We all have to make tough decisions in life and picking the wrong comic can seem foolish.  Hopefully you have a schema and some rules to make sure that what you are selecting is best comic for your collection...perhaps considering future values, as well.  Sometimes character first appearance books can be too obscure or the character may not be well known to the masses or just never got a burst of popularity to drive prices, all of which may negatively affect value.  Often, you have to lean into the foolishness and hope you pick a gem along the way.

Do you prefer your Thing to be Man or Swamp?  Man-Thing is the Marvel creature of the swampy muck and Swamp-Thing is the DC mannish counterpart.  Both characters share a cult-like popularity and often remain in the background in comparison to mainstream heroes like Superman and Thor.  Luckily, both comic runs are great pieces for any comic collection.

Man-Thing #3 is a bronze age classic for one simple reason: it has the obscure first appearance of a character named the Foolkiller.  Ross G. Everbest was the original person to become the Foolkiller, a character who's role ranges from villain to anti-hero.  The mantle of the Foolkiller has been held by 4 people over the course of time...all used the purification gun to seek out and destroy "fools" and as you can assume, all 4 were crazy.  The character often warns his victims with a card stating: "You have 24 hours to live. Use them to repent-- or be forever damned to the pits of hell where goeth all fools. Today is the last day of the rest of your life, use it wisely-- or die a fool."

There have been few sales of 9.8 graded copies of Man-Thing #3 in the past few years.  This is not surprising since only 13 copies exist on the census.  There is a currently Fair Market Value (FMV) listed of $550, but due to rarity and limited supply, I would expect a copy to fetch a price higher than the FMV.  My colleage, Blaise Tassone, even pointed out Man Thing #3 as one of his sleeper keys here.

The more recognizable of the Foolkillers was Kurt Gerhardt who had his own Foolkiller miniseries in the 1990's and was prominently featured as a rookie card in the Impel Marvel card set (oh the days of following cultural fads to cash in).  Snagging a copy of Foolkiller #1 may be a way to hedge on the character at a lower price-point and still be able to collect on any speculation value the character may be holding in the long-term.  Copies of Foolkiller #1 can be bought in the $60-$80 range.  I do not expect a Foolkiller appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but I do expect the character to gain notoriety as more people become fans of Marvel and help drive up prices for his comics.

You a Foolkill fan?  Do you feel that Mr. T should play the character?  What other obscure characters are you hoping will make a splash in the MCU (Where are my Slapstick supporters)? Drop your comments and join in the speculation.