Gatsby77

Like a whole bunch of kids, I started collecting comic books during the summer of 1989, due largely to the Batman movie. But it was also a *great* time to be a comics fan. Batman was rocking - with Year 3 and A Lonely Place of Dying (which introduced Tim Drake's Robin) Classic X-Men was reprinting the Dark Phoenix Saga (but with new Jim Lee covers) Future Image superstar artists were in the thick of their iconic Marvel runs (McFarlane finishing up on ASM, Lee just starting on Uncanny X-Men) But I started collecting in earnest the month that Acts of Vengeance started. The idea was simple - the MCU's villains decided to switch it up, fighting different heroes than their usual. So we got the Reavers and Doctor Doom taking on Punisher; the Mandarin taking on the X-Men; Magneto taking on Spider-Man; etc. It was a really fun three months, with Spider-Man becoming Super-Spidey via the power of the Cosmic Cube, and other random storylines. My question is, for those who remember it, what's the biggest lasting legacy of the storyline (if any)? My nominations: 1) The introduction of the New Warriors (Thor 411-412) 2) First new Psylocke (Mandarin turns her from British to Japanese ninja assassin, illustrated by Jim Lee) 3) ASM 328 -- Cosmic Spidey v. Hulk battle, which marked McFarlane's last issue on ASM and his last Hulk artwork

Fun fact - when I was 11 years old I went to my local Encore Books and flipped through a few mainstream superhero comics. And the trio I picked out - and brought home - traumatized me. 1) Captain America # 345 - my first encounter with John Walker. Who, in his guise as Captain America, beats some goons to death. 2) Wonder Woman # 20 - "Who Killed Myndi Mayer?" - It turns out, she killed herself, drug overdose via heroin. 3) Batman: The Killing Joke - in which the Joker blows out Barbara Gordon's spinal column and she's shown falling backwards, crashing through a glass table. Comic books in the summer of 1988 were exceedingly brutal.

Also - resto wasn't *nearly* as stigmatized then as now. Recall that the main reason Nicolas Cage left comic book collecting (the first time) was discovering *tons* of undisclosed resto on his books once CGC came around and he sought to get them slabbed. I mean, I'd gladly buy nearly all the keys at advertised prices, but grading (and resto) standards today are an order of magnitude stricter, so anyone expecting today's 9.4s in 1980 had better be satisfied with a true 8.0 (slight color touch).

This - 1980 "NM" is likely a solid 8.0-8.5 by today's standards. Heck, the CGC Census today shows only 13 copies of AF 15 above 9.0, not counting duplicate upgrade attempts. And it was a *big* deal when the White Mountain copy (now a 9.4) sold for (I believe) $40,000 around 1990. That was the first time anyone had paid "Golden Age money" for a Silver Age book. I want to see the opposite of the cheap books - the $10-$20 hot books in 1980-1985 that eventually plummeted. Let's see $10 Howard the Duck # 1s, Shazam # 1s, $20 GI Joe # 2s, $10 Fish Police # 1, etc. For instance, that multi-page catalog above has a few gems: Howard the Duck # 1 (G / VG range) for $15 Conan # 1 (G / VG range) for $50

Up to now, yes - because the monetary amounts were small and it wasn't enforced. But I see the logical end game of this as two-fold: 1) A future where the digital NPT of a piece of classic original art is actually worth more than the original (may be unthinkable right now, but not in the future) 2) A future where Marvel / DC / Image etc. expressly forbid artists from using their characters for sketches / other works unless expressly authorized, whether traditionally "published" or not. Yes - we've seen traditional cases such as Air Pirates Funnies where Disney went after the underground comics producers for unauthrorized use of Disney characters. But what if it now becomes illegal for Jim Lee or Neal Adams to do a Batman sketch or Jim Starlin to do a Thanos sketch because the NFTs of said sketches could net them tens of thousands of dollars each? Hell - Disney could even forbid Liefeld from doing Deadpool sketches without officially licensing the character for use or giving the company a cut...

Here's my trio from the January Comiclink auction, referenced in the original post.

