Most lists like this one are wish lists. They quote a record from the boom years, skip the date, and let you believe your copy is worth what one perfect slab brought at the peak. This list works differently: every price on it is either a documented sale with the date attached or a figure from a widely cited annual market report, labeled as exactly that, so you always know which kind of number you’re reading and how much weight it deserves. Where the honest answer is “that market has cooled,” it says so. Each entry opens with lines you can read at a glance: the record with its date where one exists, the floor, and a current market line pulled in August 2026 from PriceCharting, which indexes actual eBay sold listings. The “reported minimum” floors come from a widely cited annual market report and are undated, so treat them as ballpark, not gospel.
Modern Age here means 1992 to today, with two 1991 exceptions I’ll flag when we get to them. If your boxes are older than that, start with the 90s guide or the valuation guide instead.
I buy every book on this list, in any grade, anywhere in Southern California. If you spot one of yours below, text a photo to (951) 515-9604 and I’ll tell you what I can do on it, same day in most cases.
Prices last checked August 9, 2026.
It’s a long page, on purpose. Jump to where your books are:
- The twelve books most worth checking for
- The rest of the hundred, ranked by record
- The halfway mark, where reported records sit around $1,250
- Famous books that have been sliding
- Get a cash offer on any of them
The list, ranked by what the market has actually paid
1. Ultimate Fallout #4 (2011): the first Miles Morales
| Documented high | $3,550 standard (CGC 9.8, March 2022, GoCollect); $15,000 variant (CGC 9.8, January 2024, annual market report) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $350 ungraded, $1,183 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The flagship modern key, full stop. GoCollect’s sales reporting documents a standard CGC 9.8 selling for $3,550 in March 2022, easing to around $1,500 by that August, with a published fair market value of $1,750 as of September 2023. The variants are where it gets dramatic: GoCollect has reported a newsstand copy at $35,000 and the 1:25 Djurdjevic variant clearing $43,000, neither with a date attached, which is why I treat those as stories rather than comps. On the variants generally, a widely cited annual hot-comics market report records a 9.8 at $15,000 in January 2024, down from the $28,800 its 2022 edition cited. Falling from the boom, still the most important book of its era. Raw first prints remain genuinely valuable, and this is one where grading a strong copy before selling usually makes sense. This is a book I pay serious money for, variant or standard, in any grade.
2. The Walking Dead #1 (2003): the small print run nobody expected
| Documented high | $23,459 (CGC 9.9, eBay, August 2024, per CGC news) |
| Floor | $180 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $1,277 ungraded, $2,817 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
An indie horror book from before anyone knew, printed small. CGC’s own news desk reported a 9.9 selling on eBay for $23,459 in August 2024, and GoCollect put the 9.8 fair market value at $2,600 as of October 2025, up from roughly $2,000 sales in 2019. Below its 2021 peak but holding better than most of this list, because the original print run was genuinely tiny. Later printings and the many reprints are worth a small fraction of the first; the indicia settles which one you have. If yours is a first print, I want to hear from you this week.
3. Bone #1 (1991): the cutoff-bender
| Documented high | $15,000 (CGC 9.8, 2024, annual market report) |
| Floor | No published floor; low-grade copies still sell |
| Current market | $1,620 ungraded, $11,482 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Here’s my exception. Cover-dated July 1991, so it technically predates my own 1992 line, but the market files Jeff Smith’s self-published debut with the moderns and I’m not going to argue. Roughly 3,000 copies were printed, which makes it the scarcest regular edition on this page by a wide margin; the only things scarcer here are retailer-only variants. That same annual market report records a 9.8 selling for $12,000 in 2021 and a new record of $15,000 in 2024. Setting records through the correction is rare; genuine scarcity is why. If you were reading black-and-white indies in the early nineties, go check the box. Find one and I’ll drive to it.
4. Amazing Spider-Man #667, Dell’Otto retailer variant (2011)
| Documented high | $31,200 (signed CGC 9.8, mid-2025, GoCollect, sale questioned by the source) |
| Floor | $2,500 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $7,256 ungraded, $18,300 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Not a first appearance. A scarcity play: a retailer incentive variant with only 81 copies on the CGC census as of August 2025. GoCollect reported a signed 9.8 selling for $31,200 in mid-2025, while openly questioning whether that price reflects a real market or one aggressive bidder. That’s the honest shape of ultra-rare variants: thin markets, erratic prices, and the record tells you what happened once, not what happens next. The cover shown here is the standard direct edition; the Dell’Otto variant is a different, far scarcer cover. If you own the variant you already know, and I’d like to hear from you.
5. Saga #1, Retailer Summit edition (2012)
| Documented high | Over $6,000 summit edition (CGC 9.8, mid-2021, Bleeding Cool) |
| Floor | Standard first print 9.8s north of $700 in the same 2021 reporting |
| Current market | $100 ungraded for the standard edition, $301 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
The biggest creator-owned launch of the 2010s, and its scarcest printing: an incentive edition of about 500 copies handed out at a Diamond retailer summit. The cover shown here is the standard first print; the summit edition is the scarce one. Bleeding Cool reported summit-edition 9.8s selling for over $6,000 in mid-2021, up from a June 2018 valuation in excess of $2,000 per RecalledComics. Standard first prints are the accessible version, with 9.8s reported north of $700 in that same 2021 coverage. Post-boom direction on the summit edition is unclear from sources I could verify, so treat the $6,000 as a boom-era mark rather than a standing price. Summit copies are an instant phone call; standard first prints I buy all day.
6. Batman Adventures #12 (1993): the first Harley Quinn
| Documented high | $5,280 newsstand; $3,250 regular (CGC 9.8, 2024, annual market report) |
| Floor | $180 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $367 ungraded, $1,836 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The book this site already covers in full, because it keeps walking into Southern California collections unrecognized. The short version for this list: the annual report’s 2024 edition records 9.8 sales at $3,250 for the regular edition and $5,280 for the newsstand, up from $1,900 in 2019, and it is one of the few books here that kept setting records after the boom ended. Kids’ cartoon tie-in, read to death, scarce sharp. Those are dated records rather than a standing quote, because Harley reprices on film and game news. The full story, including how to spot the reprints and why the full guide declines to print a current number, is in the Batman Adventures #12 guide. Either edition, I’m a buyer.
