She-Hulk is back in the headlines, but not for the best of reasons as her first appearance leads the charge in this week's Coldest Comics.
It was a tough round for more than the Savage She-Hulk. Bishop, The Transformers, and Moon Knight all joined the party. What exactly are the Coldest Comics all about? Taken from the Hottest Comics, which ranks the 100 best-selling issues across eBay, these are the five key issues that lost the most positions across the 10, 30, 60, 90, and 180-day marks.
10 DAYS
Will there or won't there be a second season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law? That's been the question for several months, and Marvel Studios has yet to give a definitive answer. Nothing has been made official, but the show's star, Tatiana Maslany, said in January that she didn't think season two would happen, citing budget concerns.
The show itself was mostly a hit with Disney Plus audiences. Mainstream viewers tended to enjoy it more than hardcore comic book fans, but it was overall a success by Disney standards. Whether or not it was successful enough to warrant a second season remains to be seen. What could hinder that next season is Marvel's announcement that the studio would be producing fewer streaming shows going forward, and that could be bad news for She-Hulk fans.
Until Kevin Feige says differently, there's still a chance it could happen, which would explain why the issue ranked 40th only 10 days ago. However, the uncertainty surrounding She-Hulk is exactly why her first appearance dropped 57 spots and is in danger of leaving the top-100 Hottest Comics altogether. What will help the comic make a comeback is that, while She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is in limbo, She-Hulk herself has a future in the MCU. With Captain America: Brave New World being nearly a Hulk movie given its ties to 2008's Incredible Hulk, it's reasonable to think She-Hulk will appear in the film.
30 DAYS
Since the first episode of X-Men '97, the Hottest Comics have been X-Men territory. As the series caught fire and scorched a red-hot trail to the season finale, those key issues only got that much more popular. It's made for an overwhelmingly X-centric top-100 comics on eBay. So what exactly is happening here?
To this point, UXM #282 has been one of the better selling X-Men issues, and that's a big statement considering how popular the X-keys are at the moment. This has long been a go-to '90s collectible, given that it's Bishop's first cameo and cover appearance. Since being given more attention in X-Men '97, the collecting stakes have been raised. Then came a significant drop in sales over the past 30 days, leaving this key on the outside looking in.
This is likely a case of UXM #282 simply not being a priority at the moment. With so many other X-Men titles to choose from, there's only so much room in the budget for comics. The other thing to remember is how easy it is to find high-grade copies of this particular issue. Those 1990s comics had large print runs, and plenty of collectors have spare issues to sale. When there's a surplus of copies, there's no sense of urgency to getting a copy, hence the low sales.
60 DAYS
Disney's decision to trim down its number of Marvel movies and streaming series could be a factor in Moon Knight #1's 49-position drop over the past two months. Just a week ago, it landed in the respectable 33rd spot before it took a drastic fall. Then again, it's consistently getting the yo-yo treatment from buyers for the past year or so.
Like She-Hulk, Moon Knight has yet to the green light for a season two. Although fans weren't necessarily wild for the show, it was a hit with audiences, and viewers particularly enjoyed Oscar Isaac's portrayal of the titular character. Here we are two years later, and nothing has been said about Moon Knight's future. Again, with Disney cutting back on its streaming slate, it leaves doubt regarding that second season.
While we may not know when we'll see Moon Knight in the MCU again, it's unlikely that he's done. Since he is traditionally a street-level vigilante, it wouldn't be out of the question to add him to Daredevil: Born Again. Sure, MK typically deals with the supernatural, but DD has been known to venture into that area at times, so it's not too far of a leap to bring them together. If that were to happen, it would hep Moon Knight #1 rebound in a major way.
90 DAYS
When Robert Kirkman took the reins for the Energon shared universe, it put an extra emphasis on owning those early Transformers comics. Factor in Beast Wars and the tease of a Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie, and we can see why collectors were all over those Transformers keys.
The trouble here is the same as we see with other comics most weeks. In the world of comic book collecting, it's all about the latest news. Around this community, news travels fast, and stories age quickly. Since the big movie tease, there's been nothing about the potential crossover hitting the newswire. Sure, the animated Transformers One sparked a quick sales boost, but it doesn't appear to have truly ignited the secondary market. That has pushed Transformers #1 to the back of the eBay line.
180 DAYS
It's official: Silk will not be getting that live-action show after all. Only days ago, Sony made the announcement that Silk: Spider-Society had gotten the red light and was heading to the development graveyard. Considering Sony's string of poor box office performances from its live-action Spider-Verse, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.
The Silk streaming show had gotten the start-and-stop treatment for years before Sony finally made the official call. Then again, that seems to be the trend for the corporation. The same thing happened with the Silver Sable and Black Cat team-up movie. Then El Muerto, which was supposed to star Bad Bunny, is no longer in active development, and it's been well over a year since there was any news about Donald Glover and Hypno-Hustler. Odds are, none of those projects will see the light of day, and that's probably for the best. It's not like Sony has been producing high-quality entertainment in recent years, at least outside the animated universe.
For collectors, there's a clear lesson here: don't trust Sony. Sure, those announcements about a random character getting a starring role sends buyers rushing to eBay for the first appearance. With all the bad movies and axed projects, most those connected key issues have taken a hit right to the fair market values. The next time Sony proclaims a character is getting a live-action role, hold onto your dollars until you see what actually comes of things.
