Gatsby77

C’mon man - if you can’t see both the humor and truth of the DC v Marvel comparisons by now, you’re just being willfully obtuse. When are we getting a Flash / Flashpoint film? 2023? Is that before or after we see: Justice League 2 Cyborg Deathstroke Lobo Gotham City Sirens Justice League Dark The Trench New Gods Deathstroke

You know she shot Steve Rogers in Captain America 25, right?

Yeah - seriously? As I contended last week, as soon as we saw Sharon call Batroc, it was obvious she was the Power Broker. Yeah - I worked through the possibility of its being Madame Hydra and there was some internet chatter that "okay, it's Sharon...but the Power Broker identity itself is really a deep cover fiction and she's secretly working for Nick Fury," etc. I think the latter would be a cop-out -- it's far stronger to have her work as a 3rd party anti-hero (see also, Ilysa from Mission Impossible V and VI). Again, nothing we haven't seen before in shows like Homeland (seasons 4 and 5, especially), but still a solid set-up for future stories.

I watched with closed captioning on, and during the scene with the helicopter, the subtitles refer to him as "Captain America." That was a bit jarring.

? I liked Falcon and the Winter Soldier - and really thought they stuck the landing with this episode. But it's not in the same league as WandaVision - which was original, audacious, and nearly flawless in its execution. They literally took a pair of D-list characters and crafted a crazy entertaining mystery around them that gave them both complexity and psychological depth. I can't even imagine how the pitch meeting for that series went. By comparison, Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a solid spy story, but nothing we haven't seen before - and better done - in shows like Homeland, The Americans, Jack Ryan, etc. And honestly, it could have been folded into a half-season arc of Agents of Shield and I don't think anyone would have noticed much difference. Again - good, and I *really* like this last episode and what they've set up for a season 2 - but WandaVision it wasn't.

Well, yes. As "that one guy talking about how a trailer will not create buzz," I feel obliged to answer. I've been collecting comic books since 1989, and Wolverine was my favorite character. My first issue of Wolverine off the rack was # 17 - with its now-classic John Byrne cover. It was the first series where I specifically went back and finished to # 1. My copy of (ongoing) # 1 is signed and personalized to me by the inker, Al Williamson. My copy of Hulk 180 is signed and personalized to me by original artist Herb Trimpe (may they both Rest in Peace). I continued buying - and reading - the title off the rack through issue # 81, when it rose to $1.95 cover. And yes - in those 30+ years of collecting, I've seen keys fall as well as rise -- even ASM 129 - first appearance of the Punisher, which lost 2/3rds of its value in the the late 90s, with Near Mint copies falling from $300 to $100. Even TMNT # 1 fell out of favor around this time period, falling from ~$400 to $150 in FMV. I don't believe Wolverine Ltd. Series 1 is a legitimate $1,000 book. It may not fall back to $500 in 9.8, but I certainly believe it will fall back down to $600-$650. We'll see a year from now. Again, it's hard for folks who haven't been in this game awhile to understand just how common this book is. Weirdly, Ltd. Series # 1 (1982) is easier to find in 9.8 than the 1988 (ongoing) # 1. And multiple people on this thread (myself included) have noted how we never had to even seek out the Limited Series, because we'd naturally find them in any collection of '80s books, often in bulk. There are literally more copies of this book in CGC 9.8 than the entire print run of TMNT # 1, and for a long time, it was the most slabbed CGC book on the planet.

Honestly, for pure investment sake, I'd get # 1 in 9.6 (x 3) for $900 (if you're patient) or $1,000 total (if you're not). Because over time, the 9.6 : 9.8 price ratio will close up again. It's common in both grades. I can't see justifying a 3.5x or 4.0x multiple for 9.8 over 9.6 when there are 30 copies above 9.8 out there already.

See a lot of newbs on this thread. A poster above notes that 3 years ago raw 9.2-9.6 copies of this book went for ~$50 shipped. That's correct. More importantly, just two years ago (i.e., spring 2019), slabbed 9.8s were going for $275 -- or just under $300 shipped. Now we're supposed to believe the book's sustainably worth $1,000? And that this price will seem cheap in two years? Good luck with that, I just don't see that a Disney+ anthology show (or even 9th movie) featuring Wovie will result in a huge new influx of fans. Folks know who he is -- this is the polar opposite of Tales of Suspense 39 in 2007 before the release of Iron Man -- or even Special Marvel Edition 15 before last week, with the release of the Shang-Chi trailer. In each of those cases, the film trailer (and subsequent movie) introduced the character to a broad audience. But somehow a 9th Wolverine -- or 8th X-Men movie, is supposed to make this book skyrocket? I just don't see it.

Hard not to consider a mainstream Marvel from 1982 that goes for $1,000+ in 9.8 a key. Especially when it’s common as dirt. It’s the first solo Wolverine, solidified his popularity - and (again) both the cover and story are considered classics.

