Deadpool (2008 Series) Vol. 2, #45, Marvel Comics, December 2011
That new Deadpool movie has turned into a huge, and some would say, surprise hit. I don’t think anybody saw the movie doing that well especially considering the R rating it got. Well it seems Deadpool was a perfect choice to try an adult themed superhero movie.
This of course plays well for Deadpool comic book collectors and investors. Our New Mutant #98s seem safe for a while longer and who knows, we might see another spike in the price of X-Force #2.
I did a little digging into Deadpool since I have not been reading his comics. I found out that among fans his most popular foes include Task Master (1st appearance Avengers #196), Apocalypse (1st appearance X-Factor #6) and Carnage (1st appearance Amazing Spider-Man #361). These are all great foes whose 1st appearances command strong prices.
Another nemesis that kept appearing in fan voting was Evil Deadpool. To be honest I was not familiar with the character. I read up on Evil Deadpool and really enjoyed the origin story. In Deadpool Vol. 2 #44 Deadpool comes across a whole bunch of his old severed body parts, these parts were collected and stored in a freezer by his stalker Doctor Ella Whitby. Disgusted, Deadpool chucks all the freezer contents into a dumpster. Since the body parts possess Wade Wilson’s healing factor they end up fusing together after thawing. And the Evil Deadpool is born, possessing the same powers and abilities as Deadpool but without a conscience.
Though the body parts can be seem in issue #44 and the last panel of the issue implies the Evil Deadpool has fused together it is not until this week’s Undervalued Spotlight pick Deadpool Vol. 2 #45 that we are fully introduced to this new character.
I looked in the Overstreet Guide and did not see a mention of any Evil Deadpool. I checked the GPA and it looks like 1 CGC 9.8 copy sold 4 years ago for $40, the rest of the sales are more recent Signature Series and Variant issues.
Actually as of this post there are only 4 universally CGC graded copies (all 4 are 9.8s) versus the 12 CGC graded Variant issues.
What’s not to like about this book? I don’t see a downside to picking up a dozen of these and waiting until someone realizes this is a very cool book that introduces a very cool Deadpool foe.
The 45th Overstreet price breaks for this book is $4 in the 9.2 grade split.
Strengths that make this comic a good long term investment are:
- First appearance of Evil Deadpool
- Cheap Cheap Cheap – for now
And the madness continues – for now.
Great pick Walter. Your analysis is spot on. Must take issue with Juan and his apparent belief that New Mutants 98 and its progeny are bubbleicious. Those of us of a certain age, me included, have a great deal of unintentional bias against newer comics. That said Ebay has, since January 1, 2016 sold approx. 1000 copies of this book and about 250 are currently for sale. Worldwide about 75 million people have seen the movie. Supply and demand should keep the value of these books high for the long term!
As an aside Walter, every time I google comic collecting that terrible Bloomberg Business article you are quoted in pops up. Hulk 181 and X-Men 94 prices are holding up quite nicely thank you. Using my handy moneychimp compound return calculator the quarter spent in the mid seventy’s on these books has yielded an astounding compounded annual return of over 31 percent on the X-Men 94 (at $15k sales price) and over 29 percent on the Hulk 181 (at $13k). Down from some fairly ethereal highs in the early 2000s but still some lofty numbers that are hardly “worthless”. Though the article helps when I’m buying collections!
Thanks for chiming in John. The only thing I was addressing in Bloomberg was dangers of relative scarcity. My examples all referred to early CGC sales where the population of the sold grades was low, the buyers bought something that was in very tight supply. Unfortunately supply exploded on those comics soon after those record sales.
The silver lining I guess is that an ever increasing demand has actually caught and surpassed the ever increasing supply (say of Hulk #181 at CGC 9.8) and prices have rebounded nicely from their $8000 lows, though prices have not yet reached those early records.
Thanks for the response Walter. Certainly wasn’t criticizing. In fact my guess is when you saw the title to that article you shook your head in disbelief. As an Overstreet advisor I’m sure you believe in the value of comics more than most. Demand is certainly strong for these keys but I have it on good authority that many more high grade raw copies exist of these bronze and modern keys so the euphoric highs of CGC’s early days may still be years away. Make up for the loss with volume I always say!