7. Batman #608, Retailer Roundtable variant (2002)
| Documented high | $5,100 RRP edition (CGC 9.8, January 2017 auction, RecalledComics) |
| Floor | Standard edition: modest; $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $75 ungraded, $550 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Jim Lee’s Hush opener, in a retailer-only printing believed to run about 400 copies. RecalledComics documents a 9.8 at $5,100 at auction in January 2017, with nearly 300 graded copies by the end of 2016. I could not verify a newer sale from a source I trust, so I won’t invent one; the auction archives that would show recent comps weren’t reachable when I checked in August 2026. The copy shown here is the standard first print, which is common and modest. The money version looks different: on the RRP edition the right half of Jim Lee’s art is printed as green-tinted pencils, a SPECIAL EDITION bar runs across the bottom, and the left edge reads “Not for sale. For promotional use only.” Selling a Roundtable copy comes down to proving those markers, so photograph them along with the cover.
8. Edge of Spider-Verse #2 (2014): the first Spider-Gwen
| Documented high | $9,000 Land variant (CGC 9.8, Heritage, August 2021, per CGC news); first print $1,700 (CGC 9.8, 2022) |
| Floor | $180 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $278 ungraded, $711 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
A character who went from a variant-cover curiosity to a movie lead. CGC’s news desk reported a Greg Land variant 9.8 bringing $9,000 at Heritage in August 2021. The standard first print climbed from $490 in 2020 to $1,700 in 2022 in 9.8 per that report’s year-by-year tracking, then cooled; its 2024 note concedes even Spider-Gwen wasn’t hot that year. Second prints and the many later printings trail far behind the first. Check the indicia before you celebrate. If yours is a first print, selling it is the easy part, and I’d like to be your first call.
9. Invincible #1 (2003): the recovery story
| Documented high | $5,999 (CGC 9.8, September 2021, GoCollect); FMV $4,900 (October 2025) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $2,401 ungraded, $8,040 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
One of the strongest post-boom comebacks on this list, driven by the animated series. GoCollect documented three separate blue-label 9.8s each selling for $3,250 in July 2023, against an all-time high of $5,999 in September 2021, and by October 2025 had the 9.8 fair market value at $4,900. That’s a book climbing back toward its record while most of its peers slid. Small original print run, big ongoing show. Worth pulling from any 2003 box, and one I’m actively buying right now.
10. NYX #3 (2004): the first X-23
| Documented high | $4,500 (CGC 9.9, 2017, annual market report) |
| Floor | $90 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $391 ungraded, $1,148 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Laura Kinney’s first appearance, in a low-selling series nobody ordered heavily. GoCollect documented a ComicLink auction in May 2021 where a CBCS 9.8 sold for $1,350 and a CGC 9.8 for $1,662 a minute later, and the annual report’s tracking shows 9.8s around $1,855 in 2022, roughly double their 2019 level, before softening with the wider market. A 9.9 brought $4,500 back in 2017. Still sells in any grade; just not at 2022 prices. Ready to sell your NYX #3? I’ll price it off today’s sold listings, not the 2022 memory.
11. Spawn #1 (1992): the cautionary tale
| Documented high | $1,226 newsstand edition (CGC 9.8, October 2020, GoCollect, later flagged as suspect bidding) |
| Floor | Direct edition: about $20 raw, $120 to $160 in CGC 9.8 (January 2021, GoCollect) |
| Current market | $21 ungraded, $125 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
I’m including this one as a public service. Spawn #1 was printed in about 1.7 million copies, and nearly all of them were bagged on day one. Per GoCollect’s January 2021 reporting, direct-edition 9.8s were trading between $120 and $160, with raw copies around $20 for years before that. The exception is the newsstand edition, which spiked to a $1,226 record in October 2020 and then fell as much as 40% within two months, a run-up GoCollect itself attributed to suspect bidding. Spawn #1 is the book I decline most. I see more copies of it than any other single comic. If yours has a barcode in the corner, that’s the version worth a conversation; if not, it’s a great comic worth about what it cost new. One note on the picture above: that’s Image’s own digital-catalog scan, so its corner box says digital edition. A real 1992 copy has the Image logo and price there instead. I still take ordinary Spawn #1s as part of larger lots, priced honestly as the common books they are.
12. Something Is Killing the Children #1 (2019): the newest key here
| Documented high | $3,000 ALA variant, ungraded; 9.8s near $1,000 (April 2021, Bleeding Cool) |
| Floor | Raw first prints $400 to $430 in the same April 2021 reporting |
| Current market | $451 ungraded, $895 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Proof the Modern Age is still minting keys. Bleeding Cool documented the April 2021 spike in detail: raw first prints selling consistently at $400 to $430 with one sale that week at $490, 9.8s near $1,000, and an ALA conference variant bringing $3,000 ungraded. I could not source a newer sale, so read those as the high-water mark of a speculation wave rather than today’s price. The lesson stands either way: a 2019 comic became a four-figure book inside two years. It can still happen.
Inherited a box of these, or just don’t want to decode printings and variants? You don’t have to. Eighty-eight more entries follow, but if reading the first twelve already feels like homework, skip it. Text a photo of the stack to (951) 515-9604 and I’ll tell you what I see worth pulling out. And if the collection came to you from someone else, the inherited collection guide covers the parts nobody warns you about.
The rest of the list: records, flukes, and the fine print
The twelve above are ranked on a blend of documented money and the odds a Southern California collection actually holds one. Below, the list continues in order of headline record. Fair warning, repeated from the top: a “reported” figure comes from a widely cited annual market report and is undated, and several of those records are one-off, census-topping flukes. Where the report itself admits that, so do I. Each one is held to the same standard, and the dates refresh when I re-verify.
