The Amazing Spider-Man #688

Name: The Amazing Spider-Man #688
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 2012 · Marvel · 3.99 USD

📊 ~59,493 copies sold its debut month

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“No Turning Back Part 1: The Win Column”

About this Issue

Amazing Spider-Man #688 opens the four-part 'No Turning Back' arc, which represents a genuine turning point in how Marvel treated the Lizard as a character: rather than recycling the familiar Connors-transforms-Spidey-finds-a-cure cycle that had repeated for nearly 50 years, writer Dan Slott committed to a version of the Lizard whose human psyche is all but extinguished—a direct consequence of the devastating 2010 'Shed' storyline in which the creature killed Connors's own son Billy. The issue also arrives as part of Marvel's deliberate celebration of Spider-Man's 50th anniversary, and its publication the week before the Marc Webb film The Amazing Spider-Man hit U.S. theaters gave the Lizard story an unusual dual cultural footprint—comics and cinema spotlighting the same villain simultaneously. Mary Jane Watson's debut as the owner of a Manhattan nightclub ('MJ's') in this issue is a notable character development that gave the title a recurring supporting-cast location during Slott's run.

writer Dan Slott · artist Giuseppe Camuncoli · inker Klaus Janson · colorist Frank D'Armata · letterer Joe Caramagna · cover Giuseppe Camuncoli, Klaus Janson

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $6

CGC 9.8 · 98 in census $78

CGC 9.6 · 82 in census $36*

CGC 9.4 · 25 in census $29*

CGC 9.2 · 15 in census $27*

CGC 9.0 · 11 in census $26*

CGC 8.5 · 6 in census $21*

* 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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CGC 9.8 ▾ $175–$2,100 2 listings

CGC 9.8 · Variant $174.99 CGC 9.8 · Variant $2100

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CGC 9.4 $100 CGC 9.4 · Signed · Variant $2999.99

CGC 8 $925 1 listing CGC $66 1 listing CBCS 9.4 $125 1 listing Raw — NM+ $14.95 1 listing

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NM $5.64 NM $5.99 NM $6.31 NM $9.95 NM · Variant $9.99

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Raw / ungraded ▾ $2.75–$20 21 listings

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History

The issue was written by Dan Slott, whose decade-long tenure on the title was already shaping the modern Spider-Man mythos, with pencils and the main cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli, inks by Klaus Janson, colors by Frank D'Armata, and letters by VC's Joe Caramagna; editors Stephen Wacker and Ellie Pyle shepherded it through production under Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. Marvel solicited and released the issue on June 27, 2012—days before the film's U.S. debut on July 3—and the timing appears deliberate, with the publisher openly marketing the arc as a way to read the Lizard's comic-book story without waiting for the movie. A J. Scott Campbell variant cover (colored by Edgar Delgado) was offered simultaneously, alongside a later newsstand edition, giving the issue multiple collectible formats from the outset.

Trivia · 8 facts

Part 1 of the four-issue 'No Turning Back' arc (ASM #688–691), published June 27, 2012, by Marvel Comics under the vol. 2 (1999 series) numbering.
Written by Dan Slott; pencils and standard cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli; inks by Klaus Janson; colors by Frank D'Armata; letters by VC's Joe Caramagna; edited by Stephen Wacker and Ellie Pyle.
A J. Scott Campbell variant cover (with colors by Edgar Delgado) was released alongside the standard Camuncoli cover; a newsstand edition also exists.
Mary Jane Watson debuts as the proprietor of a New York nightclub called 'MJ's,' a status quo change established in the prior 'Ends of the Earth' arc and here shown on-page for the first time as a recurring location.
Morbius the Living Vampire appears prominently, attempting to synthesize a Lizard cure from the exhumed DNA of Billy Connors—Curt Connors's son, who had been killed by the Lizard in the earlier 'Shed' arc—using specially designed harpoons developed with Horizon Labs' Max Modell.
The arc deliberately subverts the long-running Lizard formula: Slott's Lizard retains full reptilian consciousness even after physical transformation back to human form, setting up a narrative in which Connors's personality is effectively suppressed inside the Lizard's mind.
Published as part of Marvel's internal celebration of Spider-Man's 50th anniversary, and timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man (July 3, 2012), which featured the Lizard as its primary villain.
The 'No Turning Back' arc (ASM #688–691) was collected in the trade paperback Spider-Man: Lizard – No Turning Back (ISBN 978-0-7851-6008-3), which also reprints Untold Tales of Spider-Man #9 (1996).