With Black Widow’s first movie appearance having already occurred almost a decade ago (2010s Iron Man 2) and multiple appearances across the MCU, it’s safe to say that any instant bump in the value of Black Widow’s key books will likely be less pronounced than new hero debuts. Moving forward, the investment strategy for Black Widow’s keys lies in the long-term. Here we will examine the potential future market performance.

 

TALES OF SUSPENSE #52

The 1st Appearance of Black Widow was in Tales of Suspense #52 (1964), where her mission was to assassinate Tony Stark and Anton Vanko. Below, we observe the book’s sales data on the high, mid, and low grades. In the charts for this book: High is represented by CGC 7.0 and 7.5, which is the top 33.6% and 23.8% of the CGC census, respectively. Mid is CGC 6.0, which is 51.1% of census. Low is 4.0 and 4.5, which are 83.0% and 74.7%.

 

Since early 2012, the book has steadily increased in value; almost doubling in market value over that timeframe. Suddenly in late 2017, the growth accelerated across all the grades. Within the span of two years, the book has quadrupled in value on the high end and almost tripled on the low end. This can be attributed mainly to the steady release of Black Widow solo movie related news. The main takeaway from the sales data, however, is that the book experienced slow and steady growth in spite of the solo movie news.

 

TALES OF SUSPENSE #64

Another important key is Black Widow’s 1st Appearance in costume, which was in Tales of Suspense #64 (1965). In his issue, Black Widow teams up with Hawkeye to fight Iron Man. Below is the sales data for CGC 9.4/9.2 and 8.5 which represent 15.4%/22.7% and 48.2% of the top of the census, respectively.

Compared to Tales of Suspense #52, sales for this book have mostly been flat. Interestingly, the book in CGC 8.5 saw a sudden increase in value late 2017 due to movie news. It’s concerning that this market behavior didn’t occur in the higher grades of 9.4/9.2. This spike coupled with flat growth before likely points to a weak price level and high volatility ahead. Caution is advised here.

 

AMAZING ADVENTURES (VOL. 2) #1

The 1st solo Black Widow adventure was in the 1970 issue of Amazing Adventures Vol 2 #1. Below is sales data for the book graded in CGC 9.6, which is the top 23.0% of the census.

The value of this book experienced a higher growth rate than Tales of Suspense #64; about double. While movie news didn’t accelerate the value increase, the volume of sales did increase. This seems to reveal a market stability in the book’s value.

 

THE OTHER BLACK WIDOW

From leaks and set photos of the Black Widow solo movie, it appears that a possible featured character is Yelena Belova. In the comics, she also used the name Black Widow. Her 1st appearance was in Inhumans Vol 2 #5 (1999). This book could be worth collecting to complete a Black Widow movie collection; but even if the character Yelena Belova is confirmed to be in the movie, as a supporting character it’s difficult to determine if it’ll jump in value enough to be profitable.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE

  • Tales of Suspense #52 – STRONG BUY
  • Tales of Suspense #64 – WEAK HOLD. REDUCE if it jumps in value in the next year, as it’s unlikely to retain value in the long term.
  • Amazing Adventures (Vol. 2) #1 – MODERATE BUY

 

 

“Damn you, Henry McCoy, for being so incredibly boring that I didn't listen to you talk about time travel.” - Natalia Romanova