In his latest blog, my colleague, Matt Tuck, noted that a "1990s X-Men villain has entered the fray" in this week's Trending Comics: Onslaught. While X-Men '97 -- one of Marvel's biggest hits on Disney+ -- hasn't confirmed Onslaught's appearance (yet), we did see the event that directly caused his creation -- Magneto using his magnetic powers to violently rip out Wolverine's adamantium from his body. Professor X, in a fit of rage, uses his telepathic powers to wipe Magneto's mind rendering him catatonic. Their minds merge as a result which eventually results in the creation of the supervillain Onslaught. Onslaught is so powerful that it requires the combined might of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to defeat him and leads to a reboot of the Marvel Universe.
How has the market reacted to X-Men '97 teasing the introduction of this supervillain?
128 copies of X-Men #25 (1993) sold on May 8th and 9th on eBay alone.
Fans went into an absolute feeding frenzy buying X-Men #25 (1993) after episode 9's debut on May 8th. Specifically, fans purchased an insane 128 copies of X-Men #25 on May 8th and 9th alone. When was the last time that you saw an overprinted 1990s comic book with holograms on its cover sell like hot cakes? The large volume of sales in a short period of time for a Modern Age book feels like we've gone back in time to the pandemic-fueled "comic boom."
The vast majority of these issues were raw copies, but fans also bought several graded copies including five 9.8s. Before collectors had any inking that Onslaught might appear in X-Men '97, 9.8s were selling in the $80 to $110 range back in February and March. Over the course of 48 hours on May 8th and 9th, 9.8s escalated in value from $120 to $159. As you can see from GoCollect's analysis, X-Men '97 appears to have had some impact on the value of a 9.8 since the 30-day average of $122 is considerably higher than the 90-day average of $106.
39 copies X-Men #53 sold on May 8th and 9th on eBay.
While not selling as many copies as X-Men #25 over the course of May 8th and 9th, collectors did purchase 39 copies of X-Men #53, which contains the first full appearance of Onslaught, over that same two day period. Several 9.8s also sold during this period after episode nine debuted. Back in February, 9.8s sold in the $70 to $90 range. During the past week, 9.8s were consistently selling close to $130. According to GoCollect's analysis, the 30-day average of a 9.8 ($109) is more than 10% higher than the 90-day average ($98).
Another minor key to consider is X-Man #15 which contains the first cameo appearance of Onslaught.
Do you think it's worth investing in these mid-1990s minor key issues? Please let us know what your opinion is in the comments section below!
