Amazing Fantasy (1962)

Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), cover by Jack Kirby with inks by Steve Ditko Spider-Man swings across the page above a stylized city with a crook tucked under one arm, and the whole cover tilts with him. Ditko created the costume and drew the story, but Stan Lee rejected his cover and gave the job to Kirby, which is why the most valuable Spider-Man cover looks least like the rest of the run. The swing-and-carry pose is endlessly reusable: Pete Woods put Deadpool in it for Deadpool #11 in 1997, and Todd McFarlane gave the same treatment to Spawn #221. It is also a natural pick for anniversary and first-appearance tribute variants.