Potential spoiler below regarding Fantastic Four: First Steps!
If you're a fan of New Rockstars on YouTube, then you may already know that Erik Voss appears to have confirmed that Franklin and Valeria Richards, the children of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, will play an important role in the 2025 film Fantastic Four: First Steps. According to Voss, Galactus comes to Earth seeking Franklin (and potentially Valeria as well). Screenrant also published a similar theory on its website.
While I don't necessarily recommend speculation if you're concerned about guaranteeing an ROI, spec is fun! Let's take a closer look at the current market values for the first appearances of these two characters.
The 1st appearance of Franklin Richards has lost about 69% of its value since 2021.
Fantastic Four Annual #6 (1968) is a double key since it contains the first appearances of two important characters: Annihilus and Franklin Richards. It contributes about 34 points to GoCollect's Fantastic Four CPI. In its very highest grades (9.4 to 9.8), this issue has increased in value over the past five years in spite of the current downturn; however, a pattern emerges at grades 9.2 and below.
In general, grades 9.2 and below all show the emerging market bubble in 2020-21 and how that bubble popped in early 2023. The most common grade on the CGC Census, a 6.5 (310 universal blue labels), reached an all-time high of $717.89 in April 2021. This book then proceeded to plunge in value reaching a two-year low of $168.93 in November 2023. That's a whopping 83.5% drop in value in just two and a half years.
On the other hand, there's evidence that this book may have turned the corner. Today, according to GoCollect, the one-year average of a 6.5 is $206 and the current FMV is back up to $210. The most recent 6.5 sold for $225 on eBay last month.
With the Fantastic Four finally about the enter the MCU next year, it could be a good time to pick up a copy of Fantastic Four Annual #6 since its value has been steadily improving over the past two years. Of course no one can predict the future, but it doesn't look like you'd have to worry about catching a falling knife.
Valeria Richards has several "first appearances."
Just about any serious comic collector has heard of Franklin Richards, but his sister, Valeria Richards, isn't a household name. She is the Modern Age version of Adam Warlock; it's hard to pin down which issue is her "first appearance." Even by Marvel's standards, Valeria has a very bizarre origin story. In Fantastic Four #267 (1984), Sue Storm suffers a miscarriage while she is pregnant with Valeria. Years later, in Fantastic Four #15 (1999), we are introduced to Valeria Von Doom. Valeria is later revealed to be the second, unborn child of Reed and Sue, whom Sue had apparently miscarried years before; Franklin, however, had transferred Valeria's essence into Sue prior to the miscarriage. After reality is restructured by Franklin, Valeria regresses into an embryo and appears in the womb in Fantastic Four #50. A few issues later, we see her as a baby in Fantastic Four #54.
Got that?
I highly doubt that we'll see this story play out on the big screen, but it sounds like we'll see some version of Valeria in the film. Among the books listed above, the market currently prefers Fantastic Four #15. According to GoCollect, the current FMV of a 9.8 is $100 with the most recent sale of a 9.8 selling for $112 a few months ago on eBay after receiving nine bids.
