Fresh off the heels of the blockbuster film Deadpool & Wolverine, Heritage Auctions is selling three of THE most important pieces of original art for these two characters later this month. Each piece is truly one-of-a-kind; it's possible that we may not see them sold at public auction again in our lifetimes.
Let's take a closer look at all three of these items.
Heritage is auctioning the original page 14 art of New Mutants #98 which includes the first in-story appearance of Deadpool.
New Mutants #98 is not rare; there are, for example, over 30,000 copies of this issue on the CGC Census. Over 4,500 of them are 9.8s or better. But there is only ONE original page (pg. 14) from New Mutants #98 that Rob Liefeld used to draw the very first in-story appearance of Deadpool. In this page, Deadpool attacks Cable (Liefeld's other famous creation) and introduces himself to the world for the first time:
"You're Nathan, right? I'm Deadpool. Pleased to meet you."
The Marvel universe would never be the same again.
This is the original page of the very first in-story appearance of Deadpool, making it arguably the second most important piece of original artwork related to the character. The most important piece of original art for Deadpool, in my opinion, is the original cover art for New Mutants #98 which is also currently listed for sale on Heritage's website.
The asking price? A cool $7.5M.
This piece has been on Heritage's website for several months so it seems unlikely that it will sell for that amount, however. It's difficult to estimate how much it would sell for since there are few comparables. One comparable might be the original cover art for Amazing Spider-Man #300, a comic published just a few years before New Mutants #98. Ten years ago, the original cover art for Amazing Spider-Man #300 sold for only $140,000. Nearly four years later, in June 2018, it sold for $250,000 through Heritage's Make Offer to Owner program. It's really hard to say what it sell for in 2024, but it seems reasonable that it might sell in the $600,000 to $750,000 range based on its previous two sales.
Even with the commercial success of Deadpool & Wolverine, and that ballpark estimate for the original cover art for Amazing Spider-Man #300, the asking price for the original cover art for New Mutants #98 seems WAY too high. No wonder it's been sitting on Heritage's website for months; this isn't 2021 anymore.
The current bid for pg. 14 of New Mutants #98 is $310,000.
Heritage is auctioning the original concept art for Wolverine.
Signed by Roy Thomas and John Romita, Sr., and drawn by Romita, this is also a truly one-of-a-kind piece of art. Written on the page, Romita himself describes what this item is: "First character sketch of Wolverine -- John Romita".
This is a very unusual item since it's only a sketch and not the original artwork from Incredible Hulk #180 or #181. Nonetheless, this is likely the first time Wolverine was ever depicted. It's also quite clear that Herb Trimpe was inspired by Romita's sketch since one of Romita's sketches is virtually identical to Trimpe's first illustration of Wolverine in the very last panel of Hulk #180.
It's also difficult to price this original artwork since it's so unique but we can take a look at the original artwork for the last page of Hulk #180 which sold on Heritage Auctions for $657,250 over ten years ago in May 2024:
Again, it's very difficult to estimate how much this would sell for today, but you'd think somewhere in the $1M range seems pretty reasonable. It'll be interesting to see how much the original sketch will sell for; the current bid is $80,000.
