So much of comic book collecting and investing nowadays is dominated by modern books.  With the endless variants, store exclusives, and first appearances of ultimately insignificant characters, many investors, especially those who prefer older books, often feel ignored and left out of the conversation.  Fortunately, we here at GoCollect are here to help!!  Every week, I am going to provide speculation recommendations for silver, bronze, and copper age books for a chosen topic.  This week, we are going to talk about the many different claimants to the title of Captain Marvel!!!

Silver Age

Captain Marvel #1

This book is the very first Captain Marvel solo title (published by Marvel Comics) and is thus a key artifact in the character's history.  It also features the third appearance overall of Mar-Vell.  When a character's first appearance becomes too expensive, some collectors start to seek out second and third appearances.  So there is definitely a market for such books, albeit certainly a much smaller one than for first appearances.

Graded Analysis:  9.8s are up over 300% over the life of GoCollect's data.  9.6s are up more than 200%.  9.4s are up almost 250%.  9.2s are up over 400%!!!  I could do this all day with nearly every single grade, but I feel I have made my point about how investable this book is.

Bronze Age

Uncanny X-Men #164

I really, REALLY wanted my pick for each age to be a different Captain Marvel #1, but sadly none were printed during the Bronze Age.  So for this era, the pick is Uncanny X-Men #164, the very first appearance of Carol's Binary form.  As a Claremont-written Uncanny X-Men book, this book already has a huge built-in appeal.  Furthermore, the form has an incredible cinematic appeal that could easily be adapted into the MCU.  Finally, Binary has become a distinct character in recent issues of Captain Marvel.

Kelly Thompson's run on the title has been phenomenal and could become the definitive take on the character (The current run is three issues away from becoming Carol's longest-running title).  With so many different ways for this book to generate a return, investors may want to start adding this to their trackers.

Graded Analysis: Let's start with some helpful numbers.  75% of this book's census population is graded at 9.2 or higher.  So investors really should not buy outside of that group.  Second, for that 75%, the FMV is up all-time.  There is a caveat, however - over that time, prices have fluctuated wildly.  So buyers may need to be patient in order to see truly meaningful returns.

Note: At the time this book was printed, newsstands still had the majority market share for comic book distribution.  Consequently, the direct edition of this book is actually the rarer, more desirable version.  The direct edition can be distinguished from the newsstand edition by the Spider-Man head on the cover instead of a barcode.

Copper Age

Captain Marvel #1

This right here is Monica Rambeau's first solo story.  For some characters, first solo stories represent key artifacts in their publication journey.  The excellent performance over the years of Marvel Super-Heroes #20, the first solo story for Dr. Doom, is a great example.  And while Monica's first solo story will almost certainly never reach those lofty heights, it has still been a great investment.

Graded Analysis: More than 75% of recorded sales for this book are for 9.8s and 9.6s, so potential investors are advised not to dip below that.  Over the lifetime of GoCollect's data, 9.8s are up over 500%!!  9.6s are up close to 600%!!  These two grades represent ~36% of Captain Marvel #1's census population.  Of the 321 total submissions, 46 have come back as 9.8s and 70 have come back as 9.6s.

*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.