13. The Goon #1 (Avatar Press, 1999)
| Documented high | $28,800 (CGC 9.9, the single highest-graded copy, Heritage, September 2020, per Bleeding Cool) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $168 ungraded, $1,242 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Eric Powell’s self-published debut, and for a while the highest auction price any Modern Age comic had ever brought. Read that record correctly: it was the one census-topping 9.9, chased by 43 bidders, while the 2020 price guide put a 9.2 at $385. Genuinely scarce, with only a couple hundred graded copies, and often confused with the 2003 Dark Horse series of the same name, which is a different and far cheaper book. Check the publisher and the year before you celebrate; the cover shown is the 1999 Avatar first printing, the one that carries the record. I buy that printing on sight.
14. Marvel Collectible Classics: Spider-Man #1, chromium edition (1998)
| Reported high | $13,500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $60 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
A low-distribution chromium-cover promo reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #300, the McFarlane black-suit classic. Nearly nobody knows it exists, which is the whole story: the annual report ranks it near the top of its Modern list on scarcity alone. Both figures are that report’s, undated, so verify against fresh sold listings before you plan around them. Scarce enough that if you ever want to sell one, I want to see it regardless.
15. Batman: Damned #1, uncensored first print (2018)
| Documented high | $1,800 verified (Jim Lee variant, CGC 10.0, eBay, October 2018, per Bleeding Cool); $10,000 reported record (annual report, undated, unverified) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $39 ungraded, $88 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
DC’s Black Label launch, notorious for the uncensored first print that every later printing and the digital edition censored. The verified sale is the 2018 hype era; the $10,000 record appears only in the annual report and nowhere I could check, so treat it accordingly. This one cooled hard after the headlines faded. If you decide to sell your uncensored copy, expect a today number from me, not a 2018 one.
16. Amazing Spider-Man #678, Quinones Mary Jane Venom variant (2012)
| Reported high | $6,800 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $594 ungraded, $5,013 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
A 1:50 incentive variant with an estimated 800 copies in existence, per RecalledComics, which guides it at $1,500 in near mint and notes prices have climbed steadily. The standard edition of #678 is a dollar book; every cent lives in the variant cover. Selling the Mary Jane variant starts and ends with one photo of the cover, so start there.
17. Wolverine #1, Campbell Deadpool variant (2010)
| Reported high | $6,500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $7 ungraded for the standard edition, $69 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
J. Scott Campbell, Deadpool crashing Wolverine’s book, retailer incentive scarcity: three of the variant market’s favorite ingredients on one cover. No individually verifiable sale was reachable when I checked, so both numbers carry the report’s attribution. Want to sell the Campbell cover? The art is its own authentication, which keeps the whole thing simple.
18. Sentai #2 (Antarctic Press, 1994)
| Reported high | $6,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $127 ungraded, $2,589 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Antarctic Press’s Asian science fiction and fantasy journal, whose second issue was the Power Rangers special, and which gets cited as the characters’ earliest comic-book appearance. I’ll be straight: this is the thinnest evidence on this page. The record is the report’s alone, raw copies list far lower, and I could not verify a single sale anywhere reachable. If you have one, it’s absolutely worth a conversation; just don’t bank the six grand.
19. Batman: Vengeance of Bane Special #1 (1993)
| Reported high | $5,750 reported record (CGC 9.9, annual report, undated; the report itself calls it unlikely to repeat) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $95 ungraded, $375 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The first appearance of Bane, spiked during the Dark Knight Rises era. The record is a one-off top-census copy; ordinary high-grade copies trade far below it. Plentiful in 90s collections, so check the box before you assume yours is the jackpot grade. If you’re selling a Vengeance of Bane #1, newsstand or direct, I’ll price the copy you actually have at the grade it actually is.
20. Danger Girl #2, Ruby Red Smoking Gun variant (Cliffhanger/Image, 1998)
| Reported high | $5,400 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
Roughly a thousand printed and maybe 400 surviving, per RecalledComics, which guides high-grade copies at $1,000 and up. Campbell himself objected to the variant program at the time, which only made collectors want it more. Decide to sell a Ruby Red and the cover settles the authentication question before I even show up.
21. Spawn #1, error and black-and-white editions (1992)
| Reported high | $5,100 reported record for each edition (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | No published floor for these editions; ordinary copies trade around $20 |
The exceptions to everything I said about Spawn #1 further up: a recalled printing error and a scarce black-and-white edition. Both carry reported records around $5,100 against the ordinary copy’s twenty dollars. If your Spawn #1 looks different from every other copy you’ve seen, that might be exactly right; photograph it before you assume.
22. Siege #3, Campbell Deadpool variant (2010)
| Reported high | $4,960 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $94 ungraded, $2,650 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The companion piece to the Wolverine #1 Campbell variant above, same artist, same character, same scarcity math. The annual report lists it under the wrong issue number, which tells you something about how carefully these lists usually get maintained.
23. Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 (1999)
| Reported high | $4,870 reported record (CGC 10.0, annual report, undated); 9.8s reported over $700 |
| Floor | $80 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
DC pulped the print run over one story, so the surviving copies came through UK distribution. Somewhere between 700 and 2,000 exist, with under a hundred on the CGC census. RecalledComics notes raw copies rising steadily. A genuine recalled rarity, not a manufactured one.
24. Malibu Sun #13 (1992)
| Reported high | $4,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $230 reported minimum (annual report, undated), the highest floor in this tier |
| Current market | $402 ungraded, $3,428 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Malibu’s promo magazine, with Spawn on the cover before Spawn #1 shipped. That floor is worth noticing: even rough copies hold real money because the book is thin, stapled, and was thrown away by nearly everyone. If you subscribed to Malibu’s mailer in 1992, go dig.
