Welcome to the first installment of your Weekend Update.  It is a pleasure to consult with the talented staff of comicbookspeculation.com, and I am looking forward to a long relationship.  This weekly article will attempt to highlight some of the more important happenings in the world of comics.

The week started off with a bang on Sunday when the second raw copy of Chamber of Chills #19 sold on eBay in less than a week.  The first sale was back on January 9th for $1,276.00 (the seller listed as in G- or 1.8 condition).  The second copy sold shortly thereafter on January 13th for $3,500.00 (the copy listed in VF condition by the seller).  Golden Age horror comics continue to perform well and increasingly gaining favor with many serious collectors who are disenfranchised with ratio variants but continue to enjoy the thrill of the hunt.

This week’s online release of a teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home was a big win for Sony’s Columbia Pictures racking up 130 million views in its first 24 hours breaking the studios all time record.  It featured a number of Easter Eggs including a boat that was marked “ASM 212″ a clear nod to the first appearance of Hydro-Man driving sales of dozens of copies of that book. Concurrently, we saw an uptick in interest on Amazing Spider-Man #28 (the 1st appearance of Molten Man) who many believe appeared in the trailer in his molten lava form.  It is unclear whether these characters are the Elementals as stated publically by Jake Gyllenhaal (Mysterio) at a panel at the Brazilian Comic Con or some amalgamation of those characters in an effort to avoid licensing complications which naturally arise with all of the Sony owned Spider-Man related properties.  Still others speculate that this is a clever deception by Mysterio and that this plot devise is being weaved into the marketing campaign by Marvel. I guess we will have to wait and see.

    In other cinematic news, a couple different websites were reporting regarding the oft discussed but as of yet unscripted/un-cast New Gods project.  These sites suggested that Granny Goodness and the Female Furies will be juxtaposed against Mister Miracle and Big Barda in the film which the sites allege borrows heavily from source material penned by Tom King in his recent run on Mister Miracle.  It remains to be seen whether any of this information is journalistically accurate or merely an extrapolation from the Twitter feed of Tom King. Nevertheless, all of this discussion surrounding a prospective film inspired numerous sales of the first appearances of the aforementioned characters, but did not appear to impact the price of high grade copies of New Gods #1 which have been holding steady (e.g., there are two recent eBay sales of New Gods #1 in CGC 9.6 grade for approximately $650.00).  For those interested in these characters, Granny Goodness first appears in Mister Miracle #2, Big Barda first appears in Mister Miracle #4 and the Female Furies first appear in Mister Miracle #6.

In tangentially related news, a number of comic book related media outlets are reporting that Young Avengers is being developed for the MCU as the forthcoming sequel to Avengers: End Game, or as a TV series on the Disney Streaming Service.  This may be recycled speculation, conjecture and rumor as a number of sources have insinuated for months that some iteration of the Dark Avengers, Young Avengers and/or the Dark Reign storyline is headed to the big screen. This wave of speculation surrounds rumors that Tom King’s sabbatical from Batman was to consult on the Vision and Scarlet Witch Disney Streaming project which has been rumored to be a composite of the critically acclaimed The Vision mini series written by King and the classic Vision and Scarlet Witch series.  Coupled with rumors of a Kid Loki centric Tom Hiddleston narrated Loki Streaming project, some have deduced that the introduction of Kid Loki and the Vision and Scarlet Witch’s long lost twin children William Kaplan (Wiccan) and Thomas Shepherd (Speed) are setting the stage for the introduction of the Young Avengers. Wiccan first appears in Young Avengers #1 and Speed first appears in Young Avengers #10. Much of this speculation sounds more like fantasy than journalism; and it remains unclear whether any of this speculation is grounded in fact or is mere fan fiction.

Prior Young Avengers speculation centered around the casting of Emma Fuhrmann (13 Reasons Why) who joined the cast of Avengers: End Game and has been rumored to play either Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) or Cassie Lang (Stature).  Still other have speculated that Fuhrmann was cast as Mistress Death (Thanos love interest) in an effort to humanize the Mad Titan. Kate Bishop first appears in Young Avengers #1 while Cassie Lang first appears in Young Avengers #6.  Concomitantly, the first appearance of Death is Captain Marvel #26 (1973). Clearly there are licensing limitations with Norman Osborn’s Iron Patriot character that have already impacted Spider-Man Far From Home as previously discussed.  Nevertheless, it remains a persistent rumor that Marvel commissioned a script for a prospective Dark Avengers film. The Dark Avengers first appeared in Dark Avengers #1 and/or New Avengers #49 and neither book has surfaced as the clear winner in that debate.  Copies of both books are readily available cheap on eBay. There is a 2nd print sketch cover of New Avengers #49 which appears to command a premium over and above the first print and a 1:50 Granov ratio variant of Dark Avengers #1 featuring a beautiful cover depicting the Iron Patriot.  Again, it remains to be seen whether any of this information is journalistically accurate as all of this information is unconfirmed.

There were a couple of big premieres this week on the small screen.  The SYFY network premiered Rick Reminder’s Deadly Class. Additionally, Season Two of the Punisher premiered on FX.  Any impact on the comic market appears negligible at best.

There were a number of issues released on Wednesday that are of note.  Catwoman #7 and Wonder Woman #62 both had B covers that were gobbled up by speculators.  Both books are selling well above cover price in and around the $10.00 range. Note that the first issue of the independent title Appalachian Armageddon was selling for approximately $10.00 on the date of release as previously reported by this site and that books continues to sell well into the weekend.  It appears that Knights of the Golden Sun #3 was heavily under ordered by many retailers and copies sold briskly online in the $20.00 range. A surprise winner on Wednesday was the Uncanny X-Men #10 Finch variant. This is not an incentive variant and was available for order proportional to retailers orders of Uncanny X-Men #3.  This book has been selling well with sales all over the board from $10.00 to $35.00.

Last weeks break out star, Harley Quinn #57 continues to trend upwards in the neighborhood of $30.00 a pop.  It remains to be seen where these prices will go and what kind of prices this book will demand when the first rounds of Fast Track submissions come back from CGC.  Many have made the comparison between Tedesco’s Harley #57 cover and Middleton’s Batgirl #23 cover. This comparison doesn’t necessarily do Harley #57 any favors as Batgirl #23 CGC 9.8’s are selling for less than $150.00.  Many continue to suggest that the DC cover B books are longer term holds and remain champions of there prospective value in the future as retailers continue to under order DC cover B’s and collectors become increasingly conscious of cover artists.

That’s all for this week.  I’ll be back next weekend with another update.  In the interim,
“Happy hunting! You bunch of savages!!”

– Nico, Esq.