered villains in comics history. The Kingpin's debut is structurally clever: he rises precisely because Spider-Man has stepped away, making Peter's abdication of responsibility the direct cause of New York's escalating crime wave, which is what ultimately pulls him back into the suit. That interior splash page of Peter walking away from his discarded costume became one of the most homaged images in superhero comics, directly inspiring a key sequence in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 (2004), and the cover composition — a ghostly, back-turned Spider-Man looming over a small, civilian Peter — has been revisited by dozens of artists across decades. Beyond Spider-Man's own titles, the Kingpin's debut here seeded a villain who would eventually migrate to Daredevil, where Frank Miller's 1981–1983 run transformed him into one of Marvel's defining antagonists of the modern era.

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VG) $459

CGC 9.8 $74,265*

CGC 9.6 $23,227*

CGC 9.4 $11,892*

CGC 9.2 $7,236*

CGC 9.0 $4,956*

CGC 8.5 $4,956*

Show all 22 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 $2,616

CGC 7.5 $2,085*

CGC 7.0 $1,733*

CGC 6.5 $1,424*

CGC 6.0 $1,235*

CGC 5.5 $988*

CGC 5.0 $956

CGC 4.5 $751*

CGC 4.0 $691*

CGC 3.5 $554*

CGC 3.0 $482*

CGC 2.5 $406*

CGC 2.0 $342*

CGC 1.5 $257*

CGC 1.0 $227*

CGC 0.5 $206*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Stan Lee conceived the Kingpin as a response to what he felt was a gap in Spider-Man's rogues' gallery: a crime boss who ran organized crime the way a corporate chairman ran a conglomerate, a figure whose power derived from money and fear rather than any superscience accident. As documented in the DeFalco-edited Spider-Man Chronicle and corroborated by Romita's own account in Comics Scene #33, Lee gave Romita little more than an index card with the word 'Kingpin' on it, leaving the visual design entirely to the artist. Romita's solution — a bald, massively built man in a white tuxedo jacket and ornate cane, inspired visually by character actors Sydney Greenstreet and Robert Middleton — deliberately inverted the standard thug silhouette so that the villain would stand out against his own henchmen. The issue was inked by Mike Esposito, credited on the printed comic under his common pseudonym Mickey Demeo (misspelled in this issue as 'Dimeo'), with lettering by Sam Rosen; it arrived on newsstands cover-dated July 1967, by which point Romita had been handling the title solo for roughly a year after Steve Ditko's mid-1966 departure.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin (Amazing Spider-Man #50, cover-dated July 1967), created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Romita Sr.
The issue tells the 'Spider-Man No More!' story, in which Peter Parker, worn down by J. Jonah Jameson's media campaign and concern for Aunt May's health, throws his costume in a trash can and quits being Spider-Man.
Romita Sr. designed Kingpin's distinctive look — bald, massively built, white suit, ornate cane — entirely from his own initiative, modeling the build on actors Sydney Greenstreet and Robert Middleton; Lee provided only the character's name.
Kingpin's first appearance is depicted from behind; he is introduced as an underworld figure who seizes control of New York's organized crime specifically because Spider-Man has vacated the field.
The story includes a retelling of Peter Parker's origin (the death of Uncle Ben) as part of the internal monologue that ultimately motivates his return as Spider-Man.
The issue was penciled by John Romita Sr., inked by Mike Esposito (credited as 'Mickey Demeo,' misspelled 'Dimeo' in the issue itself), lettered by Sam Rosen, and written by Stan Lee.
The story was reprinted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #8 (December 1971) and Marvel Tales #190 (August 1986).
The interior splash page of Peter walking away from his discarded costume directly inspired a scene in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 (2004), and the cover has been homaged extensively across Marvel's publishing history, including a 2023 Classic Homage Variant by John Romita Jr.