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Could THE WEASEL be the next ROCKET RACCOON?
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13 posts in this topic

So just watched the new SUICIDE SQUAD teaser trailer by James Gunn. Now I know he did GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and made famous a little know character ROCKET RACCOON into a major character. Do you think he will do the same with THE WEASEL? Anyway his first appearance is in FURY OF FIRESTORM #35. 

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I'd consider it pretty unlikely. But I suppose it's possible. A number of things will have to go right for anyone to care about Firestorm (2nd series) #35.

  • The Suicide Squad will need to be a (much) better film than Suicide Squad. And it will have to work uphill to perform well; because of COVID, movie theater attendance is going to take a long time to get back to "normal". If no one sees this movie, or no one likes this movie, it won't lift books for its characters.
  • Weasel will have to be a memorable and enjoyable character who stands out from the ensemble cast and who survives the high promised body count. No one is going to be interested in buying the first appearance of a character they didn't like or who died off quickly in his film debut.
  • Interest in the film character will need to translate to interest in his comic debut. Working against that, the original version of Weasel is, erm, rather different than recent uses of the character (and what the teaser suggests we'll see onscreen). Also, not to be too blunt (or hypocritical, given much of what I collect), but the 1982 2nd series of Firestorm is pretty deep into DC drek. With maybe as many as three exceptions (#24, the first appearance of Blue Devil; #61 Cover B, the "Superman Comics" test variant; and... um, okay, two exceptions), the entire run is probably $5-10/book for high grade copies and risks dropping down to clearance bins for random raws. It's tough to lift that kind of material.

By comparison with a couple characters from the first Suicide Squad film, the first appearance of Slipknot (who died quickly) is... #28 from the same Firestorm series, and remains almost utterly worthless. Legends #1 (first appearance of Amander Waller) is a $10 book. The first appearance of Katana is Brave and the Bold #200, which manages to eke out being a $100-120 book in a 9.8 slab (but is also a 64-page giant-size, so high grades are tough, AND is the last issue of the series, AND is the first appearance of two other characters). Detective Comics #524 (first full appearance of Killer Croc) is about the same (recent sales somewhat lower).  A couple of the other characters (Captain Boomerang, Enchantress, Rick Flag) have legitimately valuable first appearances in classic books that... didn't need (or get) a lift from the film.

My guess? I'm pretty sure they'll make Weasel memorable, so if the film isn't an abomination, I bet this ends up like Katana and Killer Croc's books: an FMV of around $100-120 in a 9.8 slab, but not an extremely fast mover on the market, and dropping down toward the $15-20 range for random raws. Brief speculator spikes are always possible, but I don't do that sort of comic book daytrading :censored:. Still, I suppose if you can still snag a pretty copy in the pre-film-teaser $5 range, you might as well; you aren't really out anything either way.

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Based on Cena's description of how he was told to play Peacemaker, I can see his first DC appearance getting a bump. That's Crisis #6, which is also the first appearance of some other characters (Anti-Monitor, Captain Atom in DC; perhaps the other Charlton characters in DC?). Maybe the first issue of the DC Peacemaker mini?

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I am doubtful that Weasel will take off in a similar fashion. Rocket was part of a hugely successful PG-13 mega-franchise, and has appeared in many Marvel movies since. The Suicide Squad looks to be a hard R rated film that won't have the same crossover appeal. To be sure I'm looking forward to Suicide Squad, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to pick the books up if you find them cheap enough, but I can't see it being comparable in the long term.

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On 8/24/2020 at 1:47 PM, Qalyar said:

 A couple of the other characters (Captain Boomerang, Enchantress, Rick Flag) have legitimately valuable first appearances in classic books that... didn't need (or get) a lift from the film.

I'm pretty sure the 1st Enchantress got a jump around the time of the first film, but I may be misremembering the exact time frame.  I know her 1st appearance was dollar bin fodder for decades.  It may just be that the film led the last of the not repriced in 20 years copies to finally evaporate.

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On 8/25/2020 at 4:51 PM, Toz said:

Oh.Thought this was the Weasel you were talking about.This I could see being popular & getting hot.

Cover for Weasel Patrol (Eclipse, 1989 series) #1

Real collectors know the money will be in their first appearance, not their solo title. I think that's Fusion #5 (Eclipse Comics, 1987). However, that indicates I have some really misguided brain cells storing information I don't need, so I almost hope I'm wrong.

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