21 Jan Who Will Be the First Mutants in the MCU?

The impending debut of Mutants in the MCU has fueled record speculation pricing for X-Men #1 and Giant-Size X-Men #1. But the team most reflective of the MCU’s diverse, global audience just might prioritize an X-Team that has been unfairly overlooked –but for how much longer?

The Bait & Switch

When Marvel Studios regained ownership of the X-Men from Fox it kicked off a kind of investor speculation that had really never been seen before in the hobby. It was expected/hoped that the WandaVision series on Disney+ would serve as a kind of gateway for bringing Marvel’s mutants into the Disney canon of the MCU. While that didn’t exactly happen, it also never dropped prices on X-Men key issues –which have continued to rise pretty much across the board.

The Greatest beneficiary of the award-winning streaming series was X-Men Vol. 1 #4, which introduced the Scarlet Witch (in green, no less) and Quicksilver along with the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Maximoffs had already appeared in prior MCU films, but the multiverse meta-casting of Fox actor Evan Peters as a kind of fake Quicksilver seemed to give side-door verification that the Fox Studios X-films were possibly canon.

That spiked prices on X-Men #1, Giant-Size X-Men #1, and first appearances of every popular mutant from Wolverine in Hulk #180 & #181 and Kitty Pryde & the White Queen in Uncanny X-Men #129 to Gambit in Uncanny X-Men #266 & Annual #14 and Bishop in Uncanny X-Men #282 & #283.

After WandaVision

As every subsequent MCU project has brought with it rumors of the introductions of mutants, none have panned out. And then a series of reports began to surface that Disney’s top brass are at odds with MCU architect Kevin Feige about how to introduce the X-Men –with the former wanting a film and the latter wanting a series. What can’t be disputed is that cold intros have not been as box office boffo as well-planned, built-up additions to the ever-expanding MCU. The Eternals has become a cautionary tale while Spider-Man No Way Home has been that magical combination of old and new that the fans seem to love and which box-office supports.

Thus far at Fox, we’ve seen the Dark Phoenix saga play out across two separate X-Men franchises via the recasting of several roles as a kind of case study in diminishing returns. What was so great and refreshing about the Tom Holland Spider-Man reboot was that it chose to completely forego the over-told origin story. Success usually encourages decision making and that may manifest in the debut of mutants being comprised of a team we haven’t seen yet. The team that would be most in-step with Disney’s dedication to inclusion and most reflective of the MCU’s global audience is the 1994 team that debuted in Generation X.

That 90s Nostalgia is Real

Generation X #1 has a lot going for it. It’s the first Chromium cover on a Marvel comic. It was the first Marvel work by long-time DC Vertigo illustrator, Chris Bachalo, and it introduced the characters Chamber, Emplate, and Penance via a new X-team consisting of Husk, Jubilee, M, Chamber, Skin, Penance, Synch, and Mondo led by Banshee and White Queen. It was the 7th best-selling comic of 1994 according to Comichron, but that was the year of the great 90s crash that saw 1000 shops close in January.

This book debuted in October, so for a new #1 from a major publisher in the 1990s it has a comparatively lower print run than other early 90s comics like Sleepwalker #1 or Darkhawk #1 and is significantly rarer than non-keys like Spawn #18 or minor keys like X-Men Vol. 2 #30.

The best part? Generation X #1 is one of those overlooked comics that will set you back little more than cover price as a near-mint raw comic. This is virtually guaranteed to go up in value at the highest grades. If you don’t trust your own grading abilities, a CGC 9.8 should be easy to find for less than $100, with a current FMV of $80.

Why Now?

The most important metric to successful investing is figuring out the time to buy and the time to sell. And so another comic that makes a good A-to-B comparison is the first appearance of Jubilee in Uncanny X-Man #244. Basically the Robin to Wolverine’s Batman, Jubilation Lee is a cool Asian-American teenager with fun-to-draw superpowers.

There is virtually no version of the near future X-Men that doesn’t somehow incorporate her. But I’ve chosen Generation X #1 over her first appearance because UXM #244 requires a much higher buy-in at $425+ for a CGC 9.8,  leaving a lower ROI percentage than the team book that costs $5 raw and which is is much easier to eyeball-grade since it has a cardstock cover instead of 80-lb glossy paper wrapped around newsprint.

Another underrated runner-up in the Jubilee sweepstakes is Uncanny X-Men #257, which is the debut of Jubilee’s classic yellow trenchcoat and shorts in regular continuity and also the debut of Psylocke as Lady Mandarin (and only the her second appearance in the classic Jim Lee designed costume) and first manifestation of her psychic knife ability.

While already a member of the X-Men Blue Team prior to defecting over to Generation X, it was in that later book that the character Jubilee was really fleshed-out and Generation X #1 is a multiple key with four character debuts and a couple of industry firsts. It also has a gorgeous wraparound cover that looks fantastic in a slab.

What do you think? What are some other close-to-cover-price keys with potential to blow up? Comment below!

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  *None of the content of this article is intended as investment advise.
  This is just the opinion of the columnist – Do your own research!