Infinity #1

Marvel - Oct. 2013

Key Issue Notes

First cameo appearance of Supergiant

First chronological appearance of the Black Order

The Black Order being in the upcoming and highly anticipated Avengers: Infinity War is kind of old news now, but it's still news. So, I'm going to try to pump out at least two more key issues relating to them before the film is finally released in 2018, which should give me plenty of time.

I'm not sure how many of the five members of the Black Order are going to appear on screen. There has been somewhat confirmed rumors that Corvus Glaive will be making an appearance, but from looking at the IMDB cast list, there is only one reference. It would appear that Terry Notary, a motion capture actor, is list as playing Cul Obsidian, which is another name that the Black Order goes by. Whether he's going to be playing one member, or all of them, remains to be seen. 

Anyway, let's get back to talking comics. This issue gets a little tricky. Although this is the first chronological appearance of the Black Order, it is actually their second appearance in comics, and the third appearance of Corvus Glaive. You see, the Black Order, sans Supergiant, made their first appearance in the pages New Avengers #8 that was released a month earlier than this issue, in Sept. 2013, and Corvus made his first appearance in FCBD 2013: Infinity. I'm not sure why Supergiant doesn't make her first appearance with all of the others, but she didn't. So, for this post, I'm only going to focus on her. I'll get to the rest of the members of the Black Order in a near future post.

Supergiant is one of the five, the five referring to the Black Order, whose members also include Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Black Dwarf, and Proxima Midnight. Supergiant has the ability to read and control the minds of others, but they don't really go into what she can do in this issue, since she only appears in one panel. She does reek havoc with Black Bolt's mind in a later issue though. Unfortunately, she doesn't make it through to the end of the series and is eventually killed of in Infinity #6, but that a whole different key issue that I will get to....at some point.

Variants
Variants, variants, and more variants. There's just too many variants for this issue to talk about every individual one, so I'm simply going to list them below with a picture of the cover for reference. If you're interested in adding one of these variants to your collection, click on the picture and it'll take you to the eBay listings for that cover.

Blank Sketch

" Adam Kubert - Sketch

Skottie Young - Marvel Babies

Marko Djurdjevic  1/200

Art Adams - Hero  1/100

Art Adams - Hero Sketch 1/150

In-Hyuk Lee - Generals 1/75

Jerome Opeña - Supergiant 1/50

Mark Brooks - Deadpool

Mark Brooks - Deadpool Sketch

Phil Jimenez - Midtown Comics

Alex Maleev - Dragon's Lair Comics

Shane Davis - Third Eye Comics

Julian Totino Tedesco - Hastings Store

Humberto Ramos - Yesteryear Comics

Ron Lim - Laughing Ogre Comics

Second Printing

Census
If you add up all of the census numbers, for all of the variants, there haven't been very many copies of Infinity #1 graded by CGC. In total there have only been 531 that have gone through CGC's grading room to date. 

All of these copies are, of course, in very high grade. That happens a lot with newer comics. There are many comic investors out there that buy the latest copy of the newest comic, bag and board it, and sent it directly to CGC or CBCS. These comics were never read, and hardly ever touch by human hands, hence there are many, many high grade copies out there.

I have a feeling that these census numbers will go up, but I have no idea how much. This comic doesn't seem to be in high demand, at least from looking at the eBay sold listings. The ones that are selling the most seem to be the variant covers.

Values

Values for Infinity #1 9.8 NM/M
on Gocollect

Values for this comic obviously are going vary depending on which cover you are looking at. When we look at the sale data for the first printing of this comic, values haven't really changed much from when it was first released in 2013, as you can see on the chart to the left. It usually sells in the $20 - $50 range for CGC Universal 9.8 NM/M.

Some of the more valuable covers are the Adam Kubert Sketch cover and the Marko Djurdjevic 1 in 200 retailer incentive cover, with the latest sales for both reaching $200 and above. And the Art Adams 1 in 150 Hero Sketch and Mark Brooks Deadpool Sketch have both sold for well over the $100 mark for each of those variants. Sales figures for all of these variants are for 9.8 NM/M copies. The only copy that might be worth getting in grades below that may be the Djurdjevic cover, but I would probably only go as low as a 9.6 NM+.

Now, to be honest, there isn't a lot if sales data to see where these comics are headed in terms of investment potential. Since there are so few graded at the time, there won't be a lot of sales. It doesn't seem like this is a high demand comic at the moment and there are a lot of raw copies out there to buy. If the entire Cul Obsidian end up appearing in the upcoming Infinity War movie, then this comic just may see a bump in demand. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if there is any confirmation of any of the other members of the Black Order appearing in the future, other than Corvus Glaive who looks like he's definitely going to make an appearance. But, until that day comes, happy hunting.