25. Spawn #185, sketch cover (2008)
| Reported high | $3,800 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $6,481 ungraded, $240 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Nineteen copies on the census, per the report. Ultra-low-distribution modern variants like this trade on pure scarcity, and thin markets mean wild prices in both directions.
26. Captain Marvel #14 (2013): Kamala Khan’s cameo
| Documented high | $3,700 (variant CGC 9.8 fair market value, March 2021, GoCollect; 49 graded copies then) |
| Floor | $150 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $30 ungraded, $110 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Kamala Khan’s first appearance, and the wording matters: an unnamed, single-panel cameo, not a first full appearance. The variant is where the money concentrated. The report tracks it declining since The Marvels, which is the usual arc for movie-driven cameo books.
27. Young Avengers #1 (2005)
| Reported high | $3,500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $60 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $34 ungraded, $174 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
First Kate Bishop, first Young Avengers. GoCollect’s December 2022 review documented main-cover values up over 300 percent across nearly every grade, with prices declining after their summer 2021 records. A book that rises with every Kate Bishop screen appearance and settles between them.
28. Thanos #13 (2018): the first Cosmic Ghost Rider
| Documented high | $3,370 reported record (annual report, undated); verified 9.8 sales over $300 (August 2020, GoCollect) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $52 ungraded, $162 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Donny Cates turning Frank Castle into a cosmic herald was the speculation story of its year, and even the third printing tripled between 2019 and mid-2020 per GoCollect. Recent enough that plenty of copies sit in current pull boxes.
29. The Walking Dead #100 (2012): the first Negan
| Reported high | $3,000 reported record (a single CGC 10.0; the report itself says the record distorts the valuation) |
| Floor | $1 reported minimum; the report pegs ordinary 9.8s around $20 |
| Current market | $12 ungraded, $98 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The first Negan sounds like a lottery ticket and almost never is, because this was the best-ordered indie comic of its decade. One perfect 10.0 set the record; your bagged copy from 2012 is worth about what you paid. The honest entry on this list, and I’d rather you hear it here.
30. X-23 #1, Dell’Otto variant (2010)
| Reported high | $3,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $486 ungraded, $1,578 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Laura Kinney’s own launch, with the money in the Dell’Otto incentive variant. Her actual first appearance is NYX #3, higher up this page, which is where the serious collectors start.
31. Captain Marvel #17, second printing (2014)
| Documented high | $2,900 reported record (annual report, undated); verified 9.8 fair market value $2,350 (March 2021, GoCollect) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $253 ungraded, $533 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The second printing put Kamala on the cover, so the second printing became the collectible, with only a few hundred graded copies. Same post-movie cooling as the #14 cameo above.
32. All-New Marvel Now! Point One #1 (2014)
| Documented high | $2,600 reported record (annual report, undated); verified 9.8 fair market value about $750 (March 2021, GoCollect) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $23 ungraded, $194 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
GoCollect calls this Kamala Khan’s first full appearance as Ms. Marvel, bridging the cameos above and the solo series that followed. High grades had already given back about a quarter of their value by early 2021, and the slide continued with the rest of the Kamala books.
33. Amazing Fantasy #15 (2005): the first Amadeus Cho
| Reported high | $2,500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $110 reported minimum (annual report, undated), one of the sturdier floors in this tier |
Not the 1962 book, and that’s the point of checking: the 2004-launched second volume trades on the famous number and introduces Amadeus Cho, who went on to carry half the Marvel universe. A genuinely low-ordered mid-2000s series.
34. Rick and Morty #1 (Oni Press, 2015)
| Reported high | $2,200 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $70 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $55 ungraded, $502 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
First printing only. The series went through printing after printing as the show exploded, and the reprints are shelf filler. The indicia states the printing; check it before you price anything.
35. The Maxx Ashcan, yellow edition (1993)
| Reported high | $2,100 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $45 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $402 ungraded, $787 in 9.6 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The scarce yellow promotional ashcan from before The Maxx #1. The report’s own note says ashcan enthusiasm is fading, which matches what thin nostalgia markets do between waves.
36. Chew #1 (2009)
| Reported high | $2,000 reported record (a fluke CGC 10.0, per the report itself) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $23 ungraded, $351 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Low-print first issue of the Eisner-winning series, and a lesson in reading records: the $2,000 was one perfect copy during the TV-option era. Note the report also dates this book to 2003 in one spot; it launched in June 2009. Details like that are why this page carries dates.
37. Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1 (2009)
| Reported high | $2,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $206 ungraded, $678 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Blue Marvel’s first appearance in a mini-series nobody ordered in 2009. A real dollar-bin sleeper rather than a hyped one, which is exactly the kind of book worth pulling when you find it.
38. Vengeance #1 (2011): the first America Chavez
| Reported high | $1,950 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $70 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $59 ungraded, $320 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
America Chavez’s first appearance, spiked around the second Doctor Strange film per the report. A low-ordered 2011 mini-series, so genuinely uncommon in the wild.
39. The Walking Dead #27 (2006): the first Governor
| Reported high | $1,800 reported record (a CGC 9.9; the report stresses the huge gap to 9.8s) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $49 ungraded, $150 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The Governor’s debut, with the same census-fluke shape as the rest of the series: one 9.9 set the record while signed 9.8s were bringing $350 back in 2012 per Bleeding Cool. The whole Walking Dead line has drifted down since the show ended.
40. Amazing Spider-Man #361 (1992): the first full Carnage
| Documented high | $1,375 verified (CGC 9.8, April 2021, GoCollect); $1,800 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $70 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $67 ungraded, $311 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The cleanest boom-and-bust curve I can document: a 9.8 went $56 in 2009, $347 in late 2019, $1,375 at the Venom sequel trailer peak in April 2021, then $354 by December 2022, a 75 percent drop. Over five thousand copies exist in 9.8 alone. Massive print run, real character, movie-cycle pricing. Expect it to move again on the next Carnage announcement, the way it has every time so far.
