So much of comic book collecting and investing nowadays is dominated by modern books.  With the endless variants, store exclusives, and first appearances of ultimately insignificant characters, many investors, especially those who prefer older books, often feel ignored and left out of the conversation.  Fortunately, we here at GoCollect are here to help!!  Every week, I am going to provide speculation recommendations for silver, bronze, and copper age books for a chosen topic.  This week, we are going to talk about the Golden Avenger, the one and only invincible armored Iron Man!!

Silver Age

Iron Man #1

Iron Man #1 is the very first solo book for the eponymous character.  It is a major milestone in the character's publication history and the cover is iconic.  It is rarely a bad idea to invest in frequently homaged covers, especially when they have a #1 on the cover.

Graded Analysis: The FMV of this book is up all time, in some cases by well over 100%, in every single grade above 4.5.  That is phenomenal growth that can reasonably be suspected to continue as the generations that grew up with the MCU's Iron Man as a cultural icon get older and start to collect themselves.  This book is certainly not cheap, but it is an absolutely dependable investment.

Bronze Age

Iron Man #54

This book features the first appearance of Heather Douglas, the daughter of Drax the Destroyer.  She is introduced in this book as Madame MacEvil, but eventually became known as Moondragon.  Moondragon is a really interesting character with a nuanced backstory and, in my opinion, a prime candidate for the next generation of MCU Guardians of the Galaxy.

Graded Analysis: Despite suffering fairly substantial losses recently, this book is still up all time in most grades.  Furthermore, Moondragon has been getting a higher profile in comics in recent years and is a prime candidate for an MCU adaptation (especially with the all-but-confirmed inclusion of her wife Phyla-Vell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3).  Viewed in that light, the recent FMV declines are actually good news, because it means investors have a chance to buy the book at a significant discount.

Copper Age

West Coast Avengers #94

Normally these articles are all about books to buy, but in this case, I am saying this is a book to prioritize selling.  West Coast Avengers represents the first time Rhodey formally adopted the War Machine mantle.  It is, at best, a very heavily qualified first appearance in costume and its value is propped up, in large part, by the upcoming Armor Wars film starring Rhodey.  I like Don Cheadle's portrayal of the character, but it is not exactly iconic like RDJ's Iron Man and it would not exactly be surprising to see Cheadle depart the role in the next few years.

With few additional potrayals likely on the horizon, the chances for the book's value to go down and stay down following the release of Armor Wars are just too great, at least for me personally.

Graded Analysis: ~60% of this book's census population is graded  9.6 or higher, so lower grades are not investable.  In grades 9.6 and 9.8, the FMV has been on a slow, but steady decline for a while now.  The FMV may spike when the Armor Wars trailer drops, but it could be risky to wait that long.

Conclusion

That's all for this week folks!  I hope you enjoyed this article about Iron Man!  Let me know what you thought and if you have any suggestions for this article or future topics.  Next week, we tackle the Spirit of Vengeance, the one and only Ghost Rider!!

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