First appearances, on the record
| Character | Issue | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Archie Andrews | Pep Comics #22 | 1941 |
| Veronica Lodge | Pep Comics #26 | 1942 |
| Betty Cooper | Pep Comics #22 | 1941 |
| Jughead Jones | Pep Comics #22 | 1941 |
| Peter Parker | Amazing Fantasy #15 | 1962 |
| Reggie Mantle | Jackpot Comics #5 | 1942 |
| Spider-Man | Amazing Fantasy #15 | 1962 |
| Bruce Wayne | Detective Comics #27 | 1939 |
| Batman | Detective Comics #27 | 1939 |
| Logan | The Incredible Hulk #180 | 1974 |
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From the files
Variant Inflation
A third of all comics on record are variants. But distribution variants fell from 94% of them in the 1980s to 2% in the 2020s while alternate covers went from zero to 41%. Two different practices, one word, and what it means for buying.
Reprint Kings
1,162,652 reprint links across 210,861 original issues. Four consecutive 1961 Fantastic Four issues sit in the top twelve, only 8,661 comics have been reprinted more than twenty times, and the most expensive comics are the cheapest to read.
The Death Ledger
4,450 recorded deaths across 2,870 characters. Two thirds come back, at a median of two years, and the record cannot find one major character dead more than fifteen years. Plus what the decade curve does and does not prove.
One in Three First Appearances Isn't a Story
Of 36,268 first appearances on record, around 11,000 are covers, house ads, profile pages, previews or reprints rather than stories. The full census, what each category is, and why the record labels them instead of hiding them.