GeeksAreMyPeeps

In addition to having multiple copies, I've slabbed a bunch, but haven't sold a single one. Should have dumped my NYCC when it was hot. Would have paid for everything

As far as Valiant antagonists go, this is *the* book. There are only a few other major villains and most of them are post-Unity

Would that be the Offenders?

It's meaningful in the grading scale though. 9.9: Mint; 10.0; Gem Mint

A few months ago I was in Midtown Comics, probably trying to track down a Valiant variant. I mostly read Valiant, but have a small idea at what's going on at Marvel and DC. I know that Bendis recently went to DC, and see a new book by him, Naomi #1, on the shelf. "Maybe this is DC's Alias?" I think, and wonder if it's the first appearance. I get on my phone and find that the first appearance is in Green Arrow, and put it back on the shelf. I later find that it's a different Naomi, and now the book s on fire.

True. Heating up, but not hot yet.

I think I changed how I was expressing that and didn't proofread. Should have come out "But they were created that way just before the Direct market."

Most non-variants sell at a discount to cover price. Until a couple weeks ago the same applied to this books. I'm seeing a handful of sales above cover, and variant sales, but it hasn't exploded yet

I'm saying that for decades comics didn't have barcodes. They didn't start adding them until shortly before the birth of the Direct Market.

It's already moving on eBay though. So look locally; you probably will pay a premium online.

Howling Commandos of SHIELD #1 First appearance of Glyph. (Cue Korath meme.) Honestly, I had no clue who the character was until I googled this evening. But Marvel recently registered the trademark, pretty much at the same time as Helstorm, and we know that there's a Hulu show in the works for the latter. So there's a good chance they're going to use the character in other media. This is pretty much the epitome of speculation. High risk, but potentially high reward. Rating Raw NM: 5/10 CGC 9.8: 5/10

Howling Commandos of SHIELD 1 is getting all sorts of action.

I've emailed them about damaged copies in the past. In one shipment all of the incentives had damage. I imagine someone dropped them all as they were getting my order together. In one case they refunded the books and didn't ask for them back. In another case they had me ship them back for a refund. But usually on variants they won't be able to replace them.

Except they weren't the *original* way they were sold. But they were the way they created just before the Direct market.

I work in the graphic arts. Things like typography jump out at me. Yes, the artwork is bad too

I'm looking at the line spacing. "AN ALL-NEW…" is crashing into the comma above

I know you're all going on about the Superman drawing, but that last line of copy is just way too close to the line above

While I do agree this is one of the worst depictions of Captain America ever, this was never cover art. Although rejected cover art would be a good variant theme. Put this on Major X

I managed to get my Daredevil #1 signed by the creative team at a Big Apple Con in 1998. Still have that, and the Clerks books I had Smith sign.

Next up: Shadowman 5, the first appearance of the new Doctor Mirage, Shan Fong. While many of the Valiant title characters have first appearances back during the original run in the '90s, this Doctor Mirage is essentially a new character, (In the new continuity, she's the wife of the character that was the original Doctor Mirage.) She's a staple of the magical side of the Valiant Universe, along with Shadowman and Punk Mambo. There have been a few announcements that a television show for the CW was in development, the latest news coming in December of 2018. While we're focusing on non-variants, it should be noted that many Valiant books in the new line have variants. I'm mentioning books that have room for growth for the order-all covers, but obviously incentives will grow along with that. Pictured here is the A cover. There's an order-all "Pullbox" Variant, which is basically a black cover with a hint of the linework for this cover in a very dark gray, a 1:20 variant, and a 1:125 linewide variant. Raw for order-alls: 6/10 CGC 9.8: 7/10

Okay, time for some Valiant books. I think the rating for pretty much any Valiant book since 2012 is going to be affected in a big way by the success of the upcoming Bloodshot movie. Movie/TV appearances by Marvel and DC characters may temporarily give a boost to the first appearance of the characters involved, but it doesn't do a whole lot to boost readership (with some rare exceptions; I think Guardians of the Galaxy readership probably benefitted from the movie). Basically, I think that movies don't turn non-comic readers into readers. I don't expect Valiant movies to break that trend, BUT, what I do expect to happen with a successful Valiant movie is for readers of Marvel and DC books to check out the line. Most comic readers know who the Marvel and DC characters are already, and either they're reading those books or they're not, and media doesn't change that. But a lot of readers don't know much about Valiant. They're pretty much consistently less than 1% of the market, so there's a ton of room for growth, especially since it's the third biggest shared universe wholly-owned by a single entity (so I'm discounting the various Image books that cross over occasionally). Not every new reader is going to hunt down individual issues or even key issues, but some of them will. My ratings assume at least a halfway decent movie that viewers generally enjoy. Without a decent movie, the future of the Valiant line is probably a big wild card. Ninjak #4 I pre-ordered a bunch of this book, just for the cover, but it turns out that the issue also features the origin of Roku, and first appearances by four of the Shadow Seven (a batch of Ninjak villains). This is the A cover. There are 2 order-all variants, a 1:10, and a 1:20, but I think this is one case where the most abundant cover will turn out to be the winner in the long run. Raw: 6/10 CGC 9.8: 8/10 (the paper on Valiant's non-prestige books make it rather tough to find 9.8s.

Since there *are* a handful of Deadpool appearances that precede it, not particularly high. Maybe a 2 or 3 for raw and a 3-4 for 9.8 (since no one is slabbing Nomad)

One of the things that I like about this book, and the "Fatal Attractions" crossover, and the Sabretooth mini, is that you can pinpoint just about this time as when the Marvel offices start laying out covers on computers. Because someone thought it was necessary to use every font available to them and violate some pretty big typography rules (e.g it's a bad idea to unevenly scale type, because then it appears pinched; check out "OF" "A" and "X" above). One other Deadpool book I think is a good cheap spec is Nomad 4, which is I believe Deadpool's first appearance outside the mutant family of books. You can find them in dollar boxes.

It is probably important to note that it is not Tim Drake in the identity of Red Robin. But then, so many characters have filled so many different roles in the Batman Family. Kingdom Come is Elseworlds. First Red Robin in continuity is Countdown Week 14, but again that's not Drake.