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What are the top 10 marvel silver keys?
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187 posts in this topic

24 minutes ago, Drummy said:

KirbyJack -- no FF #13 on that list?  Blasphemy!  :pullhair::bigsmile:

My personal top 109 goes Fantastic Four 1-102, 108, annual 1-6.

I kind of consider the rest of the Marvel Universe to be like the non-Cub teams in the National League: just other kids to play with.

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1 hour ago, KirbyJack said:

107? I get that it’s a battle cover, but it’s never really stood out as a classic to me. You’re right, tho; I should have included 135!

Yeah, 107 is all about that cover and the market demand for it seems to be continually strong.

167 is not even in the same league price-wise, but it's another amazing cover and Steranko's interior art is also incredible.

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Top 10 SA books will always have some debate on the pecking order of things.  All valid reasons I can see thus far.  Important thing is buy what you like. Who cares what others think about whether this book is better than that book or this book is historically more significant than that.  

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1 hour ago, Dark Knight said:

Top 10 SA books will always have some debate on the pecking order of things.  All valid reasons I can see thus far.  Important thing is buy what you like. Who cares what others think about whether this book is better than that book or this book is historically more significant than that.  

I MUST BE CORRECT. NO ONE ELSE CAN BE CORRECT BUT ME.

(I agree 100% with this. I definitely prioritize books that are "less key" but that matter to me personally.)

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14 minutes ago, bpc3qh said:

I MUST BE CORRECT. NO ONE ELSE CAN BE CORRECT BUT ME.

(I agree 100% with this. I definitely prioritize books that are "less key" but that matter to me personally.)

Oh, I agree 100%.  The question of what is "key" is a little about what the market is saying, and a little about what is noteworthy enough to end up on that little blue label (in other words, anything from the cover composition, character appearances, storylines, writers, artists, etc., etc.).  But neither of those things is perfectly correlated to what makes any particular book a favorite of any particular collector.

With all of that said, there does tend to be some correlation between favorites and keys, at least for most collectors.  There's a reason key books are in demand, because enough people like them and view them as "important" in some way.  Maybe the best thing about a discussion like this one is that it may spark someone's curiosity in a book they hadn't known much about before.  When I started collecting pre-hero books, the PHM thread was a huge help to me in getting a sense of what books I might want to check out.  Similarly, I sometimes lurk on the Westerns thread, wondering if I will ever decide to dip my toe in those waters someday.

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Anyone want to take a shot at the top 10 minus the consensus top 7 (AF15, ASM1, FF1, IH1, JIM83, TOS39, X1)? I could've also said the top 17 but that just sounds weird

Anyhow, I have it looking something like this

1. FF5

2. TTA27

3. ST110

4. Avengers 4

5. DD1

6.FF48

7. FF52

8. TOS52

9. FF4

10. TOS57

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26 minutes ago, c_mkv said:

Anyone want to take a shot at the top 10 minus the consensus top 7 (AF15, ASM1, FF1, IH1, JIM83, TOS39, X1)? I could've also said the top 17 but that just sounds weird

Anyhow, I have it looking something like this

1. FF5

2. TTA27

3. ST110

4. Avengers 4

5. DD1

6.FF48

7. FF52

8. TOS52

9. FF4

10. TOS57

Avengers 1?

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1 minute ago, piper said:

Avengers 1?

Whoops...I knew something was missing...TOS57 just didn't feel right but thought with all the movies I might as well throw it in...

 

revised list

1. FF5

2. TTA27

3. ST110

4. Avengers 4

5. DD1

6. Avengers 1

7.FF48

8. FF52

9. TOS52

10. FF4

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I think FF5 should be lower. I know it’s a pricey book, but heroes before villains in terms of keys (at least for me).

 I’m still not sure about TOS52. hm What other potential keys trump it?

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2 minutes ago, piper said:

I think FF5 should be lower. I know it’s a pricey book, but heroes before villains in terms of keys (at least for me).

 I’m still not sure about TOS52. hm What other potential keys trump it?

phew...you had me nervous there...like I forgot another book or something. 

I would agree most times about heroes over villains but it's Doom...I'm not a huge Widow fan etiher, at least not the book version - who would you include?

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43 minutes ago, piper said:

I think FF5 should be lower. I know it’s a pricey book, but heroes before villains in terms of keys (at least for me).

 I’m still not sure about TOS52. hm What other potential keys trump it?

Astonish 35 and 13, Sgt. Fury 1, ASM 2,3 to me, are all more desirable than Hawkeye and Widow. 

