In the immortal words of George Takei from Star Trek "Oh, my!" The latest bargain bin issue to take off is The New Mutants #1. It has jumped to the 20th place on the Bronze Age rankings. Mutants were all the rage in the 1980s, with Chris Claremont at the helm of the X-Men and other titles. The symbolism of mutants was ubiquitous. Along with Wolverine and the popularity of the X-Men came a slew of mutant teams. One such team were these (new) mutants created by Chris Claremont. Can this first New Mutant series consisting of Cannonball, Karma, Mirage, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane be profitable today? After all, this first ongoing series issue has spent the last 30 plus years in the $.50 cent bin.
The popularity of The New Mutants #1 is a veritable mystery to me. Even then, I could not understand why anyone would want to read this comic. But now, it is ranked in the top 20 and is surging in price and popularity. This is probably due to the possible upcoming movie due out sometime late next year. This comic has blasted out of the $.50 cent bins and up the Bronze Age ranking. Who would "have thunk it?" The New Mutants #1 is simply the X-men as babies. These mutants had some interesting powers, were younger (appealing to a different demographic). More importantly, "Jim Shooter (Editor of Marvel) then suggested if Claremont didn't do another mutant book someone else would" (Source: Wiki).
Long-Term returns:
- Grade 9.8 $85 FMV positive return +7.8%
- Grade 9.2 $36 FMV negative return -25.9%
- Grade 8.0 $30 FMV positive return +74.2%
- Grade 6.5 $16 FMV negative return -25%
The New Mutants #1 will get a theatrical release date sometime next year. However, don't expect it to transcend the Bronze Age, "whatever goes up must come down." This is a pure speculation play, in and out, "like a duck mating" (Source: Remo Williams). The New Mutants and all things mutant were uber-popular back in the day, many copies published. How does this measure up on the CGC Census? Well, now things do not look so bad with only 3,000 or so books in CGC. Expect this book to get top-heavy quick, and then come crashing down think Cannonball in an open field. A limited number of copies in inventory means there are still legions of copies outstanding. When this heats up you can expect them to pour in across the globe to the CGC office in Florida. Especially after the movie hits like a Scud missile; yes, Scuds usually miss. Then we will see panic selling, with enough purple covers you will be able to wallpaper your bathroom with them. Currently, there have been 500 slabbed sales of this comic book over the last year and five months.
Short-Term returns (5-months):
- Grade 9.8 $85 FMV positive return +10.7%
- Grade 9.2 $36 FMV positive return +3.7%
- Grade 8.0 $30 FMV negative return -2.9%
- Grade 7.5 $16 FMV negative return -54.4%
The Short-Term results show consolidation in the higher grades and a skew in the low-grade toward negative returns. All in all, the comic book The New Mutants #1 showed improvement over the last five months compared to the earlier 15 months. At this pace, by the time we get to the movie next year; this one will actually be fully valued with possibly double the inventory and potentially triple the price. Rally around The New Mutants #1 before it gets too hot to handle and implodes. My suggestion is to pretend the teen hero Karma (power to possess people) has inhabited your body and pick up a copy. You can probably still find these cheap in the back issue bins, certainly not in the $.50 cent bins, not anymore.