41. Wolverine #145, Nabisco mail-away edition (1999)
| Reported high | $1,700 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $20 ungraded for the standard edition, $185 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
A send-away promotional edition of the anniversary issue; the newsstand and direct copies are common. The report’s own note says some of the froth has come off this one.
42. The Walking Dead #19 (2005): the first Michonne
| Documented high | $1,650 verified (signed CGC 9.8, eBay, March 2012, per Bleeding Cool) |
| Floor | $120 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $165 ungraded, $541 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Here’s a sobering pair of numbers: a signed 9.8 brought $1,650 in 2012, and the annual report’s current record is $500. That’s what a franchise cooling off looks like in print. Michonne still matters; the market just already had its moment.
43. Spider-Gwen #1, Adam Hughes variant (2015)
| Reported high | $1,500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $193 ungraded, $350 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Her first solo series after the Edge of Spider-Verse #2 debut higher up this page. The Hughes incentive variant carries the value; standard copies were printed to meet demand and mostly do.
44. The Walking Dead #2 (2003)
| Reported high | $1,500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $170 reported minimum (annual report, undated), a genuinely high floor |
| Current market | $349 ungraded, $1,000 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Printed in smaller numbers than #1, which surprises people. The report predicts it drifts down with the rest of the line, but that floor says scarcity is real.
45. Wolverine: Origins #10 (2007): the first Daken
| Reported high | $1,490 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $26 ungraded, $150 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Wolverine’s son, in a series most people skipped. One to pull and check rather than bank on, and X-film casting news is the variable that moves it.
46. Iron Man #281 (1992): the War Machine armor
| Reported high | $1,450 reported record (a CGC 10.0 the report itself calls unrepeatable; 9.8s near $90) |
| Floor | $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $5 ungraded, $101 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
First brief appearance of the War Machine armor, and a lesson in reading records: the $1,450 was one perfect copy. The first full War Machine is #282, and the report concedes that’s the hotter book.
47. The Walking Dead #35, error printing (2007)
| Reported high | $1,400 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $13 ungraded for the standard edition, $76 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
A recalled printing error with the same page bound twice. The report’s own forecast is blunt: it expects this one to fall with the whole line.
48. Solar, Man of the Atom #10 (Valiant, 1992)
| Reported high | $1,380 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $15 ungraded, $500 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The origin of the Eternal Warrior behind the famous all-black cover, which shows every fingerprint ever put on it. These sat in dollar bins for years, multiple printings exist, and high grade is genuinely tough. Check the printing first.
49. Strangers in Paradise #1 (1993)
| Reported high | $1,300 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $80 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $30 ungraded, $2,399 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Terry Moore’s first comic, from Antarctic Press in a small first print. He took his work to his own Abstract Studio later. The report says plainly it deserves its place in 9.8, and unlike most of this tier the demand is readers, not speculators.
50. Y: The Last Man #1 (2002)
| Reported high | $1,250 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated), one of the sturdier floors here |
| Current market | $53 ungraded, $263 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Low Vertigo first printing of an era-defining series. That hundred-dollar floor is the story: even worn copies hold, because readers keep discovering the book. The kind of comic that rewards patience instead of timing.
51. Deadpool #1 (1993): his first solo series
| Reported high | $1,250 reported record (a fluke CGC 9.9 on a common book, per the report itself) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $12 ungraded, $129 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Not his first appearance; that’s New Mutants #98, covered in full on its own page. This is the first solo mini-series, printed in typical 1993 quantities, which is to say: plenty. Worth pulling, not worth grading speculatively.
52. Hulk #1 (2008): the first Red Hulk
| Reported high | $1,230 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $35 ungraded, $174 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The Loeb and McGuinness launch. One correction to the report’s own label: it calls this the first General Ross, but Ross debuted in 1962. The key claim is the first appearance of Red Hulk, later revealed to be Ross.
53. Tank Girl #1 (Dark Horse, 1991)
| Reported high | $1,150 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
Her first US comic; her actual debut was Deadline magazine in the UK in 1988, which this largely reprints. The report counts 144 census copies with 28 in 9.8, and it’s a 1991 book bending this page’s cutoff the same way Bone #1 does.
54. Marvel Super-Heroes #8, Winter Special (Marvel, Winter 1991): the first Squirrel Girl
| Reported high | $1,150 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $45 ungraded, $208 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Squirrel Girl’s origin, drawn by Steve Ditko, in a quarterly anthology from the winter of 1991 into 1992. Identify it by the Winter Special cover blurb; several series share the Marvel Super-Heroes name.
55. Alias #1 (2001): the first Jessica Jones
| Reported high | $1,100 reported record (a fluke CGC 9.9; the report pegs typical 9.8s near $100) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $64 ungraded, $188 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Jessica Jones’s debut in Marvel’s first MAX book. The gap between the record and a typical 9.8 is the whole lesson of this tier: census-topping copies are their own market.
56. Uncanny X-Men #297, Pressman gold edition (1993)
| Reported high | $1,060 reported record (annual report, undated); RecalledComics guides it at $225 near mint |
| Floor | $60 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $195 ungraded, $874 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The mail-away gold from the Pressman X-Men board game, and almost nobody mailed away: RecalledComics counts only three copies on the CGC census. The standard #297 shown here is a dollar book; the gold logo is everything.
57. Harbinger #1, with coupons (Valiant, 1992)
| Reported high | $1,050 reported record (annual report, undated; it calls $600 the new normal for a 9.8) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $36 ungraded, $412 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Valiant’s flagship launch shipped with cut-out coupons for the #0 mail-away, and most owners cut them. A coupon-clipped copy takes a green Qualified label at CGC and prices as a different, much cheaper book; complete blue-label copies are the ones the record tracks. The grading guide covers exactly this trap.
