Spider-Man Comic Appearances for February 29, 2012

Wow!  We are variant free for the second week in a row.  I think Marvel has kicked the variant disease and wants to put out meaningful books once again.  And I truly appreciate it because now we can afford to buy their comics each week.

Not to mention, there were only 4 new comic books this week with a Spider-Man appearance.  That keeps things light on the wallet too.

There is an end to this happiness though.  I'm sure you've all seen the promos for the upcoming Avengers vs X-Men mini-series.  There are plans for a boat-load of comics and variants for that one to be sure.  Not the least of which are two retailer variant covers that local comic shops can opt to get personalized for heir store if they purchase the minimums required.  The jury is still out on how many will be taking them up on that one.

From a store participation standpoint, the personalized retailer variants have severely decreased in popularity since Amazing Spider-Man #666 kicked off the trend for Marvel -- it wasn't the first company to use the gimmick, but it was wildly popular with roughly 140 stores participating.  I would guess the AvX mini-series has the potential to persuade a few dozen stores to get involved, but not the 140 or so that bought into Spidey #666.

Recent reports have over a 1,000 local comic shops signed up to participate in the AvX preview parties that are set to occur the night before the book is released.  And I'm guessing that will be enough for most stores.  Buying 500 of a variant cover in addition will just be too costly.

All of that said, no matter how many stores get their own variant, rest assured that SPIDERMANFAN.com will assemble a set because of an appearance by our favorite webhead.

Now on to this week's books:

• Amazing Spider-Man #680
• Marvel Previews #103
• Moon Knight #10
• New Avengers #22

Have a great week boxdiving at your local comic shop!