“My journey is ended! This planet shall sustain me until it has been drained of all elemental life. So speaks Galactus”

The above words set up the denouement of the story “The Coming of Galactus!” published in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The above dialogue is taken from Fantastic Four #48 where we are introduced to the cosmic being Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, after meeting his herald the Silver Surfer. While Lee and Kirby had already introduced the presence of alien beings early on in their Fantastic Four run (the Skrulls, for example, first appeared in FF #2 and ‘The Watcher’ in issue #13), the appearance of Galactus was nonetheless a game-changing event.

With the arrival of Galactus, Lee and Kirby both upped the ante on the kinds of cosmic beings contained within the Marvel Universe and, simultaneously, established the presence of a much broader cosmic theater from wherein future stories could take place. Jump forward fifty two years and Marvel now has plans to further expand the cosmic aspects of their stories in their Cinematic Universe.

Following on the success of entries like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Parts I and II’ (2014, 2017 – with Part III set for a 2020 release) and the recent ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018) the upcoming so-called ‘Fourth Phase’ of the Marvel movies shows every intention of bringing forth even more of the Kree, Adam Warlock, Captain Marvel and, now that Marvel Studios and Disney have acquired the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, possibly the Skrulls or even the Shi’ar Imperium.

In this post I want to take a closer look at, what can be called, the Marvel Cosmic Keys. These are comics that have been heating up and, at the moment, show no signs of cooling down. Some of these comics are already drawing the attention of collectors, others are more speculative purchases that may soon be highly sought after depending on the direction of the Phase Four movies and how they’re received.

Cosmic Key 1: Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966)

Is it too late to jump on the Fantastic Four #48 bandwagon? I don’t think so. The (as of this writing) second most sought after Silver Age book in Comicdom was for a long time highly undervalued. As mentioned already this comic features the first appearance of the Silver Surfer and when Marvel reboots the FF franchise prices, even in lower grades, will most likely soar just like the Sentinel of the Space Ways himself! Fox recently announced plans for a film, but even if this fails to pan out it’s hard to believe that Marvel won’t make use of the Fantastic Four (and the Surfer or perhaps even Galactus) at some future point. This is a major key in the FF franchise and although the best time to have picked this up was probably after the badly received Fox Studios 2015 FF film, for those on a budget – or if your pockets aren’t as deep as the underground tunnels of Titan – Silver Surfer #1 or Fantastic Four issue #49 –featuring the first full appearance of Galactus are also primed to heat up in the near future. The latter FF key is noticeably less expensive than FF #48 at the moment. For example, whereas FF #48 in 5.0 is currently selling for an average of $700.00, you can find issue #49 in the same grade for less than half that price – get it before prices shoot up!

Cosmic Key 2: Captain Marvel #1 (May 1968)

Captain Marvel, Volume 1 #1 is actually the third appearance of the Kree warrior Mar-vell. The Kree were long term enemies of the Skrulls in the Marvel Universe and unlike their nemeses they’ve already prominently appeared in the Marvel movies (Ronan the Accuser from the first Guardians movie is probably the most notable Kree to appear thus far). It was in the Jim Starlin run on the original Captain Marvel series that we get the second appearance of Thanos (after his debut in Iron Man #55) retroactive  tie-ins in this series also contributed to the celebrated Avengers Kree-Skrull war storyline. With the Captain Marvel movie already announced and early comic appearances of Carol Danvers currently heating up, now is also a good time to pick up this late Silver Age key.

Cosmic Key 3: Marvel Premiere #1 (April 1972)

The being known as ‘Him’ later christened ‘Adam’ in this comic finally takes on his modern appearance as ‘Adam Warlock’. This issue also features the first mention of the Soul Gem that later plays a major role in the ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ series. In the comics, Adam Warlock was closely tied to Thanos and other intergalactic cosmic characters. Warlock will almost certainly be making an appearance in the next Avengers movie and the slowly rising prices of this key are no doubt largely due to that fact.

Cosmic Key 4: The Eternals #1 (July 1976)

This comic has been rising in price in all grades. There’s a reason for that. The characters in the Eternals will apparently be making a Phase Four Marvel big screen appearance. Originally the stories in this Jack Kirby series took place outside of mainstream Marvel continuity. Later, the plot elements introduced by Kirby in the Eternals (such as the Eternals themselves, the Celestials and the Deviants) were integrated into the wider Marvel universe. Thanos’ mother, for example, was revealed to be an Eternal. The current news is that Marvel has greenlighted a big screen adaptation of this title and just hired screen-writers which, of course, means that now is the time to pick up this Bronze Age key.