Astonishing Tales #25 - CBCS 8.0

Marvel - Aug. 1974

Key Issue Notes
First appearance of Deathlok

Well, I guess it's about time I reach into my box of treasures, pull out a comic, and discuss why and how it ended up in my collection. This time I've chosen by random, and what I pulled was a copy of Astonishing Tales #25. As most of you may know, this comic has the first appearance of Deathlok the Demolisher, and if you didn't know that, then now you do.


This comic went on my radar when Deathlok was rumored to be appearing on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D T.V. show. I was hoping that this book would see a big boost in demand and value if or when the character would appear on the show. I can't remember what year that was, 2014 maybe? Purely a speculation buy.

Anyway, my buddy Vic and I went up to Stockton Con, like we do every year, and one of the vendors that we frequent (Mike's Comics Plus) had a raw copy on his wall. I picked it up, scanned the cover for any major defects, and set it back down on the shelf. This is how I usually go about buying a comic at a convention. I look it over, put it back, then continue on through the con and either find something else I want to buy, or convince myself to snag the comic that I already looked at. Sometimes I do both. This was a case of trying to talk myself into the buy.

See the resemblance? Me neither

I can't remember if I found any other books to buy that day, but I did make a point to head back to Mike's booth and see if I could haggle a price that I was happy with. I'd looked up the value in the latest Overstreet price guide while eating a healthy lunch of hot dogs and nachos, so I had a pretty good idea of what it was worth in the grade that I thought it might have been in. This was my first experience with Mike, and I believe that he had the book listed for $50. I had decided that I wasn't going to pay any more than $40 for it, so I made him the offer.

Most vendors will usually take an offer of 10% lower than the price they have it listed for, but I was asking for 20% less. It was a gamble. He came back at me with $45 which was kind of expected, it was 10% off after all. I looked over the book once more, put it back sticking firmly to my $40 budget, and politely said, "That's a little more than I'm willing to pay" and started to walk away. I got about two or three steps away and I hear him say "Ok ok, $40". I turned around, handed over the cash, and put the comic in my trusty backpack.

When I sent it in to CBCS, it came back at about the grade I had expected it to. It may have been a half a grade higher, so I really wasn't disappointed.

However, I was really expecting to see this comic do more than it did in terms of value. I felt that this was an overlooked character and there was definitely some room for growth. Even after it was confirmed that Deathlok was making his small screen appearance, this comic barely broke the $100 mark for 8.0 VF graded copies.

Could it be that nobody really cares about Deathlok, or was it because the Deathlok on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. looks absolutely nothing like he does in the comics? It could be either of those reasons or a dozen more. Who knows. So, now I have a copy sitting in my collection, waiting for any other news or appearances that may make this comic worth selling.

Find a copy here
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Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1

Marvel - Sept. 2011

Key Issue Notes
Origin of Spider-Man (Miles Morales)
First appearance of Prowler (Aaron Davis)
First appearance of Jefferson Davis
First appearance of Rio Morales
First appearance of Conrad Markus (Marcus)

At this point, it's pretty old news of which character Donald Glover ended up playing in the new Spider-Man: Homecoming movie. There were rumors abound that he was going to play non other than Miles Morales, but it ended up being a character directly related to the young Spidey replacement.

The role that Glover ended up playing is that of Aaron Davis, also known as the Prowler. This isn't the first incarnation of the Prowler in comics. He makes his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #78. That version of the Prowler is named Hobie Brown and resided in the main Marvel Universe, or Earth-616. This version of the Prowler is in the Ultimate Universe, or Earth 1610.

When I say that Aaron Davis is directly related to Miles Morales, and I mean that quite literally. He is Miles' uncle. He is also directly responsible for Miles becoming the new Spider-Man. Let me explain how, the nutshell version of course.

