{"id":395478,"date":"2025-11-21T21:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/395478\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T21:29:16","slug":"superman-1-comic-nets-record-9-million-boding-well-for-wbd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/395478\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Superman’ #1 Comic Nets Record $9 Million, Boding Well For WBD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNo matter who ends up owning Warner Bros Discovery, Superman<\/a> will remain a jewel in the crown of the 102-year-old studio. With bids for the company <\/a>now in from Paramount<\/a>, Comcast<\/a> and Netflix<\/a>, another auction of sorts in Texas that put a winning price tag on Man from Krypton IP could prove a sign of what\u2019s to come for WBD<\/a> shareholders.<\/p>\n

\n\tA near-pristine copy of Superman #1 from 1939 sold for $9.12 million this week, an all-time record price for a comic book, besting last year\u2019s mark when a pristine Action Comics #1 went for $6 million. And on Friday, a Neil Adam-illustrated Superman cover from 1971 sold for $1.2 million, a record for the comic artist, auction house Heritage Auctions told Deadline.<\/p>\n

\n\tA series of other Superman items, like classic Action Comics from the 1930s and other years, are on the block this weekend too, with big bids anticipated.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tTo put some perspective on this amid the tens of billions being offered for WBD assets, Superman #1 originally sold for a dime back when FDR was in the White House. Also, spotlighting the cultural significance of the character and the comic, another copy of the 64-page Superman #1 has been in the Library of Congress for several years.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) holds a copy of Superman #1 for his 2023 swearing-in.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKent Nishimura \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the bottom line, Warner Bros has fought long, hard and successfully<\/a> over the decades against various copyright lawsuits to hold on to Superman and its profits through various iterations \u2014 both onscreen, at the newsstands and in the C-suites. As recently as April<\/a>, a move by the estate of Superman co-creator Joel Shuster to put a halt on international release of the James Gunn<\/a>-directed Superman movie was shut down by the courts, to WB\u2019s relief.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, the tale of the Superman #1 sale Thursday is itself a tale almost out of a superhero story.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe self-declared \u201c64-pages of action\u201d were discovered last Christmas by three middle-aged brothers amidst a pile of Action Comics and other Great Depression-era comics in their deceased mother\u2019s San Francisco\u00a0attic. If that part of the origin story wasn\u2019t Clark Kent-meets-Norman Rockwell enough for you, the comic was in such good shape it received a nearly unprecedented 9.0 rating from the Certified Guaranty Company.<\/p>\n

\n\tGoing on for another day, Heritage Auctions\u2019 sale of a swath of iconic comics includes \u201cwell-kept\u201d editions of Action Comics #9, #12, #15, #18 and #21 from the brothers\u2019 attic collection.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for who paid that $9.12 million this week, Heritage told Deadline today that it \u201ccan\u2019t share information about the buyer unless they go public.\u201d However, Heritage VP Lon Allen said Thursday that \u201cSuperman #1 is a milestone in pop culture history, and this copy is not only in unprecedented condition, but it has a movie-worthy story behind it.\u201d The exec went on to say: \u201cI was glad to see the price reflect that and am honored Heritage was entrusted with this iconic book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile $9.12 million is probably just a tad more than the craft services and transportation budget for Gunn\u2019s $225 million Superman flick that grossed more than $616 million at the global box office this year, it is the anti-Kryptonite to anyone looking to cash in on WBD\u2019s DC properties down the line.<\/p>\n

\n\tCurrent WBD CEO David Zaslav<\/a> has said that Gunn has another \u201cSuper-family\u201d script on the go. Plus Batman 2 is happening, Lanterns<\/a> is coming to HBO Max from the Gunn and Peter Safran-led DC Studios<\/a> among others, as is the Milly Alcock<\/a>-fronted movie Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow<\/a>. Regardless of who among Netflix, Comcast or Paramount make it the next stage of acquiring WBD, Superman and other DC heroes and villains are among the hardest-punching parts of the conglomerate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA strong DC that captures audiences attention is a winning lottery ticket for anyone interested in Warner Bros,\u201d an industry insider close to the WBD sale says. He added: \u201cThere\u2019s near limitless potential if handled right. \u2014 whether its still Gunn or not. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tLike, \u201cfaster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look up in the sky! It\u2019s a bird! It\u2019s a plane!\u201d simple.<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving said that, a self-portrait painting by Frida Kahlo, who was played by Salma Hayek in the 2002 Julie Taymor-direct biopic, just sold today for $54 million, the most ever paid for a work by a female artist. So, how much could Wonder Woman<\/a> #1 go for? Asking for a bidder\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter who ends up owning Warner Bros Discovery, Superman will remain a jewel in the crown of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":395479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[18422,47781,954,171,956,151292,119563,53,16629,4659,15329,168938,9180,67,132,68,66550,170865],"class_list":{"0":"post-395478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-comcast","9":"tag-david-zaslav","10":"tag-dc-studios","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-james-gunn","13":"tag-lanterns","14":"tag-milly-alcock","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-nbcuniversal","17":"tag-netflix","18":"tag-paramount","19":"tag-supergirl-woman-of-tomorrow","20":"tag-superman","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-wbd","25":"tag-wonder-woman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115589820176064963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}