58. Immortal Hulk #1 (2018)
| Documented high | $1,050 (1:1000 Buscema black-and-white variant, CGC 9.8 fair market value, June 2019, GoCollect) |
| Floor | Standard cover 9.8s around $110 as of the same 2019 reporting |
| Current market | $16 ungraded, $114 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The defining Hulk run of its era, with the value stacked in the ratio variants: GoCollect’s 2019 breakdown ran from the standard Alex Ross cover near $110 up through the 1:500 remastered Buscema at about $500 to the 1:1000 black-and-white above a thousand. All 2019 figures; the principle holds even where the prices have moved.
59. Amazing Spider-Man #700, Ditko variant (2013)
| Reported high | $1,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $15 ungraded for the standard edition, $111 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
The final issue of the original run, with a scarce Ditko incentive variant. The standard cover shown here is common; the variant carries the money, which by now you could have predicted.
60. G.I. Joe Special #1 (1995): the McFarlane issue
| Reported high | $1,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $202 ungraded, $697 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Todd McFarlane’s retelling of G.I. Joe #61 behind a cover riffing on his own Spider-Man #1. Marvel’s G.I. Joe license lapsed long ago, so this printing was never reissued, and no publisher catalog even carries the cover anymore.
61. Black Panther #2 (2005): the first Shuri
| Reported high | $1,000 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $20 ungraded, $91 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Shuri’s first appearance, and the start of a two-book arc this page can complete: her taking the mantle sits further down the list. Wakanda film cycles are the tide that moves both.
62. Hellboy: The Fury #3, incentive variant (2011)
| Reported high | $920 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $772 ungraded, $2,500 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The issue of Hellboy’s death, with the money entirely in the retailer incentive variant; the standard Mignola cover shown here is a cheap comic. Pairs with the Seed of Destruction entry below if you’re checking a Mignola shelf.
63. Cyberfrog #1, Hall of Heroes edition (1994)
| Reported high | $900 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $141 ungraded, $557 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Ethan Van Sciver’s first independent book, with only 41 census copies per the report. The valuable printing is the 1994 Hall of Heroes original; the 1996 Harris relaunch has its own #1 and doesn’t carry this money.
64. Bloodstone #1 (2001): the first Elsa Bloodstone
| Reported high | $900 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $100 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $75 ungraded, $260 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Elsa Bloodstone’s debut in a four-issue series nobody noticed in 2001. The report’s own writers admit they’ve probably dropped copies into their dollar bins over the years. That’s the whole modern-sleeper phenomenon in one sentence.
65. Invincible Iron Man #9 (2016): the first full Riri Williams
| Reported high | $860 reported record (annual report, undated; its own entry confuses #7 and #9) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $15 ungraded, $71 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Riri Williams’ first full appearance. GoCollect’s 2018 analysis is the clean record: #7 is the last-page cameo, #9 the first full, two issues apart, and the cameo spiked harder than the full during the first hype wave. Ironheart demand has come and gone with her screen appearances.
66. Teen Titans #12 (2017): the Batman Who Laughs
| Documented high | $781 verified (CGC 9.8, 2019, per GoCollect; mid-2020 sales all above $500) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $41 ungraded, $219 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The Batman Who Laughs’ first full appearance, from the 2016 series. GoCollect’s tracking shows 9.8s averaging $266 in 2018 and holding above $500 by mid-2020. Recent enough that clean raw copies are everywhere; graded is where the premium lives.
67. Adventures of Superman #500, platinum edition (1993)
| Reported high | $750 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $72 ungraded, $544 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The platinum retailer sibling of the Superman #75 platinum further down this list, from the Return half of the story. The report is openly surprised anyone still pays for it, which is honest of them.
68. Batman Adventures #16 (2004): the Joker and Harley wedding cover
| Reported high | $700 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $70 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $36 ungraded, $107 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
A late, low-print book from the second Batman Adventures series with one of the most-loved Harley covers ever drawn. Same family as Batman Adventures #12, same lesson: the kids’ books nobody saved became the scarce ones.
69. Wonder Woman #72 (1993): the Bolland cover
| Reported high | $700 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $49 ungraded, $406 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
No first appearance here at all. This is a cover-driven key: Brian Bolland’s image became the definitive Wonder Woman portrait, and the comic behind it rides along. A useful reminder that art alone can carry a book.
70. Spider-Man Noir #1 (2009)
| Reported high | $700 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $250 ungraded, $583 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The first Spider-Man Noir, launched at the end of 2008 with a 2009 cover date, back when an alternate-universe Spidey was a curiosity instead of a movie franchise. Variants exist and the report doesn’t say which cover took the record, so neither will I.
71. Sentry #1 (2000)
| Reported high | $690 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $53 ungraded, $249 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Bob Reynolds’ first appearance, with the Jae Lee variant selling for roughly double the regular per the report. His film arrival is the demand driver, and it was a low-ordered launch.
72. Black Panther #5 (2009): Shuri takes the mantle
| Reported high | $620 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $60 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $11 ungraded, $85 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The payoff issue to her first appearance above: Shuri becomes Black Panther. Two books, one arc, and collections that hold one usually hold the other.
73. Superman #75, Platinum Edition (cover-dated 1993, on sale late 1992)
| Documented high | Signed CGC 9.8 copies over $600 (circa 2014, per RecalledComics) |
| Floor | RecalledComics guides ordinary platinum copies around $150 near mint, bagged |
| Current market | $9 ungraded for the standard edition, $189 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
Ten thousand numbered platinum copies of the Death of Superman, against millions of the regular editions sitting in closets across America. If yours isn’t the platinum, it’s a five-dollar memory; I cover why in the 90s guide. The famous black bag is packaging, and opening it is the value decision.
74. Batman Adventures: Mad Love, prestige first printing (1994)
| Reported high | $600 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $35 ungraded, $460 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The Dini and Timm Harley origin, an award-winning book in its own right. First printing of the prestige format only; the many reprints and the hardcover carry ordinary prices. If you found a Batman Adventures #12, this is the next book to look for in the same box.