Half right. I'm with you that in my (also) 30+ years of collecting, I've never thought "oh, I want this book." But at one point I owned 7 raw copies in 9.0-9.8 because literally *every* 80s collection you find has this miniseries in it -- far more often than you'd find the Punisher mini from a few years later. So every time I bought any issue of the Wolvie mini, it was always an incidental part of a bulk buy. But it is *absolutely* key. Classic character, cover and story - and what made Wolverine a superstar, far beyond what Byrne and Claremont had been doing with him in the Uncanny run. Problem is - like ASM 252 or Spectacular Spider-Man 1 or Spawn 1, they're *everywhere.*

I'd wait 5-6 months on this book. Here's why: 1) I really think the run-up in all collectibles over the last 6-9 months (including not just comic books, but also baseball cards, basketball cards, video games, sneakers, etc.) has to do with the pandemic - rich people can't travel, can't go out to eat, so they've poured that vacation money into collectibles instead. This will subside a bit once society largely opens up this summer. 2) Wolverine # 1 is the #5 most-slabbed comic ever, with 17,700+ copies on the census, 3,850 of them in CGC 9.8 or above. Yeah yeah demand...but this book was hoarded upon release and is the opposite of rare - even nearly 40 years later.

Man - I guess that Sam training montage really put it over the top!

I once bought a pile (maybe 30 or so books) of early Our Gang comics via eBay from a guy in Puerto Rico. Included # 1 - first appearance of Tom & Jerry - that presented as solid 4.0s to 4.5s, but for the mold. Kept them in the kitchen for a few days before my girlfriend, repulsed from the smell, made me move them to the backyard shed. I mean, she wasn't wrong - but that was my first experience with moldy comics.

But...we already saw Walker training similarly with the shield - back *before* he had the super soldier serum. And using it in battle. So the show had already established mere mortals could train with it; Sam here is no different.

Underwhelming. From the looks of it, I'd rather re-watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Then again, it can't be worse than Iron Fist.

Exactly - I love that they brought in Isaiah's story, which basically parallels that of the comics. But I think the key part of his episode 5 scene with Sam was his statement that "America will never allow a black Captain America" - which Sam will set out to prove wrong. Times have changed since WW2 and Isaiah's experience. And Sam can be the one to pick up that mantle today.

But...Steve Rogers already gave Sam the shield in Endgame - basically annointing him his successor. Any outrage at - or accusations of -- "Marvel's only doing this for political correctness" belonged to *that* movie - not this show, which is just filling in the backstory of Sam assuming the mantle he was already given. Similar to Nick Fury or Johnny Storm being black, there's nothing that says a modern Captain America (or even modern James Bond) can't be black -- or even Native American.

Not necessarily powers, but for the source of his powers, The Black Terror rules. Powers: He can punch really hard. Source of his powers: Huffing ether. For real - the dude gets high and "becomes a superhero"

Another good question is which book went from cover price to $100 the fastest? X-Men 94 took 7-8 years to do so. Harbinger 1 did it in 16 months.

Disagree about Cable - New Mutants 87 didn’t go supernova until he fought Wolverine 6 months later. Howard the Duck’s a solid pick. For the modern era, I’d go with Carnage - ASM 361 had a $1.25 cover price and was a solid $8 book - if you could find it - by the time # 363 hit the stands. Even 362 hit $5-6 within a week or two. Other books of that era had faster rises but few have stayed relevant 30 years later. (An example of the latter - Ren & Stimpy # 1 was an instant sell-out & an $8-12 book within 2 weeks but today nobody cares.) Even Batman Adventures 12 took a few years - early on Mad Love was the bigger book.

Sure. But even without this week's scenes, the most compelling evidence Sharon's the Power Broker is the lack of other logical suspects among folks we've seen so far. Introducing a new character in the role next episode is a possibility, but given I'm not sure the Power Broker's even been mentioned in two episodes, and we've already got the coming showdown involving Sam, Bucky, Walker, and the Flag Smashers, an 11th hour reveal of a new character seems unnecessary and lacks the narrative punch of an official Sharon reveal. It'd also be an interesting twist since in the comics version of Civil War (Captain America 25), she's the one who killed Steve Rogers.

Two other things point to Sharon: 1) The lack of other suspects. If it's not her, who? Only other strong contender so far was this week's guest - but 1) I suspect she won't appear again next week, but be held in reserve for later stories; and 2) if she were the Power Broker, why not follow the comics and have her give Walker the super soldier serum, by simply having her appear an episode or two earlier? 2) I hate this is a thing, but

Exactly. I think the author of this article is being far too literal / naive. From the context of the two Batroc scenes in Episode 5, it was clear to me that Sharon re-hired him to infiltrate the Flag Smashers as a double agent. However, we also never heard him accept her offer. So yes - there's a *possibility* that he rejected her money and - in an ideological huff - decided to defect to the Flag Smashers to try to screw Sharon for her (perceived) earlier betrayal. TBD, but the latter theory requires several assumptions, whereas the former requires only one and follows logically - that her "job" for him was to infiltrate (and ultimately double-cross) Karli & crew. I'm going with the former, and the strong (albeit rebuttal) presumption that she's the Power Broker.

So

Cool. Cool. Next are you gonna' claim that fans rejoiced at the casting announcements of Michael Keaton as Batman and Heath Ledger as Joker too?