Following the release of Creature Commandos earlier in the year, and the hype surrounding the release of Superman in July, James Gunn's DC universe is off to the races.
Last week, Variety magazine announced a new animated series focused on Mister Miracle, a character created by Jack Kirby in 1971 as a part of his New Gods storyline. Like all of the New Gods, Mister Miracle is essentially immortal, possesses superhuman strength and speed, and is known as the universe's greatest escape artist. Perhaps most importantly, Mister Miracle is the adopted son of Darkseid, the most powerful villain in the DC universe. According to Variety, the show will be based on the 12-issue comic book series Mister written by Tom King.
Mister Miracle's 1st appearance is showing signs of strength both in terms of sales volume and values.
We are seeing some signs of strength in Mister Miracle's first appearance in Mister Miracle #1 (1971). In terms of sales volume, demand is rising for this issue -- it's now ranked #9 on GoCollect's Hottest Bronze Age comics during the past 10 days (and brand new to the list):
The value of Mister Miracle #1 is also rising substantially in certain grades. For instance, if you take a look at one of the most common grades on the CGC Census, a 9.0 (213 universal blue labels), the 30-day average ($234) is noticeably higher than the 90-day average of $217 and the one-year average of $199:
Considering that the entire comic book market (with the exception of the Golden Age) has been stuck in a long-running bear market, this upward trend in sales is a strong indicator that there is indeed likely renewed interest in Mister Miracle. This 9.0 with white pages sold for a one-year high of $248 on June 17 just a few days after the Variety article:
This particular 9.0 likely received an additional boost due to the fact that it came from a unique collection -- the FANTAST Collection featured in the Selling Superman documentary.
You might be able to buy Darkseid's 1st full appearance on the dip.
The more significant character that will be introduced in the Mister Miracle TV show is Darkseid who may become the "big bad" of Gunn's DCU. Unlike Mr. Miracle's first appearance, Darkseid's first appearance in The Forever People #1 has generally remained flat in value over the past year, but there are some recent signs of weakness. For example, this CGC 8.5 sold for only $139 (a figure which even included Heritage Auction Buyer's Premium) on June 10th:
To me, this buyer got a great deal on a major Bronze Age key issue in a solid grade. Case costs alone would exceed $70 for this book. And this book isn't an outlier. On June 8, this 9.2 (top 25% on the Census for this issue) sold for only $239 during an auction hosted by eBay:
So there are deals to be had for Darkseid's first full appearance. And I think we can be sure that Darkseid won't be a "one and done" villain in Gunn's DCU. This could be a good time to pick up a copy?