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Where would TTA 27 have ranked before the movies? I don’t get the current lofty status of that book. I mean isn’t Ant-Man/Giant Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket a third or even fourth rate character? Maybe I’ve missed something in the 48 years since I stopped collecting Avengers. (shrug)

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2 hours ago, JohnH19 said:

Where would TTA 27 have ranked before the movies? I don’t get the current lofty status of that book. I mean isn’t Ant-Man/Giant Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket a third or even fourth rate character? Maybe I’ve missed something in the 48 years since I stopped collecting Avengers. (shrug)

Ant-Man / Giant-Man is arguably the only "failure" among the original Marvel super-heroes introduced to star in their own series between 1961 and 1964.  (Yes, the Hulk couldn't last more than six issues, but he made a more than successful comeback.)  But he will still always be part of that select group, and the movies' clever use of the character (leaving Hank Pym in the background and focusing on a humorous take with Scott Lang) managed to make him a household name.  On top of that, TTA #27 is a Kirby piece that occupies a unique place in Marvel history in the overlap between the pre-hero era and the so-called Marvel Age.

Definitely a second-tier key when compared with the big ones ... I agree with those who put it alongside ST #110.

Edited by Sweet Lou 14
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2 hours ago, JohnH19 said:

Where would TTA 27 have ranked before the movies? I don’t get the current lofty status of that book. I mean isn’t Ant-Man/Giant Man/Goliath/Yellowjacket a third or even fourth rate character? Maybe I’ve missed something in the 48 years since I stopped collecting Avengers. (shrug)

I Agree Hank Pym is a 3rd or lower tier character in current comics. But Astonish 27 gets love the same way Strange Tales 101 does; It mattered in those earliest days of the Silver Age. Old guys still love it, and it was the second thing that happened in the Marvel Age. 
Money wise, it’s tough in grade. And the way people focus on keys lately, it will probably stay fairly lofty.

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3 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

I Agree Hank Pym is a 3rd or lower tier character in current comics. But Astonish 27 gets love the same way Strange Tales 101 does; It mattered in those earliest days of the Silver Age. Old guys still love it, and it was the second thing that happened in the Marvel Age. 
Money wise, it’s tough in grade. And the way people focus on keys lately, it will probably stay fairly lofty.

It's an old-school, fun book that has also gotten some love from the MCU, and it's quite affordable in low grades. What's not to like?

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ASM 3, 14, ANN 1

FF ANN 1 (1st indication that Namor is a Mutant...precedes X-Men #1)

X-Men 4

FF12 (ties with ASM 1 as the 1st Marvel x-over, heralding a shared location for Marvel's characters to co-exist ie. Manhattan, vs DC's fictional Gotham City or Metropolis)

Edited by jjonahjameson11
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Gonna resurrect this with one or two Hot Takes on my pretty subjective list.  

1) AF 15

2) Fantastic Four 5 

3) Hulk 1

4) Fantastic Four 1

5) X-Men 1

6) Journey into Mystery 83

7) Tales of Suspense 39

8) Fantastic Four 48

9) Daredevil 1

10) Avengers 1

 

I think FF5 > FF1.  Still a very early FF issue and Doom as one of the first big marvel Supervillains I think set a standard.  I know I am probably objectively wrong here tho lol

FF48 was so important to Cosmic Marvel, which imo is some of the best stories ever written.  Cosmic stuff is dope.

Spider-Man 1 is overrated

Avengers 1 and DD 1 are underrated

 

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On 10/11/2021 at 1:23 PM, Venomous72 said:

Gonna resurrect this with one or two Hot Takes on my pretty subjective list.  

1) AF 15

2) Fantastic Four 5 

3) Hulk 1

4) Fantastic Four 1

5) X-Men 1

6) Journey into Mystery 83

7) Tales of Suspense 39

8) Fantastic Four 48

9) Daredevil 1

10) Avengers 1

 

I think FF5 > FF1.  Still a very early FF issue and Doom as one of the first big marvel Supervillains I think set a standard.  I know I am probably objectively wrong here tho lol

FF48 was so important to Cosmic Marvel, which imo is some of the best stories ever written.  Cosmic stuff is dope.

Spider-Man 1 is overrated

Avengers 1 and DD 1 are underrated

 

I love the list, but I don't think I can take some of those leaps with you lol. 

1) AF15 

2) FF1 

3) IH1 probably my favorite SA book. Maybe alongside FF1 

4) JIM83 

5) TOS39 

6) X1 

7) Spidey1 - this was the hardest one for me to place. At the end of the day Spidey owns the SA and if anyone deserves a Non-first appearance showing on the list, it's him (and the avengers I suppose). I thought about moving this to 10, but it just didn't feel right.  

8) Av1 

9) DD1 

10) FF5 

Edited by KCOComics
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