Monday, January 23, 2023

Hot Comics Revue 13--2023 and a Cooling Market for You and Me

Thoughts on the Market in General

I last did a, "Hot Comics Revue," in January of 2022 and noticed I hadn't even done one since 2020. I would say I need to do these more often, but the comic market has actually cooled a ton since its 2020 and 2021 highs. Golden Age and Silver Age books have retained their value or even gone-up, but a lot of more modern books peaked a bit ago and plummeted to a more reasonable price in a bit of a market correction. Whereas an unslabbed, "Ultimate Fallout," #4 was almost worth a grand 12-24 months ago, now they trend for a cool 400 smackers, to give a single example, but the market is a lot more frosty in general. I'm not mad about it as I don't have anything super valuable that I paid a bunch for. The most notable books I got for a reasonable price and they are notable thanks to having tons of sentimental value even if they lack monetary notability. 

I do feel bad for anyone who spent a ton of cash when a lot of comics were peaking and now have lost half their investment, however. It just shows that it is true what everyone on Reddit says in my comic-book groups when people post a question like, "I want to invest in comics, where do I start?" They say, "Don't invest in comics, you'll probably go broke." That said, I do still do okay buying and selling when it comes to my own little comic-book hobby as I work to find good deals, buy stuff cheap, and then generally flip what I get fast if I want to sell the comics versus keeping them for myself. With all of that said, let's do what this segment normally is known for and discuss a comic that is warming up, one that is red hot, and in a tweak to the format, some comics (plural) with steamy potential thanks to a unifying theme.

A Comic That is Warming Up

Even if the comic market has cooled, one thing that helps keep books popular would be films and television. For one of the countless examples of that just look at, "Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk," #1. A random tie-in comic that was dollar-bin fodder for years, it features the first appearance of a character named Jentorra. She was in the trailer for the new, "Ant-Man: Quantumania," flick, so now the book trends for $15-$20 or so. Yes, that isn't anything you're going to retire off of, but should Jentorra make an impact on filmgoers the book could get even more popular.

A Red Hot Comic

Jack White is a cool guy. He makes cool music, is a solid actor, and by all accounts is quite a pleasant and chill guy. He also did some snazzy variant artwork for the comic, "Batman/Superman: World's Finest," #11. It wasn't really hyped up much by DC and even though it was an open-order variant (not a ratio), stores just overlooked it. Now this $5 book is trending for $50-$60 because folks are going nuts for a comic that Jack White made the cover for. As a side note, some folks think the cover is ugly and others love it. I think it's cool and reminiscent of, "The Department of Truth."

Comics With Steamy Potential

I honestly think that a chunk of comics that relate to Marvel's big, "Secret Invasion," event back in 2008-2009 have a ton of potential with the upcoming show on Disney+. It's been established in other MCU projects that Skrulls are not villains, but there are some evil Skrulls out there, apparently, and that is a big part of this new show. You've got the, "Secret Invasion," series itself, with the first issue being quite popular. Then, there is, "New Avengers," #40 which had the first appearance of the Skrull Queen, Veranke, in Skrull form (there is a second printing with her first cover appearance as well). "Mighty Avengers," #13 also introduced the Secret Warriors, Marvel heroes who were relatively new or unknown by anyone besides Nick Fury so he was able to be sure Skrulls hadn't replaced them. It is a bit of crapshoot to say which, "Secret Invasion," comics will really take off even more than they already have, but that's part of the fun in speculating, right?

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