The Prowler - Amazing Spider-Man #78With all of the attention on Miles Morales’ key comic, what is going on with those of his antagonist and uncle Aaron Davis, also known as the Prowler? Better yet, let’s expand further back to include the original Prowler, Hobie Brown.

 

 

The Prowler - Amazing Spider-Man #78AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #78 (1969)

The 1st appearance of the Prowler/Hobie Brown was in Amazing Spider-Man #78. In the issue, a recently unemployed Hobie comes up with an intricate plan to become a supervillain and rob the Daily Bugle, but then later return with the money as Hobie to take credit as a hero. Unfortunately for him, that’s also where Peter Parker works.

For the greater part of the past decade, the market for Amazing Spider-Man #78 has been on a very slow, but upward growth in value. The one and only major movement in its market was a spike in early 2019. See the chart below; showing sales for top 17.0-41.7% of the CGC census (includes CGC 9.4/9.2/9.0).

In that time, sales prices shot up as high as 300% on the higher end grades. In a perfect example of why to avoid spikes, sales prices of Amazing Spider-Man #78 quickly turned and have been falling back down towards the 2018 price levels. In the next few months, it would be a good idea to keep a close eye on whether support will be found there.

 

 

The Prowler - The Amazing Spider-Man #79AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #79 (1969) & AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #93 (1971)

After the Prowler’s 1st appearance book, the next two most popular Prowler-focused books in the market are Amazing Spider-Man #79 and #93. ASM #79 continues the fight between Spider-Man and the Prowler; in ASM #93, the Prowler seeks justice from Spider-Man for possibly involving him in the death of Captain George Stacy.

The Prowler - The Amazing Spider-Man #93Compared with the above book, sales for both ASM #79 and #93 are much lower in value and volume at comparable grades. They did however also participate in the same early 2019 spike, and they too were not safe from the subsequent decline. In one example, CGC 9.6 copies of ASM #93 sold at the $600 level throughout 2018, until one suddenly went for $1,900 in Jan 2019. Since that all-time high, the market dried up and only one CGC 9.6 sold in the rest of the year, $700 in Nov 2019. From here, the market outlook for these two books is worse than the above ASM #78.

 

 

The Prowler - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #1 (VOL. 2, 2011)

Although Aaron Davis wasn’t the first, second, or even the third “Prowler,” he has managed to become one of the most popular ones; due in part to the connection of being the uncle of Miles Morales. This Aaron Davis version of Prowler was part of the reboot that was the Ultimate Universe and made his 1st appearance in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1. Most recently, Aaron Davis/Prowler appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).

Despite containing the first appearance of Aaron Davis, graded sales of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 are to ASM #79 and #93, what they are to ASM #78... not good. It too participated in the early 2019 spike but has emerged the worst of the bunch. A CGC 9.8 copy sold in July for $199.99, but don’t let that price tag fool you; it was the only 9.8 sale since the spike, buyers have all but disappeared. Just look at CGC 9.6, also only one copy sold since the spike; going for $34.99 in the same month near all-time lows.

 

 

“Just for the sake of my own conscience – I’ve got to bring Spider-Man to JUSTICE!” – Prowler/Hobie Brown

 

 

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