The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can have drastic effects on character first appearance books. Hype for a character can drive a book to pop prior to a movie even being released (See the prices of a First Appearance of Ronin this week after the End Game trailer). If you had a first appearance book for an amazing MCU character, like Killmonger or Captain Marvel, your comic value could have doubled, then doubled, then doubled again. Characters can definitely drive comic prices, but what do you do when Marvel blows it with an awesome character who had gobs of potential? Today we will see how this scenario worked for the character Justin Hammer.
It is important to choose books that offer multiple reasons a collector would want it. Iron Man #120 is a great example of a book that sneaks under the radar for multiple reasons. This book has a multi-faceted set of desirable qualities that should make it enticing to collectors on many subtle levels. Obvious reason number one, it has the first appearance of a major character in Justin Hammer. Justin Hammer was portrayed by the remarkably talented Sam Rockwell and could have been a great background villain for Marvel to keep around and develop in the MCU. Unfortunately for us, he was featured in Iron Man 2, and it appears that Disney and Marvel are trying to make you forget that movie, and Thor: The Dark World, ever existed by pretending they never happened. The comic also has other redeeming qualities that should make it collectible...like the fact that Iron Man is popular, although his titles tend to be a lower value than counterparts of similar ilk. It also features Namor: The Sub-Mariner on the cover. Namor is popular with collectors and should be on a speculators notepad of topics to keep an eye on. Rounding off these great qualities, although not extremely rare on the census, with 55 9.8 graded copies, it is a bronze age first appearance book with a fairly low census.
Pricing data shows positive momentum for this book for all grades above 9.0, with the largest increase coming with a 380% jump at 9.2 grades. 9.8 grades have seen a comfortable 44% increase. Sales data has show that this book can swing. Copies have sold near the $200 mark and under the $100 mark. The larger the swing, the larger the potential gain in value, especially if you can capture both ends of the swing to buy low and sell high.
For all we know, Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer character is quietly sitting in a MCU prison somewhere. Perhaps he is currently plotting an escape to make one final move to destroy Tony Stark. Maybe he has been using his genius to develop new and dangerous technologies for other baddies who want to get the jump on MCU heroes. With Captain Marvel doing a time-warp and bringing back Ronan and other characters that may not exist or be prominent to any future timeline there is always a potential future in the MCU for Justin Hammer, which may mean greater gains for Iron Man #120.
Are there other characters with huge potential that you feel Marvel has wasted? What is your favorite waste of a character (Mandarin is mine). Drop your comments and join the conversation!
