Marvel is starting to leak news about its newly acquired FOX characters and today two Marvel characters closely related to the Silver Surfer are making waves (see here). The first is the Surfer’s overlord, the force of nature known as Galactus. The second is the Tyrant.
Say what?
Galactus was pretty much a no-brainer to appear in the MCU, but who on earth is the Tyrant?
If you’re scratching your head about this lesser known character, have no fear because I got you covered with this blog post.
First things first.
Galactus we are told, will likely be introduced in the next wave of movies. I suspect this means either Phase 4 or 5 and if so I would expect him in either ‘the Eternals’, the next ‘Thor’ movie or ‘Guardians III’.
In the Silver Age comics it was not unusual for Galactus to show up in the Thor title; it would be fitting to introduce him in the next ‘Thor’ movie, perhaps announced by his Herald (the rider of the space-ways known as the Silver Surfer? Or, as I’ll discuss below, perhaps not right away….).
If Galactus shows up in 'The Eternals', which is also possible since the Tyrant is involved suggesting we might even get an origin story, then that will only strengthen the value on the already rising tide for this book:
Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966) - First appearance of Silver Surfer; First appearance of Galactus
Like Galactus himself, it seems, nothing can stop this book at this point. The most frequently sold Silver Age comic at the moment, it has been gaining in value like a comet streaking through the cosmos. Currently FF #48 has a FMV of $46, 000.00 in 9.8 graded condition. Marvel dropping hints that Galactus is coming is not exactly going to decrease this already pricey books' value.
Ideally you should have picked this comic up a few years ago, when it was still selling in 8.0 for under $900.00. And that wasn’t so long ago, as recently as 05/02/2016, for example, an 8.0 copy sold on eBay for $820.00. Sure, that’s a lot of money. But today that same 8.0 will cost you $3, 800.00! Whoever purchased this book three years ago is obviously pleased. Moreover, returns have been softening lately on both high, mid and low grades, but remember these recent drops are following a meteoric rise in value and what is more, expect this trend to start to reverse as more news about Galactus leaks from Marvel.
Silver Surfer #81 (June 1993) – First Appearance of the Tyrant
Now we get to the Tyrant. Who is he? The basic facts about the Tyrant are the following: he was a Herald of Galactus (which means he served in the role later held by the Silver Surfer) and he was empowered by Galactus but then de-powered.
In the Marvel comics, he first appears in Silver Surfer v3 issue #81 and is there retconned as one of Galactus’ first ever Heralds. The Tyrant was basically a living machine created by Galactus. Wielding the Power Cosmic, the Tyrant was so formidable that when Galactus discovered that he meant to betray him an ensuing battle followed that effectively destroyed whole solar systems. That could look very exciting on the big screen. In the end, however, the Tyrant was defeated and de-powered, but he later returned and even ended up kidnapping the Surfer.
Currently values on SS v3 #81 are soaring on eBay due to the news. Raw copies are selling for between $20.00- $40.00. As of this writing, there are only a grand total of 7 copies of this comic on the CGC census and only one single sale is recorded. A 9.8 copy sold on eBay on 10/02/2018 for $49.95. In hindsight, and especially if the Tyrant appears in one of the Phase 4 movies, that sale might come to be seen as the ‘buy of the year’ for all of 2018. So start digging through your long boxes, and see if you have this issue.
