Doctor Doom – one of the most complex and developed villain ever to grace the comic pages. A solo movie on him has been announced to be in development from Fox. It is a interesting gamble but one that would surely get the fans talking, and when there is fan talk, prices of books tend to rise.

The problem with villain speculation is that there isn’t much choice to focus on. Most books are centered around heroes so the choice is really limited here. Fortunately I have found two that are still reasonably priced and has potential to become a Doctor Doom key.

Fantastic Four Annual #2

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This book features the origin of Doctor Doom and is a 1964 silver age book. Reasons to own this book:

• Origin: Origin issues are well known secondary keys after the first appearances. For comparison, if you are look Strange Tales #115, the origin of Doctor Strange, it commands a pretty high price tag for grades from 6.0 and higher.

• Great cover: The cover art is a nice piece of work from the King himself. Compared to the lame ST #115’s cover, Doctor Doom is front and center so that will surely make the book more desirable to collectors and fans.

• Uncommon in higher grades: Like all silver age books, higher grade copies are harder to come by. If you want to invest in this book, don’t settle for anything less than 6.0 condition. The low grades are very very common and you will see less price movement. Better to save some money and purchase a better condition book. It will be easier to sell down the road as well as getting a higher price tag.

• Affordability: One of the reasons I think this book might attract interest is its affordability. Fantastic Four #5 is out of reach of most collectors, even those copies graded in 1.0 or 2.0 condition. The next best book is this. This is unlike the Thanos Iron Man #55 situation where low grade copies are fairly affordable in the $100-$200 range, thus making it more attractive than other minor keys. Here, Doctor Doom fans literally have no choice if they don’t have to spend a few hundred dollars to $1k on FF #5.

Marvel Super Heroes #20

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This issue represents the first solo adventure of Doctor Doom, something like Thanos in Logan Run #6, but with a much better cover and story. What makes this book investment worthy? Check out the reasoning below:

• First Solo: First solo is sort of a key event in comics and are recognized as such. This is especially valuable for villains since there is no Doctor Doom #1 of a long running series, which heroes tend to have. Sure, there are a mini series here and there but those typically are not well recognized compared to #1 issues of series like Iron Man #1, JLA #1 etc al.

• Silver age black cover: It is a silver age book with a black cover which means finding nice copies will not be as easy as other books. I still struggling to find a NM copy of this book so good luck to your hunting.

• Affordable: Same reason as above

Do you have other Doctor Doom keys to recommend? Put them in the comments pls.