Analyzing the Hottest Silver Age Comics of the last 30 days is a case study of both what lies behind us and what lies ahead. Four of the five books below and over 40% of the entire top-100 list are comprised of Spider-Man and X-Men books. I'm not surprised.

The massive global popularity of Spider-Man: No Way Home is still driving comic prices up two months later. And the anticipation of mutants in future projects is sending many of the already expensive X-Men books to the stratosphere.

Sales data, searches, and average values speak volumes. And what it's telling us is comic collectors and speculators can not get enough Spider-Man and mutants. Here are the top five biggest movers over the last 30 days.

31. Amazing Spider-Man #5 (+65)

For several years, Amazing Spider-Man #5 ranked alongside books like ASM #7, ASM #8, and ASM #10 as the more "affordable" first 15 issues of the Amazing Spider-Man run. Not anymore, as the fair market value and average sale prices of ASM #5 have shot to the moon over the past year.

Why is this? There are no first appearances, no ancillary character or villain introductions. Yes, it's a first-five issue of ASM, but it lagged behind other top-ten issues for years. The best I can tell is that this is simply a case of arguably Marvel's most popular hero and Marvel's most popular villain together for the first time. It's the culmination of all the Silver Age goodness cooked up by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and friends and continues the Spidey-FF4 crossover from issue number one.

The 50th percentile of the CGC census for this book is about a grade 5.0. In the past 30 days, that grade sells for an average of $2,128 while the one-year average is just over $1,900. On February 6th, a 5.0 copy sold for $2,425, the second-highest recorded sale of the book in GoCollect's database.

There may also be some Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom MCU speculation here, and the book is sure to get another spike when and if that ever happens.

26. Amazing Spider-Man #39 (+46)

On the backs of an incredible Norman Osbourne/Green Goblin performance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, this issue that reveals Goblin's identity is on the rise. Add in the fact that this is also John Romita's first work on the Spider-Man comic, and we have a banger here that has shot up in price.

ASM #39 is also relatively affordable for an early Spider-Man Key. A copy of a CGC 7.0 will run you around $825 right now. That's a sharp increase from one year ago when the book was routinely selling for $550.

It will be interesting to see what this and other Green Goblin books do over the next 6-12 months. Obviously, he is a seminal Spider-Man character and will be a part of comic lore forever. But is he done in the MCU or with Disney properties? Does that cause these books to cool down over time? Regardless, this is a relatively easy book to own. There are more than 2,900 blue and yellow labels on the CGC census and a 6.0 copy can probably be yours for less than $500 if you hunt for it.

33. X-Men #10 (+45)

This book represents quite the coincidence unless there was some massive insider knowledge about the contents of the recent Dr. Stange and the Multiverse of Madness trailer that dropped during the Super Bowl. In that trailer, we see Strange and America Chavez falling through a dimension that looks an awful lot like the Savage Lands. Couple that with an unmistakable Professor X voice and the double whammy of mutants and the Savage Lands should send this book soaring even more.

In reality, this price spike must be driven somewhat by the new Marvel Ka-Zar series that debuted in early September 2021.

X-Men #10 also represents the first appearance of Ka-Zar, who has been rumored or tied to several Marvel projects for some time. Needless to say, there are a lot of things working in this book's favor. It's just a shame the value couldn't stay down until after the recent trailer.

All of these CGC grades of X-Men #10 have 30-day average values greater than their 12-month average: 8.0, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 4.5, 4.0, and 3.5. A 50th percentile copy in a CGC 6.0 is going to run you in the upper $500s based on data from last month. Even a 4.0 copy is now routinely selling for $400 or more.

56. X-Men #5 (+44)

We just have to be clear about one thing. All things mutants and X-Men are going to be soaring up in value in the near future. In the most recent Hottest Silver Age Comics list, 14 of the top 100 books were from the original X-Men run. It's just the way it's going to be with more and more clues hitting us all the time that mutants are MCU-bound.

X-Men #5 represents a sort of straw man for each of those popular books and just happens to be the one that saw one of the largest leaps over the last 30 days. Many have missed out on the mega key of X-Men #4 so they are pursuing Wanda, Quicksilver, and the Brotherhood's second appearance in this issue.

A 50th percentile grade CGC 5.5 in this book has seen about a 15% increase in price from this time a year ago. What sold in February 2021 for $525 just hit $635 at auction last week. I was surprised to learn that there are only about 1,200 blue and yellow labels of this book on the CGC census. The relative scarcity combined with the early X-Men factor surely will continue to drive the value up.

13. Silver Surfer #3 (+42)

Will we ever be able to truly quit speculating on Mephisto? Can Kevin Feige get this guy into the MCU already so we can just stop the foreplay and get down to business? Are we sure we don't see him in the shards of glass in the new Dr. Strange poster? This has been up and down more times than a yo-yo and now enters the top 15 most popular books of the past month with a huge jump based on....not much?

There was a noticeable and expected dip in SS#3 after we struck out in WandaVision.  Once people were seeing devils in windowpanes during Loki, the popularity spiked again. After that series, Kathryn Hahn (who will have her own Agatha Harkless show) shot down rumors that Mephisto is a part of that plot. In fact, the most recent solid Mephisto news we have was when he appeared in the Amazing Spider-Man #74 comic in September.

What this looks like to me is a case of smart investors buying the dip on an ultra-popular book. If you look at GoCollect's 30-day average value on a CGC 7.0 (~50th percentile), it is more than $200 less than the one-year average value of the book. Lower grades tell the same story. The 30-day price of $565 is more than $60 less than the one-year average of $629.

Which of these Hottest Silver Comics do you have in your collection?
Tell us in the comments!


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