The Hickman X-Men era is making serious waves in the comic community, and there's one variant that you will want to keep your eyes on.
With everything outside of a ticker-tape parade, Marvel celebrated Jonathan Hickman taking charge of the X-Men franchise. Tasked with reinventing Marvel’s 1990s cash cow, he has completely revamped the series and made House of X and Powers of X the two hottest series on the market.
Before I get into the collecting side of things and hammer you with sales data, let me speak to you as a fan - more specifically, as a lifelong X-Men fan. I came aboard right in time for the X-franchise to reach its astronomical heights in the 1980s and 1990s. There were nearly too many titles to keep track of, but I loved them all. The 2000s offered its share of quality X-runs, like Rick Remender’s stint on Uncanny X-Force and Ed Brubaker’s Messiah Complex, and House of M wasn’t without its fun. Then the well went dry (and conspiracy theories abound as to why, but that’s not for today), and the past decade has left many an X-fan reminiscing about the glory days. Enter: Hickman’s run.
While the intertwining stories set in the present, future, and distant future are getting a tad convoluted, House of X and Powers of X are at least giving us something to look forward to reading. Will it be revered as the greatest of X-Men story arcs? Who knows, but it’s worth reading and gives hope that the X-Men are still worthy of being Marvel’s top team. Whether you call yourself a fan, a collector, an investor - or like me, all three - I encourage you to join Hickman’s ride and see where he takes us.
All that being said, the numerous variant covers, like most variants, aren’t going to hold their values long term. Between the two series debuts, Powers of X has the best chance since it featured numerous first appearances, namely Rasputin IV. She seems poised for bigger things, especially since she was adorned on multiple variant covers for Powers of X #1. But one issue has absolutely lit up the market: the Comic Mint’s Gerald Parel variant.
This issue was released online by a handful of retailers for around $30 each. It also was limited to 500 copies with no virgin or sketch covers. EBay sellers quickly put the comic on the site with pre-sales for up to $90, which seemed a bit high since you could easily go to one of the retailers’ sites and get it for $30. Since its release in late-July, this comic has been climbing at an impressive rate. Back on August 15, raw, ungraded copies were selling for $90 and $100. Ten days later, some were in the $150 range. One CBCS-graded 9.8 sold for a whopping $202.50. Things have calmed down a bit since then, but the raw copies are still auctioning for about $130 or more.
As we delve deeper into Hickman’s X-Men run, we play the waiting game to see how high this comic’s value will reach. Will Rasputin or any of the other characters from Powers of X become Marvel mainstays? Like we’ve seen with Knull’s appearances in Silver Surfer Black, when a character debuts in a different series, the first appearance gets a boost. Will Rasputin IV venture outside the confines of Powers of X? We shall see.
