Let’s face it, Spider-man has always been a popular brand, but as 2018 gives way to 2019 everything is shaping up wonderfully regarding the Marvel Spider-man universe.
There will be at least two major Spidey-related movies released in the coming months. ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ premieres in theatres this Friday, December 14 and ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ is slated for a July 5 wide-screen premiere. The media attention surrounding these latest Spider-projects is already generating positive feedback and huge amounts of attention.
This attention is spilling-over into Spider-man and related comics.
While the Spider-verse books are already sought out by collectors and traders, with sales data reflecting that the ‘Into the Spider-verse’ movie project is not at all hurting sales, there was another event that received wide-spread media exposure in Brazil.
I’m talking about the exclusive premiere of the Tom Holland led MCU live-action sequel to the wall crawler’s rebooted franchise at the São Paulo comic con.
We now know, for certain, that Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (who will be played by Jake Gyllenhaal) will be replacing Michael Keaton’s Vulture as the big bad this time around.
Msyterio’s first appearance, ASM #13 has been gaining in recent months. This film should push its returns even higher.
The Amazing Spider-Man #13 (June 1964) – First appearance of Mysterio
How much higher can prices go? A 9.6 certified grade of this comic has reached the $50, 000. 00 mark. Well ASM #2 (the first Vulture) hit a $145, 000.00 price range after the release of the first MCU Spider-man film 'Homecoming'. So the answer is: plenty higher, if those patterns are repeated.
Moreover, the Brazilian comic con press conference attended by the cast and premiering the 'Far from Home' trailer also led to some interesting news regarding other villains in the film.
The hype that surrounded a water-canon scene being filmed in Venice, Italy a few months ago led to the spike of prices for Amazing Spider-Man #212 (see here), which is the first appearance of Hydro-man, is showing positive returns in all grades. The speculation later led to rumors that not Hydro-man but Molten Man would appear in the film (first appearance ASM #28).
Now we know that things are not so simple. The Hydro-man appearance was referred to in Brazil as occurring when Spidey and Mysterio (who apparently will be working for S.H.I.E.L.D) will team up against either Hydro-man, or Hydro-man and Molten Man working together, or –possibly--the elementals composed of a quartet of Hydro-man, Molten Man, Sandman (first appearance Amazing Spider-man #4) and Shocker (first appearance AMS #46)?
Some think that the latter will not happen as Marvel would have to licence the above villains from SONY, while they already possess the rights to the Elementals. But since when has Marvel or Disney been short of money?
In any case, speculators are hedging their bets and the first appearance of the Elementals has seen some strong movement as of late. Premiering originally in Super-natural Thrillers #8, the Elementals, created by Tony Isabella and Val Mayerik were extra-dimensional beings who had mastered the elements and were banished from Earth during ancient times. Their outfit included: Hellfire, Hydron, Magnum and Zephyr. Not surprisingly, sales on
Supernatural Thrillers #8 (August 1974) spiked on Ebay this weekend.
This book is a fairly easy to find comic with only 37 copies listed on the CGC census. Up until recently, sales for 9.8 certified copies were going for under $200.00. Last weekend, raw copies in 7.5-8.0 condition were selling for upwards of $30.00.
So, will ‘Far From Home’ be a success? Could all these villains featuring in the same film serve to work against the flow of the plot and hurt this movie, as happened before with Sam Rami’s Spider-man 3? While it’s too early to say, by this point Marvel Studios have gained enough trust and confidence from their fans to be given the benefit of the doubt. That can only mean that these comics will continue to surge in prices until at least the release date of the next Spidey outing if not longer.
