Time to stock up on those silver age X-Men and Fantastic Four keys because the mutants and the first family could be on their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Not that it’s been a secret, but for the past month, rumors have been swirling that Disney - in its epic quest to own everything on the planet - has been in talks to buy out a huge portion of Twentieth Century Fox, who own the film and television rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. If the deal happens, that would mean that Disney, who already owns Marvel, will take control of the rights to both the X-Men and the FF.

Whether or not this is a good or bad thing is a matter of opinion. But what’s fact is that the closer we get to a deal happening, the more popular the key issues will become.

It’d be great if we could all afford the first issues of either series; most of us would chop off a leg or hand over an internal organ for Fantastic Four #1. For this article, I’m going to focus on a couple of the more affordable second-best options, relatively speaking. Such as…

FANTASTIC FOUR #48

Fox has not done the best job of handling Marvel’s first family. After three terrible movies, most fans would likely be eager for Disney/Marvel Studios to try their hands at bringing the FF to the silver screen. At this point, the movies can’t get much worse.

Where most of the excitement in the Disney/Fox deal is with one key character: Galactus. Since he made his debut in the pages of the FF and he debuted on film in the second FF movie, the rights to Galactus belong with Fox. However, if Disney buys Fox, then Galactus could be featured in the MCU, which has fans buzzing.

Over the past six months, virtually all grades of FF #48 have been popular sellers. By no means is this an inexpensive comic, but you can get a mid-grade copy in the $300-$400 range. If a deal for Fox happens, then this will be one of the first comics to see a price jump because of it.

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1

Compared to X-Men #1, this is a bargain. Where a mid-grade 5.0 X-Men #1 averages $3,800, a 5.0 Giant-Size #1 is averaging closer to $450. And to tell the truth, GSX #1 is a much better comic with better characters.

If Fox sells out to Disney and if the X-Men join the MCU, then you can be guaranteed that this will be the team you’ll see. After the original team of Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Beast, and Iceman floundered in sales (many at the time thought they were a rip-off of the FF), Len Wein, Gil Kane, and Dave Cockrum gave us a new vision of the band of mutants that spotlighted the hottest new character on the market, Wolverine. Not only do you get the second full appearance of Logan, but this issue features the first appearances of Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. It’s a sound investment to make.