It’s hard to believe that we’ve been without the Fantastic Four for over two years now. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four are to Marvel what Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman combined are to DC. In short: it is literally impossible to conceive what the Marvel Universe would even look like if the Fantastic Four had never appeared.

Yet, Marvel had cancelled their longest running ongoing series (last helmed by Jonathan Hickman), and instead seemed intent on keeping its writers busy with yet more Secret Wars, Civil Wars and an evil Captain America, among various other ongoing projects.

But deep down we all knew that Marvel wouldn’t get rid of Reed, Susan, Ben and Johnny permanently, since– let’s face it- Marvel wouldn’t be Marvel without their first family.

So it can’t really be a surprise that the FF are back.

What is surprising is, now that the Disney/Fox deal is practically assured of going through (and never underestimate the fact of Fox’s having had the rights to all things FF over the last few years playing a part in Marvel’s cancelling their book), how the bringing back of their first super group by Marvel is effecting prices of the older comics.

Make no bones about it, the Fantastic Four’s reunion is having a palpable effect on the value of their Silver Age comics.

Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961) – Very first appearance of the Fantastic Four

Of these comics, none is exploding in value more dramatically than the first and original issue of the classic superhero magazine. Prices on FF #1 have skyrocketed over the last two years. News of the FF coming back, plus the possibility of a Marvel movie using the team may together be factors in this uptick in price. Another factor, however, is that this comic was undervalued for the past few years. Compared to other important Silver Age keys, like Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey Into Mystery #83 or Tales of Suspense #39, FF #1 was selling for below its potential value. As a key and iconic book this comic is on par with AF #15, and with 2,087 CGC copies on the census being able to pick up a 5.0 graded copy for only $6000.00 as recently as a year and a half ago (current fair market value of a 5.0 is, wait for it…..$19,500) was a rare luxury.

Amazing Fantasy #15, in the same 5.0, grade was selling for $25, 000.00 at that time. So while Journey Into Mystery #83 and Tales of Suspense #39 have, more or less, stayed at the FF #1 values of two years ago, in the case of the 1961 debut of Marvel’s first family, it would seem that it’s time has finally arrived.

According to GoCollect.com, 9.4 CGC graded copies are up + 2,300%; 9.6 copies= + 8531.5% (Wow!). Having now broken through to beyond Amazing Fantasy #15 price levels (a 9.8 of FF #1 is now worth more, since much harder to find), all it will take now is a good movie to send this book way beyond record levels.

What about the latest modern counterpart of this Silver Age classic?

Fantastic Four Vol 6 #1 (August, 2018) – First Issue of New Ongoing Series

Dan Slott and Skottie Young are taking over the title starting with this issue out on Wednesday. They have big shoes to fill as the Hickman run is already considered a classic and only two and a half years after its completion. As is the tendency these days this issue will be released with many variant covers (at this point, I may not be alone in feeling that the variant cover thing is being overdone, but I digress. That’s really a discussion for another article).

Obviously, there is no data available for this book other than the pre-sale numbers. How are they looking? In plain terms: this comic has utterly dominated the advance reorder charts. As shown
here. Fantastic Four #1 and its variants occupy the first 17 places on the chart for the week of August 8. Should you pick up this book? Will it live up to the hype? Well, there is a new villain in this issue (Eradikus, whose name evokes images of classic FF villains of days past- bringing to mind foes like Annihilus, which is all to the good). I’d say, pick it up. I'd get the standard cover and a variant if you can. If you only want one cover of the many available, try getting the Humberto Ramos variant cover featuring Eradikus. A new villain with a cover spot might be the best investment especially if popularity of Eradikus takes off.

*****Edit: 08/15/2018. In the original version of this article I had written that Sony was selling the rights to the Fantastic Four to Disney, that should have read Fox. -B.T.