This Week in Comic Collecting: Marvel's Licensed IP

Are you a big fan of Ahsoka but feel like that's too expensive a play for you? Well you can still invest in her upcoming show by putting your money into her major supporting characters, like Sabine Wren, Kanan Jarus, Ezra Bridger, Hera and Zeb. These are the most popular animated characters, most of whom have already been confirmed to appear in the upcoming series. Ready for the crazy thing? They all debut in the same book! Kanan The Last Padawan #1 (Marvel, 2015) features all those aforementioned 1st appearances and is just $300 in a CGC 9.8. There is also a 1:25 incentive for those wanting to secure a truly limited version of the book that I think is an even better buy at $650. The variant at that ratio means there are 25x as many of the regular cover as the incentive, yet the incentive is only selling for slightly 2x the regular cover. I think the market will see a correction over time. 

Finally, you can't have heros (or Jedi) without villains. The mere whisper of a name in the Ahsoka featured episode of Season 2 of Mandalorian saw prices of the Galaxy's newest big bad Skyrocket. I am of course referencing Grand Admiral Thrawn. First appearing in Dark Horse's Star Wars: Heir to the Empire #1 from 1995, Thrawn has been a younger generation's big bad the way Vader was to Star Wars OGs and Kylo Ren to children today. CGC 9.8s of Thrawn's 1st appearance have hit $2k with 9.6s running just shy of $600. I have a feeling this will be a monumental book as we head into this realm of the Star Wars saga. 

There are so many plays to be made within the Star Wars Universe and this certainly won't be the last time we talk about it. The previously mentioned books all provide great investment opportunities inside a 12-18 month window. We know these characters are coming so now is the time to secure copies before the mainstream is aware of how prevalent these characters are soon to become on Disney + Fridays. 

In 2020, Marvel announced a major acquisition with the purchase of the comic book license for Fox's Alien and Predator. Disney acquired the film rights to these properties as part of the Fox buyout and this seems like a logical product integration play. Much like Star Wars, Alien and Predator had both been published by Dark Horse Comics for a number of years until 2020. 

These two properties are forever linked and really have a lot of film and television series potential for Disney's Fox imprint. Dark Horse Presents #24 is a sneaky 9.8 play at just $350 and features the 1st appearance of Alien in comics. Alien has really stood the test of time over the last several years even trending within the last few weeks on Twitter as people debated "Is Alien a horror film?" . I have really high hopes for what Disney can do with this franchise. Marvel just started rolling out the new comic series, so that should help initiate a whole new audience to the IP.

The most shocking development has been Avengers comic book writer Jason Aaron's No Surrender storyline, which brought Conan into the Marvel Universe. This was a shocking turn and one comic collectors ate up. This event caused a spin-off series with a Conan led Avengers team called Savage Avengers that took off as well. This truly only leaves me with more questions: Could we one day see Disney strike a deal to bring Conan to the MCU?  Could we see the same comic crossover from Alien and Predator? 

With all those questions left unanswered, as well as all the information we do have, Marvel licensed properties provide solid buying opportunities for the newer comic investor.