Are you collecting your Wolverine keys? You don't want to ignore two of his most popular antagonists: Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike. While Sabretooth's debut remains a hot seller, Lady Deathstrike's first appearance is quietly beginning to heat up.
Following up from yesterday's post, "Weapon X," let's delve into some of the related Weapon X issues. For this post, I'm not featuring New Mutants #98. That comic is a topic unto itself, and I will give you an update and future prognosis on Deadpool's debut in the coming weeks. Today, I'm going to focus on the first appearances of two villains who could end up being major players onscreen: Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike.
Why would I refer to them as future hot commodities? Continuing my analysis of all things Wolverine, these are two of his most iconic adversaries who would transition well into the MCU. Granted, both characters have already made their silver screen premieres. Sabretooth was portrayed in the original X-Men movie in 2000 and re-imagined for X-Men Origins: Wolverine (while I hated the movie overall, I did enjoy Liev Schrieber's portrayal of Victor Creed), and a brainwashed Lady Deathstrike was featured in X2: X-Men United (great movie, but she could have been so much more than just a Terminator-style bodyguard).
Who knows how Marvel Studios will introduce the X-Men (and Kevin Feige has stated in no certain terms that he's in no hurry to get them into the MCU), but it would stand to reason that the uber-popular Wolverine would have a fresh batch of standalone films. What a great hero needs are even greater nemeses, hence Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike. For your reading pleasure, here is the state of the market for their first appearances.
I previously mentioned picking up this issue in "The Collectible Wolverine." This is a yin-yang equation. Sabretooth is a worthy opponent for Wolverine, and the two can't be separated. They are two halves of a whole. If you're buying up your Wolverine keys, you'll want to add Iron Fist #14 to your collection for that reason.
Ever since Marvel Comics decided to back away from the Inhumans in favor of the X-Men, this issue has been steadily climbing. The lowest grade that has sold in the past 90 days is the 2.5, and it last sold for $140 in February, which should give you an idea of how well it's doing.
It's covers like these that make me love Bill Sienkiewicz's artwork. I want to add DD #197 to my collection just for the cover, but there's a bigger picture here: this issue features the first appearance of Yuriko Oyama, who evolves into Lady Deathstrike.
Yuriko's first appearance has been quietly gaining popularity compared to last year. A 9.8, which averaged $110 in 2018, has a 90-day fair market value of $165. Of course that's still off the 2017 pace when it fetched a $173 FMV. However, it's getting back to that figure.
If spending in the $150 range is too much, you are in luck. A 9.6 is averaging close to $50 since this time last year, so you will easily find a copy that will fit your budget.
Although technically her first appearance was in DD #197, Lady Deathstrike debuted in Alpha Flight #33. Frankly if you're going to add the aforementioned Daredevil issue to your collection, you have to pair it with this one. On the plus side, it's less popular and therefore less expensive. At the moment, a graded 9.8 is averaging $94 over the past year while anything from a 9.6 and below has a 90-day FMV under $50.
