“With great power comes great responsibility.” How to forget that mythical phrase that closes the emblematic Amazing Fantasy number fifteen. Or the hopeful moral of Captain America that can be applied to all aspects of life: “There is nothing wrong with being afraid, as long as you don’t give up.”
The custom of going to the kiosk with a few cents to get the new comic of your favorite superhero has been lost. Now children prefer to go to the movies and find out in a couple of hours if the villain will get away with it. However, the comics market has not stopped growing thanks to those fans, already adults, who are still collecting their immortal demigods.
This obsession has increased so much that for certain copies they come to pay authentic barbarities. Keep an eye out, because if you’re lucky enough to find a special edition among junk or piled up boxes, you’ll have discovered a treasure of thousands of dollars.
10. X-Men number one: $80,500
It was published in September 1963 and included five mutants considered the founding five: Beast, Angel, Cyclops, Iceman and Wonder Woman. And although there are other characters like Spiderman that may be better valued, the series has become so iconic that it becomes more expensive over time.
Stan Lee also includes here some appearances by Professor X and Magneto, highlighting an important intervention by Charles Xavier that would explain the nickname of ‘X-Men’: “They have an extra power, one that normal humans do not have. This is why I I call my students X-Men, because of the Ex-tra power.”
9. The Amazing Spider-Man number one: $110,000
With this copy, Spider-Man had the pleasure of meeting the Fantastic Four superhero team for the first time, as well as the famous supervillain Chameleon, capable of imitating any human form.
It was in March 1963 that Stan Lee teamed up with the artistic ability of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby to bring out a long-awaited volume to the public, since after Amazing Fantasy #15, Spiderman created enough buzz to form his own series.
8. Red Raven Comics number one: $124,000
The first edition, published in August 1940, was the only one under this title. From the second, with a release date in the fall of 1940, it is replaced by The Human Torch. It was not until May 1968 that the Red Raven character appeared again as a villain in X-Men.
Comic book store owner and eager collector Chuck Rozanski tried to sell his copy for $500,000, so his search was filmed in a documentary for San Diego Comic-Con 2011.
7. Captain America Comics number three: $126,000
This piece is notable for being Stan Lee’s first book working for Marvel. It was published in May 1941 and tells of the Red Skull’s revenge against Captain America and Bucky Barnes, his partner and his current new Captain America.
Lee also contributed to the writing of Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge, where the traditional shield he uses as a weapon is first discussed and returns to him when he throws it.
6. Fantastic Four number one: $166,000
The Fantastic Four team came about as a response to DC Comics’ Justice League in November 1961. The entire group received their powers after being exposed to cosmic rays during a science mission in space.
Following the appearance of The Human Torch, Invisible Girl, The Thing, and Mr. Fantastic, Marvel solidified itself as a major rival to DC thanks to the ingenuity of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby during the Beach Age of comics.
5. Marvel Mystery Comics #9: $198,000
Its very high price is due to the story that its pages hide: the first battle ever told between two superheroes. An epic fight in which Namor the Submarine Man and The Human Torch fight each other to the death with an expectant ending that continues in the next edition.
The artist who made this possible was Bill Everett, an industry Golden Age legend who gave birth to Daredevil and Namor.
4. The Incredible Hulk number one: $228,000
Who could forget the scientific genius Bruce Banner, the alter ego of the Hulk, who after a heroic act to save a child who entered a testing area, was caught in the explosion of a gamma ray bomb. This is how the ?little? green monster changes personality and physical appearance when he gets stressed or angry.
The funny thing is that until the second volume Hulk was not really green, since in May 1962 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby chose a neutral color like gray so as not to suggest any particular ethnic group.
3. Amazing Fantasy number fifteen: $405,000
Those prior to this were an anthology of comics published by Marvel in 1961 under the title Amazing Adult Fantasy. However, the latter was released in August 1962, under the name Amazing Fantasy. Since its new author, Stan Lee, and cartoonists Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby -the cover- wanted to make a difference.
At that time Spiderman was a superhero different from the others. He was simply a young man with neurosis and the typical problems of a teenager his age, thus seeking greater empathy between the readers and the main character.
2. Captain America number one: $629,000
The controversial cover of this issue speaks for itself. When Marvel was still called Timely Comics, coinciding with World War II and in the midst of Nazi Germany, on March 1, 1941, the image of Captain America hitting Adolf Hitler himself in the face was released.
This model character for all Americans was created by legendary artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to protect their country with his partner Bucky Barnes from Nazi spies and assassins.
Anyone who has realized that he has this magnificent comic among his relics should not sell it yet, because its value has been constantly rising.
1. Marvel Comics number one: $859,000
Marvel’s predecessor -Timely Comics- brought to light in October 1939 an edition that collected the first appearances of some superheroes such as The Human Torch (slightly different from his appearance in the Fantastic Four team), the Submarine Man of the Atlantis and Ka-Zar the Great.
There was a first print run of 80,000 copies that sold out right away, but with the next print run of 800,000 more, exactly the same thing happened. The funny thing is that at that time one of these comics was only ten cents, I mean, 8,500,000 times less for what could be sold now.
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