The Hot Comics Revue: Speculation Potion Number Nine

I hope anyone old or weird enough to get the vintage music joke in my headline enjoyed it. We're back with my occasional segment looking at comics that are gaining or have obtained a degree of popularity that they're, "Hot," and cost a degree more than cover-price. I have to, as always, give thanks to the crew at Comics Heating Up for helping me come up with this segment. They are the best website around for speculation on upcoming comic releases as well as offering news and tidbits on books that are out and may gain interest. Now then, let's talk about a comic that's warming-up, some red-hot stuff, and books featuring a character with steamy potential.

A Comic That Is Warming Up

Here's a title I never even heard of from an imprint I barely recognized. The book is, "Ball and Chain," and it is from Homage Studios. Homage studios was an imprint of sorts from Wildstorm when it was a part of Image and then became owned by DC when Jim Lee took Wildstorm to it. In other words, it was an imprint of an imprint at one point. As for, "Ball and Chain," it was a forgotten dollar bin book about a husband and wife who are having marital issues but then gain superpowers that only work when they are near each other. It suddenly is demanding $30-40 for the first issue, however, and $80-or-so for the whole four issue fun because it was announced how it was optioned with some big-name talent attached. Dwayne, "The Rock," Johnson and Emily Blunt are set to play the couple, and assuming the movie does get made (as opposed to struggling in development Hell forever), this book could become even more popular.

Some Red-Hot Titles

Ever since BOOM! Studios signed a deal with Netflix that allows almost any of their books (that weren't already optioned somewhere else) to be developed into movies and shows, many of their titles have gotten crazy-hot. "Black Badge," "Something is Killing the Children," and others all easily fetch $25 or more depending on the printing or variant, with some snatching-up over $100 such as the Peach Momoko cover for, "Red Mother." BOOM! Studios puts out some great reads, so I personally look forward to some hopefully snazzy adaptations.

Comics With Steamy Potential

The aforementioned Comics Heating Up and other sites have been sharing chatter about how it looks more and more likely that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will have a, "Nova," solo flick shortly. Rumors have abounded for years, with the debut of the Richard Rider version of the character--in solid condition--often demanding anywhere from $40-$100. A newer iteration of the character named Sam Alexander popped-up some years ago in, "Marvel Point One," #! (not to be confused with, "Marvel NOW! Point One," #1 as confusing as that sounds), and that book is quite reasonably priced in a range of $10-$20 for a near-mint copy. Whether we would see one or both of these versions of, "Nova,' remains to be seen, but each book or the one with the character who ends-up featured could appreciate quickly should an official announcement be made in the near future.