This has been happening in comics since forever, long before the internet came on the scene. Mile High Chuck even detailed it in one of his "Tales from the Database" columns back in 2003 or so: https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg81.html Everyone should read this, as I still remember it, even 10+ years later. An example from his column: "The thing to realize here is that Bob Overstreet does not sell any comic books. He compiles sales data that he receives from comics dealers. That makes him a prime target for all sorts of efforts to raise the values of certain genres. The simplest trick is for two dealers to "sell" each other books at inflated values. Let's say that dealer #1 has an ACTION #1 that hasn't been moving, while dealer #2 has a set of Captain America #1-#10 that he hasn't turned over in a while. Each dealer writes the other dealer a check for $200,000, and they swap inventory. The checks cancel each other out, but now each can report that they "sold" those books for record prices. This happens far more frequently than you would think..."

Good luck with that. Banking on an FF movie changing public perception is a fool's errand. Somehow, with Disney producing, the 5th time will be the charm? The thing is, two of the four FF movies were actually pretty good. Perfect? No. But assuming that a Disney version will somehow make popular a team that's already been seen on-screen four times seems like a lot of wishful thinking...

Psylocke

Ooh...I'd forgotten about Elektra. Aside from one training sequence, it was nearly unwatchable. Like at least Ghost Rider is so bad it becomes fun to watch the camp - and Nicolas Cage doing his Nicolas Cage thing. But Elektra was just a pure-play misfire.

Some of these are fair points, even as I think the series got progressively better, especially with episodes 7-9, culminating with 9 being the best episode of the series. That said, of your points, I most agree with and was annoyed by: How/why Hayward is a villain - they could have cleared this up (esp. his motivations re. killing Wanda and the twins) with 30 seconds' more dialogue. CGI Battle - specifically Vision v. Vision in the sky - it was so laughably bad it took me out of the moment. Where is Albino Vision - conversation already touched on this above, but my take is he went off somewhere else, but can be held in reserve for future MCU movies as a surprise reinforcement / Deus Ex Machina -- my read on the Ship of Theseus convo is yes - they are both equally "Vision," so the MCU now has two (good) Visions from which to draw (sort of Iron Man / War Machine-style or two Captain Marvel (Carol and Monica)-style) If "The Hex" is gone, isn't Agatha free? - This *really* annoyed me. Like 5 minutes after Wanda says "you'll live in here forever," Hex Westview ceases to exist. Huh? WTF?

To which project are you referring? I know about Superman Lives, but was he up for a Marvel project at some point?

As was Shane Black. While I haven't yet seen The Predator and have heard it was garbage, a good rule of thumb is "don't mess with a Shane Black -script." He's easily among the top 5 action film writers of the last 30+ years, maybe top 3 (by ratio of "amazing" to "mediocre").

Thanks - I never read that or heard it from her side; only Shane Black's.

I imagine a lot of SS # 3 speculators are going to be as butt-hurt about this show as folks were about the Trevor reveal in Iron Man 3, which I still thought was *brilliant.* Again, the main flaw with Iron Man 3 was having Killian be the primary villain - not Maya, as Black had originally written. I've never read confirmation, but I suspect it had to do with the perception that female action figures don't sell.

I said it before (after episode 7) but I’m glad they kept the story as simple as it was - no Mephisto, no Dr. Strange. Just Wanda going on a psychotic break as a way to cope with her intense grief. it was a good story, well-told. And it firmly establishes Wanda as one of the most powerful beings in the MCU, and gave us Photon and white Vision.

Disagree. She’s been one of the most powerful heroes in the comics since at least House of M. And in the MCU, putting aside Agatha’s statement that she’s more powerful than Dr. Strange (which I thought we all already knew), in Endgame she was one of only a few Avengers who nearly single-handedly took out Thanos.