75. Thor: God of Thunder #6 (2013): where Knull begins
| Documented high | $580 reported record (annual report, undated); verified 9.8 sales peaked at $198 in October 2018 per GoCollect |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $31 ungraded, $138 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The God Butcher origin that later became the Knull mythos. Precision matters here: Knull’s first full appearance is Venom #3 from 2018; this book is the confirmed beginning of the story, unnamed at the time. GoCollect documented a lone 9.8 selling for $20 in 2017, then four sales above $150 during 2018 once Knull was named.
76. Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1 (1994)
| Documented high | $550 verified (Mignola-signed CGC 9.8, eBay, April 2021, per CGC news) |
| Floor | No published floor; readable copies trade modestly |
| Current market | $63 ungraded, $350 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Hellboy’s first full-length story; his actual first appearance was a 1993 convention promo, which is its own expensive rabbit hole. CGC’s census as of late 2025: about 1,100 graded, only three above 9.8. Steady rather than spiky, like its character.
77. Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (2000)
| Reported high | $550 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $58 ungraded, $304 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The launch of the Ultimate universe, and the book that made Bendis and Bagley a landmark team. Scarce white-cover retailer variants run higher; the standard edition is common but liquid, and it sells in any grade.
78. Uncanny X-Men #303, Pressman gold edition (1993)
| Reported high | $550 reported record (annual report, undated); RecalledComics guides it at just $25 near mint |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $26 ungraded, $476 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The other board-game gold, and the affordable sibling: this one sometimes shipped with the game, so copies are always around. The gulf between the $25 guide and the $550 record tells you the record was a census outlier. The mail-away #297 gold above is the rare one.
79. Batman #1, New 52 sketch variant (2011)
| Reported high | $500 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $41 ungraded for the standard edition, $150 in 9.8; PriceCharting doesn’t track this variant (August 2026) |
The scarce sketch cover of the Snyder and Capullo launch. The report notes its value falling as reboots piled on top of reboots, which is the structural risk of every relaunch key.
80. Detective Comics #880 (2011): the Jock Joker cover
| Documented high | $500 (CGC 9.8, 2020, per the report’s own dedicated page, down 18 percent from 2019) |
| Floor | 9.6 copies around $225 in the same 2020 reporting |
| Current market | $202 ungraded, $529 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Widely called the best cover of the modern era, from Snyder’s Black Mirror. Another cover-driven key, and an honest one: the report’s dedicated page shows it easing from its peak because supply is genuinely adequate. Its line in their top-100 list is mangled (a record below its minimum), which is why the numbers here come from their dedicated page instead.
81. Batman #635 (2005): Jason Todd returns as Red Hood
| Reported high | $450 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $85 ungraded, $276 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Jason Todd’s return, and the point on this list where records drop under $500. The report notes Robin-legacy books gaining attention. Check the indicia for Batman #635, 2005 on-sale.
82. Uncanny X-Men #500, sketch variant (2008)
| Reported high | $450 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
A low-print sketch variant on the anniversary issue. The standard cover shown here is common; anniversary numbers alone don’t make value, scarcity does.
83. The Hood #1 (2002)
| Reported high | $420 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $40 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
Parker Robbins’ first appearance in a MAX mini so obscure Marvel’s own catalog no longer lists it. Ties to the Illuminati thread below, and genuinely hard to find in the wild.
84. X-Men #5 (1992): the first Maverick
| Reported high | $350 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $7 ungraded, $96 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Maverick’s debut in the biggest-selling series of the era. Print runs were enormous, so this is a high-grade-only play; a reader copy is a reader copy.
85. Silver Surfer Annual #6 (1993): the first Genis-Vell
| Reported high | $350 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $4 ungraded, $91 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The son of the original Captain Marvel, who later carried the name himself. Annuals get skipped in every box sort; this is one of the few worth slowing down for.
86. Amazing Spider-Man #569 (2008): the first Anti-Venom
| Reported high | $350 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $29 ungraded, $100 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Eddie Brock’s white symbiote debuts in New Ways to Die. A Romita Jr. variant exists; the report doesn’t split covers, so treat the record as the book’s, not a specific cover’s.
87. Avenging Spider-Man #9 (2012): Carol Danvers becomes Captain Marvel
| Reported high | $300 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $50 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $26 ungraded, $115 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Her costume-and-name debut as Captain Marvel. The report is candid that the film’s lukewarm reception deflated the book, which fits the pattern running through this page’s whole Captain Marvel cluster.
88. Scalped #1 (2007)
| Reported high | $300 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $12 ungraded, $180 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Jason Aaron’s crime masterpiece, which spiked when Hollywood came sniffing and settled when the pilot died. The book is better than its price chart.
89. X-Men #205 (2007): the first Hope Summers
| Reported high | $290 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $16 ungraded, $146 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Hope Summers arrives in Messiah Complex, as a newborn, which is why collectors argue about what counts as her first appearance. Several variants exist. Priced accordingly, and X-film casting is the variable.
90. Nova #8 (2008): the first Knowhere and Cosmo
| Reported high | $290 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $6 ungraded, $107 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Two pieces of Guardians furniture debut in one issue of a series nobody speculated on. The kind of book that turns up in complete runs, so check the run, not just the keys drawer.
91. Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 (2020): the Punchline book
| Reported high | $285 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $60 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $4 ungraded, $70 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Punchline’s appearance ladder is genuinely contested: GoCollect maps Batman #89 as the first cameo, this issue as either her first full or second cameo depending who you ask, and Batman #92 as the first full plus first cover. I’m not picking a side, and neither should a price.
92. Rachel Rising #1 (2011)
| Reported high | $275 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $11 ungraded, $99 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Terry Moore again, spiking when a show was shopped and easing when it wasn’t, which the report notes with the only good pun on its list. Pairs with Strangers in Paradise above for the Moore completists.
93. Green Lantern #25 (2007): the first Larfleeze
| Reported high | $270 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $15 ungraded, $72 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The Sinestro Corps War finale, with Larfleeze’s first brief appearance; his first full is usually credited to the Agent Orange arc in 2009. A giant-sized issue everyone read and nobody preserved.
