The broker said its value was further inflated by its storied association with Hollywood star Cage
The Con Air and National Treasure star purchased this particular copy in 1996 for $150,000 – a record at the time.
But the comic was stolen during a party at Cage’s home in 2000 and only found – inside a storage unit in California – in 2011.
“During that 11-year period, it skyrocketed in value. The thief made Nicolas Cage a lot of money by stealing it,” said Metropolis/ComicConnect CEO Stephen Fishler.
Cage was reunited with the copy and, six months later, sold it at auction for $2.2m.
Fishler compared the comic’s history to the brazen theft of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum in Paris in 1911, which transformed the then little-known work to the world’s most famous painting.
“The recovery of the painting made the Mona Lisa go from being just a great Da Vinci painting to a world icon – and that’s what Action No 1 is. An icon of American pop culture.”