It is important to remember that writers often use classic and acclaimed stories as jumping-off points, making them solid investments for comic and/or movie-based speculation.  Over the course of this article series, I will try to highlight some of my favorite Marvel comics, explain why they resonated with me, and hopefully get you to check one or two of them out along the way.

There are a lot of different ways to approach comic book investing and speculation.  Some people tend to focus on covers, others on print runs, and others still on first appearances.  With so many different ways to engage with the hobby and the boundless creativity that the medium affords, trying to predict which characters will make it big, which covers will catch people's eyes, and which low print books could become collector's items down the line can be incredibly difficult.  Difficult, but not impossible.  One variable that can really help illuminate things is the quality of the storytelling.

For all of my talk about considering the wider entertainment industry or minimizing risk, a lot of my success with buying and selling comics has just come from reading a lot of comics on Marvel Unlimited and buying the ones with great stories.

Joe Kelly's Rhino

One of the best things about the longevity of American comic books is that it gives many writers lots of opportunities to explore new and interesting dimensions of different characters.  That paradigm is acutely on display in Amazing Spiderman Vol. 1 #617 and #625, as Joe Kelly treats readers to the greatest story ever told about the Rhino.

Where most writers have used the Rhino as a brutish muscle for hire, Kelly instead depicts a very three-dimensional character who has finally found love and no longer wishes to be a source of evil in the world.  This nuanced rendering adds incredible depth to the story and makes what was already a devastating conclusion all the more brutal and emotionally impactful.

This story shows the Rhino in a whole new light and makes it impossible to ever look at him the same way again.

Black Widow Vol. 8

I cannot claim to have read every appearance of Black Widow, but I can say with absolute certainty that no Black Widow story has ever knocked me on my ass more than this one.  Over the course of this run, Kelly Thompson tells an absolutely brutal story that adds a level of depth and emotion rarely seen in comic books.

In this effort, she is aided by Elena Casagrande, whose fluid drawings and incredible understanding of visual dynamics tell the story in a way I did not even know comics were capable of.

This series won an Eisner and it is very easy to see why, as every panel leaps off the page and helps to render one of the most beautiful and intense Marvel comics in recent memory.

Avengers Arena

What happens when you give an excellent character writer a bunch of D-list superheroes and a self-contained premise?  Well, you get one of the best Avengers titles of all time.

Avengers Arena is basically what happens when you combine Squid Game with Marvel, as a group of 16 young heroes are forced to fight to the death on a desert island for the sick amusement of the villain Arcade.  Over the course of 18 issues, Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker tell a story filled to the brim with action, betrayal, and deeply felt emotions that constantly force the reader to reexamine who these characters are and who they were thought to be.

Ed Brubaker's Captain America

You will be hardpressed to find many extended runs more widely celebrated than Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America.  Brubaker has a tremendous grasp on who his characters are and uses that understanding to develop larger ideas about who Captain America is, what the mantle means to the country, and how it affects people differently.

This run is most well known for the reintroduction of Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier and the death of Captain America, but it is also bursting with smaller character moments.  The end result feels like both a celebration of the grand history that all the characters share and a unique story completely able to stand on its own.

Spider-Man is my favorite character in all of fiction, but this may be my favorite comic book run.

Tom Taylor's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

One of the issues that a lot of Spider-Man comics face is justifying their own existence.  For every emotionally fraught story like Spider-Man: Blue, there are pointless tales like Non-Stop Spider-Man that add next to nothing to the overall tapestry of the character.  Such, however, is not the case with Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, written by Tom Taylor.  Taylor really leans into the title premise and tells a series of decidedly lower-stakes, self-contained stories about Peter Parker and the community he lives in.  The entire run feels evocative of The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, as it strives to show readers that it was not the spider that makes Spider-Man great: it is Peter Parker.

Conclusion

That's all for this week, folks!  Check back soon for the next article in the series, where I dive into Spidey, Elsa Bloodstone, and Secret Wars!  So, until next time, face front, True Believers!

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*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.