I posted a not-very-good photo of this comic a while back, but here’s a much better one: the Lizard Collection’s copy of The Avengers #2, published in November 1963, with an awesome Jack Kirby cover featuring the retro-original all-golden Iron Man costume.

In the second issue of The Avengers, they’re tormented by the Space Phantom, a shape-shifting alien who assumes the appearance of the Incredible Hulk on this cover. The story of this one ends with the Hulk getting all pissed off at the other Avengers because he thinks they hate him, and quitting. Marvel pioneered the emo superhero.

This copy is in really good shape — obviously some creases on the lower right cover where a kid’s hand touched it a lot, but the inks are incredibly bright for the age of the book, thanks to being preserved in a sealed box in the Arizona climate for 40 years.

Click to embiggen

The back cover, as many of these early comic book covers were, is an advertisement for Famous Artists Schools: