Laugh all you want, but Darkhawk's first appearance is actually doing quite well. As a new member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, his first appearance has the chance to earn you a decent profit.

These days, all it takes is the mention of a new character being introduced to send comic collectors into a feeding frenzy, which automatically drives up prices even if the character is, well, lame. (I'm pointing the finger at Weapon H, aka "Hulkverine." Give him all the solo titles you want; he's still a pandering mashup of a character.)

Back in the 1990s, we had a slew of new characters whose debuts we collected in hopes that it'd make us rich someday. Most of these were forgettable, like Wild Thing, Doctor Nemesis, Triathlon, etc.

But there's one who just won't go away, Darkhawk. He's the butt of many collector jokes, but when it comes to value, you'd be wise to take Darkhawk #1 seriously.

There was never anything special about Darkhawk. He was a generic, early-90s Batman/Iron Man ripoff with very little to offer fans that they hadn't repeatedly seen. Still, the title sold enough copies to keep it printed regularly for four years, and he's remained in the Marvel continuity for almost 30 years now. I guess there's something about that 90's appeal that has given him a cult following.

Last year, Darkhawk fans had their devotion acknowledged when he was given a one-off Darkhawk #51 as part of Marvel Legacy. Now he's being featured in promotional artwork for the forthcoming Donny Cates/Geoff Shaw Guardians of the Galaxy run. While I'm not anticipating Darkhawk to suddenly become a centerpiece of Marvel Comics, he's certainly poised to have a larger share of the spotlight than he's had in decades.

As we get closer to that January GOTG release, values for Darkhawk #1 are faring well. Just about every grade has peaked for record highs this year. The graded 9.8 sold for $350 on August 12; the previous high had been $210 from a sale last year. What's more is that since June 20, only three 9.8s have sold for less than $200.

The most sudden jump in price, at least for the record high, has been the 9.6. For four years, the high had stayed at $70, until last year when it finally cracked that with a $77 sale. This year, that figure was completely obliterated with the June sale of $175. Granted that has been an outlier, considering that no other 9.6 has crossed into the triple figures, but it has regularly brought between $50-$80 in the past 90 days.

The graded 9.4 is teetering on the edge of a record high sale. Since 2017, the mark has firmly remained at $50. However, that could be eclipsed come January with Darkhawk's featured part in GOTG. Over the past eight sales, five of those have been for $45 or more. The most recent sale on November 19 was for an even $50.

To a lesser extent, both the 9.0 and the 9.2 also have garnered new highs. After steadily selling for $30 for four straight sales, the last sale of a 9.2 was for $48, breaking the previous record of $40 set in 2017. Similarly, the 9.0's most recent sale also set a new high of $30.