Find a copy here
eBay - ComicLink - MyComicShop - ComicConnect - GKC Store

Free Comic Book Day 2013: Infinity

Marvel - May 2013

Key Issue Notes
First appearance of Corvus Glaive
First appearance of Outriders

I decided to take a small break from my Inhumans key issue list to tell you about a couple of modern books that have seen a little bit of heat as of late. The first is this comic right here.

The reason that this issue has seem some movement in the market is because it holds the first appearance of Corvus Glaive. It would appear that Corvus and the Black Order, will be appearing in the The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1. It's not often that you have the first appearance of a character that is going to show up on a movie appear in a Free Comic Book Day comic.

This characters appearance was kinda confirmed from a leaked set photo that was released recently. It would appear that Corvus Glaive is going to be a completely CG character. Even though there's been no confirmation by the Marvel Studios, people are almost certain that this is the character that will be in the film from the weapon that he is carrying. After seeing the leaked photos, I'd have to agree with them. I've included a side by side picture so you can decide for yourself who this baddie might be.

See the similarities

Just who is this Corvus Glaive guy anyway. He is one of the many minions of Thanos. He's not just any minion though, he's actually Thanos' right hand man, so, it makes sense that they would throw him in a movie along side The Mad Titan. He is also the leader of the Black Order, whom I will talk about in a very near future post.

Another character, or characters I should say, that make their first appearance in this issue are the Outriders. These creatures were created, I'm assuming by Thanos, to only serve him, their master. When they are given a task to complete, they don't stop until it's finished. They're also very stealthy and dangerous assassins, if that's the task that they are given. Whether these characters are to appear in the upcoming Avengers movie or not remains to be seen. It's quite possible, but I have no idea where the writers are getting their ideas from or what they'll use.

Outrider

The story that appears in this comic is only a portion of the full story that appears in six part Infinity mini series, which came out shortly after this issue. In fact, the small portion that appears in this issue, is reprinted in Infinity #1. The Free Comic Book Day issue was a way for people to get introduced to the story line and hopefully go spend their hard earned cash on the rest of the stories.

Variants

Midtown Comics Variant

There was only one variant of this issue that I could find and it is the Midtown Comics variant. I believe the only place to get these comics on May 4, 2013 was at one of the Midtown store locations in New York City. The obvious main difference between this issue and the others is the big advertisement for their website that obscures half of the cover. I have no idea what the print run of these exclusive variants are, but I'm assuming that it's probably in the thousands. 

Midtown is one of the big players in the comic book retail business. They have a big online presence and have three brick and mortar stores in the Big Apple. They often have exclusive variants to help promote their business, especially for FCBD comics. I'm almost positive that they will have more this year too, so if you're in NYC on Free Comics Day, you should probably stop by one their stores and snag an exclusive variant or two.

Census

Click to enlarge

This comic has just started to heat up so not many copies have made it to the grading room yet. So far there have only been 35 copies registered in the CGC census, and pretty much every damn one of them is graded 9.8 NM/M (25). The remaining six range between 9.2 NM- and 9.6 NM+. Even though the census is practically nonexistent for this comic, I'm sure we will start to see the number of graded copies start to rise very soon. Now that this is considered a key issue, there will be a lot of people digging this book out of their long boxes and sending them in to their grading company of choice. I won't be doing an update for these numbers in the future, but you can be sure to see more and more graded copies hitting the market in the next few months.

Values
Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, I couldn't find any sales info for graded copies of this comic. Since this is a fairly new key issue, and there are so few graded at the moment, that doesn't surprise me at all. But, if we look at the sales for raw copies, we might be able to get an idea of how this book is doing.

It wasn't that long ago that you could snag a high grade copy of this comic for just a couple bucks or so. After the announcement of Corvus appearing in the Avengers flick, there were a crazy amount of sales, most likely from people trying to get a cheap copy before the inevitable craze that is going to surround this book for a little while.

Now, most people are listing their eBay "Buy it Now" auctions starting at about the $20 range, not including shipping. That is a huge jump in value in a very short amount of time, almost a 1000% jump. I have a feeling that when graded copies finally do reach the market, that they are going to carry a hefty price tag. Prices should come down a little once more and more of them reach the market. It is all about supply and demand after all.

If I were into flipping comics, I'd probably find the best raw high grade copies that I could get right now, for the lowest price that I could, send them in to CGC or CBCS at the fastest grading tier possible, then sling them right back out on the market as soon as I got them back. I have a feeling that demand for this book won't last very long. In today's market, it never does.

Find a copy here
eBay - ComicLink - MyComicShop - ComicConnect