Buying lottery comic books is about probabilities. We are speculating on the low probability that a non important comic can suddenly become hot and wanted. Since the probability is low, we want to keep the cost down to minimize financial risk.

Traditionally, the usual way of keeping cost down is to buy cheap comics.

Another way to think about this is characters per book.

Imagine you bought 2 comics – one for $3 and another for $10. On the surface, the first comic is a better lottery book because of the lower price. However, what if there are 5 first appearances in the second book, compared to only 1 first appearance in the first book?

In that case, the cost of first appearance becomes $3 for the first comic and $2 for the second ($10/ 5 characters). Of course, the best scenario is that the second comic also cost $3 but have 5 first appearances instead of one.

In this article, I am going to highlight X-men comics with multiple appearances to increase your odds of striking. With Jonathan Hickman making every X character return to life, there is practically nobody he cannot touch. As such, all X characters might just be one book away from becoming fan favorite.

 

Uncanny X-Men #211 is the first appearance of the Marauders, which introduces 5 new characters.

While the Marauders are pretty cool, the drawback of this issue is the high print of more than 600k. Also, since this was published in the 1986, newsstands are still pretty common so buying these will not solve the supply problem.

The only edition that is probably harder to find is the 9.8 newsstand. There are obviously less available on Ebay but prices have not seens any premium being developed. Buying these would be the best option.

Characters	Number of appearances	Last Appearance Year	Main character of current title
Arclight	53	2020	No
Harpoon	52	2020	No
Riptide	40	2020	No
Scalphunter	92	2020	Yes (Hellions)
Scrambler	33	2020	No

 

Among the 5, Scalphunter is currently the most used. He is also part of the new Hellion series that is currently being published. If any of the Marauder characters was to break out, he would be the most likely.

 

Uncanny X-Men #169 introduces the Morlocks, highlighting 4 members that are new to the X-Men storyline. However, the number of actual Morlocks far exceed 4, but they were introduced over the course of time. These 4 members, however remain the most recognizable Morlock members.

Uncanny X-Men #169 faces the same issue of high print run although it is not as severe.

However, the good news is that there is a Canadian price variant available for this issue. That will be a good edition to invest in as it is noticeably less readily available than regular editions.

Characters	Number of appearances	Last Appearance Year	Main character of current title
Sunder	19	2003	No
Callisto	121	2020	Yes (Marauder)
Plague	18	1988	No
Masque	61	2020	No

 

As you can see from the appearance table, the Morlocks have (on average) made far less appearances than the Marauders. Sunder and Plague in particular have not been used for 17 and 31 years respectively.

The solid play will come from Callisto. She used to be part of the Excalibur team and is now currently the White Knight in the Hellfire Club. If anyone is to break out, it will probably be her.

 

New Mutants #16 is probably well known for having the first appearance of Jimmy Proudstar who then took on the mantle of Warpath. Jimmy became pretty popular when he was in the first and second version of X-Force.

This book also has a Canadian price variant that you can hunt for, if you want to avoid the print run problem that this book has.

Characters	Number of appearances	Last Appearance Year	Main character of current title
Warpath	392	2020	No
Roulette	29	2020	No
Catseye	30	2020	No
Empath	54	2020	Yes (Hellion)
Jetstream	32	2020	No
Tarrot	36	2020	No

 

Warpath is of course the clear winner here as he has already broken out. Although he is not currently featured in any series, Warpath has always been well used. His most recent was in the Weapon X series.

The other character that could potentially break out is Empath. Not only did he has more appearance, but he is currently part of the Hellions team. In addition, there has been a lot of explanation in that series on how Empath’s powers work.

It seems that the comic is setting him up for something.

Conclusion

Having one book with multiple character first appearances is always useful. The unfortunate thing about all the 3 books mentioned are the high print run. It is best that you seek out the hardest to find edition for each book to maximise your potential returns down the road.