Aaron Davis (left) as Prowler (right)

I should start out by saying that the Prowler is a master thief. As he was doing a heist at Norman Osborn's research facility, a genetically altered spider crawled into his backpack full of loot and goodies. As Miles was visiting his uncle one day, he is bit by said spider and gains super human, spider like abilities, which made it possible for him to take up the mantle for Peter Parker after he dies from wounds he got while fighting Norman Osborn and his Six.

Also making their first appearance in this issue is Jefferson Davis. No, not the one that was President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil war. This Jefferson Davis, along with Rio Morales, are Miles Morales' parents.

Jefferson is also Aaron Davis' brother. They have a very distant because good ol' Jeff doesn't agree with his brothers life of crime. Miles was forbidden to see his uncle, but goes behind his fathers back to see him anyway.

Jefferson Davis, and Miles and Rio Morales

If Marvel decides to add Miles Morales to it's cinematic universe, you can bet you will see these two make an appearance.

And finally, making their first appearance is Dr. Conrad Markus. You may be wondering why I spelled his name that way. All of the websites spell his name Marcus. But, in this issue, his last name is spelled with a K, so that's the version I'm going with.

Dr Conrad Markus

Anyway, Dr. Conrad Markus is a biochemist and was in charge of the program that created the genetically altered spider that crawled into the Prowlers bag and eventually bit Miles Morales. In a later issue, he would become host to the Venom Symbiote and would be responsible for the death of Rio Morales, but that's another story for another time my friends.

Well there you have it, all of the items I could find that gives this comic key issue status. Let's move on to the variants section of this post. Since this is a modern book, I'm sure there will be a few.

Variants
Some of these variants are retailer incentive covers, but I'm not sure how rare these are. The first cover on the list isn't actually a cover at all, but the polybag that the regular, first print came in.

Polybagged

Pichelli Unmasked Variant

Pichelli Retailer Incentive Sketch Variant

Pichelli Vairant

The sketch variant is by far the most difficult to come by and if you're looking for a copy, it will most definitely cost you quite a bit of moolah to get it.

Census
The CGC census for this comic is a lot lower than I expected it to be. Even though there was a print run of 87,237, only 366 have been graded. I don't know if the 87 thousand includes all of the variants, but the 366 does. Of those, 180 are the regular, first print, non variant cover. And, as I'm sure you guessed, because this is a fairly modern comic, most of these copies are graded either 9.6 NM+ (40) or 9.8 NM/M (94).

I will make a note that the Pichelli Sketch Cover only has 5 copies listed in the census. Three at a 9.8 NM/M and two at 9.2 NM-. This could be a good indication of how low the print run on this particular variant is. I'll go over some values for this cover in the next section
Values

Values for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
on GoCollect

Sales for this comic are a little wonky. There have been sales for 9.8 NM/M copies that have gone for over the $200 mark, and one that damn near hit the $300 mark, but those were both Buy it Now sales on eBay. If you can find a copy at auction, you'll only end up spending $50, maybe less. The last copy that sold at auction on eBay went for only $41. 9.6 NM+ copies had a similar spike, but sales are generally dropping at the $30 range.

I'm not sure why these spikes are happening. They all happened before there was any kind of confirmation of the character appearing in the Spider-Man flick. Perhaps they were speculators that had a heads up on everyone else, or maybe they just wanted a copy in their collections, no matter what the cost. Who knows.

Anyway, I couldn't find any sales data for the Pichelli Sketch Cover. The only thing I could find was a copy for sale over at Midtown Comics website. That bad boy is listed at $1,445.43. Buying that sucker will definitely make you wallet a lot lighter. If you want to but it, or simply check it out, click this link here.

The introduction of Aaron Davis in the MCU definitely opens up the door for Miles Morales to show up in a movie in the future. If that happens, or how long it is before it does, remains to be seen. But if it is someday confirmed that Morales will be making his way to the big screen, you can be that this comic, and especially Ultimate Fallout #4, the first appearance of Mile Morales, will see a huge boost in demand. UF #4 is already up there in terms of value, but you can still snag this one for a bargain.

Find a copy here
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