94. Runaways #1 (2003)
| Reported high | $260 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $30 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $28 ungraded, $207 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Six kids discover their parents are supervillains, in a low-print 2003 launch that became a beloved series and a TV show. Fallen from its streaming-era heights, still steadily collected.
95. Free Comic Book Day 2007: Spider-Man
| Reported high | $220 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $20 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $14 ungraded, $165 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Mister Negative and Jackpot both debut in a comic that was handed out free and unbagged, which makes high grades scarcer than the giveaway print run suggests. Check the freebie stack you forgot you had.
96. New Avengers #7 (2005): the first Illuminati
| Reported high | $210 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $8 ungraded, $60 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The secret council’s first appearance, in one of the best-selling series of its decade. Common, liquid, and worth pulling in high grade only.
97. 100 Bullets #1 (1999)
| Reported high | $180 reported record (annual report, undated) |
| Floor | $10 reported minimum (annual report, undated) |
| Current market | $36 ungraded, $200 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
Azzarello and Risso’s Eisner-winning crime landmark. It sits with Y: The Last Man and Preacher in the Vertigo-firsts cluster on this page: books whose first issues hold value because people keep reading them, not because anyone speculates.
98. Dark Nights: Metal #2 (2017): the Batman Who Laughs reveal
| Documented high | $110 verified (CGC 9.8, June 2020, GoCollect) |
| Floor | A $50 book in 2018 per the same reporting |
| Current market | $5 ungraded, $52 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The last-page reveal that launched DC’s biggest new villain in a generation. His first full appearance is Teen Titans #12, covered above; this is the moment that made everyone go find it.
99. Dark Nights: The Batman Who Laughs #1 (2018)
| Documented high | $100 verified (CGC 9.8, July 2020, GoCollect) |
| Floor | 12-month average $74 in the same reporting |
| Current market | $19 ungraded, $136 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The one-shot origin, the character’s first solo book. All figures are 2020 vintage; the character’s screen future is the variable that reprices this whole cluster.
100. The Batman Who Laughs #1 (2019): the first Grim Knight
| Documented high | $100 verified (CGC 9.8, May 2020, GoCollect) |
| Floor | 12-month average $63 in the same reporting |
| Current market | $5 ungraded, $63 in 9.8 (PriceCharting, August 2026) |
The 2019 series brought the Grim Knight, a gun-toting evil Batman, because one wasn’t enough. Closing the list at an honest hundred dollars, which is roughly where most valuable moderns actually live.
Selling any book on this list
Whether you came here to sell your Walking Dead #1, sell an Ultimate Fallout #4 variant, or finally move the Goon #1 you’ve owned since 1999, the process is the same one this whole site runs on: photos first, straight numbers, cash anywhere in Southern California. Slabbed or raw, one book or the whole run, and you’ll get the honest answer if what you’re holding turns out to be the twenty-dollar version.
See one of these in your boxes?
Photograph the cover and, for the variants, the corner box or barcode. I’ll tell you what I think you’re holding and make a cash offer, anywhere in Southern California. Modern books, variants, and slabs all welcome.
The famous names that have been sliding
An honest list includes the other direction, because you may own these too and deserve the truth before you build a retirement plan on them. Preacher #1 has fallen a long way from its AMC-series moment; the tracking I could verify shows 9.8s guided around $340, and the same annual report calls it the biggest loser on its own hot list, worth less than half its 2016 value by 2018. Ms. Marvel #1 peaked at $725 in 9.8 in September 2021 per GoCollect and had fallen to a $230 fair market value by mid-2022, down 68% from the top. Television hype inflates comics and then leaves. The books are still good; the prices were visiting.
That’s also the frame for every number above: a documented sale tells you what one buyer paid one day. What a dealer can pay for your copy sits below the sold prices for reasons I’ve written up plainly in what buyers actually pay, and how to run your own lookup is in which price source to trust.
Straight answers on modern books
Are my modern comics from the 2000s and 2010s worth anything in general?
Mostly no, same as every era. Print runs actually collapsed after the 90s crash, but modern comics get bagged and boarded the week they ship, so high-grade copies are everywhere and most books are worth cover price or less. The value lives in first appearances that became characters people love, scarce incentive variants, and small-press first issues from before anyone cared. That’s the whole list above, and it’s short on purpose.
Why do some prices here have dates and others don’t?
Because two kinds of number appear above. A documented sale carries its date, and a record from 2021 is a fact about 2021. A “reported” figure comes from an annual market report that doesn’t publish dates, so it’s labeled undated and you should treat it as ballpark. The “current market” lines are a third kind: PriceCharting indexes eBay sold listings continuously, and I pulled every one of those numbers in August 2026. Either way, check a fresh sold listing before you plan around anything here.
Do you actually buy variants and slabbed moderns?
Yes. Variants price off scarcity and demand like anything else, and slabs are the fastest thing I buy since the grade is already settled; the graded-comics guide covers how I price them. What I don’t do is pretend a tenth printing is a first. Neither should whoever you sell to.
My book is on this list. What’s my next step?
Confirm the printing in the indicia, check the corner box for the edition, be honest about the grade, and then either run a sold-listings search or skip the homework and text me photos: (951) 515-9604. Free, and if selling it yourself would beat my offer, I’ll tell you so.
Dig into the specific books
- The 100 most valuable Golden Age comics, the same list for the books your grandparents kept, 1938 to 1955.
- The 100 most valuable Silver Age comics, for the books of 1956 to 1970.
- Batman Adventures #12: what the first Harley Quinn is worth gets the full treatment of entry six.
- Are 90s comic books worth anything? covers the decade before this list starts.
- New Mutants #98 misses this list’s cutoff by a year and is the decade’s headline key in its own right.
- Selling graded comics explains how the slabbed copies of these books get priced.
Cover images on this page are shown at reduced size for identification, and each remains the property of its publisher and creators. If you are a rights holder and would like an image removed, contact me and it comes down the same day.
