Also Known As: The Other Number 9!

Curse of the Spawn 9: The Origin of Angela!I love keys. And I love rare books. And I love OAKs. But I especially love when I am the first to introduce a comic book to the CGC Census, and one that combines all three of these virtues.And I did this once before with the very same character that I have since fallen in love with: Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane's angelic co-creation: Angela. That book in question is the Newsstand Variant Edition of Spawn 9: Angela's first appearance. I had the pleasure to debut this rare key variant to the CGC Collectors Society back on March 4, 2013, a few weeks before the announcement of her return to the four-color page, in a journal titled "The Irony of Spawn #9". Since then, a mere 7 of its kind have turned up in population (4 9.8's, 2 9.6's, and 1 9.4), while the Direct Edition has ballooned to a total of 580. So if you compare, the Spawn 9 Newsstand Edition population is currently only 1% of the Spawn 9 Direct Edition, which makes it very rare indeed! And I just added another Newsstand Edition to my collection, bringing my total to 4 (2 9.8's and 2 9.6's)... which means I own 4 of 7 Spawn 9 Newsstand Editions... or 57% overall. We are all familiar with the current story: Angela has been sold by one of her Father's, author and fantasist extraordinaire Neil Gaiman, to Marvel/Disney. They have exhumed Angela's remains from her quiet resting place in the Image Universe, and forcibly reincarnated her in the Marvel U. The redhead beauty made her ho-hum debut in Age of Ultron 10, with a subsequent appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy 5. Angela, in my opinion, is no longer the sexy kick- rogue bounty hunter of the Elysium Fields. No! She's been converted to an obsequious indentured servant of the House of the Mouse and will probably end up guest starring until her popularity and novelty runs dry. And there is irony to all of this since what I love about Angela is her obvious distaste for authority and flippant nature at anyone who pisses her off. Angela is one of the very few characters that I know (other than Satan/Lucifer) to buck the authority of the highest authority... but now she must bow her pretty little head, and clean up her act, and kneel before her new corporate masters, who have sanitized her with a Quesada-conservative-girl-scout-makeover which just makes me want to puke! WTF!The funny thing is... because of all the legal bruhaha once caused over the battle of Angela's ownership rights between McFarlane and Gaiman, McFarlane unceremoniously had her killed off in Spawn 100: lanced through the chest with her own weapon by Spawn's arch-nemesis... the demonic overlord Malebolgia. Angela bled to death with an open chest cavity in the arms of Spawn. So how did she do the impossible? How did Angela come back from the dead? That's a great mystery to explore. But comics being comics... rarely does a character truly stay dead.Rise o' Angelic one... rise like the undead and bow to your new Corporate Masters! Join the mindless zombie hordes, corporate "yes" men, denizens of the Marvel U, and the thousands of indentured peasant factory workers tilling for pennies in lands unknown, who work day and night to provide an endless sea of Disney product for the world to consume! Join them in the creative malaise of Imperial Corporate America! Join them in the staggering great gulf of cosmic oblivion! Join them onto your doom!But if there truly be Marvel Cosmic Gods... a Mighty Marvel All-Father (not Odin but somebody far more omnipotent), then I fall to my hands and knees and pray and beg to him/her to show Angela mercy and give her a chance... a shot at her very own title (not just a mini-series). I think she deserves it!But anyway... getting on to the New Kingdom: The Other Number 9... This is the other Angela key, the other rare one and OAK, which I have the pleasure to debut to you all: Curse of the Spawn 9: The Origin of Angela. Yep! That's right! In these very pages we get a first hand look at the creation of the heavenly creature Angela. Now truth be told, Curse of the Spawn 9 is not a very rare book. No, not at all. There are plenty of raw copies floating in eBay just waiting for someone to pick 'em up, or discover them in the back issue bins of your local LCS. That's how I got these 6, going from LCS to LCS, amassing a total of 20, but cherry picking these 6 as the best of the best from those 20 and getting them graded. But finding a 9.8 or 9.6 wasn't easy... but I am sure there are plenty of mint copies out there. However, for some odd reason, no collector ever got one graded... that is until yours truly came along. So what you see here are the first batch of Curse of the Spawn 9's ever graded: five 9.8's and one 9.6... only six total... which, I predict, for the briefest of moments, makes them rare indeed. But I am certain the word will get out, and by next week 1,000 more will follow.And although the graders of CGC have erroneously omitted this key detail from the Key Notes, Curse of the Spawn 9 is where Angela's origin is first explained. Here's a synopsis I borrowed without permission from ComiXology on Curse of the Spawn 9: "Angela has been commissioned by the survivors of the planet Pentagus-Fraser to destroy the evil ravaging their planet. Amidst the melee, Angela battles the arachnid beast, Argus. She becomes distracted by the face of the mysterious Deurges long enough to become entangled in Argus' Web. After her capture the legend of Angela's origin is revealed in flashbacks of the lives of the sacrificing souls that were blended to become the Heavenly warrior. In each case the last thing they see is the dispassionate face of Deurges". Visit the page at: http://www.comixology.com/Curse-of-the-Spawn-9/digital-comic/42566And so I lord over my new Kingdom and expel all Disney product for my cherished land, and outlaw all goods which exploit the unfortunate. So Sayeth the Monarch of the CGC Kingdom of the Curse of the Spawn 9!Now I must leave you since I must attend a summit with the other Kingdom (Spawn 9 Newsstand Edition)... and just between us... I am planning a consolidation of power! If you know what I mean. Kill the other King! Mu Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!SW3DTo see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.