The answer to # 1 is an easy yes. If the book is understood to be limited to "X" number of copies, it should continue to be (generally) understood to have that print run even if you lose the slab (and thus, exact number). Shouldn't matter if it's slabbed with the original number or not. Example - VVSS valiant books. While ideally they come with the original embossed certificate number, some have been separated from them in the ensuing 20+ years. Others are "considered" VVSS books despite not being officially part of the run (example: the signed run of Bloodshot # 6). Example - Sealed packs of early Image books. I have sealed packs of WildCATS 0-4 and (I think) Spawn # 1-5 from some sort of 1992 re-seller like American Entertainment. These packs are individually numbered (out of something like 25k). Are the books worth more sealed rather than raw? No. The only reason they might go for (slightly) more is the sales angle that they're "probably 9.8" (which is itself a fallacy. Example - uber high-grade EC books.Yes - the Gaines File Copies are more desirable, but that doesn't mean that non-Gaines CGC 9.6 or 9.8 are worth considerably less money. And in some cases, the highest-graded copies of the books aren't actually Gaines File Copies after all.

True sale price of that set was $1,900. But the 1996 set's also been expensive for awhile now, well before the recent (last 45 day) run-up in the 1992 Marvel Masterpieces and 1990 Marvel Universe sets. Why? 1996 was post-bubble: Only 30,000 boxes produced (vs. 350,000 for the 1992 series).

I thought this episode was the best so far. And at this point I neither want Mephisto to show up nor think he will. It's a stronger story if it's all just Wanda having a psychotic break due to her grief.

The writing re. Jessica Biel's character annoyed me. though. The *last* thing a slayer would do is put in ear buds that effectively nullifies her hearing when going into battle. But the performances of Ryan Reynolds - and Parker Posey - made up for that writing gaffe.

I don't recall if I read the specific "controlling interest" (i.e., 50%+) in the fine print months ago or not. But if this were legit, you should be able to buy 501 of the shares at IPO and then force a sale yourself. Or even simply buy the book outright by buying 100% of the shares from the jump. It was clear from the fine print that neither of those scenarios was possible. Again, the buyers have no underlying claim to the book.

Excellent analysis. But I'd add a few key points from the prior Rally Rd. thread: 1) The fine print says your share doesn't actually entitle you to any of the underlying asset. It's like a mortgage-backed security, but here you don't have any claim to the mortgage, 1/1000th or not. 2) In at least one case (I believe the Michael Jordan rookie card), Rally Rd. itself bought it. So in that situation, Rally Rd. was a) was the majority share owner (thus majority seller), b) set the share price, and c) was the ultimate buyer. That's a great gig if you can get it, and not suspicious *at all.* 3) The IPO price is always 20-30% above FMV. Just because you divvy something up into 1,000 cheaper units doesn't magically make the total worth more. Just ask WeWork. 4) As Bob Storms put it so eloquently, "If I'm splitting the cost of a book, I'm putting my co-investors in at the wholesale price, not the retail (+20%) price." 5) Because each individual comic is set up as a separate entity, it's possible for Rally Rd. to declare bankruptcy *just on that particular comic* and underpay its investors - without endangering Rally Rd. as an overall entity at all. 6) It was clear from at least three of the SEC documents that Rally Rd. "bought" the comic from Metro at just 20% down, with a promise to pay the balance out of IPO proceeds later. So in effect, the IPO "investors" are just subsidizing Rally Rd.'s purchase, separate and apart from their 20%+ mark-up on the initial share-price.

No. That's in more of the fine print. Rally Rd. itself has 50%+ ownership, so there's no way for outsiders to take a controlling interest and force a sale. And that futures market based on 12-month GPA average sales wouldn't work because most books at this investment level would have 1-3 sales annually, at most. Too easy for the "big guys" to manipulate with a single inflated (or deflated) sale. For example, what's a CGC 8.5 FF # 1 worth? Last GPA sale was almost two years ago, and it's gotten far hotter on Marvel movie re-boot movie news since then.

Oh - I'm still sure it's suspect as hell - especially given the fine print that your "share" doesn't give you any underlying claim to the book itself. It's the equivalent of sponsoring a kid in Africa or (as someone noted earlier) a certificate noting you've bought a "moon rock" (without the actual rock itself). And, as for buying 0.01% ... or even 0.0000001% of something, I'll stick with blue chip stocks, thanks. Hell - I'd rather "invest" in boxes of comic book cards than pretend I own a small piece of Silver Age key I'll never actually see. Let's wait until JPMorgan Chase or Goldman Sachs establishes an ETF based on movements in RallyRd.'s "portfolio" of comics - that'll be the ticket!