This article investigates the average price points for Marvel team’s first appearance that do not contain the member’s first appearances. Examples of such comics are Avengers #1, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 #1, Marvel Features #1 etc. In other words, books such as X-Men #1, Eternals #1, Young Avengers #1 will be excluded.

This will allows us to separate out a character’s first appearance from a team’s first appearance.

The purpose is to establish some benchmark that one can use when investing in modern Marvel teams that might have their own shows or movies in the future. With such a benchmark, you will then know what kind of returns to expect and the right entry prices you can enter.

Benchmark comparisons

Issues	Price	Movies	Supply	Later Printings
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, #1 (Guardians of the Galaxy)	$40-50	Yes	36,282	Yes
Hulk #449 (Thunderbolts)	$40-50	Rumored	86,264	No
Dark Avengers #1 (Dark Avengers)	$15	Rumored	118,543	Yes
A-Force #1 (A-Force)	$5-8	Rumored	114,528	No
Avengers Vol 6, #0 (Ultimates)	$3-5	Rumored	80,722	No
Champions Vol 2, #1 (Champions)	$3	No	328,165	Yes
Exiles #1 (Exiles)	$3	No	59,786	No
Madrox #1 (X-Factor Investigations)	$3	No	33,750	No

From the above table, the 2 teams that we can used for benchmark are Guardians of the Galaxy and Thunderbolts. They have either appeared in a movie or have shown very strong signs of coming to the MCU.

Currently, both books are selling for $40-50 for NM copies, thus giving you an idea on how Marvel team’s first appearances are valued.

However, do note that prices can spike higher during the hype period. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, #1 for example peaked at $100+ during the run up to the first movie. The same thing might happen to Hulk #449 as well, although its larger supply might impact the price increase.

The rest of comics in the table have either

• been rumored to appear in the MCU
• a long enough history to be able to carry a movie or Disney+ show.

Let’s look at each group in detail.

Rumored teams

Dark Avengers, A-Force and the Ultimates have been rumored at one point or another. All of these have pretty high print runs, which will drag the price down once the hype of the news has been worn away.

Indeed, this is what is happening as most of these books prices have come down to almost cover price level.

This might represent a good buying opportunity if you want to speculate on some of these teams being used by the MCU. However, you might want to take a discount off the average $40-50 price point since these book have higher print runs.

Off these 3, Dark Avengers offer the greatest potential because they have a longer history and story lines to work with. (See the next section on why this is important).

In contrast, A-Force and the Ultimates have limited stories, which makes them harder to be craft into long term franchises.

Non rumored teams

The remaining teams have no rumors but they possess a long publication history. Such teams have a high chance to be used in the MCU because they offered script writers strong material to work with.

I have mentioned this factor many years ago in this article on how to speculate on MCU movies.

What I wrote in 2016

“All the characters who have or going to have their sole movies have a long history of being published.

Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Inhumans etc all had their own series since silver/bronze age and had multiple volumes throughout the years. Characters like Vision, Scarlet Witch, Mantis, Valkyrie, Falcon, Winter Soldier had no such records and became supporting characters.

The reason is simple.

Marvel studios like to draw on the comics for story lines, supporting cast etc. Without a long comic book series, there is no materials for the studios to work with. I don’t think Marvel studios will break this habit with Phase 4.”

So, going by the above, Exiles, X-Factor Investigations and Champions have a good shot at being used in the MCU at Phase 5 or later.

Among these 3, I prefer Exiles and X-Factor Investigations because of the lower print run and a more interesting purpose for the team. Unlike most teams who just formed to fight villians, the Exiles are to protect the Multiverse while the X-Factor Investigations employs a more mystery-thriller tone.

Currently, there is no teams playing these roles in the MCU.

For Exiles, such an angle also allows the studio to do a lot of creative things since any concept goes in the Multiverse. It might be the most interesting series if Marvel decides to do a Disney+ show with this concept.

Conclusion

This investigation has allowed us to now know that the average price ceiling for the first appearance of a modern team is $40-50, with spikes to the $100 during peak hype.

Using this info, you can then compare other Marvel team first appearance to see if the profit potential is worth the investment.